• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Logo for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan
  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact

  • About
    • History
    • Strategic Directions
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
      • CEE DEI Committee
      • DEI Resources
      • Have a concern?
    • Alumni
      • CEE Friends Association
        • CEEFA Board
      • Award Winners
    • Giving
      • Giving Legacy
    • Leadership and Governance
    • Faculty Search
      • Faculty Position in Environmental Engineering
      • Faculty Position in Intelligent Systems
    • Contact
      • Student Services Contacts
      • Master’s Advising Contacts
      • Undergraduate Advising Contacts
  • Undergraduate Studies
    • BSE Degree in Civil Engineering
    • BSE Degree in Environmental Engineering
    • Minor in Civil Engineering
    • Minor in Environmental Engineering
    • FocusCEE
      • Community Policy and Planning
      • Smart Cities
      • Sustainability
    • Undergraduate Opportunities
      • Undergraduate Externship
      • Student Research and Employment
        • CEE SURE/SROP Projects 2023
    • Schedule an Advising Appointment
    • Declare Your Major
    • Careers in CEE
      • What is a Civil or Environmental Engineer?
      • Career Pathways
      • Employers of CEE Graduates
      • How to Recruit CEE Graduates
    • Undergraduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • Graduate Studies
    • Master’s Programs
    • PhD Programs
      • PhD Mentoring Framework
      • PhD Candidate Roster
    • Pelham Scholars Program
    • Online Learning
      • Construction Engineering and Management MasterTrack™
    • Admissions Information
      • International Applicants
      • Sequential Undergraduate/Graduate Studies (SUGS) Applicants
    • Graduate Handbook
    • Graduate Student Advisory Council
    • Student Life
  • People
    • Faculty
      • Affiliated Faculty
      • Core Faculty
      • Emeritus Faculty
    • Postdocs
    • Researchers
    • Staff
      • Administrative
      • Finance
      • Human Resources
      • IT & Web
      • Laboratory Technicians
      • Purchasing
      • Student Services
  • Research
    • New Grants
    • Civil Infrastructure Systems
      • Construction Engineering and Management
      • Geotechnical Engineering
      • Intelligent Systems
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems
      • Structural and Materials Engineering
    • Environment and Water Resources
      • Ecohydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
      • Energy and Clean Technology
      • Environmental Chemistry and Soil Physics
      • Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology
    • Smart Infrastructure Finance
    • Urban Collaboratory
    • Facilities
      • Advanced Materials Research
      • Cementitious Composites
      • Center of Excellence in Bridges and Structures
      • Computational Community Resilience
      • Computational Structural Simulation
      • Construction Engineering Lab
      • Geotechnical Engineering Labs
      • Intelligent Structural Technology
      • Next Generation Infrastructure
      • Next Generation Transportation Systems Research Facilities
      • Pavement Research Center of Excellence
      • Structural Engineering Lab
  • Resources
    • Shipping
    • Purchasing
      • Purchasing Frequently Asked Questions
    • Reimbursement
    • IT Resources
    • Lab Safety
      • Lab Safety Basics
      • Minimum Training Requirements
    • Lab Requests and Procedures
    • Room Requests
    • Faculty Intranet
    • Giving
    • News and Events
    • Contact

PhD Student Cassandra Champagne Receives EREF Scholarship Award

PhD student receives scholarship for work in waste management and engineering.

Written by: Jessica Petras

August 27, 2018

PhD student Cassandra Champagne has been selected by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF) to receive the Fiessinger Doctoral Scholarship.

This scholarship recognizes one doctoral student each year working at the forefront of the waste management and engineering field. The winner is selected from an international pool of applicants.

Photo of Cassandra Champagne
Cassandra Champagne

Champagne’s research centers on sustainability and resiliency in the geoenvironmental engineering field and the solid waste industry. This scholarship will support her research on improving the quality and efficiency of landfill monitoring using autonomous robotics technology. Robots and drones equipped with optical cameras, infrared cameras and gas sensors ca be deployed at landfills to generate 3D models for slope stability and settlement analyses, and to generate spatially resolved methane concentration maps for emissions estimations and “hotspot” detection.

Methane is 23 times more reactive in the ozone than carbon dioxide, so locating gas leaks and minimizing the amount of methane released into the environment can have a positive impact on global warming. Apart from being an environmental concern, methane release into the atmosphere also represents lost energy and, therefore, lost profits. With her research, Champagne hopes to help push the solid waste industry toward bioreactor landfills, which maximize methane production for energy generation, thus transforming solid waste from a byproduct to a continuous energy source, while also diverting harmful methane emissions from the ozone.

Champagne is advised by Associate Professor Dimitrios Zekkos.


MEDIA CONTACT

Portrait of Michele Santillan

Michele Santillan

Marketing Communications Specialist
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

(734) 748-1283

mssantil@umich.edu

Explore: Awards Civil and Environmental Engineering Energy & Environment Students

Footer

Logo for Michigan Engineering at the University of Michigan

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter
  • U-M Engineering Home
  • Strategic Vision
  • Graduate and Professional
  • Undergraduate
  • U-M Engineering Research News
  • U-M Home

  • Giving
  • News and Events
  • Contact
  • Sign up for our newsletter

© 2023 The Regents of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA Privacy Policy | Non-Discrimination Policy | Campus Safety

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube