Education

• PhD, Civil Engineering, Iowa State University, May 2019
• MS, Agricultural Engineering, Iowa State University, December 2005 
• BS, Electronic Engineering, University of NIGERIA, Nsukka, May 2002 

Professional Experience

• Research Scientist, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2020–present
• Transportation Research Specialist/Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst, Center for Transportation Research and Education, Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2008–2020

Research Projects (Principal Investigator)

• Development of a Trail Management Program (PI), Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
• Integration of Connected Vehicle and RWIS Technologies (PI)

Research Projects (Co-Principal Investigator)

• Alternative Funding for Iowa Road (Co-PI), Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
• Pavement Management Support: Iowa DOT and Local Agencies (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
• Implementation of the Iowa DOT Pavement Management Optimization Model (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
• Planning, Implementation, and Operation of the Iowa Pavement Management Program (Co-PI), Iowa DOT
• The Actual Cost of Food Systems on Roadway Infrastructure (Co-PI), Leopold Center, Iowa State University

Other Research Projects

• Guide for Preventing and Mitigating the Risk of Bridge and Tunnel Strikes by Motor Vehicles, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board
• Unreported Deer Crashes on Major Iowa Highways, Iowa DOT
• US Road Assessment Program (usRAP) Evaluation of Interstate Truck Routes, MRI Global
• Concrete Overlay Performance on Iowa’s Roadways, National Concrete Pavement Technology Center
• Local Road Safety Plans, Kimerly-Horn and Associates
• Iowa DOT District Safety Plans, Kimerly-Horn and Associates
• High Friction Surface Treatment for High Crash Locations Phase II: Performance Assessment, Iowa DOT
• Naturalistic Driving Study: Development of the Roadway Information Database, Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), Federal Highway Administration
• Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather Phase 1II, Iowa DOT
• Pavement Management Performance Modeling: Evaluating the Existing PCI Equations, Iowa DOT
• Development of Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Consolidation Rating Formula. Iowa DOT
• Statewide Heavy-Truck Crash Assessment, Iowa DOT
• Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather Phase 1, Midwest Transportation Consortium
• Infrastructure Impacts of Iowa’s Changing Economy, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
• A Transportation Safety Planning Tool for the City of Ames, Midwest Transportation Consortium
• Evaluation of Iowa’s Driver Improvement Program, Midwest Transportation Consortium
• Asset Management: A Performance Perspective, Midwest Transportation Consortium
• Enhancing Motorcycle Conspicuity Awareness in Iowa, Iowa DOT
• Pavement Marking and Safety, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
• Evaluation for Effective Shielding of Bridge Piers, Iowa Highway Research Board, Iowa DOT
• Local Agency Pavement Management System, Iowa DOT
• International Road Assessment Program, MRI Global

Selected Publications

• Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2021. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.1177/03611981211020004.
• Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2021. A Risk Management Database Framework Implementation for Transportation Asset Management. CivilEng, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 193–
• Chen, Y. A., Ceylan, H., Nlenanya, I., Kaya, O., Smadi, O. G., Taylor, P. C., Kim, S., Gopalakrishnan, K. and King, D. E. 2020. Long-term performance evaluation of Iowa concrete overlays. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, pp. 1–
• Nlenanya, I. 2019. GIS-based risk management database integration and implementation framework for transportation agencies, Doctoral Dissertation. Iowa State University, Ames IA.
• Nlenanya, I., and Smadi, O. 2018. Risk Management and Data Needs: A State of the Practice Survey of State Highway Agencies. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
• Alhasan, A., Nlenanya, I., Smadi, O. and MacKenzie, C. 2018. Impact of Pavement Surface Condition on Roadway Departure Crash Risk in Iowa. Infrastructures, Vol. 3, No. 2, 14 pp.
• Bektas, F., Smadi, O., and Nlenanya, I. 2015. Pavement Condition: A new approach for the Iowa DOT. , 94th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 11–15.
• Pyrialakou, V. D., Nlenanya, I., and Gkritza, K. 2014. Passenger Transportation Networks and Urbanization Level: Comparison of Classification Schemes. , 93rd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 12–16.
• Gkritza, K., Nlenanya, I., Jiang, W., Sperry, R., and Smith. D. 2012. Bioeconomy and Transportation Infrastructure Impacts. Green Energy and Technology: Bioenergy and Bioproducts, Springer Verlag Inc.
• Gkritza, K., Nlenanya, I., Jiang, W., Sperry, R., and Smith, D. 2011. Infrastructure Impacts of Iowa’s Renewable Energy. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Vol. 2205, pp. 238–246.
• Nlenanya, I. 2008. Building an Environmental GIS Knowledge Infrastructure for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa in Data Mining Applications for Empowering Knowledge Societies. Hershey PA: IDEA Group Inc.
• Nlenanya, I. 2005. Knowledge Discovery Interface for Environmental Science Applications, Master’s Thesis.

Selected Technical Reports

• Rouse, E., Shaw, J., Maletsky, K., DeFord, S., Neuman, A., Nlenanya, I., and Kanghah, F. F. 2022. Alternative Funding Approaches for Iowa Roads, IHRB Project TR-790. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
• Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Hans, Z., Bektas, B. A., Knickerbocker, S., Nlenanya, I., Souleyrette, R., and Hallmark, S. 2015. Naturalistic Driving Study: Development of the Roadway Information Database, No. SHRP2 Report S2-S04A-RW-1. Second Strategic Highway Research Program, Washington, DC.
• Hans, Z., Albrecht, C., Johnson, P. M., and Nlenanya, I. 2015. Development of Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Consolidation Rating Formula. InTrans Project Report #104.
• Hans, Z., Gkritza, K., Cerwick, D., Huang, Y., and Nlenanya, I. 2014. Statewide Heavy-Truck Crash Assessment, InTrans Project Report #68. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• Gao, J., Gkritza, K., Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Bektas, B. A., and Nlenanya, I. 2012. Asset Management and Safety: A Performance Perspective, Midwest Transportation Consortium  Project No. 2009-01. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• Hans, Z., Hawkins, N., Nlenanya, I., and Lavrenz, S. 2012. Safety Impacts of Winter Weather on Iowa’s Rural Primary Highways, No. WM-STW12-113A.
• Hans, Z., Hawkins, N., and Nlenanya, I. 2011. Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather–Phase I. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• Smadi, O., Nlenanya, I., Ghandour, M., and Lopez Barrera, S. 2011. The Actual Cost of Food Systems on Roadway Infrastructure, InTrans Project Report #25. Institute for Transportation, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• Gkritza, K., Smith, D. E., Sperry, R. B., Nlenanya, I., and Jiang, W. Iowa’s Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Impacts, IHRB Project No. TR-593. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
• Smadi, O., Hawkins, N., Nlenanya, I., and Bektas, B. A. 2010. Pavement Markings and Safety, IHRB Project No. TR-580. Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames, IA.
• McDonald, T. J., Nlenanya, I., and Hans, Z. 2009. Analysis of Safety Benefits for Shielding of Bridge Piers. Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Recent Conference Presentations

• Alhamdan, A., and Nlenanya, I. 2022. Pavement Condition Forecast for Local Roads Missing Age Information. 11th International Conference on Managing Pavement Assets, Chicago, IL, June 7–10.
• Tran, L, Covington, B. J., Nlenanya, I., and Anthony, J. 2022. A Success Story of Stakeholder Engagement and Data Unification for Transportation Asset Management. Proceedings of the 101st Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 9–13.
• Nlenanya, I. and Smadi, O. 2020. Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies. , 99th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 12–16.
• Bou-Saab, G., Nlenanya, I., and Alhasan, A. 2019. Correlating Visual–Windshield Inspection Pavement Condition to Distresses from Automated Surveys Using Classification Trees. , 12th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads, Kalispell, Montana, September 15–18, 589pp.
• Nlenanya, I. 2018. Risk Management and Data Needs: A state of the practice survey of state highway agencies. , 97th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 7–11.
• Nlenanya, I. (Poster, Co-presenter). 2017. Quality Assessment of Pavement Roughness Data using Conditional Inference Trees & Data Visualization Techniques. , 96th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 8–12.

Professional Affiliations and Honors

• Member, Transportation Research Board AKD30 Low Volume Road Committee
• Alpha Epsilon, The Honor Society of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering
• Associate Member, American Society of Civil Engineers