Awards

Civil engineering student, a tsunami survivor, awarded fellowship to study disaster recovery

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2022 22:15:05 +0000

Civil engineering student, a tsunami survivor, awarded fellowship to study disaster recovery Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/02/2022 - 16:15

Jeff Zehnder

Ilham Siddiq survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami and is now using his firsthand disaster knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of recovery policies.

Siddiq, a civil engineering PhD student at the �ֲ��ý Boulder and native of Indonesia, has earned a prestigious United States Agency for International Development / Habitat for Humanity fellowship to investigate the effectiveness of long-term recovery initiatives, with a focus on the 2004 disaster, which took the lives of more than 200,000 people.

“This research is very important to the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector because billions of dollars were invested into the humanitarian and recovery efforts,” Siddiq said. “To go back and know what worked and what was not effective is really important. We can learn lessons so humanitarian organizations and other actors can manage their programs better.”

Siddiq is passionate about this issue as a survivor of the disaster. He has a unique viewpoint and desire for better disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction.

“My whole village was wiped clean by the tsunami,” Siddiq said. “There was nothing left to see, just flat clean ground. My mom and my grandma went away with the tsunami. I was the oldest in my family to survive, which made me the head of my family.”

His fellowship will focus on long-term recovery efforts, particularly with housing and jobs. This summer he will spend time in Indonesia to conduct field observations and meet with residents in nine villages across three municipalities. He will study areas that have had strong, moderate, and weak recoveries based on housing and livelihood indicators to determine factors that lead to the different recovery outcomes.

Growing up in a rural part of Indonesia, Siddiq never imagined he would become an engineer, much less earn a PhD in the United States. As a child, his village had no electricity and he did not begin to learn English until age 12. Today, he speaks it as well as any American.

“People say, ‘You sound like you’re from Kansas,’” Siddiq said.

Siddiq has always been interested in learning and the larger world. As a child, he was fascinated with the foreign languages on milk can labels, and when his family moved from their village to Banda Aceh, the capital of his province, he gained access to the internet for the first time.

“That was a game changer,” he said. “I had access to YouTube, Wikipedia, all kinds of stuff and I would lose myself in Wikipedia rabbit holes.”

He earned his undergraduate degree in civil engineering in Indonesia and began working at a disaster research institute in Aceh. It gave him the opportunity to network with international experts who visited the center. He connected with a group of researchers from Georgia Tech and was able to earn a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Atlanta institution for his master’s degree.

A conference in Aceh shortly before he left for Atlanta also gave him his first connection to CU Boulder and his now-PhD advisor, Amy Javernick-Will, whose research focuses on global engineering, disaster recovery and resiliency.

“I met a CU Boulder PhD graduate at the conference,” Siddiq said. “I had seen his research abstract and struck up a conversation about his work. We talked for three hours until the hotel staff kicked us out. He said I needed to work with Amy Javernick-Will, his professor, and that he would put me in touch with her. Now I’m doing my PhD with her.”

Siddiq is grateful for the opportunities he has had and is eager to contribute to disaster recovery research that can help communities in the future.

“I have the combination of lived experience and theoretical knowledge,” he said. “I’m passionate about improving resilience in vulnerable communities, especially those that are low-resourced around the world. It’s a rewarding issue to work on. I think I was born to do this.”

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Top 10 rankings for Civil & Environmental engineering among public universities by US News

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 16:53:39 +0000

Top 10 rankings for Civil & Environmental engineering among public universities by US News Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/29/2022 - 10:53

The College of Engineering and Applied Science came in at No. 11 amongst its public university peers in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools rankings for 2023.

The college is ranked No. 23 overall, when compared with both public and private peers. The overall ranking represents a three-point jump from last year.

“While the college does not focus on chasing higher rankings, we are pleased to know that our peers recognize our extraordinary students, staff and faculty, all of whom play a significant role in our graduate programs,” said Acting Dean Keith Molenaar. “We will continue to focus on accelerating our research impact to improve the quality of life and economic impact in Colorado and take pride in these recognitions when received.”

Four engineering programs are ranked in the top 10 amongst public institutions, with an additional three programs in the top 20:

Aerospace engineering sciences – No. 5
Environmental engineering – No. 9
Chemical engineering – No. 10
Civil engineering – No. 10
Mechanical engineering – No. 17
Electrical engineering – No. 19
Computer science – No. 20

Also earning high public rankings were biological engineering (No. 29), biomedical engineering (No. 24) and materials science (No. 22).

More than 2,100 students are pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees in engineering at CU Boulder. In October, Molenaar credited those students with helping the college achieve a record-setting year for research funding, with $150 million in awards overall.

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Four earn CU Engineering Graduating Student Awards

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:15:37 +0000

Four earn CU Engineering Graduating Student Awards Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/08/2021 - 10:15

Jeff Zehnder

Four December 2021 graduates of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Environmental Engineering Program are being recognized by the College of Engineering and Applied Science for their achievements.

Keseani Anderson, Anthony Pimentel, Leah Rivera, and Bailey Vigil are each being honored for their efforts as undergraduate students. Each student and their award is highlighted below. You can also see the full list of honorees at the college of engineering Graduating Student Awards website.

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Cresten Mansfeldt, campus pandemic team recognized with CU Boulder award

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 18:46:05 +0000

Cresten Mansfeldt, campus pandemic team recognized with CU Boulder award Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/11/2021 - 11:46

CU Boulder’s Alumni Awards are recognizing a team of faculty and staff for their efforts on the COVID 19 pandemic.

Cresten Mansfeldt, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, is among a group of employees collectively referred to as the CU Boulder Pandemic Scientific Steering Committee and Science Team (“The Team”) receiving a 2021 Robert L. Stearns Award.

The full list of honorees include Kristen Bjorkman (PhDBioChem’07), Gloria Brisson, Jose Jimenez, Mark Kavanaugh, Daniel Larremore (ApMath’09; PhD’12), Leslie Leinwand, Cresten Mansfeldt, Jennifer McDuffie, Matt McQueen (Psych’96), Shelly Miller, Roy Parker and Melanie Parra.

Most people will forever remember where they were in March 2020 as the world began to shut down. For many at CU Boulder, an incredible haul of work instantly followed.

Like the COVID-19 virus, their tasks were new, momentous and immediate.

“I can think of no more difficult year than the one that began on March 13, 2020, and was dominated by COVID-19, its impact on our students, faculty and staff and our institutional response,” said CU Boulder provost Russ Moore.

One group of faculty and staff — the CU Boulder Pandemic Scientific Steering Committee and Science Team, or “The Team” — was set on determining how the university could remain operational during a pandemic.

“Without being asked, and in the true spirit of public service, the members of the Scientific Steering Committee and Science Team dropped what they were doing in order to develop the science and many of the associated operations that allowed our campus to successfully open and operate,” said Moore.

The Team consisted of Kristen Bjorkman, Gloria Brisson, Jose Jimenez, Mark Kavanaugh, Daniel Larremore, Leslie Leinwand, Cresten Mansfeldt, Jennifer McDuffie, Matt McQueen, Shelly Miller, Roy Parker and Melanie Parra. Their priority was the safety of the CU Boulder community and beyond.

Their work was evident in every aspect of campus life.

They developed saliva- and wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 screening tests to find both individual infections and larger outbreaks on campus. They created a contact tracing program that involved eager students and became one of the most responsive in the state. They helped design the HVAC systems that were installed throughout campus to reduce airborne disease transmission. They guided physical distancing and masking protocols. Most importantly, their solutions were grounded in science.

Their ideas and implementations were constant — sometimes happening from the hours of 2 to 4 a.m. or on weekends. The work is not done. Much of The Team’s scientific work will be studied, reviewed and published to help future crisis response practices.

In the words of the provost, speaking on behalf of thousands positively impacted by their work, “The Team’s dedication serves as an inspiration to us all.”

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EVEN capstone design team shines at WERC Environmental Design Contest

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 21:37:42 +0000

EVEN capstone design team shines at WERC Environmental Design Contest Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/23/2021 - 15:37

A team of senior Environmental Engineering students have won three awards for their design work on PFOA and PFOS destruction at the Waste Management Education Research Conference (WERC) Environmental Design Contest.

Claire Butler, Jenna Engelken, Mahalie Hill, Rita Trick, and Shelby Tilema are team BEHTT Insight -- the name comes from their initials. They earned second place in the Task Award on PFAS Destruction, a $1,000 prize, as well as the WERC Resources Center Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency (P2E2) award, with a prize of $500.

Additionally, Butler received the Terry McManus Outstanding Student Award, with a prize of $1,000, after being nominated by Dr. Azadeh Bolhari.

The WERC Environmental Design Contest began in 1991 and awards over $30,000 in cash prizes for “solutions to engineering tasks by industry partners and government agencies.”

Teams could choose from five different task tracks, which had options for desktop studies or lab-based studies. The BEHTT Insight team chose to tackle the issue of destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), specifically targeting two chemicals under the PFAS umbrella, PFOA and PFOS through a desktop study, completing their design while being fully remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PFAS do not naturally degrade which has led to mass accumulation in the environment. While PFOA and PFOS have been voluntarily phasd out by the industry since 2015, the health effects of the PFAS already present in the environment can be linked to cancer, endocrine system disruptions, developmental issues, and lowered vaccine response. Current PFAS destruction strategies can be expensive, time consuming, energy intensive, and can give rise to harmful byproducts.

The task was sponsored by CDM Smith and proposed by the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility/US Bureau of Reclamation. The deliverables for the contest included an oral presentation, three poster sessions with teams of two judges, and an IEEE paper.

The BEHTT Insight design begins by pumping PFOA and PFOS contaminated groundwater and treating it off-site through reverse osmosis. Then, the concentrated PFOA and PFOS is passed through a biochar-filled column filter. The biochar is made from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

Ultimately, the biochar will be dried and mixed with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) before being heated to 850°C to catalyze the defluorination of PFOA and PFOS, effectively destroying them.

The treated biochar can then be used to prevent landfill leachate, in fertilizer, or in wastewater treatment. Using a cradle to grave approach, the BEHTT Insight design resulted in a treatment cost of $0.09 per gallon of water, which is significantly less than the current cost of $2.00 per gallon of water thermally treated.

Team members say they were drawn to this design competition for their capstone project because students are often left out of the conversation when tackling our world’s most pressing engineering issues.

Hill said their assessment of environmental impacts made the project stand out in the competition.

“The judges said they were really impressed that it was sustainable and that we put in the effort to make it cyclical. There’s a need for that in the engineering community,” Hill said.

The team worked well together throughout the process, and Engelken said their efforts shined at WERC.

“Because we’re a team of five awesome, intelligent, and amazing women engineers, we’re able to create projects that are more creative that add to things that other teams may completely miss,” Engelken said. “We’re able to create things beyond science with a capital 'S'.”

With graduation just around the corner, the BEHTT Insight team is undoubtedly more prepared to enter the “real world” after their experience and success through the WERC Environmental Design Contest.

Congratulations Claire Butler, Jenna Engelken, Mahalie Hill, Rita Trick, and Shelby Tilema on BEHTT Insight’s well-deserved awards!

Meet the Team

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Claire Butler

Project Role: Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost Modeling

Degree: Environmental Engineering, Energy Minor (May 2021)

Post-Grad Plans: Claire will be doing a summer internship with Corona Environmental Consulting continuing her work on PFAS and then will be starting as an Environmental Engineering PhD Candidate at Yale beginning in August, 2021. Claire also recently received an NSF Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship honorable mention.

Shelby Tillema

Project Role: Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulations

Degree: Environmental Engineering, certificate in Engineering Leadership (May 2021)

Post-Grad Plans: Shelby will be a temporary researcher for Dr. Bolhari this summer.

Mahalie Hill

Project Role: Systems Modeling and Engineering

Degree: Environmental Engineering (May 2021)

Post-Grad Plans: Mahalie will be spending the summer being a multi-day raft guide and then will begin at SGM in Durango as an entry level engineer.

Jenna Engelken

Project Role: Community Engagement, Public Involvement Plan, and Creative Director

Degree: Environmental Engineering (May 2021)

Post-Grad Plans: Jenna was in Australia when the COVID-19 pandemic and has been in Sydney throughout the 2020-2021 school year. She plans to spend her summer surfing and volunteering for a food pantry in Sydney. In the fall she’ll start working as a field engineer for Kiewit’s liquified natural gas plant in Louisiana.

Rita Trick

Project Role: Project Manager, Quality Control, and Lead Editor

Degree: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Design Minor (August 2021)

Post-Grad Plans: Rita plans to stay in Boulder for the summer and then travel to Peru to work on a vineyard.

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New Face Honoree Takes Holistic Approach to Civil Engineering

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 12:55:41 +0000

New Face Honoree Takes Holistic Approach to Civil Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/24/2021 - 05:55

American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) has honored Mortenson Center alumni Dr. Aaron Opdyke as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering.

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Professor earns ASCE-CI Peurifoy Construction Research Award

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 17:24:14 +0000

Professor earns ASCE-CI Peurifoy Construction Research Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/22/2021 - 10:24

Professor Keith Molenaar has been awarded the 2021 Peurifoy Construction Research Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Institute (ASCE-CI) Construction Research Council.

The annual award goes to an individual who has “made outstanding contributions to the advancement of construction engineering through research and development of new technology, principles or practices.” Molenaar is currently serving as the interim dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science and is the K. Stanton Lewis Professor of Construction Engineering and Management. He was received this award for “his groundbreaking research in project delivery mechanisms, cost estimating and risk engineering as well as for his significant impact on the construction engineering and management profession.” He is the primary author of more than 250 technical reports and articles. He has performed project delivery and risk-related work for the California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington State.

Molenaar is an active member of the National Academy of Construction, the Transportation Research Board, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Design Build Institute of America. He has also served on numerous technical review committees for projects including the Columbia River Bridge in Oregon the SR520 Floating Bridge in Washington State, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California, the Panama Canal Expansion project in Panama, and ITER Fusion Generator project in France.

Molenaar received his Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering (1990), his Master of Science in Civil Engineering (1995), and his PhD in Civil Engineering (1997), all at the �ֲ��ý Boulder.

In addition to the Perifuoy Award, Molenaar has also received the CEAS Outstanding Graduate Advisor (2020), the CEAE Distinguished Achievement Award (2018), the CU Campus Global Citizen of the Year (2017), CU Provost Faculty Achievement Award (2006), and the CEAE Young Researcher Award (2002). Molenaar was inducted into the Pan-American Academy of Engineering in 2012, the National Academy of Construction in 2017, and was designated as a Fellow of the Design-Build Institute of America in 2019.

The American Society of Civil Engineers is a nonprofit organization made up of over 150,000 members in the civil engineering profession throughout 177 countries. ASCE strives to advance civil engineering while protecting public health, welfare, and safety. ASCE provides “technical and professional conferences and continuing education, [is] the world's largest publisher of civil engineering content, and an authoritative source for codes and standards to protect the public.” . ASCE is also the nation’s oldest engineering society, having been founded in 1852.

Molenaar will have the opportunity to present a “Peurifoy Construction Advancement Address” to the ASCE. The Peurifoy Construction Research Award is made possible through contributed funds from friends, former students, and associates of Dr. R. L. Peurifoy. The ASCE-CI Awards Committee is comprised of Professors Vineet Kamat (Chair), Dulcy Abraham, Chema de la Garza, Carl Haas, Iris Tommelein, and Ms. Katerina Lachinova (ASCE). The Peurifoy Award Selection Panel is composed of all prior Peurifoy Awardees.

Congratulations Professor Molenaar on this well-deserved honor!

Professor Keith Molenaar has been awarded the 2021 Peurifoy Construction Research Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Institute (ASCE-CI) Construction Research Council.

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PhD student Kimberly Pugel Honored as 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering by ASCE

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 16:38:57 +0000

PhD student Kimberly Pugel Honored as 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering by ASCE Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/22/2021 - 09:38

ASCE has honored Kimberly Pugel as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering. Pugel’s work combines environmental engineering, planning, policymaking, and a heavy dose of communication skills, particularly as it relates to facilitating communication between stakeholders and decision-makers.

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Linden to receive prestigious 2020 Clarke Prize

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 14:54:55 +0000

Linden to receive prestigious 2020 Clarke Prize Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/02/2020 - 07:54

The National Water Research Institute (NWRI) and the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation will present the 2020 Clarke Prize to Professor Karl Linden on Nov. 10. NWRI administers the prestigious $50,000 prize.

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Professor wins EMI’s da Vinci Award

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 13:59:03 +0000

Professor wins EMI’s da Vinci Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2020 - 07:59

Assistant Professor Mija Hubler won the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) Leonardo da Vinci Award!

She was selected for the award for pioneering breakthroughs in the understanding of toughness of materials due to microstructure feature arrangement, as well as innovations in experimental methods to study concrete fragmentation, surface characterization and aging.

Hubler is co-director of the Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing (CIEST). Her research focuses include cementitious materials, micro-structure quantification and design, permeability, fracture mechanics, micro- and meso-scale experimental testing and simulation techniques, failure prediction of construction materials, and construction material health risks and toxicity.

The da Vinci Award recognizes outstanding young investigators early in their careers for promising, groundbreaking developments in the field of engineering mechanics and mechanical sciences as relevant to civil engineering. Hubler will receive the award next year at the postponed EMI/PMC 2020 Conference in New York City.

EMI is an international engineering mechanics organization that serves the needs of the worldwide engineering community. It promotes both research and application of scientific and mathematical principles to address a broad spectrum of existing and emerging engineering and societal problems.

Assistant Professor Mija Hubler was selected for the award for pioneering breakthroughs in the understanding of toughness of materials due to microstructure feature arrangement, as well as innovations in experimental methods to study concrete fragmentation, surface characterization and aging.

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