Lecturer AY-B, Civil & Environ Engineering

Email

Preferred: bassam.kassab@sjsu.edu

Office hours:

Wednesday in the classroom (ENG 329) immediately following the lecture or by appointment

Education

• Master of Science, Hydrology and Water Resource, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT), 2000
• Master of Engineering, Environmental & Water Resources Engineering, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 1995
• Bachelor of Engineering, Civil Engineering, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 1993

Licenses and Certificates

• Professional Engineer in Civil Engineering (license # C 68999), California, United States, 2005
• Program and Project Management Certificate, California, United States, 2011

Bio

My name is Bassam [bass.sam] and my pronouns are he/él/il/هو. I have worked at Valley Water for the last 23 years. In 2019, I became the Water Supply Operations Manager and have been leading a unit composed of seven operators, five engineers, a management analyst, and two interns who operate a vast water conveyance network including ten dams/reservoirs, three pumping stations, and 94 miles of raw water transmission pipelines in Santa Clara County. The raw water system provides untreated water to three water treatment plants; maintains a groundwater recharge program in a complex network of 102 percolation ponds and 98 miles of streams; and supports the fisheries, wildlife, and ecosystem in 294 miles of managed creeks in the county. 

In January 2014, I joined San José State University as an Adjunct Professor in Water Resources Engineering. I have taught the following courses to senior and graduate students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department: Hydraulic Design (CE 154) and Design of Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection Systems (CE 174). My research interests include water distribution networks, hydraulic transients, deterministic and stochastic hillslope hydrology, flow of dry grains, as well as production and inventory management in Operations Research.

I had also designed and taught a three-level, 18-month-long Spanish class at Valley Water.

I am the executive director of Zarco Films, an independent film production company based in San José, California. I wrote screenplays in Spanish ("Sin Visa" and "Bi.das") and produced many short and feature films that tackle social issues head-on. I am also a songwriter in the four languages that I am fluent in -- Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. My lyrics for "Yo Canto," "Farewell,"  and "O Mother (يا أمي)" were composed into music and performed by the international artist Mike Massy.

Finally, I am an actor with credits including two feature films that were screened at many film festivals around the world -- "Sin Visa" (México & USA, 2015) and the award-winning "All My Life (طول عمري)" (Egypt & USA, 2008) -- and a play titled "Turab Libnan" performed on stage at Stanford University and in San Francisco.

Links

CE 154: https://catalog.sjsu.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=12&coid=58102

CE 174: https://catalog.sjsu.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=12&coid=58155