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Mohamed Rasheed

Master Degree in Structural Engineering



oor designs, lack of safety protocols and a
goat cost an employees life on the
worksite. Thats one of the incidents
Mohamed Rasheed had experienced during his
fascinating career in Engineering.
Mohammed Rasheed, originally from Kurdistan
Region in Iraq, graduated from High School in
1988 with 88% of scores. He was admitted in the
best university of the country and one of the best
in Middle East at that time, which was University
of Technology in Baghdad. Despite these
outstanding grades, Mohamed managed to start
his college career after 5 years due to the wars
that surrounded the country at that period.

Mohamed majored in Civil Engineering at
Salahaddin University and received his Bachelor
degree in 1997. When asked about his impression
during his freshman year, Mohamed mentioned
he never had time to think about his future,
because he used to wok at daytime after College
and work at nights in a restaurant. He also said
that he survived his first year in college by doing
his homework and assignments while working in
the restaurant. The compelling circumstances of
the country recovering from a war forced
Mohamed to work day and night to support
himself and his family as well.

Mohamed believes that to be successful as an
engineer, you need to possess strong skills and
knowledge in math especially within the fields of
Civil Engineering like geotechnical, structural,
transportation or environmental engineering. In
addition, strong background in Physics and
especially computer skills is deemed necessary
nowadays as Most of the math, design and even
assignments are done through computers.
Mohamed started his professional career in public
sectors at Ministry of Construction and Housing
then joined non-profit organizations like UNICEF,
Habitat where he designed and implemented 100-
150 Water projects and participated in
constructing of schools as a site engineer.
Mohamed had also worked in USAID after 2003
as a supervisor of two cities in a mission to
renovate and build schools in that region. In
P
MATH, PHYSICS AND SOFTWARE
KNOWLEDGE ARE KEY SKILLS TO BE
SUCCESSFUL IN ENGINEERING FIELD
ENGINEERING GENERALLY IS A
CHALLENGING FIELD; REQUIRES
PATIENCE, DETERMINATION AND
PERSEVERANCE
University od Utah 9/13/14 Leap 1501 Leap 1501

A STORY OF SUCCESS
addition, Mohamed was an Assistant Project
Manager for Kurdi Group for a project to
construct 650 villas and apartments in
Amman/Jordan.
One of the ethical
dilemmas Mohamed
had experienced during
his professional career
was in one of the water
projects when an
employee had lost at the
worksite.
We were working on a lake beneath a mountain,
the lake was to be sterilized and surface of the
lake was supposed to be closed to prevent
pollution. It was designed connect the water of
that lake to a nearby village. At the day of the
incident I was present in the area, a shepherd with
his flock of sheep and goats was passing by on
the mountain above. One of his goats apparently
had separated from the flock and moved to edge
of the mountain to look down, causing a massive
rock to fall down from the top and subsequently
an employee died from the incident.
Unfortunately the incident was preventable if the
company had blocked the area on the top of the
mountain with tapes and warning and signs. In
addition providing employees with safety
equipment and helmets.
The Company holds the responsibility of the
incidents for the lack of safety protocols.
However, the family of the deceased got well-
compensated financially and his children received
support from one of orphanage sectors of the
company.
Mohamed relocated to USA in 2009 to face a new
challenge. Contrary to his educational
background, the field of Civil Engineering in
United States mainly consisted of Timber
Designs, which did not exist in Middle East.
Nevertheless, he started his graduate education at
the University of Utah in 2011 and received
Master degree with a major in Structural
Engineering and minor Geotechnical Engineering
in 2013.
Mohamed is currently studying for his PhD
degree at the University of Utah in Nuclear
Energy. The research project is called Risk
Assessment of Structural Integrity of
Transportation Casks after Extended Storage
where casks are storage units used to transport
spent nuclear fuel used in nuclear power plants
and research reactors to disposal sites. The main
goal of the study is to determine whether the
containment, shielding, criticality safety, and heat
management cask functions are expected to be
preserved during cask transportation after
extended storage.

The research is going to be conducted in one of
the eleven national labs in the country where the
design would be thoroughly measured and tested
with potential national disasters like earthquakes
and loads in these labs to prove the safety and
stability of the design and ultimately eliminate all
the potential risks.
Beside his education, Mohamed is currently
working Building Manager and Computer
Technician at UNP Hartland Partnership Center.
I DESIGNED AND IMPLEMENTED 100-
150 WATER PROJECTS TO PARTIALLY
SAVE THE WATER CRISIS THE REGION
WAS SUFFERING FROM
For the future, Mohamed ultimately aims to
utilize his knowledge for the service of students
in his home country in Kurdistan; nevertheless,
holding a position similar to research assistant at
the University level to aid graduate students with
their projects.
You will see a story of success by reading this far
of the article. Mohameds fascinating career is an
inspiration to those seeking an enhanced
education in embryonic countries around the
world.
Considering his education and work
simultaneously, scheduling an interview with
Mohamed was extremely difficult to find a time
that fits his schedule and mine. I would like to
thank the interviewee for his cooperation and
candor in providing me with details that helped
me establish an idea about the meaning of being
an engineer.
The interview included many technical details
about his field in civil engineering generally, on
how designs should be made and what
countermeasures should be taken into
consideration when building a design. I was
astonished by the idea of safety measures for
natural disasters; the technology has advanced so
far to minimize potential risks to the very
minimum.
Although Im majoring in a different field of
engineering than Civil, the aim of the interview
was giving me an insight about my future due to
the similarities between our careers as both had
our educational background outside the United
States.
Leo Tolstoy says that The strongest of all
warriors are time and patience. This article
should teach us that success is inevitable through
hard working, patience, discipline, determination
and perseverance.

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