Mina Mokhtar Maxi
PhD candidate, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Expertise
Environmental Management, Project ManagementLocation
NorwayMy highlights
Winning the Young Investigator Research Grant
Working on the Cairo-Suez Road as a consultant and site engineer
Winning the ICE MENA Emerging Engineer Award 2023 and 2024
A day in my life
I wake up and walk or cycle to work (trying to reduce my carbon footprint!).
I always start my days by making a to-do list, sticking to the 20-80 rule: start with the 20% that are critical tasks.
I try to keep myself up to date with the industry by reading or watching engineering documentaries.
Connecting with the ICE gives you credibility in your profession and I wholeheartedly urge any engineer or student with the required qualifications to join the ICE.
Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?
My father and older brother are architects, and they were role models for me.
But I wanted to be a civil engineer after I watched a documentary on the Øresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark and how marine life was preserved during construction.
We asked Mina…
I would recommend a career in civil engineering because…
Civil engineers are fundamental in projects and in many fields besides the construction industry itself.
You would find a civil engineer in the oil and gas industry, the marine sector, energy and power, disaster management, mining, defence and military, research and development, the list goes on.
What about being a civil engineer gets you out of bed each morning?
Knowing my work will be seen by many people and have my name on it.
Complete this phrase: I’m a civil engineer, but I’m also …
Data scientist, researcher, dreamer, and believer.
What’s one great thing that you love about civil engineering that you didn’t know until you started working in the industry?
That you deal and connect with many people – always a plus in your career!
I still connect with people I used to work with six years ago.
Which civil engineering project (past or present) do you wish you’d worked on?
The Øresund Bridge, a fascinating engineering masterpiece, and the Atlantic Road in Norway.
Name one civil engineering myth you’d like to bust.
That civil engineering is about building towers.
Civil engineering is about improving quality of life, protecting the environment, and shaping the future—not just constructing things.
Has civil engineering helped you overcome any personal hurdles/difficulties?
From work and study, I figured out that learning something from scratch is easier when you define it well and break it into smaller pieces as much as possible.
Then, you try to draw the connections between each part, creating a mind map unique to you.
It’s a helpful framework outside of civil engineering, too.
What do you value most about being an ICE member?
ICE membership has given me a lot since the day I joined.
Connecting with the ICE gives you credibility in your profession and I wholeheartedly urge any engineer or student with the required qualifications to join the ICE.
How has being a member helped your career?
The ICE is a very prestigious organisation to be linked with. And almost at any work or conference that I have been to, other peers value and respect that connection.
Anything else? i.e. personal causes, hobbies
I started doing sports at 24 (never too late to start). I trained for a few years and got a black belt in Aikido.
Then, I wanted to know how to swim properly so I went on to learn that.
I still have a dream of participating in the Olympics at skeet shooting.
Mina's career path
After obtaining my Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree, I worked on the Cairo-Suez Road (replacement and reconstruction) as a consultant and site engineer, and on various bridges and tunnels.
Then I worked as a teaching assistant at the British University in Egypt. I taught various structural engineering modules such as advanced concrete design, and rehabilitation and retrofitting of structures.
I knew that multidisciplinary work makes more sense than isolated work, which is why for my master's I did a multidisciplinary project (civil, architecture, and energy). For it, I repurposed a residential building into an office building and calculated the trade-off of this technique in terms of environmental years.
Now, I’m a PhD candidate, trying to calculate this trade-off on a global scale considering socioeconomics, engineering and environmental impact.
Major projects
- I worked on the Cairo-Suez Road
- I've published multiple papers on various sustainability topics
- I won the ICE MENA Emerging Engineering Award (EEA) two years in a row (in 2023 and 2024).
I also published a blog on the ICE website based on the research that won me the ICE MENA EEA in 2024.
