Civil & environmental engineering doctoral student Bayezid Baten has won first prize in the Properties of Materials Student Paper Competition at the 2025 Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference (EMI 2025), held May 27–30 in Anaheim, California. The annual competition—organized by the EMI Properties of Materials Committee—honors the most outstanding graduate student research in mechanics and materials. Finalists present their work during a special session during the conference and the top paper receives an official certificate and recognition from ASCE’s EMI.
Baten’s winning manuscript, “Particle Packing Factor (PPF) – A Novel Parameter for Systematic Refinement of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) Microstructure and Properties,” introduces PPF as a quantitative metric that links binder particle-size distributions to strength, porosity, and sustainability targets in low-binder UHPC.
Baten earned his BS (2017) and MS (2019) degrees from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021. His doctoral research, supported by the Illinois Department of Transportation, focuses on developing low-cost, sustainable UHPC mixtures by combining advanced particle-packing models with advanced material characterization.
Baten is advised by Assistant Professor Nishant Garg in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.