CEE Magazine Summer 2021 by Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

CEE

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Summer 2021

The smartest of bridges The undergraduate experience today Alumni news and features

VISIT THE CEE MODERNIZATION WEBSITE modernize.cee.illinois.edu Read the latest news about the plan to modernize Illinois CEE, support the project, learn about named spaces, and scroll

through our photo archives. Gifts are still needed to fully realize

the planned spaces within the new CEE building and Smart Bridge.

CEE

The CEE magazine is published twice a year for alumni and friends of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ana Barros, NAE Donald Biggar Willett Chair of Engineering and Head Celeste Bock Senior Director of Advancement Operations Kristina Shidlauski Associate Director of Communications Vicki Dixon Associate Director of Operations Keely K. Ashman Assistant Director of Alumni and Corporate Relations Katya Trubitsyna Strategic Data Manager Sheree Eyestone Office Manager

CEE Magazine Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1201 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory MC-250 205 North Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801 (217) 333-6955 celeste@illinois.edu Cover: The Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge, photographed in Summer 2021, by Kristina Shidlauski. cee.illinois.edu

CEE 5

New Beginnings/Ana Barros

Summer, Scholarships and Socialization/Paula Pienton

The CEE undergraduate experience 9 Curriculum improvements implemented 9 New data science certificate 10 Focused job fairs give CEE students an edge 11 Research offers experience, paid work for students 12 Class project leads to start-up company 13 Student orgs offer opportunity, community 15 Award-winning advising promotes student success 15 Career prep starts early with alumni help 16 Young alumni group eases transition to workplace

Student Awards

CEE’s state-of-the-art facilities

Smart Bridge spotlight

Autonomous vehicle track building the future of mobility

Resource Recovery Lab named for Pfeffer

Alumna elected mayor of Flossmoor

Over my head: critical beam is uniquely designed

What are you working on?/Joseph Spadoro (BS 17, MS 18)

Q&A: Al Valocchi retires

Department news

Alumni news

In Memoriam

Remembering Illinois/Jeremy Rose (BS 12, MS 13)

Parting shot: Concrete idea

24 Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 3

CEEAA Board of Directors

new study that models people’s u Aexposure to air pollution shows that

President Paula C. Pienton, P.E., S.E., (BS 85) CN Homewood, Ill.

exposure disparities among people of color and white people are driven by nearly all, rather than only a few, emission source types.

Vice President David L. Byrd (BS 01, MS 06) Envista Forensics Deerfield, Ill. Second Vice President and Secretary Dana B. Mehlman, P.E., (BS 99, MS 01) Vedder Price PC Chicago

Check out these and other stories at

uCEE.ILLINOIS.EDU/NEWS

Past President John P. Kos, P.E., (BS 77) H.W. Lochner Inc. Chicago Directors Nick Canellis (BS 94) Trellis Group LLC Chicago Kimberly Cummins (BS 98) Cummins Engineering Corporation Springfield, Ill.

to encourage and u How improve carpooling in

cities is the focus of a new collaborative project by researchers from CEE at Illinois, thanks to support from the National Science Foundation.

A new study found overlooked tsunami hazards related to undersea, near-shore strikeslip faults, especially for coastal cities adjacent to faults that traverse inland bays. Several areas around the world may fall into this category, including the San Francisco Bay area, Izmit Bay in Turkey and the Gulf of Al-Aqaba in Egypt.

cee.illinois.edu

Kevin C. Fuhr (BS 96) Hanson Professional Services Chicago James K. Klein, P.E., S.E., (BS 78) Springfield Justin R. Lewis, P.E. (BS 07, MS 08) Keller North America Chicago Michael J. Mack (BS 89) Burns & McDonnell Downer’s Grove, Ill. Andrew J. Martin Greeley and Hansen LLC Chicago Douglas S. Pelletier (BS 95) Kiewit Chicago Katherine Pripusich-Sienkiewicz (BS 03, MS 13) Fermilab Batavia, Ill.

John E. Conroyd, P.E., S.E., (BS 83, MS 85) Ardmore Roderick Chicago

Scientists have developed a new mathematical model for predicting how epidemics such as COVID-19 spread. This model not only accounts for individuals’ varying biological susceptibility to infection but also their levels of social activity, which naturally change over time.

Robert Risser (BS 87, MS89) Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Chicago David A. Schoenwolf, P.E., (BS 77, MS 78) Haley & Aldrich Inc. McLean, Virginia Richard Sieracki (BS 74) The Kenrich Group LLC Chicago Michael Vitale, P.E., (BS 82, MS 84) Mott MacDonald Cleveland, Ohio Daniel J. Whalen, P.E., (BS 84, MS 85) Hanson Professional Services Inc. Springfield

New Beginnings By Ana Barros, NAE Donald Biggar Willett Chair in Engineering and Head Dear CEE Friends, In February 2021, I joined CEE at Illinois as the sixteenth head in the department’s more than 150-year history. I write these words on a beautiful Sunday afternoon from my office in the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory. Summer is fast approaching, Illinois is entering Phase 5 of the state’s reopening plans, and we are all set to return to in-person instruction in the fall. It is an exciting time to join CEE at Illinois! As the world emerges from the pandemic, our department has even more to celebrate. Our beautiful new CEE building and the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge are nearing completion. This fall, we will be welcoming more than 500 new undergraduate and graduate students to CEE, one of our most academically impressive and diverse classes yet. We are eager to welcome them as they join the more than 800 current students and 17,000 CEE alumni in the Illini family. When our students arrive to campus, they will find brand new classrooms, laboratories and common areas in which to study and socialize. Reconfigurable classrooms will support team- and project-based learning. Teaching laboratories will support our plan to incorporate even more hands-on learning into our curriculum. The increased square footage will provide room for our growing department with more office space for our burgeoning population of graduate students and our faculty, now approaching 60 tenured and tenure-track professors. The new, fully instrumented Smart Bridge will give our faculty a teaching tool that will be unique among our peer institutions. This is a remarkable achievement in CEE’s long history, and we want to express our deepest appreciation to our alumni and supporters

who made it possible. Recently our faculty has begun implementing a newly renovated curriculum, designed to prepare our graduates for the changing landscape of civil and environmental engineering. Key features of this plan include a greater focus on big data and computational skills, experiential learning, critical thinking, communication and entrepreneurship – as well as the rigorous focus on the fundamentals that has always characterized the CEE at Illinois student experience. This new curriculum is just part of the vibrant undergraduate experience in CEE at Illinois, featured in this issue of the magazine. You may recognize some of the experiences in which you shared as alumni – such as the Concrete Canoe Team – and be amazed by some of the innovations. And more to come! We are increasingly hopeful that we will celebrate a grand opening of the building and the bridge on October 1, 2021, pending final approval by the University and with everyone’s safety in mind. We hope all of you who have given to support this critical initiative over the past six years of our building campaign will be present on campus to celebrate with us. So many of our distinguished faculty and alumni have been honored with named spaces in the building and bridge; our grand opening celebration will honor all of them, as well as our many generous donors. In this issue of the CEE magazine, you can read about our new building and bridge, as well as about many of our other outstanding facilities that contribute to our world-class reputation. Among the planned spaces is the exciting Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track, which will be built at our transportation research facility in Rantoul, Ill., as part of the Smart Transportation Infrastructure Initiative. The John T. Continued on the next page

We are increasingly hopeful that we will celebrate a grand opening of the new CEE building and smart bridge on October 1, 2021, pending final approval by the University and with everyone’s safety in mind.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 5

New Beginnings Continued from page 5 Pfeffer Sanitation and Resource Recovery Laboratory will enable research into the increasingly critical area of energy recovery from wastewater. Our faculty and our students are pushing the frontiers of innovation in emerging areas from robotics technology to laying the foundations for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in structural monitoring and construction to the development of new materials and structural designs to reduce the carbon footprints of the built infrastructure, to biotechnology, from remote sensing to autonomy in transportation to Engineering Ecology in all its facets, and adaptation to a changing climate including sustainable food supply and water and energy resources, and environmental health. Today – just as roughly 100 years ago, when Nathan Newmark joined the department – CEE is ready to lead in developing the science and engineering

There is still time! If you have not yet made a gift to CEE, please consider doing so. It is not too late to include your name on the donor wall in the new building as one of the many benefactors who have contributed to this transformative moment in the department’s long history, or to support our department and our students. You can easily make a gift by visiting our Modernization website at modernize.cee. illinois.edu. Or if you prefer, you may contact our Director of Advancement, Steve Hall, (217) 3007830, stevhall@illinois.edu, or me, (217) 244-0857, barros@illinois.edu.

cee.illinois.edu

the transformative solutions that will define civil and environmental engineering in the 21st century. Our challenges to realize this potential are two-fold. First, we must continue and expand our student recruitment efforts to bring to Illinois outstanding future colleagues. To meet this challenge, we will endeavor to provide a superior educational experience that is in tune with students’ professional aspirations and societal needs, specifically with a focus on deepening and renewing our partnerships with industry and national agencies. We are also renewing our commitment to the undergraduate research experience to all our students before they graduate. Second, we must realize the full potential of spaces in our new building and across the department. The immediate challenge is to equip our teaching laboratories with the instruments and tools needed to meet our curriculum requirements. The medium-term challenge is to renovate spaces for implementing our vision for experiential learning starting in the first year and culminating in the senior year with comprehensive integrated systems design, specifically focusing on 3D Virtual Reality and combined physical-computational analysis and testing, among others. The future of this great department is very bright. I am honored to take my place as Head of CEE at Illinois. We will endeavor to continue the tradition of excellence created by former heads, our preeminent faculty and our inspirational alumni. I know that I can count on our 17,000 graduates the world over to support us as you always have. You are truly the key to the department’s continued success, and I hope to meet many of you as our in-person alumni events resume. I wish everyone a healthy and happy summer, and I am proud to write for the first time: Go Illini! i

The CEEAA bestowed two scholarships on motivated and inspiring students, Ms. Emily Lin And Ms. Hannah Still. These are ladies to keep up with; they will be blazing a trail of Orange and Blue.

Summer, scholarships and socialization – at last By Paula Pienton, P.E., S.E. (BS 85) President, CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors Summer. The passage from one school year to the next. Despite having graduated many years past, my year still acknowledges the cadence of that summer break. Granted, raising children reintroduced it, but as a professional, there is also a sense that the season brings something new. For those of us engaged in construction, we have a small window to get as much done as possible; for researchers, campus is quiet and there is time to breathe; for teachers and staff, it is a moment to prepare for what is to come. I believe this is all amplified this year by so many missed events, and the anticipation that we are on a path to returning to “normal,” or some facsimile of that after so much time spent remotely and on virtual platforms. On April 17, I had the opportunity to represent the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association (CEEAA) at the department’s Scholarship Convocation Ceremony, a virtual experience. The CEEAA bestowed two scholarships on motivated and inspiring students, Ms. Emily Lin And Ms. Hannah Still. These are ladies to keep up with; they will be blazing a trail of Orange and Blue. While the alumni association is relatively new to the scholarship pool, we have done well in our ability to increase our endowment, enabling the commitment of two awards. With time, we will hopefully be challenged by the question of increasing the size or the number of our recognitions. There

are so many deserving students, and a fair number of company, named and personal scholarship recognitions to celebrate their abilities. Is your firm a participant? The fall semester will hopefully find students and staff back in class and enjoying the new spaces of the CEE buildings, including the much anticipated Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge. I’m so anxious to see the results of so much effort and planning. What a gift to those yet to come. The generosity of CEE’s alumni is humbling – their commitment to enhance the experience of those following in their footsteps is inspirational. My own journey of engagement with the alumni association started so many years ago. Being able to connect with a diverse selection of alumni, from a myriad of backgrounds, professions and decades, has made me realize the value of being an Illini, and the network of alumni I can turn to and find a common thread with. Regardless of where I find myself working (Taipei, Singapore, California, Seattle), I have been approached by fellow alumni who are excited to connect. I guess I must talk about U of I a lot for so many to be aware of my affiliation! What a rush though, to find yourself on “alien” turf and have that instant connection with a local. I wish that for those to come, and I think the oncampus experience is part of developing that identity. Thank you to all who have made the Modernization possible, and if you thought you missed the window, it is not too late to know you

contributed to the experience of those future Illini! Just a few short months ago, I started a new position. Doing so under pandemic conditions is a challenge – I so want to run, but find I must pace myself for the long goal. I’ve tried to imagine that experience for the new graduates of last year and this year. Opportunities to develop that “career” network, bond with co-workers, gain a sense of the company culture of where you work are “different.” If you’re experiencing afterwork happy hours, it may be from the comfort of your couch; likely lunch-andlearn opportunities are at the kitchen table with a muted microphone; volunteer opportunities are remote and while still viable, a bit different. We’re adapting, virtual connections are our lifeline, but we are all ready to emerge and engage. Mark your calendars for upcoming events. We are hoping to be able to host our annual beer tasting in the fall and are looking forward to the grand opening of the new spaces of the CEE building and Smart Bridge – if all goes well on October 1, 2021, pending University approval. If you can, reach out and offer to support one of the student groups by being a speaker – share your journey with them to inspire and motivate. While we’ve been responsible and hunkered down to do our part to put the pandemic behind us, it is time to plan for connecting. Looking forward to seeing you at events soon, and wishing you a fun summer. I-L-L…. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 7

THE

UNDERGR AD EXPERIENCE

TODAY At Illinois, Civil and Environmental Engineering students are better prepared than ever to become tomorrow’s leaders in the profession.

cee.illinois.edu

The undergraduate curriculum – always evolving to meet society’s needs – has made a major leap in recent years to include special emphasis on data science, experiential learning, communications, critical thinking and entrepreneurship – along with the focus on the fundamentals that has always made our graduates stand out. Undergraduates have more opportunities than ever to win scholarships and participate in research. Our facilities – already unique among our peers – have just undergone a major upgrade. Our career preparation, targeted job fairs, extracurricular opportunities and advising are still second-to-none. The alumni network is stronger than ever. Like the CEE alumni who came before them, today’s CEE at Illinois undergrads are poised to carry on the department’s legacy of excellence and change the world as future Illini engineers.

Curriculum improvements include new skills for CEE’s evolving landscape By John Popovics, Professor, and Ashlynn Stillwell, Associate Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois has been a recognized leader in the education of undergraduate students for decades. We recruit, retain and foster the best and brightest students from across the state and around the world, training the leaders of the profession. As the world’s technology and societal needs change, we adapt and modify our curriculum to continue our tradition of excellence, maintaining the solid foundation of disciplinary skills for which we are well-known while at the same time introducing societally relevant broader skills to develop the engineering leaders of the future. In our most recent round of curriculum reconsideration, we have focused on themes of nurturing professional skills – such as technical communication, leadership and team-building – engendering broader engineering identity among our students – for example, the global and societal context in which engineers operate – and promoting emergent skills such as data science and computation, and entrepreneurial thinking. Throughout this curriculum innovation, we encourage current best practices in teaching and pedagogy and improved communication and coordination among faculty regarding coursework content, expectations and performance. Our approach compares favorably with the findings in a recent report on the future of CEE education published by the American Society for Civil Engineers, “Civil Engineering Education Summit – Mapping the Future of Civil Engineering Education,” which states, “Students need to learn systems thinking so that they are prepared for current and future societal challenges.” We are preparing students by re-examining and redefining the domain of civil and environmental engi-

neering, elevating professional skills to a truly equal footing with technical skills, and developing a diverse, inclusive, equitable and engaging culture. We have embedded themes longitudinally in the curriculum through threads that start in the first semester of the first year and extend through to the last semester of the final year. The first semester experience centers around a newly introduced, required four-credit hour class, CEE 190: Project Based Learning in CEE. The class serves as the foundational kickoff for basic skill set tracks and teaches design and projectbased learning concepts while introducing students to CEE topics. Project-based learning represents an inverse learning approach, where the students start with a problem and discover knowledge and skills required to solve the problem. Along the way, the students develop knowledge in required fundamental content, professional skills such as teamwork and technical communication, and experience such as critical thinking and problem solving. The course is composed of one weekly lecture (two hours) and one discussion session (two hours) for teamwork, and will be offered in the new, state-of-theart Campus Instructional Facility building starting fall 2021. The skills and knowledge developed in CEE 190 are built up by the longitudinal curriculum threads that continue through the students’ tenure, culminating in a series of experiential courses focusing on hands-on and field work and innovations in CEE. For example, the middle level of the curriculum has an enhanced focus on technical writing and communication within the CEE discipline. This communication focus is achieved through a complete reworking of the laboratory writing requirements for the materials core class (CEE 300 Behavior of Materials), which is required for all students. The writing reContinued on the next page

Data science in CEE program debuts this fall

For the first time this fall, CEE undergraduates can earn a CEE-focused Certificate in Data Science and Computing by taking a series of four courses that focus on data handling and processing; data analysis, including machine learning; computing; and data presentation. All are presented within the context of the CEE sub-disciplines. This certificate is open to both currently enrolled and incoming students, effective in the fall 2021 semester. The four required courses are Introduction to Computing, Linear Algebra with Computational Applications and Data Science in CEE plus one of these two courses: Machine Learning in CEE or Infrastructure Sensing Laboratory. “AI [Artificial Intelligence] and computational skills sets are already demonstrating that they can add value to our processes and can help us solve the most pressing problems that we have in delivering our projects safer, faster and at a lower cost,” said Mani GolparvarFard, CEE associate professor. “At the University of Illinois, we equip our students with these skill sets.” The focus on data science for civil and environmental engineers is also represented in a non-thesis master’s track in CEE, also new in fall 2021. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 9

94.5%

Fundamentals of Engineering exam pass rate (National pass rate is 68%)

Our CEE undergrads say...

Zachary Gold Senior

My favorite thing about the CEE program is how often we learn about things that have been discovered at UIUC! I distinctly remember learning about at least three different important civil engineering concepts that were a part of a previous professor's research. This year I will be on the executive board of Engineering Council, serving as Director for the Student Introduction to Engineering program. We host a weekend-long event for prospective engineering students in February. I attended the event as a senior in high school and chose U of I because of it. I have helped out with it ever since. It is no secret to anyone that I love it here at UIUC. I think the prestige of the program combined with the collaborative environment make it an amazing experience.

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Curriculum improvements Continued from the previous page

quirements have been modified following best practices in writing instruction to include a focus on writing to learn, writing to audience, and writing across engineering genres, and includes several instances of self- and peer-evaluation of writing. Another example of focused learning opportunities enabled by the curriculum innovation is provided by the focus track on data science and computation. A new series of advanced courses in data science, machine learning, and sensors and advanced measurements offers students an opportunity to gain deep experience in these important and emerging topics, all within the CEE context. Students who complete these courses will earn a certificate in Data Science and Computation in CEE. The curriculum innovation is developed, supported and maintained by a faculty-led Community of Practice composed of instructors of critical, relevant courses, CEE Curriculum Committee members, and course directors for 300-level core courses. The Community of Practice cohort provides coordination and assistance throughout the curriculum, rather than direction and control, and serves as a resource that is flexible and comprehensive across group sub-structures, providing long-term vision and management of the curriculum. These Community of Practice faculty leaders support the curriculum innovation through introducing core skill activities as a complement to the existing technical excellence as the hallmark of our program. These modifications to the curriculum represent significant innovation and upgrade to the CEE student experience and learning outcomes, while maintaining the overall structure, content and technical rigor of existing courses. As the world changes, so must the profession of civil and environmental engineering. In CEE at Illinois, we are preparing students to be the engineering leaders of a bright future. i

CEE’s targeted job fairs bring recruiters to campus twice a year

For a quarter century, CEE has been offering its own job fairs – the only engineering department at Illinois to do so. Today the fairs are presented in both the spring (one day) and fall (two days). The job fairs are held in the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory crane bay. Hundreds of companies send recruiters – many of whom are CEE alumni. All students are encouraged to attend the job fairs for full-time jobs, summer jobs, internships and simply experience speaking with recruiters. The department also hosts a resume review night before the fall fair, with volunteers from among our alumni offering critiques. The Grainger College of Engineering also offers job fairs and a range of jobseeking assistance through Engineering Career Services, but the CEE-specific fairs are particularly popular with our students and companies seeking only CEE grads. During the pandemic, the job fairs pivoted seamlessly to an online platform. i

75-100 undergraduates per year participate in CEE’s REU program

Research Experience for Undergraduates program offers opportunity, paid work By Allisa Hastie (BS 20) I began working as an undergraduate researcher during the spring semester of my freshman year, and I consider it to be one of the most influential experiences in my career. Working as a research assistant and participating in our Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program had a dramatic impact on my personal growth, gave me the opportunity to publish a first-author paper during my senior year, and contributed to my earning a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to help fund my graduate study at Illinois. Some of the unique benefits of the CEE REU program are the breadth of research experiences available and the option to be paid for undergraduate research. My work as a research assistant during undergrad helped offset a majority of my living expenses and reflected the value of my contribution. I’ve found that the culture of undergraduate research within our department strikes an important balance between giving students research exposure, even if it’s only for a semester, and the option to engage in long-term research experiences and mentorship with a low barrier to entry. As a freshman at Illinois I knew that I had an interest in working as an undergraduate researcher. I was able to secure a research position with CEE associate professor Ashlynn Stillwell through the Researcher’s Initiative, which pairs students living in a Living Learning Community with research advisers. That first semester got me hooked on interdisciplinary research and the culture of research in the CEE department. As an underclassman in CEE, I felt really stuck in my intro-level classes and sometimes had a hard time seeing how the material I was learning in the classroom would translate into a fulfilling career. Research as an underclassman gave me the freedom to explore topics that interested me and had

“I research decision-making frameworks around water reuse projects and examine the criteria that make recycled water projects successful. Ultimately, my work seeks to overcome economic and policy barriers to project development.” – Allisa Hastie a more tangible connection to real-world systems. After a couple semesters as a research assistant, it became clear to me that I wanted to attend graduate school after my bachelor’s degree. This shifted my goals and perspective, so instead of hunting for summer internships, I began looking for ways to continue doing research over the summer. The CEE department’s REU program was the perfect fit for me. During my summer as an REU student I began the process of turning the data and analyses I had worked on during previous semesters into an academic publication. I was grateful to have the time and space to focus on these aspects of my research without being weighed down by a heavy course load. That summer also gave me valuable exposure to what life would be like as a graduate student. Without a set schedule, I had to be disciplined in how I spent my time and map out my weeks so I could fulfill the research hours I needed while still enjoying my summer. Looking back at the work I did that summer, I can see how dedicating my time to the publication process eventually made my research paper much stronger and pre-

pared me to work through the same processes as a graduate student. One of the most important intangible benefits of undergraduate research is that it helped me grow in confidence and self-awareness. Being dedicated to my research meant being disciplined in how I spent my time and learning new ways to approach undefined and complicated problems in water and energy systems. Even though I had strong mentorship, it was up to me to find the data, write code and learn new software so I could understand these complex systems and communicate my results clearly. Now I have finished my first year as a graduate student at Illinois and I am working toward my second first-author publication based on a project I started as an undergrad. I was also a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, largely due to my undergraduate research experience and ability to identify and scope a meaningful graduate research project. I’ve been fortunate to be able to work as a research assistant in a field I love and had the freedom to dedicate my time to independent research projects even as an undergraduate. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 11

84.5% Our CEE undergrads say... Juliana Roznowski Senior

The CEE program at UIUC opens a world of opportunities to its students. The CEE Career Fair is a great chance to get a summer internship, and the professors are experienced and knowledgeable. I am a part of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). I gained most everything from them. The friends I made in SHPE freshman year have made it with me through my last three years and supported me through all the tough classes, exams and weeks. It also has a vast alumni network and lots of career building opportunities. The CEE program is so broad, that even if you're not sure it's for you, you'll be able to explore each avenue before making that decision.

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Principles and Practice of Engineering exam pass rate (National pass rate is 63.5%)

Class project leads to start-up A team project on sidewalk repair cost estimates during a required course for first-year CEE students inspired Brandon Yates (BS 21) to launch DeepWalk Research, a startup focused on automating civil engineering inspections. Now, four years and one bachelor’s degree later, Yates is beginning his professional career as his own employer. DeepWalk tackles a challenge Yates learned about when he was introduced to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) during that freshman class: the sheer volume of sidewalk assessments that every municipality is required to perform in order to identify where their sidewalks are inaccessible to people with disabilities. These assessments must include curb ramp inspections, which can take an engineer up to 15 minutes each to perform. According to Yates, who reached out to more than 100 city engineers, ADA coordinators and consultants for input, the project is an enormous – and expensive – challenge for many cities. Not only do these inspections require a significant investment of time and personnel – New York City alone has over 200,000 ramps, Seattle has over 40,000 ramps and even Champaign has over 13,000 ramps – but failure to meet ADA requirements can cost cities hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements. In the case of Los An-

Brandon Yates

“DeepWalk is a product of the engineering and innovation culture here.” geles and New York, each city’s legal obligation exceeds $1 billion. With this challenge still in mind at the conclusion of his class, Yates recruited a friend in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and they began to train a machine-learning model to identify sidewalk panels. Their efforts would eventually lead to development of DeepWalk, a mobile application that is able to turn a 30-second video of a curb ramp into a 3D model, check if it meets ADA requirements and automatically fill out an inspection report. “With the DeepWalk app, a single intern will be able to perform over 200 inContinued on page 14 DeepWalk is a mobile application that is able to turn a 30-second video of a curb ramp into a 3D model, check if it meets ADA requirements and automatically fill out an inspection report.

There are countless student organizations at Illinois, including more than 25 which are uniquely CEE-focused.

“During job interviews, people are either surprised to learn that you can build a canoe made out of concrete or the interviewer themselves was on their college team and you have something in common.” – Gwen Kramer

Student Organizations offer CEE-focused experience, community By Gwen Kramer (BS 21) 2021 Concrete Canoe Team Mix Captain This year the Concrete Canoe Team at Illinois celebrated its 50th anniversary! Now an international competition organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the first competition was organized by Illinois professor Clyde Kessler against a team from Purdue University. This year’s canoe was named the Mis-Led III to honor the original Mis-Led from 50 years ago. Due to COVID-19, there was a virtual competition and no races held. Although this canoe was only six feet long (they are usually 18 feet) with no room for paddlers, it landed us fifth place in our conference overall. To create a concrete canoe, four subteams (mix, design, paddling and construction) work together throughout the fall semester to prepare to cast the canoe early in the spring semester before competition. During my time at Illinois, I was a part of the mix team and was a captain for my junior and senior years. I applied for the position while I was abroad during my sophomore year, basically clueless on concrete design. I only knew that I wanted to continue to be a part of the amazing subteam and help design a mix that would yield a strong canoe. The mix team typically mixes 3 batches of concrete per week to be cured and then those batches are tested the next week while three more are being made. I learned how to do this at team meetings, but we never learned how batches were designed. As a water resources primary and a construction management secondary, I never took a materials class within the department. Typical concrete mix design barely applies to this application because it is so lightweight with only smaller aggregates. To prepare for my first semester as captain, I read our old technical reports and past winners’ technical reports. Once my co-captain and I got a good gauge on what winning mixes looked like, we designed our mix.

This year’s graduating Concrete Canoe captains Caroline Kulach, project manager; Yasunari Sakuma, Outreach Captain; Ana Okinczyc, project manager; Claire Samojedny, Paddling Captain; Gwen Kramer, mix captain.

This past year was tricky because they restricted the use of glass microspheres for safety reasons. The microspheres were a perfect filler and had been used in all recent canoes. Finding a replacement for them on top of COVID-19 slowed our progress this year but our final mix had a density of 68.5 pcf and a 28-day strength of 1270 psi! All the wrenches thrown in this past year’s plans taught me patience and perseverance – no matter how many times our mixes crumbled, we had to keep trying. My experience with Concrete Canoe was one of the best while at Illinois. I made amazing lifelong friends and always knew someone from canoe in one of my classes. This was especially helpful as an underclassman when you’re still trying to make friends. Also, as an underclassman, the upperclassmen were so eager to help us out any way they could; lend old textbooks, suggest classes, best places to eat on campus, etc. It was the first club I tried out and it very quickly made Newmark feel a lot smaller and less intimidating. During job interviews, people are either surprised to learn that you can build a canoe made out of concrete or the interviewer themselves was on their college team and you have something in

Casting Day Jan 2020 – Ana Okinczyc, Caroline Kulach, Claire Samojedny, Gwen Kramer.

common. It is such a unique Registered Student Organization and experience, and despite all the late nights it took to complete our canoes, I would never trade it for anything. i

Scan the QR code to view videos about CEE’s student organizations

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 13

Our CEE undergrads say...

With entrepreneurship playing a key role in his student experience, Yates said he has learned a “ridiculous” variety of both soft and technical skills. DeepWalk

Continued from page 12

Ashmitha Dandamudi Junior

In CEE, I am a part of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Concrete Canoe, and the Society of Women Engineers. My favorite part of being in these organizations is the knowledge I learn from other students. The department does a really great job of making sure students excel in college and everyone is welcoming and wants you to do your best. The best part of being in CEE is the people you get to meet. Everyone is passionate about what they do and are genuinely good people. To get the most out of college no matter what, is to get involved and push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Leah Courtney Junior

One of my favorite things about CEE at Illinois is the ability to specialize in your discipline while gaining a broad understanding of civil engineering. I’m a part of Chi Epsilon, the national civil engineering honor society, and I’ve gained great experiences meeting alumni and professors at our events! If I gave advice to freshman I would say to talk to the people in your CEE classes! The people I’ve met in CEE make my classes easier, way more fun, and they are a big part of why I love my major so much. cee.illinois.edu

spections a day,” Yates said. “This allows municipalities to take a strong first step in avoiding or meeting the requirements of these lawsuits.” Over the next three years as they developed their app, Yates and his partners – his friend from ECE plus two students from the departments of Computer Science and Physics – took advantage of the entrepreneurial resources available to students at the University of Illinois, including the Technology Entrepreneur Center’s COZAD start-up competition and iVenture Accelerator. Most recently, DeepWalk won third place and $20,000 at the College New Venture Challenge, which is a program that connects entrepreneurial students from The Grainger College of Engineering with business students at the University of Chicago. To date, they have raised $71,000 through these types of student startup programs and competitions. “The University of Illinois has an extremely strong entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Yates said. “It has world-class computer science and civil engineering programs, a history of groundbreaking research, and a huge amount of resources devoted to supporting entrepreneurship. The fact that we as an undergraduate-led startup company raised over $70,000 in funding without leaving campus speaks for itself.” Yates also benefited from generous informal mentorship from faculty and alumni. Professor Jeffery Roesler, who leads the project-based course for firstyear students, not only introduced Yates to a Ph.D. student who served as an early technical adviser for the DeepWalk team, but also connected him to his wider civil engineering network including industry professionals – people they would not normally be able to talk to, Yates said. “I was also surprised by how helpful and responsive UIUC faculty and alumni have been to cold emails asking for infor-

mation, advice or help,” Yates added. With entrepreneurship playing a key role in his student experience, Yates said he has learned a “ridiculous” variety of both soft and technical skills. In the month prior to graduation, he found himself giving fundraising presentations, filing taxes for a C corporation, working with a law firm to draft equity agreements, interviewing several engineering consultants and writing a Python tool to annotate machine-learning data. “Balancing schoolwork and startup work was challenging, especially in the beginning,” Yates said. “There isn’t a secret trick to it – just stay ahead of the reading and put in the work. The biggest thing that will carry through the rest of my career is that I’ve learned how to learn, and I’ve learned how to go get help when I need it. Even if I move on to a more traditional civil engineering career, that’s going to be really helpful.” Yates, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in May, said he and his partners will work full-time on DeepWalk this summer. They have space in UIUC’s technology business incubator, EnterpriseWorks at Research Park, and – if they meet their pre-seed funding goals – should have a prototype ready for limited piloting in the fall and a full pilot the following summer. Noting that their technology is very flexible, Yates said they also plan to expand their product’s capabilities to other projects like manhole, drainage and ADA bathroom inspections. “I don’t think I would have gotten introduced to any of this stuff if I wasn’t at the University of Illinois,” he said. “I don’t think a start-up like this could have happened anywhere else. DeepWalk is a product of the engineering and innovation culture here.” i Yates invites feedback on DeepWalk’s prototype and product roadmap. He can be reached at byates@deepwalkresearch.com.

98%

Percentage of CEE graduates in 2019 who had secured a nextstep destination by graduation (Employed 60%, Continuing education 38%)

Award-winning advising contributes to undergraduates’ success Undergraduate Adviser Becky Stillwell is the most recognized face in CEE for many alumni. For 16 years, Stillwell has guided undergraduates, overseen the scholarship award process and served as adviser to the CEE Student Committee, a student group dedicated to giving undergraduates a voice in the department. Stillwell has won the Engineering Council Outstanding Advising Award eight times. Q: What is your role in advising students? I advise students on the CEE undergraduate curriculum, graduation requirements and policies for The Grainger College of Engineering and for the University. I work with undergraduate students for study abroad course approval, academic program plans and recommendation letters for scholarships or graduate school. Each semester I meet with approximately 150 students during priority registration to discuss classes, remaining hours, and to ensure requirements are met for graduation. Q: How do you think a good adviser helps with the student experience? An adviser is one of the first contacts an

undergraduate student makes. The adviser meets freshmen during summer registration in June, a couple months before they arrive on campus. This experience can be beneficial to both the student and adviser in introducing themselves and in helping students select fall semester courses. Another opportunity through which I’ve been able to make an impact on students is through the Women in Engineering (WIE) Camp which takes place the week before classes begins and allows freshman women in each department to participate in activities and meet with WIE Camp counselors from their engineering department. One of the activities is a luncheon with the academic adviser from the department with the freshman women and counselors, who are upperclassmen in the department. It’s a great way to get to know students and learn a little more about them and what they are looking forward to. A good academic adviser is essential in providing students a positive experience during their time on campus. Being able to reach out to someone in the de-

partment who can help you with questions, advising or to listen to you if you’re having a hard time, is helpful in knowing that someone is there for you whom you feel comfortable contacting and who can give you advice and guide you during your four years. Q: What do you like about your job? The students I get to meet and work with for four years! I’m able to form relationships and see these undergraduates grow and do amazing things as they continue their studies toward a bachelor’s degree. I continue to keep in touch with many of our graduates through social media, and I am able to see them if they come back for the CEE Job Fair, recruiting students for internships and jobs. I see others at alumni events during the year. i

Career prep starts early, with alumni help Every CEE student is welcome at Backpack to Briefcase, a free, multisession career development program offered in the fall semester. Volunteer alumni, including members of CEE’s Alumni Association Board of Directors, present sessions such as: • Tools and Tips for the Virtual Experience • Putting Together a Knockout Resume

• • • • • • • •

Resume Review Night Recruiters: What They Want to Hear CEE Networking Night Powering Through the Interview Negotiating Salary and Job Benefits What to Expect in the Workplace International Career Search Success Nurturing Your New Career

Scan the QR code to view videos of Backpack to Briefcase sessions

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 15

Our CEE undergrads say... Emily Dickett Junior

$65,035

Average salary of graduates (2020)

Young alumni group eases students’ transition from campus to the workplace One of the strengths of CEE at Illinois is its large network of 15,000 alumni from around the world. Our active, engaged CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors is dedicated to advancing the department and improving

One great thing about the CEE program at Illinois is the people – the students are so incredibly bright and passionate, the professors are caring and creative, and the community as a whole is a tight-knit, fun, intelligent and, most importantly, diverse group of learners. The program at UIUC is an exciting, comprehensive one that basically guarantees you a job in the field you're looking to work in after school due to its high prestige. Although I have been challenged by the program many, many times, I have loved every minute of my time at UIUC thus far and look forward to the two semesters to come.

Josephine Hoppenworth Junior

Unlike other universities, the CEE program at Illinois not only provides a world-class education but also an environment which cultivates personal, professional and academic growth. Surrounded by driven and ambitious faculty and peers, every student finds numerous opportunities for a well-rounded, individual experience. Picking a college to attend is stressful and overwhelming regardless of major. Have confidence in your decision. If you are considering whether to enroll in the CEE program at UIUC, you clearly have what it takes to succeed. Take a deep breath, go with your heart, and join the and blue family. 16 orange cee.illinois.edu

the student experience in CEE. Within the CEEAA Board is a group of young CEE alumni, laser-focused on helping the department’s newest graduates establish their careers and retain their ties to the University of Illinois – the Young Engineers Division. On these pages, some YED leaders share their thoughts about their home department at Illinois.

Guillermo Díaz-Fañas (MS 14), Mentorship Committee Chair “Almost a decade later, I can still see how being an alumnus of this program opens doors.” When I decided to pursue a graduate degree in CEE, UIUC was at the top of my list. My excitement and passion for the CEE program was even part of my application’s statement of purpose essay: “The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a worldwide prestigious reputation, which is evident for being ranked as one of the best universities in the world and for being in the top for the CEE’s Graduate Programs. The reputation for producing highly qualified graduates assures me that you offer the kind of education I am looking for.” The time that I spent at UIUC was the foundation for the career that I always dreamed of. I grew as a person and as a professional thanks to the great classmates, friends and colleagues that I made during my time there; and almost a decade later, I can still see how being an alumnus of this program opens doors. Today, I lead national efforts in professional societies alongside former professors and classmates; on many occasions, I run into other ILLINI in national conferences; and every now and then, I get the opportunity to inspire future engineers to apply to the CEE program at Illinois. I am grateful and proud to say that I am a UIUC CEE Alumnus! i

Thanks to our generous donors, about 100 scholarships averaging $2,500 each are awarded every year through the department.

“I am excited to meet new alumni and continue my professional journey, knowing I have a strong network of fellow CEE alumni who are always willing to help and support me. ILL!”

“Being in the CEE department at UIUC was certainly challenging, but also fostered a sense of community and a service mindset that continue on in the department’s alumni.”

Adam Blumstein (BS 13), Networking Committee Co-Chair

Jill McClary (BS 13), Career Development Committee Co-Chair

As I was considering different universities and civil engineering departments to attend, the University of Illinois CEE department was always high on my list. Once I visited the department, had a chance to sit down with the department advisers, and learn more about the department, I knew I was at home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time during my university years in the department and formed strong ties with both department faculty and other students. I cherish the relationships I formed, which ultimately led to my current job opportunity after I had moved to my current company. During my professional career, I have come across many CEE Illinois grads and there is always a camaraderie and respect for our university and what we have achieved to reach the current point in our careers. Being part of the CEE YED board has allowed me to meet other young alumni through our various networking events and reinforce my bond with the department. I am excited to meet new alumni and continue my professional journey, knowing I have a strong network of fellow CEE alumni who are always willing to help and support me. ILL! i

To be entirely honest, I’m not sure I really knew what civil and environmental engineering was when I entered the department at UIUC. I was encouraged to consider engineering departments because “you’re good at math and science,” and I was interested in sustainable development, so I made a guess that environmental engineering could be a good fit without really looking into much else. And thankfully, that turned out to be an excellent decision. I found a program, department and discipline that felt like home in more ways than I could have expected. Being in the CEE department at UIUC was certainly challenging, but also fostered a sense of community and a service mindset that continue on in the department’s alumni. And getting involved in undergraduate research in the CEE department certainly paved the way for my career in water quality research to this point. Despite the fact that I have now studied or worked at four different universities over the course of my education and career, the CEE department at UIUC is what started it all and will always feel like my academic home. i

“The CEE department at Illinois presented me with so many education, job and networking opportunities during my undergraduate studies.” Christine Daul (BS 15), Networking Committee Co-Chair

The CEE Department at Illinois presented me with so many education, job and networking opportunities during my undergraduate studies. Ultimately, these opportunities served as the stepping stone to my career. Without the CEE Department, I would not have been prepared for or found my career in construction litigation consulting which has exposed me to many facets of civil engineering and construction that intrigue me and further develop my passion for the industry. The well-rounded education I received taught me fundamental concepts of construction scheduling, construction management, steel, concrete, soil and transportation that I apply daily in tackling complex construction project disputes. The networking opportunities provided by the CEE department’s Alumni Association (including the annual Alumni Awards dinner event, the beer tasting event and the golf outing) and now the Alumni Association’s Young Engineers Division have served to both retain and create professional relationships with other graduates and have further contributed to my career development. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 17

2021 CEE Student Awards A. Epstein Award in Civil Engineering Elizabeth Callis Andrew Conwell Jacob Lewis Michael Rivkin Albert J. Reinschmidt Memorial Scholarship Matthew Parkes Anna Lee and James T.P. Yao Scholarship Henry Guo ASCE Outstanding Student Award Robert Wiggins Bates and Rogers Scholarship Charlotte Fondren Collin Sorge Young Bernard Delbert Murphy Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Joyce Li Johnson Nguyen Cameron Tonkery

C.S. and Ruth Monnier Scholarship Joseph Fraterrigo Faith Maranion Dominika Szal Canadian National (CN) Railway Scholarship Avin Arefzadeh CEEAA Undergraduate Service Leadership Scholarship Emily Lin Hannah Still Chicago Outer Belt Association of Contractors Scholarship Jackson Poythress Civil Engineering Class of 1943 Undergraduate Leadership Award Emily Dickett Clement C. Lee Outstanding Scholar Award in Honor of Houssam Mahmoud Karara Ruizhi Wang Concrete Education and Research Foundation Scholarship Emily Recupido Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. Scholarship Pablo Hernandez Panagiotis Vassilakos Dan and Mary Guill Scholarship Tymon Maurer Delores Wade Huber Scholarship Maria Joaquina Noriega Gimenez DFI Educational Trust Charles J. Berkel Memorial Scholarship Marcin Nieradka

Andrew Conwell, above, winner of the Ira O. Baker First Prize and A. Epstein Award in Civil Engineering. At left, Erika Jaszka won the Ira O. Baker Second Prize.

Langan/Dennis J. Leary Memorial Scholarship Fund Maksymillan Jasiak Geotechnical Scholarship Gift Robert Wiggins Doris I. and James L. Willmer Endowed Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Sarah Fuller Duane Edward and Phyllis Ann Erickson Memorial Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Samantha Guagliardo Haoran (Kevin) Lu Jesse Mills

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Earle J. Wheeler Scholarship Abigail Fields Aaron Leshuk-Morita Eli W. Cohen – Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship Isabella Zardini Eric J. Kerestes Memorial Scholarship Anthony Finucane Foster Research Scholarship Junryu Fu Natalie Hill George C. Eisenmayer and Ida E. Scheve Endowment Sarah Dzieza George L. Farnsworth Jr. Scholarship Josephine Hoppenworth Michael Molloy Jack Reicherts Grant W. Shaw Memorial Scholarship Dale Robbennolt Harry K. and Carol A. Windland Endowed Scholarship in Memory of David A. Windland Pierre Azar Juliana Roznowski Henry T. Heald Award Maddie Dearborn Tao Zang Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association Scholarship Lama Abufares Qingqing Cao Illinois Association of County Engineers Award Ally Kolar Jacob Lewis Julia Qian Matthew Quinn Michael Thon Industry Advancement Foundation of Central Illinois Builders of the AGC Scholarship Alfredo Guzman Ira O. Baker Prize Andrew Conwell (First Prize) Erika Jaszka (Second Prize) Ira O. Baker Memorial Scholarship Chloe Fess Madison Kats Matt Wingen

Above: Isabella Zardini, left, winner of the Eli W. Cohen - Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship and Sarah Fuller, winner of the Doris I. and James L. Willmer Endowed Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering. At left: Jordan Judge, winner of the Walter E. Hanson Graduate Study Award.

Jack and Kay Briscoe Scholarship Alejandro Fernandez Nathan Finkelshteyn William O’Brien

Shelby K. Willis Engineering Education Scholarship John Devine Kent Lullo

Loreta and Silvio Corsetti Memorial Scholarship and Fellowship Ryan Croce Salvatore Penachio

Susan Douds Goertz and Jack L. Goertz Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholarship Steven Li Chen

Maren Somers Memorial Engineering Scholarship Kaitlin Solak Maude E. Eide Memorial Scholarship Robert Cappello Edgar Rosales Max Whitman APWA Memorial Scholarship Sheel Sansare Melih T. Dural Undergraduate Research Prize Xinhao Liu Mengxiao Zhong

W. E. O’Neil Award Ahmed Adel Hassan Walter E. Hanson Graduate Study Award Jordan Judge Wayne C. Teng Scholarship Daniel Gentile Zachary Gold Nicholas Marchak Helen Sun Hongyu Wu Wiley Transportation Scholarship Avery Herndon Sylvia Kierpiec

Moreland Herrin Scholarship Charles Zehnal

William A. Oliver Endowed Scholarship Jack Allen

RJN Foundation Civil Engineering Scholarship David Szeszko

John B. Felmley Engineering Scholarship Leah Courtney

UIUC Harold R. Sandberg Scholarship Emma Conroy Pieter Svenson

Michael W. and Jean D. Franke Railroad Engineering Scholarship Xinhao Liu

Norman Carlson Award Kevin Di

Jacobs Transportation Endowed Scholarship Jared Mitchell

John O. Fooks and William D. Fooks Scholarship Yatri Sutaria Marcella Yates

Leigh F. Zerbee Scholarship in Civil Engineering John Kane Aditya Madduluri

William C. Ackermann Sr. Civil Engineering Scholarship Lauren Schissler William John MacKay Award Abby Hutter

Road Builders Charities Scholarship Madisyn Amoral Kennedy Branch

Wilson H. Tang CEE International Scholarship Yuhui Zhai

Samuel C. Roberts Award in Civil Engineering Emily Eng

Wilson H. Tang CEE Risk, Reliability and Decision Analysis Scholarship Charles Mallin

Joseph C. and Marianne J. Geagea Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholarship Stefany Boyas Daniel Garcia-Rico David Kim Julian Rueda Geotechnical Engineering Scholarship Ethan Hertzler Klein and Hoffman Inc. Scholarship in honor of Frank Klein Luke Ahern Koch Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Ryan Moeller

Left: Jacob Lewis, winner of the A. Epstein Award in Civil Engineering and Illinois Association of County Engineers Award. Center and right: Emma Conroy and Pieter Svenson, winners of the UIUC Harold R. Sandberg Scholarship. Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 19

Broad range of facilities support CEE research, education Used by both faculty and students, CEE’s extensive, unique facilities support groundbreaking research and an innovative curriculum. Learn about some of the spaces here.

Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory

Environmental Engineering Laboratories

The Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory (VTCHL) is an 11,000 -square-foot lab that supports research and teaching on river meandering, coastal erosion, oceanic turbidity currents, sedimentation engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and hydraulic structures. Capabilities include physical and numerical modeling, computational fluid dynamics and field research.

The Environmental Engineering and Science (EE&S) laboratories are located on the fourth floor of Newmark Lab and in the new CEE building across the street. The several EE&S laboratories host shared facilities with a wide range of state-of-the-science analytical equipment, including:

Features: • Flumes for teaching open-channel hydraulics, sediment transport and hydraulic structures • Tanks and flumes to research density driven flows and their sediment deposits • Large oscillating water and sediment tunnel for waves and currents • Kinoshita meandering flume for erosion, sedimentation and morphology • Particle image velocimetry systems and 3D acoustic velocimetry systems • Sedimentation lab with particle size analyzer and annular flume for erosion studies • Continental Margins Tank and Cavitation Tunnel • Twin weighing tanks for calibration of flow metering sensors • Water supply system with 50,000-gallon capacity sump and variable speed pumps Lab Director: Marcelo H. Garcia More information: vtchl.illinois.edu 20

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• Mass spectroscopy • Inductively coupled plasma, ion, liquid and gas chromatography • Optical, surface area and organic carbon analyzers Together, they are fully equipped for a diverse range of research, including: • Water disinfection; water and wastewater quality; and water chemistry • Aerosols and air quality • Pathogens • Environmental microbiology and genomics • Nano-enabled and interfacial processes • Environmental synthetic and molecular biology • Environmental toxicity • Hazardous waste remediation • Green roof; data science; resource recovery and more. Chair, EE&S Program: Rosa M. Espinosa-Marzal EES Lab Director: Vishal Verma Lab Manager: Shaoying “Shawn” Qi

Rock Mechanics Laboratory The Rock Mechanics Lab supports research into the mechanical behavior of rocklike geomaterials using novel experimental techniques such as high pressure/high temperature compression testing, multi-phase fluid injection, acoustic emission, digital image correlation and others. Research topics include CO2 and nuclear waste storage, hydraulic fracturing and enhanced geothermal energy production.

Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory The Newmark Structural Engineering Lab (NSEL) supports material and large-scale, experimental structural research. The testing section of the lab is located in the Newmark Lab crane bay and has a three-story clear height. Researchers carry out a wide range of tests of building materials, components, structural assembles and models. Features: • Large Testing Floor supported by 16.4 ft. deep concrete box girder design, used for tests of full-scale bridge girders, dynamic experiments and more • New cranes with 20-ton and 40-ton capacities, with a clear height of 29.5 ft • Reaction Wall consisting of a 5 ft. thick and 28.5 ft. high L-shaped structure, post-tensioned to a 2 ft. thick Testing Floor • Manually-controlled and Servocontrolled hydraulic equipment with a wide range of hydraulic actuator capacities • Fatigue-rated testing frames • Instrumentation to support any type of transducer • Wide range of hardware (columns, I-beams, channels and more) that allow for full-scale tests of structures • Houses three large-scale 6-degrees of freedom quasi-static and dynamic Loading Boundary Condition Boxes Lab Director: Bassem Andrawes More info: launchnsel.web.illinois.edu

Features: • 1 MN closed-loop servo-hydraulic load frame for compression testing • Triaxial cells for measurements of poromechanical response of rock and shale at elevated external stresses, pore pressures and temperatures • 88 kN load frame and setup for testing fracture properties of rock • Core flooding device for assessing multi-phase fluid transport in geomaterials • Mercury intrusion porosimeter for measuring porosity and pore size distribution down to a nanometer scale Lab director: Roman Makhnenko More information: rockmechanics.cee.illinois.edu

Wind Engineering Research Laboratory The Wind Engineering Research Lab (WERL) is focused on improving wind and wind loading characterization, especially for damaging wind events including hurricanes, thunderstorms and tornadoes. WERL has developed a suite of mobile sensors to be deployed ahead of these events and developed methods to better assess wind and wind loading after the events have concluded. WERL research also includes wind-related topics such as structural response, bluff body aerodynamics and wind climatology. Features: • Stationary and mobile towers with propeller anemometers and relative humidity, pressure and temperature sensors • m-SWERF³, a mobile instrumented bluff-body capable of measuring windinduced pressure in the four walls and on the roof • Fully mobile barometric pressure sensors for direct measurement of atmospheric pressure, wind speed estimation and loading characterization • Low-rise building to house data collection and serve as a foundation for fullscale experimentation (currently under renovation) Lab Director: Frank Lombardo More information: publish.illinois.edu/ftlombardo Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 21

Permanent weather station will provide wind information such as direction, speed and barometric pressure, allowing for monitoring of wind events and their effect on the bridge.

Vibration sensor arrays on the roof level of the bridge measure horizontal motion. Data is collected via cables running through the ceiling to the data acquisition hub.

Expansion sensors will monitor the expansion joints on the abutments. Yeh Center, 3rd floor

Vibration sensor arrays located along beam lines on the floor level of the bridge will measure horizontal and vertical motion. The high-fidelity sensors provide a full set of data from which accurate vibration motions can be computed and linked to weather, pedestrian traffic or other structural stimuli such as weather events.

Several collaboration areas inside the bridge will provide students a place to study, work together and pass time between classes. A piano near the south entrance will provide the opportunitiy for students to take a break from their studies and enjoy some music.

Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge The instrumented bridge connecting CEE’s new building to the Yeh Center/ Newmark Lab will serve as a living laboratory, providing a wealth of data to be used in classes and research – not to mention a drier, warmer way to move between buildings during cold winter weather.

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Watch a presentation on the smart bridge features by scanning this QR code on your phone or device.

Responsive windows adapt from clear to dark in sunlight, helping to moderate the interior temperature.

Data acquisition and storage hub, located in Room 3017A of the new building.

A screen by the north entrance will display the realtime data being collected.

John T. Pfeffer Sanitation and Resource Recovery Laboratory The John T. Pfeffer Sanitation and Resource Recovery (SR2) Laboratory will provide space to conduct experiments that will advance fundamental understanding of pathogen inactivation and contaminant transformation in concentrated human excreta, as well as develop and pilot anaerobic, phototrophic and physical/chemical treatment and resource recovery technologies using mixed and source-separated human waste streams.

Pedestrian-only area, with potential future use for autonomous vehicle testing.

Inside four 60-foot deep geothermal energy foundations, fluid circulates through high density polyethylene pipes to heat or cool before leading to a heat pump in the new building. This highly efficient system will provide heating and cooling to geotechnical labs and some office spaces. The geothermal energy foundations were instrumented with thermistor strings, fiber optic cables and strain gages to continuously collect data to monitor the performance of the system as well as thermo-mechanical response of the ground. Collected temperature and axial strain data will be used to evaluate the long-term performance of these piles and for classroom analysis.

Features: • Floor mounted “no-mix” toilet (urine and solids separation) and waterless urinal in connected restrooms • Urine recovery container and containment system (solids connect to building’s sanitary system) • Diversion of urine for research on source-separated waste streams and nutrient recovery Lab Director: R. D. Cusick Other laboratories in the new CEE building:

• Vernon L. Snoeyink Water Chemistry Teaching Laboratory • E.W. and J.L. Merritt Structural Design Laboratory • Terzaghi, Peck and Deere Geotechnical Laboratory • Cording, Davisson, Fernandez, Hendron, Lenzini, Mesri and Nieto Geotechnical Laboratory • Gary Parker Morphodynamics Laboratory • Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory • Ernest J. Barenberg Concrete Materials and Pavement Instructional Laboratory

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 23

Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory The 60,000 square-foot Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory (ATREL) is a unique and comprehensive transportation research, educational and testing laboratory located 15 miles from campus at CEE’s Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) in Rantoul, Ill. ATREL provides high-quality transportation education and research that advances technologies for airport, highway and rail systems. Features: • continuing education classrooms • office space • technical library • computer facility ATREL is also home to the Accelerated Transportation Loading System (ATLAS), which evaluates full-scale transportation systems by subjecting them to real-life traffic and environmental conditions. ATLAS is capable of simulating aircraft, truck or rail traffic distributions, testing all types of pavement systems and applying load levels exceeding highway and airfield limits. Lab Director: Imad Al-Qadi More information: ict.illinois.edu/about/ facilities Other facilities located at ICT:

• Materials Processing Facility • Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track (planned)

Take a virtual tour of the Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track by scanning this QR code on your phone or device:

24 24 cee.illinois.edu cee.illinois.edu

A rendering of the proposed Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track in Rantoul, Illinois. Take a tour of the high-speed track by visiting stii.illinois.edu or scanning the QR code below.

U of I autonomous vehicle track is ‘building the future of mobility’ By Emily Jankauski Our nation’s transportation infrastructure is pushing its limits. From rapid population growth to booming e-commerce, the demand for a better way to move people and goods is ever increasing, and the advancement in mobility this past decade has been the fastest in any sector in more than a century. The University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign (UIUC) has the drive to meet those mobility demands with its Smart Transportation Infrastructure Initiative (STII) — a consortium of government, academia and industry partners developing and researching transportation infrastructure and capacities necessary for the next generation of mobility. Its biggest ambition? Building a highspeed autonomous and connected vehicle track known as the Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track (I-ACT). The track houses high-speed freight platooning and vehicle loops, connected infrastructure and large data-handling. I-ACT features multimodal transport for road, air and rail, and it includes controlled and four-season climatic conditions. Here researchers will study energy harvesting and electrification, dynamic vehicle testing, drone technology, agricultural testbed and market roads as well as urban, suburban and rural settings. Imad Al-Qadi, STII director and UIUC Bliss Professor of Engineering, envisions I-

ACT as a “state-of-the-art platform for innovation, testing and policy and protocol development.” “It is a flagship investment of a consortium of public and private sector partners who are building the future of mobility,” Al-Qadi said. “It brings the strength of the main transportation schools in Illinois, including Northwestern, University of Illinois at Chicago, UIUC, Governors State University, several agencies led by IDOT and many industry potential partners.” “Together with local and state agencies, STII will identify pathways to safely scale and implement technologies to meet climate change and social equity goals, while having direct economic development opportunities locally and for the state of Illinois,” he added. The track will stretch across approximately 430 acres at the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Ill. STII has received funds from the University’s Investment for Growth Program as well as from university units, and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). The Village of Rantoul has pledged more than 230 acres of land and buildings in support of this effort. “Grainger Engineering innovation in smart, autonomous and multimodal transportation is poised to meet our society’s critical global mobility challenges,” said Rashid Bashir, dean of The Grainger College of Engineering. “The new autonomous track will fill the important need of

training the future leaders in smart moIn January, researchers hit the ground also be developed, detailing future partbility and creating even more economic running with a three-objective project, nerships and providing a scope of I-ACT’s growth in this vital sector.” known as “Planning for Emerging Mobil- economic impacts. Last fall, STII released a request for ity: Testing and Deployment in Illinois.” STII is also leading the work, with professional services qualifications to iniHere researchers will create a 5G inte- Northwestern and Illinois Autonomous tiate I-ACT’s conceptual planning phase gration plan as well as a sensor feasibility Vehicles Association, in developing a by hiring a professional service consul- study. These efforts will help the develop- Mobility 4.0 roadmap for Illinois. Here retant. The consultant will work with UIUC ment and management of vehicle-to-ve- searchers are establishing a strategy to to define alternaprep the state for autontive geometrics for omous and connected I-ACT features and capabilities: I-ACT and outline vehicle technologies. its cost, schedule and scope as well as Next steps prepare schematic STII will poise Illinois not design and other only as a leader in autonrequirements for omous and connected the test site. vehicle technology research, but also in safely Research implementing this futurI-ACT is positioned istic mobility thanks to to be a unique testthe help of local, county bed for research in and state agencies. futuristic mobility. It “CEE is excited about touts a broad transthe opportunities that portation ecosysthe Smart Transportation tem equipped with Infrastructure Initiative a multiplatform and Illinois Autonomous facility, including and Connected Track robust large-data will open to expand and management and further strengthen our security as well as access to diverse envi- hicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure comtransportation program and cross-cutting munication. In addition, electrification ronmental scenarios. initiatives in infrastructure systems,” said In February, STII awarded eight proj- efforts will provide and optimize electric Ana Barros, UIUC Department of Civil and ects led by university professors thanks vehicle charging options as well as enerEnvironmental Engineering department to funds from the Investment for Growth gy harvesting. Identification of key features for the head. “In the next decade, our world-class Program. The projects tackle challenges such as securing autonomous vehicle track’s multimodal services will also be experimental facilities will enable innocommunication to bringing affordable top-of-mind for the researchers as they vative research that will no doubt have a autonomous transportation services to consider the movement of people and transformative impact on transportation engineering.” rural areas. Anticipation for the projects’ goods. “We are looking forward to forging completion is early 2022. A comprehensive business plan will productive partnerships across academic, government and private sectors toward realizing their full potential,” she added. The initiative promises great opportunity to uplift socioeconomically disadvantaged communities facing mobility and equity challenges. Ultimately, I-ACT promises to develop safe, equitable, accessible, environmentally conscious and innovative multimodal transportation for all. i Left: an aerial shot of I-ACT’s location on the decommissioned Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Ill. The track is conveniently located near Interstate 57, U.S. Route 45 and a rail corridor. IDOT approved ICT testing its autonomous and connected vehicle efforts on U.S. Route 45. Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 25

Research and Innovation Laboratory The Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL) provides researchers with the tools to advance railway infrastructure track component and system design and performance. RAIL houses multiple frames that allow for the execution of experiments on railway infrastructure and mechanical components. The 3,500-square-foot space is located in Champaign, Ill., on the grounds of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. Features: • Track Loading System for system-level experimentation on track panels supported by full-depth track substructure • Pulsating Load Testing Machine for static and cyclic experimentation and testing on railway fastening systems • Static Tie Tester, Static Load Testing Machine, and LargeScale Test Frame for static and cyclic experimentation and testing of crossties, fastening systems, joint bars and more • Multiple MTS hydraulic actuators (35 to 110 kip) • Five hydraulic cylinders (100 kip) Lab Director: J. Riley Edwards Lab Manager: Marcus S. Dersch More information: railtec.illinois.edu/laboratories/rail

Ecohydraulics and Ecomorphodynamics Laboratory The Ecohydraulics and Ecomorphodynamics Laboratory (EEL) is a 5,000 square foot facility in nearby Rantoul, Ill., that supports research on the interactions and feedbacks between hydrodynamic, ecological and geomorphic processes in natural and altered waters, in order to develop better approaches to monitor, manage and restore the functions of aquatic ecosystems. Features: • An 11 meter paddle-wheel driven racetrack ecoflume for studies on biota-flow-sediment interactions • Chicago River flume, a distorted model of the Main, North and South branch of the Chicago River. • Other flumes include: arrested front flume with a rotating belt to control a moving bed for the study of gravity currents; annular flume; Odell-Kovasznay type racetrack flume; and hyporheic flume • Wind tunnel for studies on wind-structure interactions • U-tube shaped oscillatory tunnel • Velocimetry systems and related equipment Lab Director: Rafael Tinoco More information: tinoco.cee.illinois.edu

Beyond the laboratories:

Graduate Student Office Space Machine Shop and Wood Shop Comprehensive machine and wood shops, adjacent to the Newmark Lab central crane bay, are capable of fabricating nearly any item required by faculty who are conducting research. 26

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Collaboration Areas Several collaboration spaces – from cozy nooks to large, open areas – in the Yeh Center, smart bridge and new building offer comfortable places for students to study, meet and work together outside of class.

Graduate student office space has been in short supply at CEE. Now, in addition to existing offices throughout Newmark Lab, the new CEE building includes two new suites for graduate student work stations. These suites are located on the second and third floor sand will provide much-needed work and study space.

Classrooms CEE’s classrooms are fully equipped for in-person and online teaching. Technology enhanced classrooms in the new building are designed to be adaptable for different class needs and to facilitate group work, including computational tools to allow teams to solve design challenges and project their work to the full class for discussion.

Additional gifts are required to fully realize the SR2 lab. To give to this initiative, please visit

modernize.cee.illinois.edu

Alumna elected mayor of Flossmoor, Illinois

Resource Recovery Lab named for Pfeffer The Sanitation and Resource Recovery Laboratory in the new CEE building will be named for former environmental faculty member John T. Pfeffer, thanks to a leadership gift by alumnus Paul H. Boening (MS 76, PhD 80). John T. Pfeffer served on the environmental engineering faculty at Illinois from 1967 to 1996. He died in 2017 at age 81. Pfeffer’s research included work in waste management engineering. He served as a trustee for the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District for 18 years and worked with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The Sanitation and Resource Recovery (SR2) Laboratory will be a Bio-Safety Level II lab that will allow researchers access to urine for experimentation purposes thanks to a direct connection to a restroom on the first floor of the building. While researchers in other environmental programs also utilize human waste streams, Illinois’s lab will be unique in that it will provide researchers access to both a continuous supply of source-separated waste streams and lab space to conduct experiments in real time. “This is particularly important for urine as the composition can shift drastically during storage, making experimentation with fresh urine very challenging,” said CEE assistant professor R.D. Cusick, who will oversee the lab. “This will allow us to develop strategies for nutrient recovery from urine at the point of discharge rather than from a centralized treatment facility, enabling recovery of potassium in addition to nitrogen and phosphorus.” Boening’s gift was motivated by a desire to honor Pfeffer for his mentorship and highlight the importance of resource recovery research. As a grad student, Boening worked with Pfeffer for four years on a biomass anaerobic digestion project. He hopes the lab will encourage others to do research in the area of resource recov-

Top, John T. Pfeffer; Below, Paul H. Boening

ery from waste. Boening has worked in his family business – Andrews Knitting Mill in St. Paul, Minn. – since 1982. “We are deeply grateful to Paul Boening for his leadership gift,” Cusick said. “Naming the resource recovery lab after John T. Pfeffer is really wonderful given the foundational work Professor Pfeffer and Paul Boening led in the area of energy recovery from wastewater using anaerobic treatment technologies.” “Making a lifetime gift to our universities is one way to give back to our society,” Boening said. “It is satisfying and gives for a long time. It can inspire others sitting on the fence to make a gift, as happened in my case. “Manufacturing has taken a terrible hit in the USA since many of our decision-makers have no involvement in industry and want everything clean. Environmental engineers can give us both manufacturing to maintain our technology and a clean environment. That is why I want to support environmental engineering at Illinois.” i

In April 2021, alumna Michelle I. Svetlic Nelson (BS 99) won the campaign for mayor of the Village of Flossmoor, Ill., a south suburban-Chicago community of nearly 10,000 residents. An avid runner, Nelson ran for mayor with the slogan, “Run with me!” The first woman mayor in the village’s nearly 100-year history, Nelson will serve a four-year term. Q: Describe your career path since college. A: I started my career as a project manager for Leopardo, a large construction company in Chicago. After working there, I was hired by Lincoln Property Company, a commercial real estate company, to manage construction for their six million-square-foot Chicagoland portfolio. After six years with that company, I took a step back from my professional aspirations to raise my family. During this time I became active in my community as a Commissioner for the local Zoning Board of Appeals, hosted fundraisers for local not-for-profits, and created STEM opportunities for the community through robotics programs and as a board member of the Homewood Science Center. This combination of working as an engineer and project manager, coupled with my community leadership experiences, has uniquely positioned me for my next challenge, as Mayor of Flossmoor, Ill. Continued on page 29

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 27

CEE assistant professor Shelly Zhang stands atop the roof of the Campus Instructional Facility, then under construction, to view the beams she designed after their installation.

Over my head Campus Instructional Facility’s critical beam is the result of a unique collaboration and cutting-edge design method When the new Campus Instructional Facility opens this year on the University of Illinois campus, the structural design of the auditorium ceiling will be the result of a unique collaboration by a faculty member and alumna of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and industry partner Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), a structural engineering and architectural design firm. The Campus Instructional Facility is a 122,000-square-foot building being constructed at the corner of Springfield Avenue and Wright Street in Champaign. It will feature five levels of state-of-the-art instructional spaces – including activelearning and distance-learning environments and innovative technology – plus testbeds for student entrepreneurship and student engagement. The auditorium is the largest room in the building, built into a two-story space encompassing parts of the basement and first floor. For help with the design of the long-span, sloping ceiling of this room, SOM Consulting Partner and CEE alumnus William F. Baker (MS 80) reached out to Shelly Zhang (BS 12, MS 14), an assistant professor in CEE and an alumna. Zhang had interned at SOM during her time as a student at Illinois, so Baker was familiar with her research in topology optimization under her Ph.D. adviser, Glaucio Paulino, then a professor in CEE at Illinois and frequent SOM collaborator. Paulino is now the Raymond Allen Jones Chair and Professor of Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials at Georgia Tech. Topology optimization uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to deter28 28

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mine the optimal form of nearly any kind of structure – anything from a building component to reconstructive medical implants. In this case, SOM invited Zhang to participate in the design process of a beam that would be repeated across the span of the auditorium ceiling. It had to be strong enough to support the concrete slab and metal deck above it while also being as light as possible and utilizing materials efficiently. This called for a beam with a pattern of cutouts, rather than a solid beam. Web openings can also be used for mechanical and electrical systems to pass through the beams. “The research question was where to put the openings in the beam so that it would be light, structurally efficient – satisfying all the structural requirements – and at the same time is also very beautiful and organic,” Zhang said. Using an algorithm Zhang developed, the team explored various iterations of the beam with different percentages of material cut out – from 50 percent to 90 percent of the beam. Since the beam would be visible to the occupants of the room, there was also a consideration of aesthetics and even the comfort of users of the room. A beam that looked too lacy might meet structural requirements but make people uneasy, Zhang said. SOM utilizes topology optimization quite a bit in its work, Baker said. The method provides “more tools in the toolbox, more informed decision-making,” he said. “It provides information, and then you as the designer decide which of that you’re going to use and which you’re not going to use,” he said. “Sometimes we use topology optimization to help inform our ideas, to see what options are out there. Sometimes we already have an idea, and then we use topology optimization to see if we missed something – were there

ideas out there that we weren’t thinking about. We use it a lot in our practice for idea generation. The computer doesn’t design the structure; the engineers design the structure.” Other considerations in the design of the instructional building as a whole included attention to what Baker calls “honest” design, where design elements are also functional for the purpose they suggest. For example, the masonry is not just a veneer, Baker said. This principle is part of SOM’s philosophy, Baker said, and especially resonant in the design of an engineering building. This philosophy also informed the decision to make the beams of the auditorium visible to the room’s users, Baker said. “Since it’s an engineering classroom building, can the building itself be expressive of engineering and instructive of engineering?” Baker said. Additional CEE alumni and SOM employees who worked on the Campus Instructional Facility include structural engineer Toby Mitchell (MS 09) and architect Lucas Tryggestad (MS 01). For Zhang, her alumna status made the professional opportunity to work with SOM on the project also personally meaningful. “This project is meaningful in many dimensions for me,” Zhang said. “As an alumna, I want to contribute, and this is a unique way for me to contribute – and I can see it every day. I was so happy and moved when it was constructed. “My dream is that after this is completed, I hope I can teach in that auditorium, and then while I am introducing my research, I can ask the audience to look up and see a perfect example of how the research can be integrated into a real project. I think the best thing for a researcher is to see the research being used in real life.” i

Mayor of Flossmoor Continued from page 27

Q: What are some of your favorite memories of your time in CEE at Illinois and at UIUC in general? A: My favorite CEE memory was being on the concrete canoe team! Being on the team was a great way to put classroom design lessons into practice. I also enjoyed being a representative from the College of Engineering to the student and faculty Senate, where I met and worked with students and professors from across campus. It gave me a broader perspective of challenges that the University faced in their efforts to be more inclusive and serve the needs of students and staff. My senior year, I hosted a large fundraising event for my sorority called Run for the Roses, an annual 5k race that raised funds for the Arthritis Research Foundation. I created sponsorship levels using ad spaces that allowed us to raise more money than any year prior. We were recognized by the UIUC Panhellenic Council and by our national foundation for the effort. Throughout my time in ChampaignUrbana, I loved participating on intramural teams, going on daily runs through the South Farms, and visiting the Courier Cafe in Urbana for the salad bar and milkshakes (which I still go back for when I’m on campus). Q: What prompted you to run for mayor? A: I ran for mayor to solve Flossmoor’s infrastructure and economic development challenges. I am a long-distance runner, and on my runs around town I see where we have fallen behind on road resurfacing and sewer maintenance programs. We also have undeveloped village-owned land that could bring in much-needed tax revenue to help us fund proper maintenance of our infrastructure and capital projects. Flossmoor enjoys being a bedroom community, but at the same time, we need to take advantage of some of these revenue-generating opportunities.

Additionally, I ran for mayor because I’m incredibly proud of our village and Flossmoor’s residents, and I have a passion for our community. I love building community by supporting local efforts that benefit youth athletics, STEM programming, the arts and neighbors in need. I’m looking forward to continuing those efforts on a larger scale and leading by example in actively supporting our community relations efforts. Q: What are your goals as mayor? A: My goal is to make Flossmoor known as a “gem” throughout Chicagoland, not just the southland. We will do that by creating more places for shopping and dining, catching up on maintenance of capital and infrastructure projects, and promoting some of the uniquely Flossmoor traits that make our community so special, such as our inclusive culture and the amazing achievements of our students in areas of the arts, academics and athletics. Q: What do you think civil and environmental engineers bring to public leadership roles? A: So much of what happens in a village are engineering projects that affect the daily lives of residents – safe drinking water, flood mitigation, pavement management, reliable public transportation, economic development, facility maintenance and sustainability efforts. Understanding those issues and prioritizing spending on the most basic building blocks of our community provides a safe and solid foundation from which other projects can grow to enhance the lives of our residents. Engineers are a crucial component of building a resilient and strong society. Q: What does it mean to you to be the first woman mayor of Flossmoor? A: While I am honored to be the first female in this role, I prefer to focus on the fact that I am the right person at the right time for the job. It is an honor that resi-

“So much of what happens in a village are engineering projects that affect the daily lives of residents ... safe drinking water, flood mitigation, pavement management, reliable public transportation, economic development, facility maintenance and sustainability efforts. ... Engineers are a crucial component of building a resilient and strong society.” dents are trusting me to keep the community safe for their families, grow our local economy and repair aging infrastructure. With a background in engineering, construction, business creation and notfor-profit development, I am uniquely qualified and positioned to lead my community, and I am excited about the challenges ahead! Q: What advice would you give current students in CEE at Illinois? A: In an age of texting, messaging and online meetings, never forget that the best way to develop relationships and effectively communicate is in person. Take the time to talk with your colleagues and mentors in person. Personal relationships are key to problem-solving and growth! Q: Anything else you’d like to add? A: I run a different section of Flossmoor every day to check out road conditions, projects in progress, and see what neighbors are celebrating and where they are struggling. There is no better way to get to know your community than on your own two feet. Q: Any partner or family you’d like to mention? A: I’ve been married to Cameron Nelson for just over 22 years. We’ve lived in Flossmoor, Ill., for 18 years and are raising four children (two girls and two boys) ages 18, 15, 14 and 11 here. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 29

What are you working on? By Joseph M. Spadoro (BS 17, MS 18) Since graduating with my M.S. degree (2018) and B.S. degree (2017) in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I have been engaged in challenging power transmission and distribution projects as an associate engineer at Sargent and Lundy. Two of the most exciting projects involve extended stays on-site providing electric infrastructure assessments in Puerto Rico and the western U.S. In September of 2017, the devasting Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, swept through the Caribbean Sea leaving a deadly wake across Puerto Rico and other islands shattered by the natural disaster. Approximately 3,000 people lost their lives in Puerto Rico due to the hurricane and its after-effects. The island’s infrastructure, particularly its power grid, was severely damaged. Millions of residents were left without electricity. In some locations power did not return in any extent for months. In January 2019, I was offered the opportunity as the youngest member of an assessment team to traverse the island and physically inspect structures within their territory of transmission and distribution circuits. For a truly remarkable two months, we ventured by SUV throughout the entire island, tackling challenging terrain and seemingly inaccessible routes, to collect vital data pertaining to the structural integrity of the grid for redesign and reconstruction. We interacted with residents to learn of their hardships as communities sadly still experienced blackouts and outages. We observed and documented structural damage to transmission and distribution assets in need of repair, in some cases immediately. The project allowed for unique insight into electric grid hardware, circuit routing and structural configurations through the process of damage assessment in response to a catastrophic natural disaster, a perspective that indispensably compli30 cee.illinois.edu cee.illinois.edu 30

mented the design environment when I returned to Chicago. Ultimately our firm utilized the assessment data to rate the integrity of the island’s transmission and distribution circuits. This information would aid the U.S. energy sector serving as a catalyst to the sequencing of design and reconstruction within the umbrella of the island’s overall infrastructural recovery plan. Within a few months after returning to the Sargent and Lundy headquarters in Chicago, I was fortunate to have another exciting opportunity to take part in an expansive transmission and distribution grid assessment project in the western U.S. This initiative provided the experience to collaborate with various firms spanning engineering, consulting, aerial infrastructure inspection and construction services to ensure the integrity of utility structures. The object of the program was prevention of ignition damage linked to electric faults. In response to the fires that had occurred in northern California, the program prioritized early detection of ignition risks within their grid domain. In addition to annual field inspection of circuits from the ground view, the project utilized aerial investigation services deploying camera-equipped helicopters and drones to carry out field inspections of the transmission and distribution circuits. Due to the size and inaccessibility of many structures, the aerial vantage point provided invaluable imagery allowing our team to inspect and detect ignition threats and assess structural integrity at an intricate level within over 50,000 square miles of diverse topography. I have been part of this on-site, intriguing operation since September 2019, assessing numerous transmission circuits and thousands of structures. Our objectives have expanded throughout the the project to encompass consulting and leading the development of inspection procedures and guidelines strengthening

Joe Spadoro

the capabilities of the program as an established annual measure to ensure grid integrity. In addition to the successful prevention of fires linked to utility structures, this initiative has highlighted the capabilities of aerial infrastructure investigation methods, promoting the expansion of these procedures and services throughout the U.S. to efficiently monitor and assess structural integrity. Early detection of infrastructure failure is vital. Refinement and adaptation of preventative strategies stemming from this initiative provide the basis for continuing development and implementation serving other national geographic locations and systems. Both experiences provided invaluable benefits to my professional growth within the energy industry, supplementing my design knowledge while opening my eyes to the importance of our national electric grid infrastructure and the measures required maintaining its security and efficiency in preparation for the predictable and largely unpredictable elements of our world. The complex web of U.S. electric pathways, comparable to veins in the body, which pump throughout our diverse topography, are integral to our national security and survival. Assuring reliable generation, transmission and distribution is paramount to sustain our daily lives. We may not think about it every day, but its importance is ever increasing. As a proud graduate of the UIUC College of Engineering, I hope to continue expanding my involvement within an industry of critical importance as we look to innovatively meet the demands of an energy-competitive world. i

Q & A: Professor Albert J. Valocchi retires Professor Albert J. Valocchi retired in April 2021 after 40 years on the department faculty. During his tenure at CEE, he taught classes in water resources engineering, groundwater hydrology and contaminant transport, groundwater modeling and numerical methods. His research focuses upon mathematical modeling of pollutant fate and transport in porous media, with applications to groundwater contamination and remediation. Valocchi’s CEE career included serving as Associate Head for Graduate Studies (2004-2011) and, perhaps most challengingly, Interim Head from February 2020 through February 2021 during the pandemic. Q: I understand that when you arrived in Champaign-Urbana for your job interview in at the University of Illinois, you were picked up from the airport by none other than hydrosystems engineering giant and then-faculty member Ven Te Chow. What was he like? A: Yes, Ven Te Chow did pick me up when I came for my interview in Feb 1980. I was 26 years old, and I had been hearing about him from profs I had as an undergrad and also in grad school. The profs who taught and advised me considered him a legend! So, I was a bit apprehensive when he met me at the old Willard airport. It was a long time ago, but I remember him being very calm, polite, respectful, thoughtful – definitely not pompous or intimidating in any way. So, from those impressions I concluded that this would be a collegial department in which to start my career. Another thing that impressed me from my interview was Jon Liebman’s moustache! Q: What has changed about the department during the 40 years you’ve been here? A: In my opinion, one of the most significant changes is the dramatic increase in the diversity of our faculty and undergraduate students. When I started in 1981, Judith Liebman was the only woman on the faculty, and her primary affiliation was with the Industrial Engineering program in the Department of Mechanical

Valocchi in recent years, left, and in 1981, when he first joined the faculty.

Engineering. We have come a long way, with our first woman as department head and 13 women as tenure-track faculty. We benefit from a wider perspective and increased diversity, and I’m glad we’re moving in this direction. Reflecting on my experience at the front of the classroom, looking out at the undergraduates, the most lasting impression is the consistent increase in diversity. Our most recent freshman class is more than 30 percent women and 20 percent students from under-represented groups, mainly LatinX. I am confident that our diversity will continue to increase, as this is a priority for the department and college and is demanded by the profession. Q: In what ways have you seen the CEE profession change? A: From my perspective as a faculty educator and researcher, I have observed significant changes in the way we view the profession and prepare our students. While the terms “sustainability” and “sustainable development” might be overused and almost cliché, they encapsulate how the CEE profession has changed over my career. When I began at Illinois 40 years ago, our graduates would be expected to identify multiple alternative technical solutions to the problem defined by the client, perform a detailed assessment of how each alternative met performance metrics, do an engineering

cost analysis, and perhaps do a qualitative enumeration of environmental impacts and benefits. Now, we work with the client to frame the problem, and there is integration of technical, economic, environmental and social considerations, with longer time horizon to life-cycle costs and benefits. We’re still teaching and expecting rigorous technical analysis, but we’re becoming more sophisticated in the application and assessment of those solutions. I am also glad to see that the CEE profession is much more proactive in addressing societal grand challenges. With the global pandemic, natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, awareness of economic and racial inequity, and political debate about our nation’s infrastructure, the CEE profession has unprecedented opportunities to truly “serve society.” The call to service is motivating many of our students to choose CEE, and I look forward to seeing how these students will continue to change the profession. Q: What changes have you seen in students? A: We have always had bright, hardworking and eager students. One obvious change is that computers and information technology are ubiquitous, and students enter our program having prior Continued on page 32

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Top photo: Valocchi and his wife, Anne Silvis, on the occasion of Valocchi’s election as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2009. Bottom photo: Valocchi’s investiture as the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering in 2011.

Valocchi Q&A

Continued from page 31 experience in coding and with an openness to using computing as a tool in CEE. The other change mirrors that of the CEE profession. Although there were always students who loved math and physics and just wanted to focus on engineering science, students now have much more diverse interests in the social, policy and sustainability aspects of CEE. The current generation of students really want to work in diverse teams on real-world problem-solving and project-based education. Our CEE Curriculum modernization, started several years ago, anticipated these emerging changes in the profession, and I know our graduates are wellpositioned for success. Q: When you look back on your time in CEE, of what accomplishments are you most proud? A: Like all my colleagues, I am proud of the doctoral students I have mentored who have gone on to successful careers in academia, consulting, industry and government. I also take great pride and satisfaction with my role in recruiting and mentoring several faculty colleagues. I have served on numerous department search committees, and some of those hires are now not only among the most distinguished endowed professors in the department but also my closest friends. In my seven years as Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies, I worked to improve mentoring and professional opportunities for our doctoral students. Finally, I am proud of my final year as Interim Head and what the department was able to accomplish in meeting its education and research mission during COVID-19. Q: What’s your favorite memory? A: The Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering ceremony, when I was inducted in 2011, was meaningful and memorable. To be named an Abel Bliss Professor was a tremendous honor and recognition of my 32

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of-the-box” thinkers on the faculty. He included an original song and skit which was relevant to the political times and perhaps not completely in the holiday spirit. If I recall correctly, the Christmas Party Committee was abolished after that year.

scholarly contributions to my field. The pomp and circumstance of the event was a bit surreal. I was honored to celebrate with my colleagues and my family. Another memory is fresh in my mind, and I will remember it always. It is the zoom retirement event that the department hosted on March 30, the day before I retired. It was wonderful that so many of my colleagues and former students attended. Honestly, I was overwhelmed by the comments and fond memories. That would be one of the “sweet” components of a bittersweet retirement. Q: Any funny stories? A: In the early ‘80s the annual holiday party was a big event. The “Christmas Party Committee” was an official department committee. Faculty and staff brought their children, and the highlight was a visit from Santa. I have a vague memory of professor Ed Herricks dressed up in a Santa costume arriving via transit provided by the machine shop. Another memorable year was when professor Wayland Eheart chaired the Christmas Party Committee. Wayland was without a doubt one of the most “out-

Q: Most people may not know that retired professors often stay around, maintaining an office and remaining involved with the department. What will your retirement look like? A: As Professor Emeritus I hope to continue to stay engaged with the department and the groundwater research community. I co-advise two doctoral students who will finish their degrees this calendar year. I am a co-PI on a new three-year research project. I am looking forward to having an office in the renovated hydrosystems laboratory, meeting colleagues for a coffee, and enjoying a more flexible and relaxed schedule. Q: What’s one thing most of your students probably don’t know about you? A: I like to cook Italian, and one of my specialties is homemade pizza, with homemade dough, and I can throw the dough up in the air (almost like in a Naples Pizzeria!) Q: Anything else you would like to mention? A: I feel very fortunate to have had such a satisfying and rewarding career at the university and in the CEE department. When I started at Illinois, fresh out of graduate school, I found an inexpensive house to rent in west Urbana. I have lived in the neighborhood ever since, which is close enough for me to walk or bike to the office almost every day. This community has been a wonderful place to work and raise a family, and I know it will be a great home base for my retirement years. i

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Tushar Apurv, a PhD student of Professor Ximing Cai, has been selected as the First Place recipient of the UCOWR 2021 Outstanding Dissertation Award in Water Policy & SocioEconomics by the Universities Council on Water Resources. Assistant professor Tugce Baser has received a three-year, $450,000 grant to study the phase-dependent behavior of porous materials subjected to high strain-rate loading as part of the U.S. Air Force Young Investigator Research Program.

Nancy Lawrence Boyer

New scholarship for women, minorities honors former mentor When Gina Marie Fuhrmann started her career as a Civil Engineer in 1990, she found a friend and mentor in her first boss, Nancy Lawrence Boyer, a 1986 general engineering alumna from UIUC. “She was just a wonderful soul – salt of the earth, great sense of humor. She basically took me under her wing,” Fuhrmann said. “Back in the day, there weren’t that many female engineers to look up to; it was pretty much a male-dominated field.” Fuhrmann didn’t get to work with Boyer for very long – Boyer was transferred to another position within a couple of years and, sadly, died of cancer on July 9, 2017. But she made a big impression on Fuhrmann. Today Fuhrmann is president and owner of Fuhrmann Engineering, a full-service engineering consulting firm with five locations in Illinois and more than 30 employees, but she hasn’t forgotten the woman who befriended and inspired her early in her career. Fuhrmann recently made a pledge to fund a scholarship within CEE at Illinois in Boyer’s name each year for the next three years. “I wanted to do this for her because of what she meant to me, the inspiration she gave me,” Fuhrmann said. “Now I’m an entrepreneur – I own my own company – and she was the one who inspired me. I was grateful to know her in those early years.” The Nancy Lawrence Boyer scholarship will be awarded to a CEE student, with preference given to women students with an interest in the Society of Women Engineers or the National Society of Black Engineers. “If there’s anything I can do to help not just females but minority females on top of that, it makes me feel good that I’m contributing to their success,” Fuhrmann said. “I want women and minorities to know that there is no ceiling in the engineering field. The sky’s the limit. This is an excellent profession. This is a great career path for them.” Fuhrmann Engineering has held the civil engineering retainer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for three years and has worked on campus projects like the solar farm and the construction of new tennis courts, Fuhrmann said. Although Fuhrmann studied engineering at the University of Missouri – Rolla, she’s grateful for this additional connection to Boyer’s alma mater. “I’m following in her footsteps,” she said. “I’m proud of who she was and what she meant to me.” i

Professor Paolo Gardoni and assistant professor Megan Konar have been chosen as fellows for the Office of Risk Management & Insurance Research at Gies Gollege of Business. The positions, which are funded by AXIS Capital, will further research on the risks faced by global populations and address implications for the insurance and reinsurance industry. Paolo Gardoni and Ashlynn Stillwell won the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment for their joint paper "Reliability-Based Approach to Investigating Long-Term Clogging in Green Stormwater Infrastructure." Ramez Hajj, Roman Makhnenko and Ann Sychterz have been named 2021-22 iSEE Levenick Teaching Sustainability Fellows. iSEE Fellows incorporate sustainability into existing classes or create entirely new courses built around sustainability elements. Assistant professor Eleftheria Kontou will take part in the National Academy of Engineering 2021 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, an annual, three-day meeting that brings together outstanding young engineers from industry, academia and government to discuss pioneering technical and leading-edge research. A team led by CEE assistant professor Hadi Meidani will participate in the CIVIC Innovation Challenge, a competition held by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. departments of Energy and Homeland Security to fund pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable and transferable impact on communities. Meidani’s project addresses transportation challenges faced by low-income and marginalized communities. Professor Helen Nguyen received the Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research. Professor Timothy Stark recently gave the 11th Goldberg-Zoino and Associates Lecture to the ASCE New York Metropolitan Section “Three Case Histories involving Embankments, Dams and Slopes.” Timothy Stark has been invited to give the T.H. Wu Distinguished Lecture, a signature event in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering at The Ohio State University. Ashlynn Stillwell has been named to the 2021-22 North American cohort of the Earth Leadership Program, which provides outstanding academic researchers with the skills, approaches and theoretical frameworks for catalyzing change to address the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges, emphasizing new forms of individual and collective leadership. Assistant professor Vishal Verma received honorable mention for the 2021 James J. Morgan Environmental Science & Technology Early Career Award.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 33

DEPARTMENT NEWS CORPORATE PARTNERS PROGRAM

New scholarships honor CEE alum, prominent engineer

PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

LEGACY PARTNERS

cee.illinois.edu

In 1994, the Chicago-based engineering firm Alfred Benesch & Company paid tribute to its very first employee by creating a scholarship in his honor in CEE at Illinois. The scholarship recognized Illinois alumnus Harold R. Sandberg (BS 42, MS 47) who worked for the company 60 years, serving as president from 1971 to 1982 and ultimately retiring after serving as chairman of the board for 21 years. After Sandberg’s death in 2020 at the age of 100, his wife, Alice, and his children, Eric Sandberg and Diane De Haas, took the Harold R. Sandberg scholarship to a new level, endowing scholarships in Sandberg’s name at both the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). It was a fitting tribute to the preeminent engineer with a strong interest in people and a desire to help students and mentor young colleagues. “When you have someone pass away, you think how you can do something in their memory,” Alice said. “There was no question in my mind but that it would be scholarships.” Sandberg was born in 1919 in Galesburg, Ill. After graduating from Galesburg High School at age 16, he attended Augustana College to study math and physics. He then worked in construction for two years before enrolling at UIUC to study civil engineering. He worked his way through school without the benefit of a scholarship, which helped form his later desire to assist students. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Sandberg worked as a field engineer before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1944 and serving in the Civil Engineering Corps during World War II. Upon his discharge in 1946, he returned to UIUC to earn his master’s degree, then joined Chicago-based Benesch, which had been founded the previous year. Throughout the course of his long career with Benesch, Sandberg worked on bridges, railroad lines, roadways and skyscrapers. In 1970 he designed the wire

Harold and Alice Sandberg

mesh basket at Wrigley Field to keep fans off the playing field, a structure his family refers to as the “Sandberg Basket.” Sandberg’s greatest engineering passion was bridges. He designed the Jefferson Barracks Memorial Arch Bridge across the Mississippi River just south of St. Louis and the I-57 crossing of the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill. Even in retirement, he was called to consult on bridge construction projects. Sandberg was active in professional organizations and in the civil engineering departments at both UIUC and UIC. His many honors included being named Chicago Civil Engineer of the Year in 1983 by the American Society of Civil Engineers – Illinois Section. He was president of the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1978 to 1980. He won the CEE Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1983 and was named a Chi Epsilon Chapter Honor Member. His involvements at UIUC also included serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board and becoming a member of the University of Illinois Foundation’s President’s Council. At the University of Illinois Chicago, Sandberg was a member of the Industrial Advisory Board from 1988 to 1992. He was instrumental in helping the civil engineering department at UIC construct a high bay for engineering research. Reflecting on the life of her husband of nearly 78 years, Alice stressed his generosity in sharing his gifts with others. “He had a very healthy, successful life, and that’s because he wanted to share,” said Alice. i

Scan to watch a video about a workshop on Artificial Intelligence in construction, organized by Mani Golparvar-Fard as part of his work as a CAS Associate.

Golparvar-Fard and Verma appointed to Center for Advanced Study Associate professor Mani GolparvarFard and assistant professor Vishal Verma have received appointments with the Center for Advanced Mani Golparvar-Fard Study (CAS) for the 2021-22 academic year. Research appointments are awarded, on a competitive basis, to outstanding junior and senior faculty members pursuing path-breaking research. As a tenured faculty member, Golparvar-Fard has been named Associate in the Center. Golparvar-Fard’s project focuses on preliminary research and planning activities to establish an institute for Artificial Intelligence in Construction. The aim of the institute is to create the foundational ideas, technologies and technical workforce that allow AI research to support safe and productive construction and maintenance of national buildings and infrastructure systems. Verma has been named a CAS Fellow, the appointment given to untenured Vishal Verma faculty members. Verma plans to develop a global collaboration to initiate and conduct targeted studies focused on assessing the healthrelevant properties of the fine ambient particulate matter (PM2.5), an air pollutant responsible for significant air pollution-related mortality. Golparvar-Fard and Verma’s appointments will include one semester of release time to devote to their respective projects.

DEPARTMENT NEWS CAREER awards New faculty: Megan Matthews Megan L. Matthews joined the faculty in January 2021 as an assistant professor. She holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in electrical engiMegan Matthews neering from North Carolina State University, where she developed a multiscale model of lignin biosynthesis in poplar trees. Megan came to the University of Illinois as a postdoctoral researcher to develop multiscale crop models for the RIPE and Crops in silico projects. In CEE, her research will focus on developing multiscale plant models that integrate information across multiple levels of biological organization. Using those models, Matthews will explore the impacts of a changing environment on plants and identify engineering strategies for improving plant development and growth.

Guest wins James J. Morgan Award CEE associate professor Jeremy Guest has won the 2021 James J. Morgan Environmental Science & Technology Early Career Award. Jeremy Guest Named after the first Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the award recognizes the contributions of early career researchers who are leading their fields in new directions through creative and new ideas. “His research style shows an effective and systematic ability to identify the relevance and practical implications of a given research area and address key questions for further forward development,” the award announcement noted.

Talebpour to study impact of human behavior on automated vehicles CEE Assistant Professor Alireza Talebpour has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to develop a novel congestion Alireza Talebpour management strategy based on vehicle automation and communications technology. Current focus in the development of automated vehicles is on the safety of isolated vehicles, without considering the behavioral impact on human drivers. Talebpour will explore whether humans exhibit a different decision-making logic when interacting with connected automated vehicles than when interacting with other humans, potentially resulting in congestion and safety issues. “This CAREER project will lead to new paradigms for congestion management,” wrote Talebpour about his project.

Zhang to work on large-scale civil structures with topology optimization CEE assistant professor Shelly Zhang has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award to explore the use of Shelly Zhang topology optimization to create and enable next-generation, large-scale civil structures with a variety of tunable multi-functionalities. “The created multi-functionalities include unique structural responses and the ability to intelligently adapt structural properties via external actuation,” Zhang wrote about her CAREER project. Topology optimization is a theoretically guided approach to automatically generate the optimal shape of a structure for given design criteria. Novel structures can be created with optimized shapes and material constitutions to unlock unconventional responses and adaptability.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 35

ALUMNI NEWS

Greer wins lifetime achievement award

Raskin

Haas

García

García, Haas, Raskin named to NAE

Photo courtesy of the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers

Charles “Charlie” Greer, P.E., F.ASCE (BS 71, MS 73) received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement in Engineering Award from the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers in a virtual ceremony February 23, 2021. He has served as an Adjunct Lecturer in CEE at Illinois since 2016. After earning his master’s degree in 1973, Greer reported to Fort Belvoir for the U.S. Army Engineer Officer Basic Course. He then joined Law Engineering in Atlanta, and spent a 42-year career at the company (now known as Wood PLC), retiring in 2015. He rose from Staff Geotechnical and Materials Engineer to Director of Engineering. Greer has worked on a wide range of projects around the world, calling himself “a jack of all trades and master of none.” Pavement engineering is his real love, he said. Greer credits his Illinois professors – Thompson, Barenberg, Dempsey, Robnett, Herrin, Marek, Hay, Danner, Peck, Mesri, Ireland, Thornburn, Davisson and numerous others – with instilling a problem-solving approach to engineering issues that has served him very well during his career. “A CEE degree from the University of Illinois is a door opener around the world,” he says. i Read the full story on the CEE website at https://cee.illinois.edu/news/greer-receiveslifetime-achievement-engineering-award. 36

cee.illinois.edu

Three CEE alumni have been named to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional honors for engineers. A third CEE alumnus has been elected as an international member. Charles N. Haas (PhD 78) and Lutgarde Raskin (PhD 93) were named to the 2021 NAE class. Luis E. García (MS 72) has been named an international member. Haas is the L.D. Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering and department head, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia. His NAE citation reads, “For contributions to quantitative microbial risk assessment for

2020s

Ran Mei (MS 15, PhD 20) won the 2021 Jacobs Engineering Group/Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. His adviser was WenTso Liu. Mei is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Bioproduction Research Institute.

2010s

Guillermo Díaz-Fañas (MS 14) was named 2021 LGBTQ+ Engineer of the Year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals. The LGBTQ+ Engineer of the Year Award recognizes someone who has made outstanding contributions to their field. Mark R. Keller (BS 14, MS 15) P.E., S.E., a structural engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Chicago regional office, recently earned his structural engineer license in Illinois. Keller, who joined the firm in 2015, designs bridge and retaining wall components for rail projects throughout the country. Marika R. Nell (BS 14), selected as a CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellow, began a yearlong fellowship in the California State Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee .

drinking water quality and public health.” Raskin is Professor of Engineering, Altarum/ERIM Russell O’Neal Professor of Engineering and the Vernon L. Snoeyink Distinguished University Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was inducted to NAE “For application of genetic tools to improve anaerobic biological water treatment.” Luis E. García is an independent consultant and an Honorary Professor of the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. He was inducted “For contributions to the earthquake-resistant design, construction and building code development of concrete structures.”

Marcelo Suarez Ontaneda (MS 15) P.E., a railway engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Seattle regional office, has earned his professional engineer license in Washington.

2000s

Brian P. Racine (BS 00) has been promoted to Assistant Vice President at TransSystems Inc.’s Chicago office. Racine has 20 years of experience in the construction of expressway, bridges and urban highway improvements.

1990s Paul W. Mueller (BS 92) P.E., a senior civil engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Peoria, Ill. office, recently celebrated 20 years of service at the firm.

1980s

Terry L. Barnett (BS 79, MS 81) P.E., S.E., a senior structural engineer at Hanson Professional Services, Inc.’s Rockford, Ill., office, recently celebrated 40 years of service with the firm. Jesus M. de la Garza (MS 84, PhD 88) has won a 2021 Outstanding Projects And Leaders (OPAL) Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). De la Garza serves as the chair of the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University.

ALUMNI NEWS

Ang, Gurfinkel and Sozen named Distinguished Faculty by CEEAA

Staron named 2020 Engineer of the Year Allen J. Staron (BS 74) has been named 2020 Civil Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Illinois Chapter. He is a Senior Vice President for Clark Dietz Inc. Staron’s consulting career has been focused principally on the planning, design and construction of highway, transit and aviation improvements. In addition to his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UIUC, Staron holds a Master of Business Administration from DePaul University. Staron is a Life Member of ASCE and has served as Region 3 Governor and Illinois Section President. He is a longtime supporter of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and served on the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association Board of Directors for many years, serving as president in 2015-2016. Scan to watch a video about Allen J. Staron and his acceptance speech upon receiving the 2020 Civil Engineer of the Year Award from the Illinois Chapter of ASCE.

The CEE Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes our most accomplished faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the department, to the education of our students, and to the pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of society through research. The winners of the Distinguished Faculty Award are usually celebrated at a luncheon during the fall semester with the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors. This group of winners was selected in 2020 but have not yet been honored in person due to the pandemic. The luncheon will be scheduled as soon as possible.

Alfredo H.-S. Ang

German Gurfinkel

Professor emeritus German Gurfinkel joined the CEE faculty in 1962. He has continued to teach classes at CEE at Illinois since his retirement in 1998. Gurfinkel has received numerous awards for teaching, research and professional practice in the field of structural engineering. He has acted as consultant on projects to ascertain causes for structural collapses of numerous buildings, bridges and storage structures both nationally and internationally.

Mete Sozen (awarded posthumously)

Professor emeritus Alfredo H.-S. Ang (MS 57, PhD 59) served on the CEE faculty from 1959 until 1988. Now a professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, his main area of research is on the application of probability and reliability in civil and structural engineering, with emphasis on the safety of engineering systems, including seismic risk and earthquake engineering, quantitative risk assessment, life-cycle cost and performance, and sustainability of green buildings and infrastructure.

Mete Sozen (MS 52, PhD 57) served on the CEE faculty for 36 years. His research focused on the earthquake-resistant design of reinforced concrete structures and the development of professional design codes for reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. Sozen left Illinois in 1993 to teach at Purdue University as the Kettelhut Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering, until 2016, when he retired. Throughout his career, he was known as a compelling lecturer and wise research mentor. He died in 2018 at age 87.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 37

ALUMNI NEWS

CEE Alumni Association names winners of 2021 Distinguished Alumni and Young Alumni Awards The alumni awards are usually celebrated in person at the CEE Alumni Association annual Chicago Alumni Dinner. These recipients would have been celebrated in March 2021, but the pandemic prevented it. They will be invited to receive their awards in person at the next Chicago Alumni Dinner. Anahid Behrouzi (MS 13, PhD 16) Young Alumni Achievement Award Anahid Behrouzi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo. She teaches structural analysis, dynamics and reinforced concrete design courses as well as advising research related to the earthquake behavior of concrete structures and engineering education. At Illinois, Behrouzi’s graduate research focused on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete shear walls within the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) facility. Halil Ceylan (MS 95, PhD 02) Distinguished Alumni Award Halil Ceylan is a Professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering and the founding Director of the Program for Sustainable Pavement Engineering and Research (PROSPER) at the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University (ISU), where he has been teaching, conducting research and mentoring graduate students and research staff as a faculty member for 19 years. Ceylan’s research expertise and accomplishments focus on the planning, analysis, design, development and construction of Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Transportation Infrastructure Systems. 38

cee.illinois.edu

Kyle Ensley (MS 09) Young Alumni Achievement Award Kyle Ensley, a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard (CG), assumed the duties as Commanding Officer of CG Civil Engineering Unit (CEU) Honolulu in June 2019. In that position, he leads a team of engineers in executing the CG’s civil and environmental engineering programs in support of CG facilities across Oceania from the Mariana Islands to Hawaii and American Samoa. CEU Honolulu propels the CG’s strategy in the Pacific by optimizing its diverse $750M facility portfolio which includes operational aviation and waterfront facilities as well as far-flung communications and navigation systems.

Anahid Behrouzi

Kyle Ensley

B. Narayanan (MS 90) Distinguished Alumni Award Balakrishnan Narayanan has spent his entire working career (starting in 1990) at Carollo Engineers in Walnut Creek, Calif., and has served as the President, CEO and Chairman of the Board since 2012. Founded in 1933, Carollo is the largest consulting and engineering firm in the United States dedicated solely to water-related engineering. Narayanan is a recognized expert in wastewater treatment and has authored more than 40 technical papers on the subject. As a practitioner, he has been involved in the design of more than 50 biological nutrient removal systems nationwide, including major projects for the Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District (MWRD), Colorado; Clean Water Services, Oregon; Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD), Nevada; and the Eastern Municipal Water District, California.

B. Narayanan

Halil Ceylan

ALUMNI NEWS Read more about CEE’s winners and see all the recipients at grainger.illinois.edu/alumni/distinguished/2021.

Cevallos-Candau, Richardson and Willmer win The Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service The Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service is conferred upon exceptional alumni each year. Recipients are recognized for professional distinction through outstanding leadership, contributions to the field of engineering, creativity and entrepreneurship; as well as service to society, the professional community, and to the department, college or university. The 2021 award recipients include three CEE alumni: Pedro J. Cevallos-Candau (MS 77, PhD 80), Andrew W. Richardson (BS 78) and Doris Willmer (BS 72, MS 73).

states. His transformational leadership helped the company grow while maximizing employee engagement and involvement. The Chicago Tribune named Primera Engineers as one of Chicago’s Top Workplaces several years in a row. He launched PECECA Business Consultants, a management consulting firm, in March 2016. Cevallos-Candau is also CEO of Betahealth LLC, an international biotechnology enterprise.

bringing people together to work in collaboration on efforts to benefit the water industry, as well as to improve the quality of life in our communities. Doris Willmer

Andrew Richardson

Pedro J. Cevallos-Candau

Cevallos-Candau was recognized for "entrepreneurship in establishing, leading and growing a nationally recognized, full-service engineering design and consulting firm; for a deep and sustained commitment to diversity as one of the founding principles of Primera Engineers; for leadership and service to the Latino community of Chicago; and for dedication to the role of volunteer, supporter and advocate for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign." Cevallos-Candau has demonstrated progressive executive leadership for more than 35 years. Cevallos-Candau cofounded Primera Engineers Ltd. in 1987 and sold the firm in 2016. During this time the firm grew to become one of the largest Latino-owned engineering firms in the country, doing business in multiple

Richardson received the award in recognition of "contributions made to the advancement and betterment of the water and wastewater industry through extraordinary leadership of a global engineering firm; for service in national water associations; for developing and implementing water resources projects across the United States; and for championing humanitarian efforts for access to clean water and sanitation throughout the developing world." Richardson is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Greeley and Hansen, a leading international civil, environmental and water infrastructure consulting engineering firm. From 2007 to 2020, Richardson served as the Chief Executive Officer of the company and oversaw all business operations and implemented the firm’s strategic plan. He also led the firm’s Executive Management Team. Richardson has a long track record of

Willmer was recognized for her "pioneering role as a woman engineer and entrepreneur who established a successful professional engineering consulting firm that has completed projects all across the nation; for her active role in organizations that advocate for and promote growth in engineering businesses; and for her ongoing commitment to introducing girls to engineering and supporting young women in that field of study." Willmer has 48 years of experience in the engineering industry, 38 of those spent at the helm of her own firm, Willmer Engineering Inc., as founder and president. A pioneering female engineer, Willmer brings a sense of leadership and empowerment to an upcoming generation of prospective engineers presenting as a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois, University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University and Kennesaw State University. Willmer established programs such as Introduce a Girl to Engineering and Willmer Engineering’s internships for students which has supported more than 50 interns with career opportunities.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 39

Jack Barrett, pictured at the CEE Chicago Alumni Dinner in 2012.

Robinson in 1970, left, and Robinson and West in 2010. Photos courtesy of Harry West.

Memories of Art Robinson inspire gift to bridge space Harry H. West (PhD 67), professor emeritus at Penn State in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has made a gift to the Arthur R. Robinson Collaboration Space on the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge, opening this summer. West was motivated by gratitude for the profound impact Robinson had on his life. Robinson (MS 53, PhD 56), who died in 2015, taught for 32 years on the faculty of CEE at Illinois. West’s essay describes his long acquaintance with Robinson, beginning when West was a child. Robinson was a college student participating in a summer civil engineering camp in New Jersey, for which West’s father was the superintendent. Later, when West came to UIUC as a graduate student in the 1960s, his assigned academic adviser was, coincidentally, Robinson. West describes Robinson as a brilliant and rigorous teacher and researcher, as well as a supportive mentor with a self-deprecating sense of humor about his disordered office and his stutter. “His lectures were interesting and challenging, his pace was brisk, and there was no fluff,” West wrote. “He always treated his students with respect, thoroughly answered their questions, and graded the assigned problems and exams with care, returning them in a timely way. He was truly professorial without being condescending; he was intellectual but not arrogant; and he was a gentleman without any pretense.” i

The full text of West’s tribute to Robinson is available on the Modernization website, modernize.cee.illinois.edu. 4040 cee.illinois.edu cee.illinois.edu

1980s Naneil R. Newlon (BS 81) died January 15. She was 61. She ended her career after nine years as Public Works Director for the Village of Downers Grove upon retirement in February 2020. In 2018, she was chosen as a top ten public works leader by the American Public Works Association.

1960s Charles R. Marek (BS 63, MS 64, PhD 67) died October 14. He was 80. He enjoyed a distinguished career at Vulcan Materials Company from 1972 until he retired in 2008. LTC Robert L. Almond (BS 63) died November 24, 2019. He was 94.

1950s Charles T. Dooley (BS 54) died September 27. He was 90. He spent 26 years in the construction division of Bethlehem Steel. He was involved in the erection of bridges in California, and the Pacific northwest, with high voltage transmission towers across Arizona, and helped pioneer seismic construction technologies with the building of the earliest ductile momentresisting space frames in reinforced concrete in Los Angeles. Starting in 1981, Dooley spent 21 years with Morley Builders of Santa Monica, Calif. Highlight projects included the Powell Library seismic upgrade and architectural restoration project at UCLA, the seismic base isolation of Rockwell (now Boeing) Building 80 in Seal Beach, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. In 2002, Dooley retired from Morley Builders and founded the ACE Mentor Program in Southern California, where his leadership and passion for helping students led to the creation of 27 inner-city high school teams each paired with a halfdozen mentors from the southland’s top firms in architecture, construction and engineering.

John E. “Jack” Barrett (BS 52) died November 29, 2020. He was 91. He was co-founder of Bowman, Barrett & Associates in 1989. With more than 65 years of experience in the profession, he earned accolades for his innovative and effective approach to railroad bridge design projects. Known as an authority on structural issues, Barrett was highly regarded in the industry as one of the nation’s foremost experts on railroad bridge design. He was an Illinois licensed structural engineer and a licensed professional engineer in 16 other states. Barrett led hundreds of projects including the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad bridge over the Kennedy Expressway, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad bridge over Western Avenue and Logan Boulevard, and the Norfolk & Western over 111th Street and Harlem Avenue in Worth, Ill. Barrett was a longtime supporter of the department and an involved alumnus. He was named a Chi Epsilon Alpha Chapter Honor Member in 1994 and won the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1995.

1940s Herbert Y. Chu (MS 49) died October 28. He was 94. He started his career in 1952 as a Design Structural Engineer with Ammann & Whitney. There, he helped to design and build the Walt Whitman Bridge in Penn., the Throgs Neck Bridge in N.Y., and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in N.Y. In 1967, he joined the Engineering Department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a Structural Engineer and helped design Newark International Airport. He retired in 1996 as Assistant Chief Structural Engineer. Bazel E. Crowe (BS 47) died October 5, 2018. He was the City Engineer in Largo, Fla., and City Manager of Key West, Fla. He lived in Guam, Jamaica and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, as well as Australia and Egypt, finally settling in Houston, where he began his civil engineering business. He was instrumental in construction of a monument to the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

IN MEMORIAM

Ernest J. Barenberg (1929-2021) Ernest J. Barenberg (PhD 65), CEE professor emeritus and alumnus, died on Jan. 19, 2021. During more than 40 years on the University of Illinois CEE faculty, Barenberg educated and inspired generations of transportation engineering professionals. Barenberg was born on April 9, 1929, to John and Helena Barenberg, in Herndon, Kan. He studied civil engineering at Kansas State University and belonged to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. After graduation, he worked briefly in the aviation industry before serving a two-year tour as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After his discharge from the Army, Barenberg earned his master’s degree in structural engineering at the University of Kansas and taught structural engineering design in steel and concrete there for five years. He earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), then taught and conducted research in transportation facilities at UIUC for more than 40 years. Barenberg’s appointments at Illinois included a four-year term as the Associate Head of Civil Engineering, coordinating the departmental graduate students and research programs. For three years he also maintained a joint appointment at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. In response to a request for proposal, in 1983 Barenberg restarted the Railway Civil Engineering program at UIUC that had been directed by William Hay from 1947 to 1977. He served as director of the Association of American Railroads affiliate program at UIUC from its inception in 1983 through 1998. His primary interests were railroad track systems, particularly concrete ties. He served as an associate director of the FAA Center of Excellence for airport pavements for eight years.

Barenberg’s research focused on the early development of theoretical/empirical design procedures for concrete pavements and premier pavements for long life and low maintenance. He developed a theoretical model for the analysis of concrete pavements (ILLISLAB). He also developed the background and framework for the mechanistic-based design procedures currently used by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Working through various consultants and government agencies, he was instrumental in developing standards for pavements at international airports, including Chicago O’Hare and London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports. He was part of the design team for several post-tensioned concrete pavements, including those currently in service at O’Hare and the Rockford airport. The pavement at the Rockford airport is unique in that the post-tensioned pavement is 1,200 feet long and 75 feet wide and does not have a joint in either the longitudinal or transverse direction. More recently, he was working with a manufacturer in the development of precast pavements for rapid repair of concrete pavements with minimal traffic disruption. Barenberg loved solving novel engineering problems, teaching (not grading papers) and his students. He authored more than 200 technical papers on paving materials, design and transportation facilities and lectured on six continents. After retiring from full-time teaching, he continued consulting until he was 85 years old. With colleagues, Barenberg created the International Society for Concrete

Pavements and served as its first president. Barenberg’s honors include the Kent faculty award, ASCE Air Transportation Division Robert Horonjeff Award, American Association for Concrete Pavements Educator of the Year, Emeritus member for the Transportation Research Board Committees, lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and the CEE Distinguished Faculty Award (2017). He was honored when the Ernest J. Barenberg Professorship was created and delighted when his former student, Jeffery Roesler (BS 92, MS 94, PhD 98) was designated as the first Barenberg Professor. The concrete materials and pavement laboratory in the new CEE instructional building will be named for Barenberg. As well as being an extraordinary engineer, Barenberg was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He married Virgie Rawline after graduating from KSU and, after her death, married Nancy J. Pogue. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; children, Katie (Bill), Janet, Mike (Cheryl), Gena (Bob) and Myra; two Pogue sons, Keith (Christi) and Steve (Kelly); and 13 grandchildren. He is also survived by two sisters, Mary Ann and Eileen, and two brothers, Charles and Maurice. Memorial gifts may be made to the Ernest J. Barenberg faculty fund (number 774934); the CEE concrete lab at the University of Illinois in Urbana; or the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. The address for gifts to the UI is: UI Foundation, Gift Planning and Trust Services, room 214, 1305 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 41

Jeremy Rose After being honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps, Jeremy Rose (BS 12, MS 13) decided to follow in his big brother’s footsteps and become a civil engineer at the University of Illinois. He currently resides in Naperville, Ill., with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Summer, and has found his passion in the amicable resolution of construction claims between owners, contractors and insurers. CEE at U of I has had a profound impact on my life and the lives of my family, with my brother Robert Rose (BS 99), brother-in-law Kevin Kilroy (BS 09) and wife Sarah (Kilroy) Rose (BS 12) all having graduated from the program. What we learned during our time at U of I has not only allowed us to be successful in our careers, but also makes for very exciting conversations at family gatherings that revolve around concrete, roads, trains and construction claims – nerds unite! My most cherished memory from my time at U of I is when I met my beautiful wife, Sarah, in Professor Liu’s Spring 2012 CEE 420 course. During the first week of classes, Professor Liu announced that we had to organize ourselves into groups for various semester projects. As the students broke off and congregated with their friends, I, Sarah, and a group of other socially inept students found ourselves with no choice but each other. It turns out that not only was the group great to work with, but Sarah and I quickly developed a bond that lasted through the semester and beyond. After graduation, we moved back to Chicago, started our careers and I enrolled in the online M.S. program. And so, CEE then gave us the wonderful opportunity to test the limits of a new relationship by trying to balance our jobs, spending time together and my coursework. For a while it seemed as though “what CEE giveth, CEE taketh away,” but with a lot of love and support, we survived. Good thing we did too because last year we welcomed our lovely daughter, Summer (BS 2042 maybe!), into the world. It all traces back to that chance encounter in CEE 420, and for that U of I will always hold a special place in our hearts.

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If you would like to share your University of Illinois memories for the CEE Magazine, contact Celeste Bock (celeste@illinois.edu) for details.

CONCRETE IDEA CEE at Illinois PhD candidate Jordan Ouellet designed and printed a mold from flexible filament on his 3D printer and cast a series of concrete Illinois/CEE logos using selfconsolidating mortar. Don't be fooled by the photos: these small concrete shapes measure just 90mm x 65mm x 40mm (3.5” x 2.5” x 1.5”) and weigh in at 300g. Jordan said he was inspired to make them because he wanted to have an item on his desk to show his academic affiliation. What a great "I"dea! Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2021 43

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory MC-250 205 North Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801

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CEE Magazine Summer 2021

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