Amy Javernick-Will News

Amy Javernick-Will: Q&A with CEAS's new associate dean for faculty advancement

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 16:03:36 +0000

Amy Javernick-Will: Q&A with CEAS's new associate dean for faculty advancement Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/13/2024 - 10:03

In this Q&A, Amy Javernick-Will, the new associate dean for faculty advancement, discusses the meaningful ways she has felt welcomed to CEAS.

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CU Boulder professor honored with Pathfinder award for societal impact

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 16:16:59 +0000

CU Boulder professor honored with Pathfinder award for societal impact Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 10:16

Susan Glairon

Professor Amy Javernick-Will received the Pathfinder award, the highest honor of the Engineering Project Organization Society, at the 2024 Engineering Project Organization Conference held June 11-14 in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The award recognizes significant contributions with lasting impact. Javernick-Will's research aims to improve how communities, especially those lacking resources, can better handle disasters and sustain their infrastructure, such as housing, water and sanitation.

“The award was a wonderful surprise,” said Javernick-Will of CU Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “Seeing my expanding academic family in the audience, I was overcome with emotion both for the support I received to pursue an unconventional research path focused on societal impact, and the tremendous work that my students and their students are doing to ensure positive infrastructure outcomes.”

Positive infrastructure outcomes can include infrastructures that are resilient to natural disasters, minimize environmental impact and are beneficial to all segments of society, including marginalized communities.

Adding to her emotion, Javernick-Will's academic advisor, Emeritus Professor Raymond Levitt, a civil and environmental engineering professor from Stanford University, was among the first recipients of the Pathfinder awards, and her co-advisor, Emeritus Professor W. Richard Scott, a sociology professor, also from Stanford, received the award concurrently with her.

At CU Boulder, Javernick-Will leads the Global Projects and Organizations Research Group, which is composed of boundary spanners—individuals who work across different disciplines, integrating social sciences and engineering–to address complex problems and achieve beneficial community outcomes.

The Engineering Project Organization Society originally focused on studying how engineering projects are organized, managed and executed but has broadened its scope to include understanding and improving the effects of engineering projects on communities and society. This includes ensuring that infrastructure development is equitable, benefitting all segments of the population fairly, including underserved or marginalized groups.

“This award is a tribute to my academic family—my former PhD students and their students—who are members of the society and are making remarkable contributions worldwide to ensure safe infrastructure services for all,” Javernick-Will added.

Professor Amy Javernick-Will received the Pathfinder Award, the highest honor from the Engineering Project Organization Society, recognizing her research on improving disaster response and infrastructure sustainability in resource-limited communities.

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New seed grants from the Engineering Education and AI-Augmented Learning research theme will support range of topics

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2023 16:22:41 +0000

New seed grants from the Engineering Education and AI-Augmented Learning research theme will support range of topics Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/25/2023 - 10:22

CEAE Professors Angela R. Bielefeldt and Amy Javernick-Will recently received seed grants for individual projects through the Engineering Education and AI-Augmented Learning Interdisciplinary Research Theme. The award is given to help spur research teaming in the college and boost early projects with the high potential for societal impact.

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Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 17:24:06 +0000

Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/16/2022 - 11:24

Jeff Zehnder

Related News

Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m. | Zoom - Register Now

Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity, and sense of security. Yet, many houses remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and other hazards, affecting communities in the near and long term.

In this webinar, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel will describe findings from research that their team conducted to enhance housing safety in the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico.

Considering that a large portion of housing stock is built informally, where building codes and regulations may not be followed, they argue that how builders and residents perceive housing safety influences how housing is designed, built, and maintained.

Focusing on one misalignment, the installation of hurricane straps, they will discuss their initial efforts to build capacity in the region by partnering with a community-based organization.

Find out more and register to attend

The Marshall fire screamed across the prairie, exploding into homes with 80 mph winds and destroying entire neighborhoods. It caused over a billion dollars in damage in less than a day and took everything from more than 1,000 homeowners in Superior and Louisville, Colorado, leaving behind little more than ash and concrete foundations.

Nine months have passed since the disaster, and as families work to rebuild, an interdisciplinary team of �ֲ��ý Boulder researchers has received a major National Science Foundation grant to study long-term community impacts to help improve outcomes from future disasters.

“In this project, we’re really interested in how jurisdictions and homeowners are rebuilding, particularly in light of future risks,” said Amy Javernick-Will, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering and lead investigator on the grant. “There have been other fires in California and Oregon, but the scale of this destruction was pretty dramatic.”

As disasters increase, destroying homes and infrastructure, families and governments have to make decisions on how to rebuild. Those decisions include adoption and enforcement of building codes that can have a long-term influence on community outcomes in resiliency and environmental sustainability. Those codes, however, come with a tradeoff, including potential increased costs and time to rebuild.

It is an obstacle facing one member of the research team first-hand. Matthew Koschmann, an associate professor of communications, owns a rental property in Superior that was destroyed by the fire.

“Do I want to incorporate this new ordinance or opt out? I’m part of these conversations on Slack channels online. Some people are saying we should upgrade our houses to be more fire resilient, that it will help protect the entire neighborhood, but others are saying the added cost to their rebuild is insurmountable,” Koschmann said.

The research is particularly focused on the social aspect of rebuilding: how communities are connecting, influencing each other, and making major decisions about moving forward. A goal of the grant is to provide guidance on the decisions and uncertainties homeowners and governments face during the rebuilding process and identifying the processes and codes that meet collective goals after a disaster.

“In fires, what your neighbors do affects your property,” Javernick-Will said. “This shared action is really important, and we want to uncover this process. Most studies look at just the immediate response, the first couple of weeks. There are far fewer long-term studies.”

Much of the work will be conducted through personal interviews with homeowners, as well as builders, insurance companies, and municipal government officials. Noah Gershon, a civil engineering PhD student, is leading this part of the effort.

“There is a complicated interplay between the different groups,” Gershon said. “We want to study each to see how we can make things better. There’s a perception that after a disaster, everything is taken care of and funding is available for everyone. It’s just not true. Homeowners have to figure out a lot themselves. We want to improve that process.”

A goal of the work is to bridge the gap between engineering and human social interaction to understand the real-world impacts of decision making after disasters.

“There are complex social interactions here. It isn’t just technical scientific stuff. It’s both,” Koschmann said. “There’s a level of stress and tension that’s part of it and dealing with different insurance policies, neighbors, building codes. This isn’t abstract. It has real personal impact.”

In addition to Javernick-Will, Koschmann, and Gershon, the research team also includes Abbie Liel, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and Megan Ellery, a civil engineering PhD student.

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Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 20:42:52 +0000

Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 14:42

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m. | Zoom - Register Now

In this webinar, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel will describe findings from research that their team conducted to enhance housing safety in the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico.

Focusing on one misalignment, the installation of hurricane straps, they will discuss their initial efforts to build capacity in the region by partnering with a community-based organization.

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Sustainable WASH Systems learning partnership publishes end-of-project report

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 16:01:10 +0000

Sustainable WASH Systems learning partnership publishes end-of-project report Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/03/2022 - 10:01

The Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership led by CU Boulder has published an end-of-cycle report detailing work completed through the $15 million project with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Over the last five years, the learning partnership coordinated the efforts of seven organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia seeking to develop, test and document sustainable approaches to local water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to support initial infrastructure investments.

Professor Amy Javernick-Will
Co-principal investigator for the WASH project

The project was unique in that it partnered with local organizations to implement and compare activities across multiple countries and contexts — offering a more holistic picture of what works and what doesn’t from a systems level. The final report summarizes the work and shows how a systems-level understanding and engagement approach can help providers navigate challenges to service sustainability. It also shows how incentivizing preventive maintenance and fast repair times can improve rural water services and describes how collective action platforms can bring about policy change.

The Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership was organized and managed through the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering beginning in 2016. Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Karl Linden, both associate directors of the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and co-principal investigators for the project, said this final report serves as a cap to an incredibly productive and valuable research project.

Javernick-Will said sustainable services remain a daunting challenge in the WASH sector because governments, service providers and development organizations have traditionally focused on access and service expansion in WASH systems with less emphasis on sustaining existing services and infrastructure. She pointed to failed water hand pumps in Africa, which represent a total lost investment of between $1.2 and $1.5 billion over the last 20 years, as one example. The fact that more than half of all subsidized toilets are unused, misused or abandoned is another example.

“Gaps in service coverage remain significant and — meanwhile — implementation challenges are growing,” she said. “Our approach and findings summarized in this report show that the best way to strengthen these crucial local systems is to instead meaningfully engage with stakeholders on the ground to collectively identify priorities and address common barriers like financing while also consistently reviewing, measuring and adapting the systems toward overall sustainability.”

In all, the partnership has generated over 200 unique papers, materials and presentations over its life cycle, with five PhD, and two master’s students, along with five undergraduate students, working on aspects of the project at CU Boulder alone. A few highlights noted in the report, which were achieved in collaboration with partners, include:

Data on water pump functionality is now available for the first time to government maintenance service providers in Afar, Ethiopia.
A comprehensive sanitation assessment spurred stakeholders to form a learning alliance and convince decision-makers to prioritize sanitation with other development activities in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia.
The project conducted 64 analyses to improve stakeholder understanding of WASH systems, showcasing shifting prioritization toward maintenance.
The development of master plans to coordinate investments and align efforts for domestic and institutional WASH services in five districts in Uganda and Ethiopia.
Approximately 500 people from over 40 countries attended the online close-out with presentations on shared findings.

�ֲ��ý, faculty and staff affiliated with the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering working on this project and related issues in Africa, Asia and beyond.

Strengthening interconnected systems

Javernick-Will said the project began with a theory of change that focused on understanding and strengthening local systems to better sustain WASH services. This theory recognized that sustaining outcomes depends on the contributions of multiple, interconnected actors from different areas and with different expertise or skills. With that in mind, the team at CU Boulder started their research with the premise that strengthening a local system means directly engaging with the people within it to understand the system and collectively identify needs and priorities.

The team eventually focused on four priorities to accomplish that goal: stakeholder understanding, network analysis, professionalized service models and collective action. Together, they resulted in work to identify collaboration gaps — such as disconnects between district-level stakeholders and user communities — and ways to professionalize maintenance models that proactively service, repair and replace hardware to deliver more reliable, guaranteed service. The full list of projects, approaches and activities for each priority is available online and will aid many future interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects in the field.

Linden said the Mortenson Center was well positioned to lead this type of large-scale research for a variety of reasons.

“The depth of research expertise on our team in these subjects — coupled with long-standing connections to the international organizations that work on these problems every day — is a powerful combination to develop lasting solutions and approaches,” he said. “This type of large-scale, ongoing research contributes to the overall body of knowledge in crucial global engineering areas like network analysis, professionalized service models and collective action. And we fully expect to keep working in these areas for years to come.”

Partners on the project included IRC WASH, Whave, Tetra Tech, Linc, Environmental Incentives, WaterSHED, and the University of Oxford. The project’s website contains links to over 200 knowledge products and presentations, and an annotated bibliography of resources.

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Construction Diversity Summit coming to CU Boulder

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 22:31:10 +0000

Construction Diversity Summit coming to CU Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/11/2022 - 15:31

Jeff Zehnder

The �ֲ��ý Boulder is hosting a Construction Diversity Summit to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the construction industry.

The free event, planned for April 1, will bring together companies and students from around the state to discuss and raise awareness about diversity-related issues in construction, build empathy within the workforce, and bring forward solutions to help construction employers and employees navigate the industry.

The summit will include breakout sessions, talks on ways to enhance company culture, and programming on skills to promote meaningful dialogue and respect for all contributions, according to Amy Javernick-Will, the Nicholas R. and Nancy D. Petry Professor in Construction Engineering and Management in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering.

“We hope attendees will recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion on jobsites and in the office, learn new communication strategies and skills, and better understand challenges facing students and graduates to cultivate an inclusive environment,” Javernick-Will said.

The keynote speaker will be Michael J. Garner, who serves as Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Garner and his team have designed and implemented workforce strategies at MTA which have significantly increased minority and women hires.

Registration is still open for the summit, and the full schedule is available on the Construction Diversity Summit website.

The event was the brainchild of alumna Briana Santa Ana (CivEngr ’20), who faced discrimination during a summer internship when she was an undergraduate student. Matthew Morris, a senior instructor in CEAE, realized her experience was far too common, and when she suggested a summit to address DEI issues in the construction industry, the event was born.

“�ֲ��ý had reported experiencing, at times, an unwelcoming environment, and one in which they could not see themselves thriving,” Javernick-Will said. “This spurred us to want to bring industry and students together to learn and take action to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where each person could thrive.”

Santa Ana subsequently was recognized with an Outstanding Undergraduate for Service Award by the College of Engineering and Applied Science for her efforts.

The summit is being organized by Morris, together with Sage Hobbs, Amy Moreno-Sherwood, Amy Nelson, Maxine Pryor, and a panel of recent graduates, including Santa Ana.

Support is being provided by numerous industry sponsors, including The Beavers Heavy Engineering Construction Association, Flatiron Construction, Holder Construction, Kiewit Corporation, and Whiting-Turner, as well as the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Endowment for Construction Engineering and Management.

The summit was originally planned for 2020, but was delayed to 2022 by the pandemic.

The �ֲ��ý Boulder is hosting a Construction Diversity Summit to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the construction industry.

The free event is planned for April 1...

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Gender disparities in engineering are a problem, CU Boulder researchers offer a solution

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 15:45:29 +0000

Gender disparities in engineering are a problem, CU Boulder researchers offer a solution Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/20/2021 - 09:45

A new paper published by �ֲ��ý researchers found that female engineers are more likely to ask questions to gain more information, and they’re likely to ask those questions of other women.

While not surprising, the findings reflect a disadvantage for women when it comes to professional growth in the male-dominated field of engineering.

The paper—published in the Journal of Management in Engineering (JME) and co-authored by Professor Amy Javernick-Will, of construction engineering, and Tony Tong, of the Leeds School of Business—dissected what role gender plays in knowledge accessibility amongst engineers.

Amy Javernick-Will

“Given that 89% of engineers are men, it’s more likely that men have more powerful positions in their firms,” Tong said. “So, while women may be turning to someone for help, they may not be turning to someone in a powerful position, which may set women up to be marginalized in career development, particularly when it comes to promotions.”

The paper, titled, “Gendered Knowledge Accessibility: Evaluating the Role of Gender in Knowledge Seeking among Engineers in the U.S.,” won JME’s best paper award for 2021. It sought to define knowledge accessibility as the time and effort required by an individual to approach another person to seek knowledge—by asking questions or for advice.

After conducting a survey of 312 engineers (37% female, 63% male) from a large engineering firm in the U.S. that already employs more women than other similar engineering firms, Tong and Javernick-Will discovered women are more likely to perceive a higher level of knowledge accessibility in their field, particularly when they seek other women for that information.

In contrast, men perceive less knowledge accessibility, particularly when they seek women for that same type of information.

Tony Tong

“What was particularly interesting is how many variables we controlled for—age, race, expertise, hierarchical level, office location, familiarity and tie strength—and this is still the outcome,” Javernick-Will said. “We thought many of these variables would be more important than gender, but that’s not what we discovered.”

What they did discover sheds light on a cultural hurdle many engineering firms face: marginalizing women in a field that is 89% male.

Putting the findings in motion

The researchers—including co-authors Cristina Poleacovschi, professor of civil engineering at Iowa State University and former CU Boulder Ph.D. student, and Sheng (Monica) Wang, professor at the Lee Business School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas—offered practical steps to end gender disparities in the engineering field.

For starters, promoting a culture shift that encourages sharing expertise could go a long way to level the playing field while also increasing organizational efficiency, Tong said.

“When people are more willing to share information, especially when that knowledge is technical expertise, everyone is better off because it can improve productivity of the organization,” he said. “We show in a separate paper that creating knowledge sharing connections within an organization can significantly reduce the amount of time that engineers devote to solving a problem, especially when the connections are with actors in the center of the network.”

Tong added that reevaluating how people within organizations share knowledge is important across all industries, but particularly in problem-solving fields like engineering.

“Organizations would want to make sure that when people are looking for help or expertise within their company, there are capable colleagues willing to help. It’s also important that people who are seeking knowledge are willing to open up and expose that they may not know the answer,” he said.

Another strategy is implementing a peer sponsorship program—one that deviates from a traditional mentorship program where two colleagues may be paired up by common backgrounds, like gender.

Javernick-Will, who worked as a civil engineer before entering academia, said breaking the stereotypical mold of mentorship not only helps individuals within an organization grow, it also advances the strength of the organization as a whole because each employee is able to make greater contributions, ultimately optimizing performance.

“As I’ve been working more within diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, I’ve noticed the importance of a mentor sponsoring a mentee, rather than just giving advice, by helping make their mentee’s knowledge and experience more visible and providing introductions to those in powerful positions,” she said.

“I hope this study changes the landscape so that these gender differences will not exist in the future, enabling everyone to share knowledge, benefiting both employees and organizations.”

Bridging business and engineering

This paper isn’t the first time faculty in the Leeds School of Business and College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder have come together to conduct thought-provoking research. In fact, the two units on campus have been increasingly connected over the years, so much so that they are now physically connected on campus.

To Tong and Javernick-Will, the partnership between their two areas makes a great deal of sense.

“My students benefit from seeing diverse ways of thinking and problem solving through discussing these topics in classes and doing research together,” Javernick-Will said. “I think it’s the wave of the future and it’s the only way to solve these complex problems that society is faced with.”

In fact, it was a former Ph.D. student in civil engineering that brought Javernick-Will and Tong together in the first place. Through the connection, Tong learned that his research in organizational structure and design and knowledge sharing was also being explored in the College of Engineering.

Together, the duo hopes to inform organizations, particularly in engineering, of new and innovative ways to manage employees and foster a more inclusive—and ultimately more prosperous—work environment.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity,” Tong said. “We will be more likely to solve real-world problems with this bridge between our two programs. Together, we can change the world.”

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