Elham Sahraei is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a CEE Selective Excellence Fellowship holder. She holds a U.S. patent, entitled “Collision Safety Structure,” which is a structure to enhance the safety of drivers in cases of a frontal crash.

Elham Sahraei is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a CEE Selective Excellence Fellowship holder. She holds a U.S. patent, entitled “Collision Safety Structure,” which is a structure to enhance the safety of drivers in cases of a frontal crash.

Under the supervision of her research director, Prof. Dhafer Marzougui (CEE), Elham has worked on several research projects at the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC), including finite element modeling and safety performance evaluation of roadside barriers. Also at the NCAC, she has worked on evaluation of rear seat occupant protection under the supervision
of Prof. Kennerly Digges (CEE). She has authored three conference papers this year and has one conference paper and a journal paper under review.

Recently, she has begun collaborating with MIT’s Impact and Crashworthiness Lab to define her doctoral dissertation, which covers crashworthiness optimization of advanced automotive batteries. Advanced automotive batteries are powerful rechargeable batteries suitable to drive future electric vehicles. These batteries can lead to gas-free transportation and reduce the impact on the environment; however, they may explode or catch fire in case of a crash. Therefore, optimizing their crash response is one
of the most urgent needs of the industry, and Elham is trying to achieve this goal through her dissertation. Elham’s academic advisor is Prof. Azim Eskandarian (CEE).