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Department News The first round in the WorkPlay competition sponsored by the North Campus Deans is now complete, and CEE is well represented!! Drs. Aline Cotel and Jeremy Semrau, were members of the two first place entries of the competition. Jeremy’s team developed a concept called C-ing Energy. Aline’s team developed a concept called WorkPlay Ground. Both can be seen in the Powerpoint presentation of the Honorable Mention’s and Finalists at: http://www.artsonearth.org/workplay/ At this point, each team gets to develop their idea more fully and at least one, if not both, will be implemented after a more complete feasibility study and detailed design. Thanks to Aline and Jeremy for their efforts in helping to make our campus a more pleasant and sustainable environment.
Abhishek Chatterjee, a Ph.D. student working with Prof. Anna M. Michalak, receives the CoE Distinguished Leadership Award. The Distinguished Leadership Award is presented to those who have demonstrated outstanding leadership through their contributions to the college and/or the community. Congratulations Abhishek!
Abhishek Chatterjee, a Ph.D. student working with Prof. Anna M. Michalak, and Philip Park, a Ph.D. student working with Prof. Sherif El-Tawil, were awarded Rackham International Students Fellowships. The fellowships, which include a $7,500 stipend, are designed to assist international students who have a strong academic record and demonstrate outstanding academic and professional promise. 25 awards are made annually across the university. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering received two of the five awards made to the College of Engineering this year!
EWRE PhD candidate Shahar Shlomi has been awarded a Rackham Graduate Research Grant. The title of Shahar's proposal was "Evaluation of innovative groundwater quality monitoring methodologies using tracer tests in a sand tank." Mr. Shlomi used the research grant to conduct groundwater flow and transport experiments at the Center for Experimental Study of Subsurface Environmental Processes (CESEP) at the Colorado School of Mines. Professor Anna M. Michalak is Mr. Shlomi’s advisor. Congratulations Shahar!
EWRE PhD student Sharon Gourdji has been awarded a 3-year NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (ESSF). The award runs from September 2007 to August 2010. The title of Sharon's proposal was "Evaluating the biogenic and fossil fuel components of North American CO2 flux using auxiliary environmental data within a geostatistical inverse modeling framework and implications for carbon management." The purpose of NESSF is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals. A total of 50 fellowships are awarded nationally each year. Professor Anna M. Michalak is Ms. Gourdji’s advisor. Congratulations Sharon!
EWRE Masters student Abhishek Chatterjee has been awarded a 3-month 2007 Great Lakes Summer Student Fellowship, a program run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). As part of the award, Abhishek will spend three months working with GLERL scientists on evaluating tools for estimating precipitation over Lake Erie. Professor Anna M. Michalak is Mr. Chatterjee’s advisor. Congratulations Abhishek!
EWRE PhD student Kim Mueller has been awarded a 2-year NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) fellowship with the Biosphere-Atmosphere Research and Training (BART) Program. The award runs from June 2006 to June 2008. The title of Kim's proposal was "Evaluation of Process-Based Carbon Flux Drivers through Regional Geostatistical Methods." Ms. Mueller will receive a stipend, tuition, and benefits during the award’s duration. As part of the fellowship, Kim will also spend two summers at the UM Biological Station. A total of five fellowships were offered in 2006. Professor Anna M. Michalak is Ms. Mueller’s advisor. Congratulations Kim!
Rita E. Awwad, PhD Pre-Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering, received the 2007-08 Barbour Scholarship Award. Her research will focus on creating an agent-based model of the competitive bidding process in construction, which will shed new light into bidding strategies and risk. These research findings have the potential to save substantial time, improve industry competiveness, and reduce life cycle costs of civil infrastructure. After graduating, she plans to return to Lebanon, a country in need of rebuilding after years of devastating war and internal conflict, to teach the next generation of Lebanese civil engineers. Rita has been described as having “an internationally critical mission,” and she pursues this mission with passion and dedication. The Barbour Scholarship program was established in 1914 at the University of Michigan to train young women in modern science, medicine, mathematics and other specialties critical to the development of their native lands. Ms. Awwad will receive a stipend, tuition, and benefits during the award's duration. Professor Photios Ioannou is Ms. Awwad's advisor. Congratulations Rita!
CEE Associate Professor Sherif El-Tawil has been awarded the 2007 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is a research achievement award for engineers who are less than 40 years old. The award citation reads "For the development and application of novel numerical simulation models for the analysis and design of steel and hybrid steel-concrete structures." The selection committee particularly noted that the developed modeling techniques span several length scales, are rooted in fundamental structural mechanics and have great practical and theoretical significance.
CEE PhD student Tara Jackson received the North Campus MLK Spirit Award in January. The award recognizes commitment to University, local, and global communities. Dr. Lut Raskin is Ms. Jackson's advisor. Congratulations Tara!
Congratulations to the following CEE students who will receive awards at the College's 2007 Leaders and Honors Brunch on March 18: Elizabeth Windsor Hugh G. Rumler Distinguished Class Prize -- for an outstanding senior who demonstrates sincerity, integrity, goodwill, and scholarship. Distinguished Academic Achievement Award (undergraduate) -- for academic and personal excellence.
Andres Clarens Distinguished Academic Achievement Award (graduate) -- for academic and personal excellence.
Elijah Petersen PhD student, was selected as a winner of one of the 2007 Graduate Student Paper Awards from the Division of Environmental Chemistry (American Chemical Society). This is the highest award given to students by the Division. Professor Walt Weber is Elijah's advisor. Elijah will present his winning paper at the Fall ACS Meeting in Boston, MA. Congratulations Elijah!
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Vineet Kamat, who has received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. The program, created in 1998, recognizes special alumni who "have contributed greatly to their profession, to Virginia Tech, and/or to their community." Each awardee will be recognized individually at a banquet, recognition program, and induction ceremony to be held on April 27, 2007, in Blacksburg, Virginia.
CEE PhD student Amir Behzaden (advisor: Assistant Professor Vineet Kamat) has been awarded a Rackham International Student Fellowship for 2006-07. The award is given to second- or third-term doctoral students who are actively pursuing a degree in a Rackham program. Awards are given to students with strong academic records who demonstrate outstanding academic and professional promise. Congratulations Amir!!
The Engineering Graduate Student Symposium is held each year to expose new, current and future graduate students to the breadth and depth of the research being pursued across the College of Engineering. This year, for the first time, CEE was represented. One graduate student was part of the organizing committee; 12 gave oral and/or poster presentations, which were judged by CoE faculty members. In stunning fashion, FIVE of the twelve CEE students returned with first- or second-place finishes! Design and Manufacturing (oral) Experimental Mechanics of Materials (oral) Theoretical and Computational Mechanics & Experimental Mechanics of Materials (poster) Industrial and Systems Engineering (oral) Congratulations to all CEE participants for contributing to a great first-time presence by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering!! A full listing of results is available on the following web page: Graduate Student Symposium
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Jerry Lynch and his students, Yang Wang and Andrew Swartz, for co-authoring a paper that received the 2006 Nondestructive Evaluation Best Student Paper Award for the SPIE Smart Structures and Materials Conference held in San Diego last month. The title of the paper was "Wireless Feedback Structural Control with Embedded Computing".
Congratulations Prof. Jonathan Bulkley who was the recipient of the 2006 Service-to-the-Profession Award by the Planning and Management Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award was presented at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Omaha, Nebraska May 21-25, 2006.
CEE Associate Professor Sherif El-Tawil has been awarded the 2006 ASCE Arthur M. Wellington Prize for his paper "Vehicle Collision with Bridge Piers," in the Journal of Bridge Engineering, May/June 2005. The paper, noted for its contribution to the field of Transportation Engineering, was co-authored with two former CEE students: Edward Severino (UCF) and Priscilla Fonseca (U-M).
CEE Professor Steven J. Wright has been named to the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. Supported by the Thurnau Charitable Trust, the professorship provides a grant to support teaching activities.
CEE Assistant Professor Jerome Lynch has been selected to receive a 2007 Henry Russell Award. This award, which recognizes both exceptional scholarship and conspicuous ability as a teacher, is one of the highest honors the University bestows upon junior members of its faculty. It will be presented during the next Henry Russell lecture on March 13, 2007.
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