2022-2023 Annual Report | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Leadership

Donald R. Webster, Ph.D., P.E. Karen and John Huff School Chair

Susan E. Burns, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE Associate Chair for Administration and Finance

Lauren Stewart, Ph.D., P.E. Interim Associate Chair for Graduate Programs and Research Innovation

Kevin Haas, Ph.D. Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs

Adjo A. Amekudzi-Kennedy, Ph.D., F.ASCE, NAC Associate Chair for Global Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurship

Patricia White Director of Development patricia.white@ce.gatech.edu

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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech

790 Atlantic Drive N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0355 communications@ce.gatech.edu

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ce.gatech.edu

Communications Team

Melissa Fralick

Communications Manager

Amelia Neumeister Communications Officer

Stay in Touch

This has been a special year for the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering to celebrate the past, appreciate the present, and envision our future.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, we introduced several exciting curriculum innovations. As part of a new interdisciplinary course, our structural engineering graduate students worked with students in the School of Architecture to design incredible concepts for a pedestrian bridge at Georgia Tech. The students also had the unique opportunity to travel to London to seek inspiration and a global perspective.

Our faculty has continued to push the envelope on engineering education. Thanks to the National Science Foundation RED Grant—which aptly stands for Revolutionizing Engineering Departments— and funding from the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network, we have resources to rethink the way we educate future generations of civil and environmental engineers.

Throughout the year, our faculty has engaged in an impressive array of research: new technology for water disinfection, social justice and equity in urban systems, augmented reality cues in transportation, and much more. I hope you’ll enjoy reading in the following pages about the many ways our researchers are leading the future of civil and environmental engineering.

This has been a forward-thinking year, too. I’m thrilled to share the results of an 18-month strategic planning process, during which we charted an exciting path for our School’s future. This was an inclusive experience in which faculty, staff, students, alumni, and industry partners participated in a way that recognizes and values the viewpoints of our many stakeholders. I am proud of the plan we produced and feel inspired about the direction of our School.

All of these developments have taken place against the backdrop of a major milestone in our School’s history: the 125th anniversary of civil engineering at Georgia Tech. It is fascinating to learn how much the way we teach and practice civil engineering has evolved since those early days.

I hope you enjoy reading more about the many exciting things happening here in CEE. We’re grateful now and always for your support.

Go Jackets!

Donald R. Webster

Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor

NUMBERS

CEE By the Numbers

2 Undergraduate Civil Engineering

3 Undergraduate Environmental Engineering

3 Graduate Civil Engineering Graduate Environmental Engineering

Degrees Offered Fall 2022

2

6

Bachelor's Degrees:

• Civil Engineering

• Environmental Engineering

Master's Degrees:

• Bioengineering

• Civil Engineering

• Computational Science and Engineering

• Engineering Science and Mechanics

• Environmental Engineering

• Dual Degree- M.S. Civil Engineering & City and Regional Planning

6

Doctoral Degrees:

• Bioengineering

• Civil Engineering

• Computational Science and Engineering

• Engineering Science and Mechanics

• Environmental Engineering

• Ocean Science & Engineering

Enrollment:

Undergraduates: 632

Graduates: 392

Faculty:

Endowed Positions: 26

Total Faculty: 55

CELEBRAT ING Civ i l E n g i n e e r i n g

Bridging the Gap to the Westside

By Melissa Fralick

Inspired by one of modern London’s most famous landmarks, a team of Georgia Tech students has created a winning design for a bridge to guide future growth of Georgia Tech’s campus and the city of Atlanta.

The Westside Community Connector Bridge Class combined an architecture studio and a civil engineering special problems course, resulting in a collaborative design competition during the Fall 2022 semester. Comprised of graduate students from both disciplines, the class met weekly for guest lectures, site visits, and combined studio time with design and engineering professionals. The class even traveled to London over fall break to seek inspiration from the city’s many unique pedestrian bridges.

Over the course of the semester, 12 pairs of engineering and architecture students worked together to design a bridge that would provide safe passage from the center of campus, above neighboring train tracks, to North Avenue’s burgeoning Science Square corridor and beyond. One winning team was selected from five finalists, whose ideas will be used as inspiration to one day make this type of campus pedestrian bridge a reality.

Jim Case, a co-instructor of the course and a senior principal at engineering firm Uzun+Case, said one of the goals for the class was to teach architecture students to think like engineers and

teach engineering students to think like architects.

“Architecture-engineering collaboration is key to achieving a truly great project and is an important component of successful professional practice,” Case said. “In the classroom, architecture-engineering collaboration helps students develop both their left and right brains, making them more effective problem solvers.”

Westward Migration

The class was presented with a challenging realworld design problem: how to create a landmark piece of infrastructure connecting two parts of campus — and the city of Atlanta more broadly — that have long been cut off by roads and rail lines.

As Georgia Tech expands, there is a need to increase connectivity to the growing southwest corridor that’s difficult to traverse from the core of campus, said Lauren Stewart, Williams Family Associate Professor of civil and environmental engineering and a co-instructor of the course.

“Designing a pedestrian bridge is relatively easy. Designing an inspired bridge that will meld into the environment, create an experience, and be economical—is not,” Stewart said.

The proposed bridge site begins at Georgia Tech’s centrally located John Lewis Student Center and

Finalists met with Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera to present their proposals (photo by Allison Carter)

passes over Marietta Street and the railroad tracks to the North Avenue Research Area. The site then continues to the former Randall Brothers Construction Materials property (recently acquired by Georgia Tech for an arts-focused development) and continues to a planned life sciences district called Science Square.

Science Square will be an 18-acre mixed-use residential and commercial district on North Avenue that is dedicated to biomedical research and technology. The goal is to entice entrepreneurs coming out of Georgia Tech and other universities to stay in Atlanta and form a rich environment of talent and other resources to support their success.

In addition to creating a hub for life sciences innovation, the Science Square development will support job training and education for residents of westside neighborhoods to acquire the training credentials they need to work in these industries.

A potential pedestrian bridge from Science Square to Georgia Tech’s campus and the thriving Midtown business district beyond would bridge, literally and metaphorically, the “equity faultline” represented by the rail line, said Tony Zivalich, Georgia Tech’s associate vice president for real estate development.

“This will be catalytic connective tissue that will connect our campus all the way to the westside and have some pretty profound impacts,” Zivalich said.

Leaving a Legacy

The students in the course benefitted from the expertise of several instructors: Stewart, Case, and Daniel Baerlecken, an associate professor in the School of Architecture.

The class also received input and guidance from campus officials that included Zivalich, Landscape Architect Jason Gregory, and Associate Director of Strategic Planning Dan Nemec.

The graduate students — split evenly between The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and

From top: An ariel view of the proposed site (photo by Candler Hobbs); The class during a fall break trip to London; Millennium Bridge, London (photo courtesy of Jim Case)

Westside Community Connector Student Design Competition Finalists:

First Place

Charles Kim and Isaac Wasson

Second Place

Mark Chan and Korawat Sakpunpanom

Honorable mention

Shyam Samani and Hana Herndon

Mason Burrow and Priyank Godhat

Jiayong Lu and Swetha Prabhakar

School of Architecture — were paired together in engineer/architect teams for the duration of the class.

Throughout the semester, the teams designed a bridge that could be beautiful and monumental, while also having sound, cost-effective engineering. The students also had to consider the site’s unique challenges in their designs: the need to rise over a railroad crossing, before reducing elevation and remaining accessible for all users.

During October’s fall break, the class traveled to London to visit some of the city’s unique footbridges and meet with professionals from high profile firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects.

The city was an ideal location for students to seek inspiration, Stewart said. There are many pedestrian bridges over the River Thames, which runs through the heart of London.

“When we were designing the course, the term ‘iconic bridge’ was used repeatedly,” Stewart said. “I recall thinking that many of our students have likely not seen an ‘iconic bridge’ in person. Thus, we wanted to give the students exposure to bridges that they could use for inspiration.”

Over the four-day journey, the class experienced some of London’s cultural and structural highlights, including museums, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and of course pedestrian bridges — including the Royal Victoria Dock Footbridge, Golden Jubilee Bridge, and Millennium Bridge.

Sparking Innovation

It was the Millennium Bridge that sparked a

winning idea for architecture student Charles Kim and civil engineering student Isaac Wasson.

Kim and Wasson were taken by the shallow suspension bridge over the River Thames, which features two Y-shaped armatures supporting cables that run along the sides of the deck. The cables rise only about 6 feet, providing uninterrupted views of the city and the stunning St. Paul’s Cathedral.

After returning to Atlanta, Kim and Wasson decided to scrap their previous design and start over with a concept inspired by their visit. Rather than designing a bridge that would stand out, they decided to create something that would blend in and let the surrounding skyline view be the star of the show.

“In the problem statement for this competition, the judges told us they wanted a monument —something that people could look at from all around Atlanta,” Wasson said. “Our design was not that at all. It was definitely inspired by the Millennium Bridge and what it does so well: taking the focus off itself and instead putting it on views of St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

The pair recognized the risk in deviating from the design competition’s directive, but their gamble paid off. Their design, called “The Eye,” won first place.

Kim and Wasson explained that they began their design process by thinking about the user experience first and letting that dictate the form of their bridge.

Sparking Inspiration

The main span of their bridge design features a split bike path surrounding an elevated pedestrian path. From the side, this creates the shape of an eye: an oval tapering into points at either end. Their design uses trusses to support the structure from below, providing a clear view over the rail lines.

“The view we see is of the skyline and it will never be obstructed because nothing will be built on the train track,” Kim said. “We had to exploit that opportunity, it was all about the view.”

The team selected fiber reinforced polymer decking as the material to build their bridge. This lightweight material would require less steel for support and reduce the cost of construction and the project’s carbon footprint.

In addition, much of the bridge could be prefabricated and shipped to the site for assembly, creating a faster timeline for construction.

Stewart said Kim and Wasson’s design won because the judges found it to be an elegant concept from both an engineering and architectural standpoint.

“We loved that their creative solution allowed for unobstructed views for the pedestrians and clearly highlighted multiple modes of transportation,” Stewart said. “In addition to being conceptually stunning, it was also the least expensive design.”

Wasson and Kim said that working together during the course helped them to think more holistically.

For Wasson, the collaboration with Kim helped

him to shift his thinking beyond the least expensive and best way to create a structure.

“In our education, it’s often framed that there’s one right way to do things,” Wasson said. “Through Charles I saw there’s a lot of different ways to approach things. Making a successful project is making something that people will like.”

For Kim, working with Wasson helped him become more focused and confident in the feasibility of his designs.

“Working with Isaac made me more practical and professional,” Kim said. “What’s the point of making beautiful things if they can’t be built?”

The Shape of Progress

The Westside Connector bridge concept isn’t the first time that Georgia Tech has looked to infrastructure as a way to breathe new life into a neighborhood just beyond its boundaries.

In the late 1990s, Georgia Tech President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough began an effort to expand Georgia Tech’s campus over the Downtown Connector into Midtown, which was then struggling with crime and blight.

Connecting these two seemingly disparate pieces was a tough sell at first. But Georgia Tech’s vision and investment paid off. Twenty years later, this area now known as Tech Square is thriving, thanks in part to the Fifth Street Bridge. The bridge over the interstate was expanded upon to provide green space, bike lanes, wide pedestrian walkways and a shading trellis to create an inviting pathway over the multilane interstate highway below.

Tech Square is now known as an innovation hub, with corporations vying to open outposts in the district to leverage Georgia Tech talent. Campus officials hope to someday find similar success with a pedestrian bridge connecting the main portion of campus to Science Square. The name of this development is no accident: The hope is that Science Square will be to life sciences innovation what Tech Square has become to corporate innovation and tech startups.

Kim and Wasson said participating in the design competition was an honor and they hope to someday see their bridge concept brought to life.

“This is a legitimate chance to leave our mark on campus,” Wasson said. “This was a really special, unique opportunity. It’s such a cool thing that we got to be a part of.”

This is a legitimate chance to leave our mark on campus. This was a really special, unique opportunity. It’s such a cool thing that we got to be a part of.

Top: Wasson and Kim at the class design competition. (photo by Amelia Neumeister); Bottom: A rendering of "The Eye" bridge illustrates the elevated pedestrian path and bike lanes over exisiting rail lines.

– Isaac Wasson

Environmental Engineering Team Named Finalist in Nationwide Algae Competition

AGeorgia Tech team was one of the four top finalists selected to win $10,000 in the 2022-2023 AlgaePrize Competition.

The competition is hosted by The U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), in partnership with the Algae Foundation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The team, comprised of PhD students Ben Gincley, Farhan Khan and undergraduate student Ananya Kumar, competed with their concept called PhycoSight— a low-cost, accurate and versatile automated platform to address algae-related problems, including combating the rapid proliferation of toxinproducing algae and optimizing industrial-scale cultivation of beneficial algae. The team is advised by Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor Ameet Pinto.

For the AlgaePrize competition, PhycoSight's focus was set on a key problem in industrial algal agronomy. Existing methods to quantify algal lipid content—which is important for the production of consumer-facing products like omega-3 nutrient supplements and sustainable aviation fuels—are expensive, time-consuming, and require highly specialized technical expertise.

The PhycoSight team developed a novel approach using deep learning techniques to estimate lipid content in microalgae using microscopy data, which can dramatically reduce the capital and time costs associated with making these measurements. This means algae-based products can be produced more efficiently and for less money, improving the market competitiveness of these bioproducts.

The AlgaePrize Competition was launched in January 2022 and challenged 64 student teams with 307 individual competitors from high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States. The teams developed innovative solutions for algae production,

processing, and new product development to lower the costs of producing algal biofuels and bioproducts.

PhycoSight was selected as one of the 15 national finalists in April 2022. The team was awarded $5,000 from the Department of Energy, which the students have used to develop their project over the last year.

During the AlgaePrize Competition weekend, April 14-16, 2023, the finalists, from 11 states and Puerto Rico, showcased their projects to a panel of judges at NREL in Golden, Colorado.

PhycoSight was recognized as one of four top finalists teams. They received an engraved plaque and an additional $10,000 to develop their idea.

The grand champion team and the top four finalist teams will be invited to participate in the Algae Biomass Summit this fall to present their research and engage with summit participants from the national and international algae communities.

This isn’t the first time the PhycoSight team has found success with its innovative ideas. In 2022, the team won the Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Entrepreneurial Impact Competition. The $5,000 Higginbotham Prize recognizes students that have identified and tailored their concepts to specific end-users with an emphasis on bringing their concepts to market.

PhycoSight team members Farhan Khan (second from left) and Ben Gincley (second from right) at the AlgaePrize Competition. (photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office)

By Melissa Fralick

CEE Teams Dominate 2023 Student Design Competition at Georgia Association of Water Professionals

By Melissa Fralick

Environmental engineering students in the capstone design course were recognized for their work by industry professionals, winning first, second, and third place in a regional competition.

The Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) 2023 Student Design Competition promotes real-world design experience for students in the water and wastewater field. The student teams prepared both a written report and an oral presentation, which they delivered to a panel of judges during the 2023 GAWP Spring Conference on April 18 in Columbus, Ga.

A team comprised of students Lucy Bricker, Makaela Edmonds, Isabella Hernandez, and Olivia Verret won first prize for their project, “Duluth Middle School Green Stormwater Infrastructure Retrofit.”

The team was awarded $5,500 to send the four students and their advisor, Professor of the Practice Sharon Just, to the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) international student design competition in Chicago this fall, where they will compete among 34 teams for additional prize money.

Second place was awarded to the team comprised of Rachel Nichols, Catherine Rekos, Tiffany Sledge, and William McKinley Thompson presenting “Treatment Technologies Design for PFAS in Drinking Water.”

Third place went to Janice Cherono, Jesus Gomez Prado, Shalini Moua, and Nathan

Teklay for their project, “Stormwater Tannin Control for Mexico Beach, FL.”

The team of Sophia Dimos, Radha Jagwani, Caroline Krall, and Athena Verghis conducted a field visit in South Carolina and presented “Modeling Long-Term Green Infrastructure Solutions for Water Quality and Coastal Flood Management Challenges.”

Just, who advised all of the teams, said she was pleased that each team member spoke at the conference—meaning all 16 students had the experience of presenting their work.

“I’m very proud of the four environmental engineering capstone teams who presented at the conference,” Just said. “This was an extra activity for these graduating seniors, including a separate paper, slides, and taking a Tuesday to travel to Columbus. They are all to be commended for the effort they put into preparing and representing Georgia Tech so well.”

Georgia Tech Environmental Engineering students at The Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) 2023 Student Design Competition.

Innovation on Display at 3rd Annual Entrepreneurial Impact Competition

By Melissa Fralick

Two CEE students walked away with $5,000 prizes at the 2023 Entrepreneurial Impact Competition after impressing a panel of judges with their ideas for an improved ground anchor design and technology to desalinate sea water for drinking.

The Entrepreneurial Impact Competition was established in 2020 as a way to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship among CEE students, with the first two events held virtually due to Covid-19 safety precautions.

Alumnus Bill Higginbotham, CE 76, is a serial entrepreneur and instructor who teaches Innovation and Entrepreneurship in CEE Systems. He pitched the idea for the competition and donated the money to fund one of the prizes.

Higginbotham said it was especially rewarding to attend this year’s competition for the first time in person.

“I brought his idea to [School Chair Don Webster] a few years ago trying to come up with something that would drive entrepreneurship down to the student level where it’s tangible,” Higginbotham said. “I’ve been thwarted for the last two years because the Zoom call just does not work. You really need to see the live presentation. I’m thrilled that we finally got to see it and I’m thrilled that this is one of many opportunities to get the ultimate motivator, money, down to the hands of these bright young students.”

Following an open call for submissions in the Fall 2022 semester, four finalists were selected to participate in the Jan. 27 competition.

During the event, each of the finalists gave a fiveminute verbal pitch of their projects to a panel of expert

judges and a live audience, followed by 10 minutes of questions from the judges. After all the presentations, the judges deliberated and selected the top proposals to win the Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award and the Zeitlin Innovation Award, worth $5,000 each.

PhD student John Huntoon was selected to win the Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes a more developed project with an emphasis on bringing the concept to market.

Huntoon’s startup, BioBilt Infrastructure Systems, LLC, promotes a root-inspired ground anchor that is designed to mimic the way that roots stabilize plants in the soil.

Huntoon explained that his root-inspired ground anchor (RIGA) is an example of bio-inspired design, in which engineers look to nature to find inspiration for more efficient designs and apply them to human infrastructure problems.

“We want to use the existing materials and methods that we use to construct conventional ground anchors today, but modify them to make it more efficient,” Huntoon said. “We did that by incorporating the geometry of fibrous plant roots.”

The design of the RIGA results on average in a 30 percent reduction in both materials and installation, providing potentially meaningful cost savings for geotechnical specialty contractors.

“What we find is that these companies operate in an environment where they are competing almost exclusively on the time-to-install dimension,” Huntoon said. “They’re also operating in a place where their labor and equipment costs are much

Zeitlin Innovation Award winner, Mo Jarin, presenting at the Entrepreneurial Impact Competition (photo by Melissa Fralick)

higher than their material costs. And so the 30 percent reduction in time is extremely valuable for the geotechnical specialty contractors.”

Mo Jarin, an environmental engineering PhD student, was selected to win the Zeitlin Innovation Award with her concept called SEE water. The Zeitlin Innovation Award emphasizes creativity and the merits of a project at any stage of development.

SEE water addresses the challenge of providing clean, safe and affordable drinking water to a growing global population.

“Our freshwater resources are rapidly diminishing and in order to harness the majority of Earth's water supply—seawater—we need to take the salt out through desalination,” Jarin said.

There are several desalinization processes currently available, but all require high energy consumption, preventing more widescale adoption. Another option for providing more drinking water is recycling treated waste water back into the water supply. While safe, this practice faces a major obstacle from public perception.

Jarin’s solution bridges the challenges associated with both methods through a process called Salinity Exchange through Electrodialysis, or SEE. This method would reuse treated wastewater to help desalinate seawater without ever mixing the two.

“We have salts from high salinity seawater that get transferred to low salinity-treated wastewater until the salt concentrations approximately switch, resulting in desalinated seawater that can be further treated for potable use, and a high salinity treated waste water that can be discharged safely to the ocean,” Jarin said.

Jarin explained that there are several advantages to this method. First, it's energy efficient due to the natural concentration gradient between the two feeds. Second, it doesn’t generate brine, so there are no harmful ecological or environmental impacts. And third, it helps with the matter of public acceptance.

“Drinking desalinated seawater is going to be so much more appealing than drinking treated waste water,” Jarin said.

I’m thrilled that we finally got to see it and I’m thrilled that this is one of many opportunities to get the ultimate motivator, money, down to the hands of these bright young students.

– Bill Higginbotham

Higginbotham Entrepreneurship Award winner, John Huntoon, presenting at the Entrepreneurial Impact Competition (photo by Melissa Fralick)

From left: Karen and John Huff School Chair Don Webster, Mo Jarin, John Huntoon, and Bill Higginbotham (photo by Amelia Neumeister)

Programming the Future: New courses boost students’ computing skills; connection to CEE

By Melissa Fralick

In September 2020, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering began a five-year journey to radically rethink its model of engineering education.

Nearly three years later, CEE leaders are starting to see the fruits of their labor. The School is re-envisioning its engineering curriculum with the inclusion of data analytics, entrepreneurship and innovation, storytelling and reflection, and teamwork—skills that complement and strengthen traditional engineering coursework.

“We’re working to graduate holistic engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Frederick L. Olmsted Professor Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy, Associate Chair for Global Engineering Leadership and Entrepreneurship. “In doing so, we expect to enhance the students’ efficacy and sense of belonging to the School and profession.”

Armed with a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s RED program — which stands for Revolutionizing Engineering Departments— School leaders crafted a plan to revamp the curriculum with a focus on educating holistic engineers and instilling in students a greater sense of understanding and belonging to the civil and environmental engineering fields.

In 2021, the effort was bolstered by an additional grant from the Kern Family Foundation’s Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). CEE was one of four College of Engineering programs selected to receive funds to help students build an entrepreneurial mindset by infusing story-driven learning into their curricula. CEE is also incorporating value-sensitive design, problem-based learning, and teaming as part of the KEEN and RED initiatives.

The centerpiece of the School’s effort is a spine of four courses that will anchor the undergraduate experience: Exploring CEE, which provides a broad overview of civil and environmental engineering topics; CEE Systems, a course on the study of the connections among infrastructure systems, sustainability and economics; Data Analytics in CEE Applications, in which students use emerging computational tools to enhance the study of civil and environmental engineering; and Capstone Design, a course for seniors to apply their knowledge to a semester-long design project.

The classes, taken over the course of four years, focus on interactive problem-based learning around the societal grand challenges that civil and environmental engineers work to decipher and solve. They feature elements of computational and team development, include reflective teaching

and learning, and aim to create a greater sense of belonging within the School and the profession.

The School’s Academic Professionals, Lisa Rosenstein and Robert Simon, have designed learning environments across the spine of courses for students to develop their ability to work collaboratively and improve their written, oral, and visual communication skills.

“This spine of courses is where all students will have this common experience,” AmekudziKennedy said. “The courses build upon each other and also relate to the rest of the curriculum.”

Karen and John Huff School Chair Don Webster noted that these efforts are an important component of the School’s strategic plan.

“I am excited to see these courses come to life through these re-imagining efforts,” Webster said. “Developing these courses and integrating them into our curriculum is critically important to advancing the students’ cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skill sets. We feel strongly that these courses will ultimately help to codify students’ identities as a civil engineer or an environmental engineer.”

Data-driven Engineering

Offered as a pilot course for the first time this spring, the third-year course, Data Analytics

A group of students working collaboratively to determine how waves will interact with different coast lines in Kevin Haas's coastal engineering course. (photo by Amelia Neumeister)

in CEE Applications, aims to equip students with literacy in emerging technologies in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

As these technologies evolve, they are being utilized more frequently within the study and practice of civil and environmental engineering. Students will find that there are many meaningful ways that engineers can use this computing technology to help analyze and address the grand challenges we face on a global scale—such as climate change, natural disasters, and infrastructure issues.

Frederick L. Olmsted Early Career Assistant Professor Jorge Macedo is the instructor for the new data analytics course. Macedo said he uses realworld examples to teach students how they can get insights into CEE problems of relevance by taking advantage of modern data science techniques.

For example, the class analyzed data from recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria as well as measurements from rising sea levels.

“The tools that they are learning will equip them to actually make value of the data that is being collected these days,” Macedo said. “The idea is that they can take advantage of the many things that could be exploited from this booming area of data science.”

Early Engagement

Professor Kevin Haas, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs, teaches the first-year course, Exploring CEE. This course was born from a desire to help students determine what aspects of civil and environmental engineering they are passionate about, developing an early connection to the School.

In 2017, Haas conducted a Sankey diagram analysis to determine when CEE students enter and exit the program. What he found was that about half of students who initially declared civil or environmental engineering as their major transferred into a different major, many before they had taken any CEE courses.

In parallel, about half of the civil or environmental engineering graduates originated in a different major before transferring into the School.

CEE leaders began to think about ways to address the attrition and concluded that early and continuing engagement in their major would help students to learn about exciting aspects of the discipline, help students create a stronger

The tools that they are learning will equip them to actually make value of the data that is being collected these days.

–

Frederick L. Olmsted Early Career Assistant Professor Jorge Macedo

Top: Professor Kevin Haas teaching. Bottom: Students in Professor Kevin Haas's coastal engineering course. (photos by Melissa Fralick)

identity as a civil or environmental engineer, and help to foster a sense of belonging.

Exploring CEE was first offered in 2019 to introduce first-year students to the work civil and environmental engineers do through interdisciplinary research topics, guest lecturers, and team problem-solving exercises.

Over the last four years, Haas has seen a significant shift in the experience of first-year students who take the course. Of the 60 first-year students who took the course in fall 2022, only five changed their major. Over the course of the semester, Haas introduces students to the breadth of civil and environmental engineering topics through the School’s four cross-cutting research areas: Smart Cities, Sustainable Systems, Resilient Infrastructure, and Healthy Communities.

Haas recalled a student whose experience illustrates the efficacy of the course. After learning about smart cities and transportation systems, she wrote in a reflection exercise that she didn’t think civil and environmental engineering was what she really wanted to do. But later in the semester, after the units on healthy communities and sustainable systems, she changed her mind.

“She found her passion,” Haas said. “She found where she belonged. So in the end, she did not change her major. She realized that being an environmental engineer was what she wanted to do after all.”

Haas said the broad range of topics and applications is one of the things that makes civil and environmental engineering so unique.

“I frequently see with the breadth of topics that we do, not everything will resonate with everybody. There will be topics that individual students are just not going to enjoy,” Haas said. “But there's

enough variety that most students will find exactly what they are uniquely passionate about.”

Telling the Story

Through the RED and KEEN grants, professors like Haas and Amekudzi-Kennedy have had the opportunity to incorporate story-driven learning into their courses.

The grants have also enabled the School to hire Ellen Zerbe, a learning scientist, to support the change initiative through faculty development.

Amekudzi-Kennedy has found that her students benefit from taking time to digest and talk about what they’ve learned in individual or group video reflections or through the use of various online tools.

“I used to teach and go away. I don't do that anymore,” Amekudzi-Kennedy said. “When I finish teaching, I let the students reflect because I feel that's how it gets consolidated and integrated into that frame of reference, of knowledge that they are developing and I think they just come out differently. It's a higher quality of learning.”

Caroline Delcroix, a student in Amekudzi-Kennedy’s CEE Systems course, said the reflection exercises have helped her develop her professional identity.

“I have found that I am able to better articulate what I want to do after just a few weeks in the class, and I am very grateful for that,” Delcroix said.

Haas said he uses story-driven learning in the Exploring CEE course to help first-year students develop their sense of self and learn skills like how to pivot when things don’t go according to plan.

“The end product is really to help them understand more about who they are, where they're going and what different options they have for their future,” Haas said.

Teams of students talk through their business concepts with instructors as part of a course on innovation and entrepreneurship. (photo by Amelia Neumeister)

STRATEGIC PLAN

People are our priority; the world is our responsibility

This is the culmination of the most inclusive strategic planning process in our School’s history. Over a period of 18 months, our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and industry partners participated in this important effort to chart the course for our School’s future in a way that recognizes and values the viewpoints of our many stakeholders. We are proud of the process as well as the results of this hard work. We have updated our vision, mission, and core values to better define who we are today. We’ve developed a set of themes that we will use to advance our programs and activities that fit into three broad categories: Community, Student Experience, and Discovery & Service. Our values are manifest in these initiatives that, when achieved, will take the School to even greater heights than we enjoy today.

For more details about how we will implement the strategic plan, visit ce.gatech.edu/strategic-vision

MISSION & VISION

People are our priority; the world is our responsibility

Our Vision

We will inspire and prepare the next generation of civil and environmental engineers to solve the world’s most pressing challenges and improve the environment and quality of life for all.

Our Mission

Through interdisciplinary research, service-based learning, and innovative coursework, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering leads in systems-level thinking and technological innovation at the interface of built, natural, information, and social systems. We define and seek to solve the complex problems facing humanity and the environment in service to the state of Georgia, the nation, and the world.

OUR CORE VALUES

We commit to act ethically and uphold our core values:

COMMUNITY

Promoting equity and a sense of belonging to maximize wellbeing and leverage our cultural and intellectual diversity.

EXCELLENCE

Striving for the highest achievement in research, education, and service.

INNOVATION

Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset to engineer and design new materials, technologies, and high-impact solutions for a rapidly changing world.

LEADERSHIP

Pioneering new directions in civil and environmental engineering research, education, and practice, while inspiring and promoting the profession.

SERVICE TO HUMANITY

Tackling the grand challenges of the 21st century by sustaining our planet and improving the building blocks of civilization for generations to come.

STUDENT SUCCESS

Creating academically rigorous learning environments and experiences that challenge students to think critically, while supporting and celebrating their achievements.

THEMES

Community

Recruit, retain, and develop diverse, service-minded students, faculty, and staff who build and support a community fostering excellence, equity, and inclusion.

OBJECTIVES

• Through equity-informed recruiting practices, cultivate a well-rounded faculty, staff, and student body that represents the breadth of cultural and intellectual diversity of the communities we serve.

• Retain our most valuable resources— students, faculty and staff— by cultivating an inclusive environment and developing opportunities for advancement, recognition, and support.

Improve access to financial resources and enhance opportunities to support the needs of the School and the financial well-being of the CEE community.

OBJECTIVES

• Increase student funding to broaden access and recruit and retain top students.

• Provide stewardship of existing School resources and innovative solutions for increased productivity in teaching and research.

Student Experience

Foster a sense of belonging to the School and the CEE profession.

OBJECTIVES

• Implement early and vertically-integrated engagement of CEE students.

• Develop holistic and collaborative engineers who know how to discover and solve real-world problems while creating value.

• Promote a psychologically safe culture, where all members of the CEE community can be their authentic selves.

Pioneer learning opportunities that empower the CEE community to reach their educational goals and meet emerging and long-standing challenges.

OBJECTIVES

• Foster experiential learning opportunities to develop technical expertise.

• Provide our community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and professionals with resources and programming that enable them to attain their educational goals.

• Diversify program delivery strategies through multiple educational approaches.

Discovery & Service

Conduct innovative cross-cutting research to create new knowledge in natural, built, socioeconomic, and information systems with local and global impacts.

OBJECTIVES

• Expand research infrastructure, research support, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Enhance creativity, innovation, and research impact by improving incentives and career development opportunities for faculty.

Develop innovative research, education and service initiatives to support equitable economic development throughout the state of Georgia, the nation, and the world.

OBJECTIVES

• Partner with public and private agencies and community organizations to implement innovative research and training on smart, resilient and sustainable systems to improve the quality of life for all Georgians.

• Develop curricular innovations to equip students with knowledge and skills to address social and environmental challenges locally and around the world.

Remaining Civil: 125 years of Civil Engineering at Georgia Tech

By Melissa Fralick

F

or nearly as long as Georgia Tech has existed, students have come to study civil engineering and improve the world around them.

Civil engineering is one of the oldest engineering disciplines. It was named in contrast to military engineering and created to encompass everything needed to support civilian life. While civil engineering’s core mission remains the same, the field has evolved over time to encompass many specialized subdisciplines, including structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, and others.

At Georgia Tech, civil engineering has grown and evolved significantly since the program was established 125 years ago. What began with one instructor and a handful of students is now one of the top programs in the nation.

With a firm grounding in traditional civil engineering principles, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has expanded into an interdisciplinary powerhouse focused on addressing the grand challenges of the 21st century, preserving the planet, and improving the human condition.

Read on to learn about the history of civil engineering at Georgia Tech.

1898-1913

When the Georgia School of Technology opened its doors in 1888, mechanical engineering was the only degree offered. Over the next decade, Georgia Tech’s second president, Lyman Hall, worked to expand the school’s offerings with the establishment of two new courses of study: civil engineering and electrical engineering.

Civil engineering seems to have been a special interest for Hall. During his time as a math instructor, he included field work in surveying and mapping in his classes. He also supplemented his teaching salary by conducting surveys in the Atlanta area, according to Engineering the New South, a book on the history of Georgia Tech.

During a Dec. 30, 1896 meeting, Georgia Tech’s Board of Trustees approved the new degrees of civil and electrical engineering, “and the faculty requested to arrange the curriculum to this effect,” according to the hand-written meeting minutes.

Hall became president of Georgia Tech the same year, preventing him from overseeing the new program.

In meeting minutes from June 22, 1898, the Board of Trustees selected Thomas Pettus “T.P.” Branch, a junior professor of mathematics, to lead the civil engineering program.

Branch shaped the development of the civil engineering program during his 28-year Georgia Tech career and served as Tech’s secretary of the faculty until his death in 1923.

The new civil engineering program got off to a sluggish start. Electrical engineering, authorized at the same time as civil engineering; and textile engineering, introduced shortly after, were much more popular.

Between 1901 and 1905, there were 50 graduates in textile engineering, 45 graduates in mechanical engineering, and 33 graduates in electrical engineering. Only seven students graduated in civil engineering during the same period.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1902 that Maryon McDonald Lawrence became the first civil engineering graduate.

The theory for this modest enthusiasm, according to Engineering the New South, is that there was already a civil engineering program at the University of Georgia. Perhaps Georgia Tech’s program was born more from Hall’s personal interest in civil engineering than a demand for more trained civil engineers.

1) Surveying in 1915 (photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives); 2) Georgia Tech Faculty of 1900 (photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives) 3) Image of handwritten meeting minutes from December 1896

1914-1940

The civil engineering program expanded in 1914 with the addition of highway engineering. A pair of Fulton County consulting engineers — Robert Davis Kneale and Franklin C. Snow — were the first department heads. Snow went on to lead both the civil and highway engineering departments following the 1924 death of Branch, the founding head of civil engineering. Because it wasn’t a degree granting program, highway engineering was incorporated under civil engineering as a single department.

Snow remained the head of the civil engineering department until his death in 1945. According to his obituary in the Georgia Tech Alumnus, Snow was responsible for founding the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter at Georgia Tech, and “he took a deep interest in this work and promoted it with energy.”

During the first half of the 20th century, civil engineering was a scrappy program with resourceful faculty members who found ways to get the equipment they needed.

James Herty Lucas, a civil engineering graduate who served on the faculty from 19151960, wrote a brief history of the civil engineering department. In his undated papers, he recalled that much of the department’s surveying equipment came from government surplus.

“There were several transits and levels turned over to the school by the Army after World War I and for years afterward, one of the Army officers would come by each year to check these instruments and make certain that we actually had them,” Lucas wrote. “The equipment is in fairly good condition but it is only by continual cleaning, adjusting and minor repairs that it is kept so.”

During the Great Depression, Lucas secured the donation of a hydraulic compression machine for the civil engineering department in exchange for “extensive work” done for the Public Works Administration (PWA) at no cost. The PWA provided funds and machinists to build this testing machine, which according to Lucas was “the largest capacity of any such machine in this part of the country.”

Created in an effort to help the nation’s economy recover during the Great Depression, the PWA funded construction of more than 34,000 projects between 1933 and 1939, including airports, dams, school buildings, hospitals and roads.

Among the many projects the agency funded during this time was the Civil Engineering Building at Georgia Tech, completed in 1938. Civil engineering shared facilities with other departments during its first 40 years of existence, and this was the department’s first official campus home.

The Old Civil Engineering Building after completion in 1938 (photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Library)

1940s-1950s

In the years following World War II, Georgia Tech’s leadership worked to expand research and graduate education to boost the school’s reputation as a nationally recognized engineering program.

In 1948, the school known up to that point as the Georgia School of Technology was renamed the Georgia Institute of Technology to reflect its growing emphasis on advanced technological and scientific research.

Within civil engineering, this shift coincided with the hiring of new faculty members who brought expertise within the civil engineering subdisciplines of geotechnical and hydraulic engineering.

In 1945, Georgia Tech President Blake Van Leer was instrumental in recruiting Carl Edward Kindsvater to campus. Kindsvater would establish a hydraulics laboratory that emphasized hydroelectric power, flood control, and the conservation and regulation of water supplies. The small lab, located in the basement of the Civil

Engineering Building, featured a miniature dam used to simulate hydraulic flow conditions, according to Engineering the New South

Despite limited resources, Kindsvater was able to get the laboratory up and running within two years, according to a paper on Kindsvater’s legacy co-authored by civil engineering professors emeritus Terry W. Sturm and C. Samuel Martin. Together with a master craftsman named Homer Bates, Kindsvater designed and built the lab’s equipment, including a glasswalled flume for demonstrations and experiments that is still used today.

Over the next 15 years, Kindsvater produced a body of classic hydraulics research including two papers that received the ASCE’s Norman Medal, a prestigious honor recognizing contributions to engineering science.

In 1947, George Sowers arrived at Georgia Tech and established the geotechnical engineering program in the School of Civil Engineering.

As a graduate student at Harvard, Sowers studied under Karl Terzaghi, the father of geotechnical engineering. Sowers was recruited for jobs in both industry and academia and ultimately chose to pursue both. He accepted a joint position at Georgia Tech and the engineering and consulting firm of Thomas C. Law.

He excelled in both roles over the next 50 years, rising to the level of Regents Professor and Chairman of the Board at the Law consulting firm. Sowers was a skilled storyteller who pulled from his experiences with forensic engineering to illuminate issues in the classroom or in the field. He is remembered for his boundless energy and enthusiasm, lecturing in class one day and flying across the world to inspect a dam the next. He wrote a textbook, Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations, which became standard reading for a generation of civil engineers, according to ASCE’s biography of Sowers.

1) Carl Edward Kindsvater working on an experiment in the hydraulics laboratory; 2) Dedication of the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society monument in 1945; 3) Close up of a hydraulics laboratory experiment in 1949 (photos courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives)

1960s-1980s

Georgia Tech President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough, CE 64, MS CE 65, was a civil engineering student in the early 1960s. The campus atmosphere in those days was tough, Clough said. First year students were warned: Look to your left, look to your right. Only one of you will graduate.

“It was a challenging place. You had to learn to create your own support systems to succeed,” Clough said.

Clough recalls struggling during his first year, seeking to develop the right study habits and working as a cooperative education student as a railroad surveyor. However, he found the atmosphere in his civil engineering classes to be different. His professors — including Kindsvater, Sowers, and Alec Besich, with whom he went on to conduct research as a graduate student — were invested in his success.

“They really cared about me as a person,” Clough said. “To this day, it’s one of the things that makes civil engineering such a wonderful program.”

In 1969, the School of Civil Engineering moved to a new home as part of a campus expansion. The Jesse W. Mason Building, named for the dean of the College of Engineering, became the new headquarters and was one of several modern buildings constructed along Atlantic Drive.

With its curving white façade, the five-story, 90,000 square-foot building was a visual departure from the old civil engineering building’s classical red brick, collegiate gothic design. Though it is now home to the School of Economics, the building is still officially known on campus as the Old Civil Engineering Building.

During the 1960s and 70s, the civil engineering subdiscipline of sanitary engineering — now known as environmental engineering — was elevated alongside an emerging environmental consciousness in the United States.

Amid growing concerns about air and water pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970, and the first Earth Day was celebrated the same year.

In 1972, the sanitary engineering program expanded into the Daniel Environmental Engineering Laboratory. Located next to Bobby Dodd Stadium, the three-story building is still home to many environmental engineering laboratories.

Throughout the 1970s, special attention was given to research related to energy conservation and the environment.

1) The Jesse W. Mason Building after opening in 1969 (photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives); 2) Tristan Ruiz and Angel Aud on graduation day in 1964; 3) The lobby of the Mason Building before undergoing a major rennovation in 2013

“Government regulations and findings of the Environmental Protection Agency have placed new emphasis on sanitary engineering,” John E. Fitzgerald, then-director of Civil Engineering, wrote in the 1981 Blueprint yearbook.

In the 1980s, the School of Civil Engineering began adjusting to the reality that computers were becoming a bigger part of life in every industry. According to the 1984 Blueprint, a major portion of the civil engineering faculty lounge was converted to a student computer terminal facility to help support new courses incorporating the technology.

“Digital computers have become commonplace in business, and the school is compelled to turn out graduates capable of using this

technology,” Fitzgerald wrote.

Professor of the Practice Sharon Just, CE 89, recalls the transition to computers was a swift one over the course of her time as a civil engineering student.

“I went to Tech with a typewriter and by the time I graduated, I had a computer,” Just said.

“There was definitely an emphasis on migrating to computers. But surveying and drawing was still a required class. We were drawing to scale, with a pencil and paper.”

Although environmental engineering degrees were offered only at the graduate level then, Just said a formative part of her undergraduate experience was conducting research with environmental engineering Professor Emeritus Michael Saunders.

“He had spent the time to do special research projects,” said Just, who went on to a career in environmental engineering. “He didn’t have to do that – it was one-on-one support to help an undergraduate student be able to do research.”

Just recalled several other times during her education that she had hands-on experiences, like driving to look at bad intersections in Atlanta, learning about water flow in the laboratory, and working in industry as part of the co-op program.

“Georgia Tech did a very good job of providing hands-on, real-world experiences. It continues today, and it’s something you don’t find in other programs,” Just said.

This page: 1) Charles W. Nelson, CE 70 2) Sharon Just, CE 89; 3) Civil engineering students work on fine tuning surveying equipment for class in 1986; 4) Civil Engineering students and faculty gather for a photo in front of the Jesse W. Mason building in the early 1970s; 5) A student practices surveying for class in 1971 (photos courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives) Opposite page: 1) Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty in 1993; 2) Students sit for lecture; 3) the 1993 Concrete Canoe Team, part of the Georgia Tech chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (photos courtesy of the Georgia Tech Blueprint)

1990s-2000s

Clough went on to become an engineering professor and was serving as provost at the University of Washington when he received a call inviting him to interview for the role of president of Georgia Tech.

At that time, the Institute had a low graduation rate, despite having students with high test scores — a result of the tough dynamic Clough remembered from his time as a student.

“I thought I could do something to change this university for the better,” Clough said. “The culture needed to be changed.”

Clough returned to Atlanta and in 1994 became the first alumnus to serve as president of Georgia Tech. As he began his new role, Clough discovered that the civil engineering faculty had maintained the legacy of student support he remembered from the 1960s.

“I was incredibly pleased when I came back as president and realized that civil engineering was still a program that respected the role of teaching,” Clough said.

In 1991, the school changed its name to the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This move reflected a nationwide trend, as environmental engineering became recognized as its own discipline.

The School became a leader in engineering education with the addition of the Charles E. Gearing Program in Engineering Communication. Developed by Principal Academic Professional Lisa Rosenstein, it was one of the first in the nation to integrate written, oral, and visual communication skills into the engineering curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“Our industry partners and alumni tell us

unequivocally about the importance of possessing quality communication skills in engineering practice. This program has been transformational in preparing our students for career success,” said Karen and John Huff School Chair Donald Webster.

On campus, the School’s footprint expanded in 1998 with the completion of the O. Lamar Allen Sustainable Engineering Building. It was constructed using the most up-to-date sustainable materials available at the time. The building contains computer instructional labs and became home to the School’s transportation engineering faculty and research labs.

In 2003, the environmental engineering program branched into the newly completed Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building. The building, one of four in the interdisciplinary Life Sciences and Technology Complex, provided classrooms and research facilities for collaboration between the related fields of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Though Georgia Tech had offered graduate degrees in environmental engineering — or sanitary engineering as it was formerly known — for decades, it was not until 2006 that the School began to offer a standalone bachelor’s degree in the field.

“The program has been very popular with consistently strong enrollment numbers,” Webster said. “Graduates go on to find employment in industry and government jobs as well as pursue graduate degrees.”

2010-2023

After more than 40 years as the heart of civil engineering on campus, the Mason Building underwent a $12 million renovation in 2013. A series of upgrades brought the building into the modern era, including replacing chalkboards with whiteboards, creating a student commons space, improving wireless connectivity, and reconfiguring the space that once housed the building’s 1960s-era mainframe computer.

The curriculum was updated as well, with an emphasis on global thinking and interdisciplinary learning to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st century. School leadership worked to expand what a civil and environmental engineering curriculum entails in order to graduate holistic engineers prepared for a quickly evolving and increasingly interdisciplinary world.

In 2015, the School introduced the Global Engineering Leadership Minor (GELM). One of three tracks within the Institute’s Leadership Studies Program, the minor was designed to teach students communication and leadership skills, help them gain a deeper understanding of civil and environmental engineering in a global context, and provide opportunities to work, research, or study internationally.

“The courses developed as part of the GELM program formalized training in leadership, which has been an organically developed characteristic of many of our graduates for decades,” Webster said. “The courses are a platform for our faculty to deliver forward-looking material on the important role that civil and environmental engineers play in solving the challenges of the 21st century.”

During this period, the School joined other campus programs to form interdisciplinary graduate degrees. These master’s and PhD programs include Ocean Science and Engineering—a joint program with the schools of Biological Sciences and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences—which combines sciences with ocean technologies to advance research of ocean systems, climate change, coastal developments, and ocean energy. The School also is part of the Computational Science and Engineering graduate program with the Colleges of Computing and Sciences. The program is devoted to the creation, study, and application of computerbased models of natural and engineered systems.

In 2020, the School expanded its global reach, becoming one of five academic units to offer a master’s degree program at Georgia Tech’s campus in Shenzhen, China. Opened during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Master of Science in Environmental Engineering initially served graduate students in China who were unable to travel to Atlanta to study. Now, master’s students in Atlanta and Shenzhen can participate in exchanges to study at both campuses.

And in 2020, the School reached a new milestone. For the first time, more than half of the student body identified as women — a major step toward closing the gender gap in engineering.

This page: 1) A tour during the renovation of the Mason Building; 2) Williams Family Associate Professor Lauren Stewart works with graduate students in the structures lab; 3) Environmental engineering students doing field work during a study abroad trip to Bolivia

Opposite page: 1) Civil engineering students on a site visit field trip; 2) Students exploring London during the 2023 CEE Abroad trip; 3) Students with Engineers in Action helped build a bridge in an area of West Virginia prone to flooding; 4) Dwight H. Evans Professor Susan Burns in the lab with students. (Photo by Candler Hobbs); 5) CAP companies meet with students during the annual Fall Career Fair (photo by Jess Hunt-Ralston).

Looking Ahead

In 2022, Webster and a team of faculty, staff, students, and alumni completed a strategic planning process to chart a course for the future of the School.

Over the next several years, leaders will work to implement initiatives identified in the plan to strengthen the CEE community, the student experience, research, and service.

“In 2022, we formally launched our new strategic plan with the intention of taking our already excellent school to even greater heights. Combined with the Institute’s capital campaign, Transforming Tomorrow, this is a rare moment to reimagine and elevate everything that we do,” Webster said.

Much has changed over the last 125 years. The drafting tables and ashtrays have been replaced by laptops and sticker-covered water bottles; the mechanical surveying equipment was shelved in favor of software with razor sharp precision. But students and faculty are drawn to civil (and environmental) engineering for the same reasons they always have: a desire to build, to improve, and to preserve the world around them.

RESEARCH Explore Our

Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity

By Péralte C. Paul

Inclusivity and understanding past policies and their effects on underserved and marginalized communities must be part of urban planning, design, and public policy efforts for cities.

An international coalition of researchers — led by Georgia Tech — have determined that advancements and innovations in urban research and design must incorporate serious analysis and collaborations with scientists, public policy experts, local leaders, and citizens. To address environmental issues and infrastructure challenges cities face, the coalition identified three core focus areas with research priorities for long-term urban sustainability and viability. Those focus areas should be components of any urban planning, design, and sustainability initiative.

The researchers found that the core focus areas included social justice and equity, circularity, and a concept called “digital twins.” The team — which consists of 13 co-authors and scholars based in the U.S., Asia, and Europe — also provided guidance and future research directions for how to address these focus areas. They detailed their findings in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, published in January 2023.

“Climate change has certainly increased the amount and intensity of extreme weather events and because of that, it makes our decision making today critical to the manner in which our economy and our day to day lives can operate,” said Joe F. Bozeman III, the lead author and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also the director of Tech’s Social Equity & Environmental Engineering Lab and has a courtesy appointment in the School of Public Policy. “Our quality of life can be negatively affected if we don't make good decisions today.”

The researchers’ first core focus area, justice and equity, addresses innovations and trends that disproportionately benefit middle and high-income communities. Trends like IoT, “smart cities,” and the urban “green movement” are part of a broader push by cities to become more sustainable and resilient. But communities of color and low-income neighborhoods — the same areas often home to environmental contaminations, infrastructure challenges, and other hazards — have often been overlooked.

The researchers’ findings showed a consistent trend with marginalized communities across several countries,

including Canada, the Netherlands, India, and South Africa. They call for mandatory equity analyses which incorporate the experiences and perspectives of these marginalized communities, and, more importantly, ensure members of those communities are actively engaged in decision-making processes.

The second focus area, circularity, addresses resource consumption of staple commodities including food, water, and energy; the waste and emissions they generate; and the opportunities to increase conservation of those resources by boosting efficiencies.

“What we mean by circularity is basic reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling efforts across the entire urban system — which not only includes cities and under resourced areas within those cities — but also rural communities that supply and take resources from those city hubs,” Bozeman said. The idea is aligned with the circular economy concept which addresses the need to move away from the resourcewasteful and unsustainable cycle of taking, making, and throwing away.

Instead, the researchers argue, cities should look for ways to improve efficiency and maximize local resource use. That has potential benefits not only for

urban areas, but rural communities, too. One example, Bozeman said, is the Lifecycle Building Center in Atlanta. It takes old building supplies and sells them locally for reuse.

“By doing that, they’re at the beginning stages of creating an economic system, a regional engine where we share resources between cities and rural areas,” he said. “We can start creating an economic framework, not only where both sides can make money and get what they need, but something that can actually turn into a sustainable economic engine without having to rely on another state or another country's import or export economic pressures.”

The third focus area, digital twins, addresses the development of automated technologies in smart buildings and infrastructure, such as traffic lights to respond to weather and other environmental factors.

“Let's say there's a heavy rain event and that the rainwater is being stored into retainment,” said Bozeman. “An automated system can open another valve where we can store that water into a secondary support system, so there's less flooding, and that can happen automatically, if we utilize the concept of digital twins.”

Assistant Professor Joe F. Bozeman III (photo by Allison Carter)

New Ultrafast Water Disinfection Method Is More Environmentally Friendly

By Tess Malone

Having safe drinking water is vital for public health, but traditional methods of disinfection cause their own environmental problems. Chlorine is cheap and easy to use in centralized water systems, but at the expense of harmful chemical byproducts.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have found a way to use small shocks of electricity to disinfect water, reducing energy consumption, cost, and environmental impact. The technology could be integrated into the electric grid or even powered by batteries.

“This is a pretty new disinfection technology, and we want to demonstrate in the small scale first, and then improve its real-world applications for pointof-use or off-grid water purification,” said Xing Xie, the Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Xie and his postdoctoral researcher Ting Wang published the paper, “Nanosecond Bacteria

Inactivation Realized by Locally Enhanced Electric Field Treatment,” in Nature Water in January.

Localizing Electricity

Although conventional electric field treatment (CEFT) is applied for food pasteurization, it hasn’t been widely used for drinking water disinfection because of the relatively high cost. When water and bacteria are exposed to electricity, the bacteria cell membrane acts like a capacitor in a circuit. Typically, in CEFT, water’s low conductivity means nanosecond pulses won’t charge the membrane fast enough to kill bacteria.

The researchers created a locally enhanced electric field (LEEFT) that brought the electricity directly to the bacteria. The electrodes have gold nanotips that build up concentrated charges instantly when connected to electricity, enabling the charges to travel to the membrane and kill the bacteria much faster.

“This ultra-fast bacteria inactivation just using the nanosecond pulses is a surprise because, theoretically, nanosecond pulses are just too short to kill the bacteria in conventional electric field treatment because the membrane takes

time to charge,” Wang said. “But with LEEFT’s nanowedges and nanostructures, the bacteria cells can be charged directly by the nanometal, quickly disinfecting water.”

Electric Innovation

To test the technology, they fabricated gold nanowedges on the electrode edge of a chip. Then they added model bacteria Staphylococcus to the chip, a commonly used bacteria in labs and often found in water systems. Next, they applied electric pulses and watched how the bacteria reacted in real time under a microscope.

When electricity was applied at 40 kilovolts per centimeter for 200 nanoseconds, 95% of nanowedges successfully killed the bacteria. Compared to conventional EFT, LEEFT lowers applied eclectic field strength by eight times — and shortens the treatment time by 1 million times.

“We found that even nanosecond pulses could kill the bacteria in the LEEFT and not other circumstances,” Wang said. This nearinstantaneous decontamination reduces how much electricity is needed to disinfect water, making this an affordable sanitation option and pointing to a future in which producing clean water may take less of a toll on the environment.

Ting Wang, left, and Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor Xing Xie (photo by Chris McKenney)

Georgia Tech-Emory Team Investigates How Augmented Reality Cues Can Help Elderly Drivers

By Melissa Fralick

A grant from the National Institutes of Health will support a joint Georgia TechEmory Eye Center investigation of driver safety for people who have glaucoma.

The project is a collaboration between Frederick R. Dickerson Chair and Professor Srinivas Peeta and Emory Eye Center researcher and clinician, Dr. Deepta Ghate.

Ghate and Peeta seek to improve driving safety for individuals with peripheral vision loss — a problem that affects 13 percent of the population over 65 years of age. Drivers with glaucoma have been found to be three to five times more likely to be in a motor vehicle accident.

Ghate's previous research found that drivers with glaucoma are less able to deal with distractions compared to elderly people without glaucoma.

The joint research project will evaluate which glaucoma patients may benefit from augmented reality (AR) cues. It will also seek to identify which driving tasks may be best communicated using AR cues.

Research will be conducted in Peeta’s Autonomous & Connected Transportation (ACT) Lab at Georgia Tech, which features a highfidelity driving simulator that will be used to test the potential benefits of such cues.

“These driving simulator experiments will specifically focus on driving performance and mental workload to avoid introducing distraction to the driving task,” Peeta said.

New Air Transportation Center Launches at Tech

By Amelia Neumeister

Professor Laurie Garrow has launched a new transportation center, the Air Transportation Lab at Georgia Tech (ATL@GT) that focuses on modeling passenger demand for air travel.

The center launched March 14 at the inaugural member’s meeting on the Georgia Tech campus. Together with members from aviation companies, the center will focus on revenue management, applied modeling, and educational activities.

Revenue management is a field of research that helps airlines and other companies decide which offers to make available to customers at different points in time – or stated another way, when consumers visit an airline website, which flights, tickets, and ancillary products can they purchase.

The center currently works with eight airlines and airline software companies.

“I am humbled and honored to be asked to take on this significant leadership role and closely collaborate with our corporate members to tackle challenging research problems that are important to the airline industry,” said Garrow.

The ATL@GT center continues a strong tradition of academia partnering with experts in airline revenue management. Previously, many of the corporate members of ATL@GT were part of the PODS Consortium at MIT. Following the retirement of the consortium’s founder Peter Belobaba, Garrow picked up the torch and established ATL@GT.

Garrow is a travel behavior expert with a focus in airline passenger behavior. She specializes in modeling and understanding how people make purchase decisions relating to airline travel.

This spring, Garrow introduced a new graduate course in airline revenue management that combines concepts from demand modeling, operations research and economics to give students applied knowledge of revenue management.

Garrow’s new course was inspired by feedback from center members. They saw a knowledge gap around revenue management at many universities and thought it would be important for students to gain a more applied knowledge of revenue management and network planning.

One of the center’s focus areas is new technology.

The airline industry is investing in new technologies such as New Distribution Capability (NDC) technologies that more easily display offers that are tailored to individual customer preferences. For example, it is currently difficult for customers to compare prices across different airlines for tickets that include one checked bag and an advance seat assignment. NDC technologies make this simpler.

“NDC will allow airlines and travel agencies to present offers in new ways to customers and to create a more customized experience,” Garrow said. “This means designing new ways to show products to customers that will help them better plan not only the air portion of their trip, but their entire journey.”

Frederick R. Dickerson Chair and Professor Srinivas Peeta

(Photo by Amelia Neumeister)

Tool Helps Coastal Areas Find Ideal Spots for Water Level Sensors

By Joshua Stewart

As climate change leads to rising sea levels and more powerful storms, coastal communities increasingly are turning to networks of sensors to track water levels. The sensors — which are progressively getting cheaper and more capable — can help officials anticipate flood risks and respond in emergencies.

A tool developed by Georgia Tech researchers can help make the most of those networks, pinpointing the ideal locations for water level sensors to maximize the real-time data available to emergency managers.

In a test case in Chatham County, Georgia, the approach developed by civil engineer Iris Tien reduced 29,000 potential sensor locations to just 381. The idea, then, is that officials can use their local expertise and historical knowledge to pick where to install sensors among those spots.

“We wanted to make sure to integrate that local expertise,” said Tien, Williams Family Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Something that I think is often missing in research is that there is specific local knowledge that can add value to the project and the solutions. That was part of our cooperative process: These are people who’ve seen flooding in the community and who know where sensors might be beneficial.”

Tien has just published details of the tool in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment with Ph.D. student Jorge-Mario Lozano and intern Akhil Chavan. Tien stressed the approach would work in any coastal community. The code and instructions are freely available as part of their study.

Chatham County Emergency Management, the city of Savannah, and Georgia Tech have been collaborating for years on a low-

cost sea-level sensors project to provide real-time information for emergency planning and response. As the network of sensors has expanded, the team chose locations to fill gaps in data and to try to reduce the uncertainty caused by the limited reach of the network. But they wondered if there was a more effective way.

“We’ve been placing these sensors in an ad hoc manner based on where we think might be good,” Tien said. “In our discussions, we started thinking that maybe there’s a way we can make this a bit more quantitative, more rigorous, and include specific factors in making those decisions.”

As the team dug into research on sensor network placement, they found assessments usually only accounted for the same gapfilling and uncertainty issues that the sea-level sensors team already had been considering.

Tien’s tool adds other critical components to the calculus: the likelihood of flooding in different areas based on federal flood data; the potential exposure of critical infrastructure like hospitals, schools, power stations and more; and social vulnerability metrics that aim to account for populations who struggle the most when impacted by flooding.

“The overarching goal of this project is really three words: increasing community resilience. That leads us to the question of what might help us increase community resilience,” Tien said. “A lot of these events disproportionately affect more vulnerable populations. So it’s important that we include that in the analysis to address historical underinvestment or historically marginalized communities that

haven’t received the attention they need to be more resilient to these types of events.”

In Chatham County, emergency planners have created a Damage Assessment Priority Index that combines socioeconomic and social vulnerability indicators to help prioritize response efforts. It looks at households below the poverty level, unemployed populations, the number of renter-occupied homes in a neighborhood, multi-unit housing and mobile homes, and more.

Tien’s team used that index in their assessment alongside the kinds of critical facilities Chatham officials identified. In other communities, the variables might be slightly different, Tien said — maybe different critical infrastructure or different priority populations — but the tool is easily adjusted to account for local needs. And it doesn’t require massive computing power; it can be run on a desktop computer.

“We live in a world where there are limited resources. There isn't unlimited funding to buy sensors, install them, and maintain them. We want to provide methods to make smarter, more effective decisions,” Tien said. “This approach enables planners to use resources more effectively to monitor the things they really care about and help build resilience for those particular locations or populations.”

An aerial view of the Tybee Island marina in Chatham County, Georgia.

Rogue Waves of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

By Catherine Barzler

Theeastern Mediterranean Sea, a large basin surrounded by ancient cultural sites, is also a climatology hot spot. However, the region has received comparatively little attention when it comes to understanding the extreme sea states that produce massive and potentially catastrophic waves.

Recognizing a gap in scientific knowledge, an international team of researchers led by Francesco Fedele, associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, investigated potential hazards for ship navigation in the eastern Mediterranean. They looked at rogue waves, examined how they form, and analyzed the likelihood that a ship would encounter them while navigating the rough waters of intense storms. Their findings illuminate the nature of extreme waves in the Mediterranean Sea and could advance technology for rogue wave predictions and maritime navigation in extreme weather conditions.

“Imagine that at a single point in the ocean, waves are coming from many directions,” Fedele said. “There is always a chance they will meet, pile up in amplitude, and create an enormous wave. This is what we call a rogue event.”

Rogue waves have long been observed in the western Mediterranean by eyewitnesses — sometimes travelers on cruise ships — and have been known to cause structural damage and loss of lives. To examine the case of the eastern Mediterranean, Fedele teamed up with collaborators at the TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology and the CAMERI Coastal and Marine Engineering Research Institute in Haifa, Israel. The team employed a novel theory of space-time wave extremes and considered the hypothetical scenarios of Israeli naval fleet ships navigating the waters of two major storms that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea in 2017 and 2018.

The researchers studied the frequency of rogue wave occurrences as encountered by an observer at a given point on the sea’s surface, such as an oil rig. The team’s statistical analysis indicated that the largest observed waves during the two major storms have similar characteristics to the catastrophic El Faro, Andrea, and Draupner rogue waves, in which the asymmetry of the waves’ crests and troughs was the dominant factor in creating rogue waves.

They discovered that, because the eastern Mediterranean basin is characterized by waves coming from all directions, rogue waves do not “steal” energy

from neighboring waves or grow at their expense. This effect, known as modulational instability, has been employed in the past to understand rogue waves. But, according to Fedele, it is only relevant when waves travel in the same direction, like through a long channel, and therefore does not apply in realistic seas.

The team’s novel space-time analysis of the most intense sea states also demonstrated the ability to predict potential rogue hazards for ships of various sizes and cruise speeds navigating within the rough waters of the analyzed storms.

Fedele says a surfer can offer a useful analogy for the space-time effect of waves.

“As we know, surfers do not wait all day at the same spot, hoping a large wave will arrive,” he said. “They swim around an area to increase their chances of encountering large waves, and they always find one. Similarly, a ship navigating waves will encounter more waves along its path, and the likelihood of coming across a rogue wave is higher than it would be for an oil rig.”

The team’s novel analysis of waves in spacetime can also predict the potential of rogue hazards for ship navigation. A version of Fedele’s model has already been adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for WAVEWATCH III, the national operational wave forecast model. According to Fedele, such a model can be expanded to account for ship motion and rogue hazards, and has the potential to benefit shipping companies, maritime industries, and coastal communities.

photo by John Lund, Getty Images

CEE Faculty Receive Awards for 3 University Transportation Centers

By Melissa Fralick

Georgia Tech has been selected to be part of three university transportation centers— prestigious, federally funded research consortiums that advance the future of transportation.

On Feb. 21, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced up to $435 million in grant awards for 34 University Transportation Centers (UTC) that will help the next generation of transportation professionals make roads, bridges, rail, shipping, and airspace safer, more innovative, and more efficient. UTCs advance transportation expertise and technology in the varied disciplines that comprise the field of transportation through education, research, and technology transfer activities.

The Department of Transportation received a total of 230 grant applications during this competition, which represents the largest number of applications ever submitted in the 35-year history of the UTC Program.

Two of Georgia Tech’s existing UTCs—The Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health and the National Center for Sustainable Transportation—were selected to be renewed for an additional five years of funding. Georgia Tech will also be part of the newly established Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand.

Learn more about Georgia Tech’s University Transportation Center Partnerships:

Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH)

Georgia Tech Associate Director: Regents’ Researcher Michael Rodgers

Consortium: Texas A&M Transportation Institute (lead), Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Morehouse School of Medicine, North Dakota State University, University of California Riverside, University of Texas El Paso

CARTEEH brings together experts from transportation and public health, two disciplines that have traditionally had limited interactions. As the only UTC dedicated to understanding the linkage between transportation, energy usage and human health, CARTEEH research has focused on the holistic relationship between all the ways that transportation impacts human health.

During its first five years of existence, traditional research activities have been combined with public outreach and educational efforts. For example, CARTEEH researchers developed a college textbook and course materials for teaching undergraduate students in transportation, city planning and public health regarding the health impacts of transportation and energy use.

Georgia Tech served as the pilot for the implementation of this curriculum and became the first consortium member to add a course in transportation and health to its regular curriculum. Researchers at Texas A&M have extended this work to K-12 students. With the addition of the Morehouse Medical School to the consortium for this five-year renewal, Atlanta will become an even more significant center for research in this area.

“We are pleased that U.S. DOT has recognized the value of CARTEEH’s more holistic ‘tailpipe to lungs’ approach to understanding the link between transportation and human health as well as its emphasis on sharing these results through education and outreach,” said Regents’ Researcher Michael Rodgers, an associate director of the center. “This will allow us to more fully engage the diverse resources of Georgia Tech and the other consortium members to advance human knowledge in this area.”

The Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and

Demand

Georgia Tech Associate Director: Clifford and William Greene, Jr. Professor Patricia Mokhtarian

Consortium: University of Texas at Austin (lead), Arizona State University, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, City College of New York, Diné College (Navajo Nation), Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan and University of Washington

This new center has been established with a focus on improving mobility for people and goods.

In particular, the Center will undertake two flagship endeavors of national and state-level significance in planning and decision-making:

The downtown connector during rush hour (photo by Atlantacitizen)

A travel behavior data hub that the public, transportation planners, and policy-makers alike can leverage to understand the state of the transportation system, with built-in quality of life/well-being, energy footprint, and mobility poverty calculators to aid in planning for equity, sustainability, and community well-being.

A panel-based multi-year Transportation Heartbeat of America Travel Behavior and Demand Survey, including surveys of individuals, employers, and service providers, to understand how travel behavior and demand is evolving, which will provide critical insights on the future of transportation and the priorities of the nation and the states to which the center partners belong.

Additionally, the researchers will survey service providers and employers to track trends in businessprovided transportation benefits, employee workfrom-home patterns, and use of e-commerce and delivery platforms to reach customers. The project also covers the movement of goods to create a holistic picture of travel behavior across sectors and groups. Traditionally, freight and passenger travel analyses have been siloed, and the team is looking to break down those walls to create more reliable travel projections.

“Today's transportation environment is in a state of unprecedented turmoil, involving disruptive and rapidly evolving technologies and services, changing demographics and societal values, environmental threats, and economic uncertainty,” said Clifford and William Greene, Jr. Professor Patricia Mokhtarian, an associate director of the center. “These factors have greatly eroded the ability of our conventional models and methods to predict travel behavior and therefore support intelligent planning. This award will support the creation of cutting-edge tools — from data to methods to real-world demonstrations — that will advance our understanding of behavioral responses to these transformative factors, and vastly improve the flexibility and realism of the models we use to predict those responses.”

National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST)

Georgia Tech Associate Director: Guy J. Lookabaugh Professor Randall Guensler

Consortium: University of California at Davis (lead), California State University Long Beach, Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas Southern University, University of California at Riverside, University of Southern California, University of Vermont

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) has for nine years been a national leader in research, education, and policy engagement in environmental sustainability in transportation. The NCST addresses the especially pressing challenge of accelerating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously enhancing transportation equity.

NCST researchers have completed 280 research projects that have produced more than 225 research reports or white papers and more than 275 journal articles, books and chapters. This work has informed policy and practice at all levels of government. Examples include widely adopted tools for emissions modeling, the development and evaluation of a shared mobility program for rural areas, and the citation of NCST research in landmark legislation.

NCST funding has been used to develop a suite of energy and emissions modeling tools, including the Georgia Tech-developed MOVES-Matrix. MOVES-Matrix allows users to obtain emission rates for any on-road vehicle fleet 200 times faster than using a traditional interface, and without having to prepare hundreds of model control files for complex transportation applications.

“Winning a second five-year national center competition is an honor,” Guensler said. “We have a great team and we are excited to be able to continue the advanced model development, model application, and energy and emissions assessment work that we have been conducting with our National Center partners.”

Above: Clifford and William Greene, Jr. Professor Patricia Mokhtarian, Guy J. Lookabaugh Professor Randall Guensler

Opposite: Regents Researcher Michael Rodgers

EXCELLENCE A Community of

Don Webster Reappointed as Chair of School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

By Amelia Neumeister

Donald R. Webster has been reappointed to serve a five-year term as Karen and John Huff Chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The reappointment follows a five-year performance review as required by the Georgia Tech Faculty Handbook. A review committee conducted a thorough assessment complemented by feedback from the School and community including faculty, staff, students, the CEE Advisory Board and other colleagues.

“I am pleased to announce Don’s reappointment as the CEE school chair,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of the College of Engineering and Southern Company Chair. “During his tenure, CEE has improved student success at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Don also has been very effective in recruiting faculty at the junior and senior levels, while also increasing the number of endowed faculty positions.”

The School’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee reported that Webster has been highly supportive of their activities and visible in his commitment to DEI throughout the School. That sentiment also was emphasized by the CEE Advisory Board during the review process.

“I am grateful to Dean Beyah, David Sholl, and the review committee for their thoughtful efforts during the review process,” Webster said. “The coming years in CEE will be outstanding, as we’ve adopted an exciting and dynamic strategic plan to launch the School to even greater heights than we enjoy today. I am looking forward to working with our faculty, staff, students, and alumni to continuously enhance CEE’s impact and advance the student experience.”

Webster joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1997 and has been a member of the CEE leadership team since 2007.

He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. His primary research interests lie in environmental fluid mechanics, with an emphasis on the influence of fluid motion and turbulence on biological systems. His work has been featured in the New York Times and dozens of other news outlets. He is a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and has served on the editorial board of the journal Experiments in Fluids for more than a decade.

I am looking forward to working with our faculty, staff, students, and alumni to continuously enhance CEE's impact and advance the student experience.

Yong Kwon Cho Honored for Contributions to Automation and Robotics in Construction

Professor Yong Kwon Cho received the 2022 Tucker-Hasegawa Award from the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction. Cho was honored for his research in robotic operations with real-time data processing in unstructured field environments as well as the education of future researchers and engineers in construction automation and robotics. The TuckerHasegawa Award recognizes individuals who have made major, distinguished and sustained contributions to the field of automation and robotics in construction. Cho accepted the award at the organization’s International Symposium for Automation and Robotics in Construction in Bogota, Columbia, on July 15.

Iris Tien Selected for Cybersecurity Fellowship

Williams Family Associate Professor Iris Tien is one of five faculty members selected to become Cybersecurity Fellows to help grow the College of Engineering’s work in high-impact cyber-physical systems security (CPSS). Fellows represent expertise in a variety of areas of CPSS, which addresses risks where cyber and physical worlds intersect. Tien’s lab group has pioneered new approaches for risk assessment of critical civil infrastructure systems under emerging cybersecurity threats and risks.

Ryan Sherman Named Recipient of the 2023 Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture

The Steel Bridge Task Force selected Assistant Professor Ryan J. Sherman to deliver the 2023 Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture. The Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture program provides an opportunity for individuals early in their careers in structural engineering to present a lecture on their steel bridge research activities to the Steel Bridge Task Force and to participate in its semiannual three-day meeting.

Jorge Macedo Wins Young Researcher Award

Assistant Professor Jorge Macedo received the 2023 Young Researcher Award from the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering's (ISSMGE) Technical Committee on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. This award recognizes scientists and engineers not exceeding the age of 40 who have exceptional promise for excellence in research and have made significant contributions in the field of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.

Rafael Bras Elected to Academy of Arts & Sciences

K. Harrison Brown Family Chair and Professor Rafael L. Bras has joined a group of distinguished artists, thinkers, and scientists as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and others to recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in addressing the greatest challenges facing the nation. Its membership includes Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and the man who played him on Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda — also elected in 2023 with Bras.

Paul Mayne Selected to Present Terzaghi Lecture

Professor Emeritus Paul Mayne was selected as the speaker for the ASCE Geo-Institute’s 60th anniversary of the Karl Terzaghi lecture series. The lecture is awarded for distinguished contributions to the technical and/or professional stature of geotechnical engineering. Mayne was selected as the Terzaghi lecturer in recognition of the influence of his work with the cone penetration test and its correlation with the engineering properties of soil.

David Frost Honored with H. Bolton Seed Medal

Elizabeth and Bill Higginbotham Professor David Frost is the 22nd recipient of the ASCE Geo-Institute’s H. Bolton Seed Medal, which is awarded for outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and/or practice in geotechnical engineering. Frost was selected for the Seed lecture in recognition of his contributions in the analysis of natural and man-made disasters, dedication to teaching and mentoring students, and ability to translate geotechnical methods into approaches that ensure public safety.

Xing Xie wins Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award

Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor Xing Xie was selected to win the 2023 Young Faculty Award by the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi. The award recognizes outstanding research accomplishments and contributions to the scientific community. Xie's research focuses on innovative environmental engineering solutions including water treatment, resource recovery and environmental nanotechnology.

Lisa Wu Recognized as One of Nation's Top Civil Engineering Undergraduate Students

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) named student Lisa Wu to its 2023 class of New Faces of Civil Engineering: College Edition, which honors 10 of the brightest students from college campuses around the nation. Wu, who is now pursuing a master’s degree with a focus on geotechnical engineering, served as vice president and as social and philanthropy chair of Georgia Tech’s ASCE student chapter.

Attallah Smith Honored by Atlanta's Women of Color Initiative

Environmental engineering student Attallah Smith was honored with the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Impact Award by the Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED) in partnership with the Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) Atlanta collaborative in higher education. Smith, a senior on the Georgia Tech women’s track and field team, has shown great leadership skills and fully embodied the role of being a student-athlete.

Five Transportation Engineering Grad Students Recognized by Federal Highway Administration

Five graduate students were awarded 2023 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships: Adair Garrett, Mandani Tennakoon, Rachael Panik, Reid Passmore and Will Reichard. The annual program awards research grants to graduate students pursuing transportation-related degrees. The program’s mission is to "attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping to retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry.”

Suemin Lee Selected as Novelis Scholar

Civil engineering student Suemin Lee is one of just four undergraduates at Georgia Tech selected for the 2022-2023 class of Novelis Scholars. The program seeks to recognize and cultivate top graduate students conducting research in various aspects of sustainability, high-throughput materials discovery, surface functionalization, and artificial intelligence (AI)/data science applications in materials, manufacturing, and supply chain technology.

Ting Wang selected for 2023 Graduate Student award by American Chemical Society

Postdoctoral researcher Ting Wang has received the 2023 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.

The award recognizes graduate students who work in areas related to environmental chemistry with competitive course-work performance and research productivity. This award is granted to up to 20 recipients nationwide every year. Wang’s research centers around using small shocks of electricity to disinfect water.

Wensi Chen Wins Award for Best Ph.D. Thesis

Wensi Chen, a recent Ph.D. graduate in environmental engineering, was honored with the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi. Under the guidance of her advisor and fellow Sigma Xi award winner Xing Xie, Chen's research involves the development of novel polymeric materials for environmental application including biospecimen collection, water treatment and resource recovery.

Matthew Phillips Earns Best M.S. Thesis Award

Matthew Phillips, a master’s graduate from the Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials (SEMM) group, has been awarded the Best M.S. Thesis Award from the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi. His research involved largescale experimental and analytical investigations into built-up steel I-girders subjected to high moment gradient. Phillips worked under the supervision of his advisor, Assistant Professor Ryan J. Sherman, and Professor Donald W. White.

Junyue Wang Wins Gonter Research Paper Award

Ph.D. student Junyue "Holden" Wang has been awarded the Gonter Research Paper Award from the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. This prestigious award is the highest honor given to students and recognizes exceptional research contributions in the field. Wang, who is advised by Turnipseed Family Chair and Professor Ching-Hua Huang, has made significant strides in the study of disinfection byproducts in water treatment.

5 CEE Alumni Selected for Tech Alumni Association's 2022 40 Under 40 List

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association's annual 40 Under 40 program showcases how Tech graduates impact industry worldwide and work to improve the way we live through their diligence and expertise from an early age.

“This has quickly become one of my favorite traditions,” said Alumni Association president Dene Sheheane. “The opportunity to recognize alumni who are taking strides to improve the world we live in is such an honor for our organization. I know we will learn from and be inspired by this dynamic group of young leaders.”

Nominees, who must have completed at least one semester at Georgia Tech and be under the age of 40 as of June 30, 2022, were scored using a 25-point rubric by a committee of 24 faculty, staff, and volunteers who collectively represented all Georgia Tech colleges.

Read more about the five honorees who graduated in civil and environmental engineering:

Samantha Becker, CE 16 CoFounder, TruePani

Becker graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s in Civil Engineering in 2016 and went on to receive her master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan in 2019. She is the cofounder of TruePani, a communications and consulting firm focused on protecting public health from the effects of lead in drinking water. TruePani is committed to the idea that safe water is a basic human right and actively advocates for better education and transparency about water quality issues, most notably around lead in drinking water.

Maya Elizabeth Carrasquillo, EnvE 15 Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley Carrasquillo is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the principal investigator of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Liberation Lab (JEDI (L)ab) at the University of California, Berkeley. The mission of JEDI (L)ab is to develop systems of critical infrastructure that support liberation and restorative justice for all.

Gretchen Goldman, MS EnvE 08, PhD EnvE 11 Assistant Director for Environmental Science, Engineering, Policy and Justice, The White House Goldman is the assistant director for Environmental Science, Engineering, Policy, and Justice at the White House Office of Science and Technology

Policy. Previously, she was the research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. For more than a decade, Goldman has led research and advocacy efforts at the nexus of science and policy on topics such as federal scientific integrity, fossil energy production, climate and air quality, and environmental justice.

Andy Miller, CE 09, MS CE 10, PhD BioE 17

Chief Operations Officer, restor3d Miller is an entrepreneurial engineer with a diverse background in structural mechanics, biomaterials, 3D printing, and medical devices. He cofounded the medical device startup restor3d, Inc., where he currently serves as the chief operating officer. His focus is on developing internal processes and technology that deliver restor3d’s mission to enable surgeons with an enhanced ability to repair and reconstruct the human body through orthopedic implants with superior integrative properties and enhanced anatomical fit.

Graham Neff, CE 06, MBA 10 Atheltics Director, Clemson University

Neff is the director of athletics at Clemson University, one of the nation's premier athletic and academic institutions. He served in senior level positions at Clemson for the past eight years, and spent time at Deloitte, Middle Tennessee State Athletics, and Georgia Tech prior to his time at Clemson.

Mike Messner Selected as Commencement Speaker; Earns Honorary Degree

Mike Messner, CE 76, received an honorary PhD from Georgia Tech, the highest honor that the Institute can confer to an individual.

Messner is a prominent alumnus who has become a professor of the practice and an active supporter of Georgia Tech since retiring from the finance industry. After receiving the honorary degree, Messner delivered the address to graduates at the Spring PhD Commencement Ceremony on May 5. He shared words of wisdom with PhD candidates about the skills he gained from his education at Georgia Tech.

Ross Brockwell Selected for Mars Analog Mission

Ross Brockwell, CE 99, is one of four crew members selected to embark on NASA's first one-year analog mission in a habitat to simulate living on Mars. During the ground-based mission, set to begin in June at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the crew will live and work in a 3D-printed, 1,700-square-foot habitat. Brockwell, from Virginia Beach, Va., is a structural engineer and public works administrator. His work focuses on infrastructure, building design, operations, and organizational leadership.

3 CEE Alumni Honored by Georgia Tech College of Engineering

The College of Engineering celebrated 28 of its most esteemed alumni at the 2023 Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony on April 29, including three civil engineering graduates.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, CE 77, was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Fame, which celebrates alumni for their lifelong achievements. James R. Hamilton, CE 77, was named to the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni, which recognizes people who are still active in their careers and have already made significant contributions. Jacob Tzegaegbe, CE 11 MS CE 13, was selected for the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni, which honors rising stars who have distinguished themselves in the early stages of their careers.

5 CEE Alumni, Faculty Win Engineer of the Year Awards

Five CEE alumni and faculty were selected to receive the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers’ annual Engineer of the Year Awards. The awards honor engineers for their contributions to the profession, the public welfare and humankind. Congratulations to the following alumni and faculty on this achievement:

• Raj Anand, MS CE 16 | YoungEngineer of the Year

• K. Harrison Brown Family Chair and Professor Rafael Bras | Lifetime Achievement in Engineering

• Ralph L. Forbes, CE 83 | Engineer of the Year in Private Practice

• Bobby Sauer Jr., CE 98, MS EnvE 02 | Engineer of the Year in Government

• Zoe Zhang, CE 22 | Engineering Student of the Year

GIVING The impact of

Support Graduate Fellowships and Help CEE Reach Fundraising Goals

On March 1, I had the honor of joining the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech as the new Director of Development. I came from the University of Georgia, where I served as Director of Development of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences for five and a half years. I live outside Madison, Ga., with my sister, seven horses, and one insane Aussie. As an Atlanta native with deep family ties to Georgia Tech, I find it particularly meaningful to now have the opportunity to help make the ambitious Transforming Tomorrow campaign a success for CEE and the Institute.

As you may know, the Transforming Tomorrow campaign launched its public phase in the summer of 2022 and will conclude on December 31, 2027. The Institute hopes to raise more than $2 billion, of which CEE’s goal is $50 million. I am pleased to report that we are making great progress. Through the generosity and passion of our alumni and friends, as of July 2023, CEE is 67.5% of the way to our goal. In FY 2023 alone, the School raised $7.83 million.

Much of this total was a $5 million commitment from an anonymous donor to provide matching funds to encourage CEE alumni and friends to establish endowments for graduate student fellowships. Increasing funding for graduate students is one of our primary campaign goals and these endowments will enable the School to recruit and retain the most talented PhD students in civil and environmental engineering. Raising the $5 million to take full advantage of this transformative matching opportunity will be the School’s primary fundraising focus in FY 2024.

PhD students are essential to CEE’s educational and research missions. They teach undergraduates, conduct their own research, manage labs, assist faculty with their research, and join faculty in publishing research results. Without the best PhD students, Georgia Tech’s research and innovative undergraduate programming simply would not be sustainable. The School currently is unable to compete with other peer universities in financial offers to top graduate students, both in terms of the level of the yearly support and the four-year guaranteed level of that support.

While Graduate Research Assistantships are the primary focus for the next few months, we plan to make progress with CEE’s other exciting campaign priorities, such as the Engineering Communications Program, the Global Engineering Leadership Minor, the Entrepreneurship Program, and funding Professors of the Practice and adjuncts from industry. It is an exciting time of opportunity to build the future of this remarkable School!

Go Jackets!

Director of Development

NEW ENDOWED CHAIRS AND PROFESSORS

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has selected seven faculty members for endowed faculty chairs and professorships, including four new endowed positions introduced this year.

Endowed professorships and faculty chairs recognize faculty who stretch the boundaries of their disciplines. In addition to prestige, professorships provide faculty members with discretionary funding for research, equipment, travel and other professional development to advance their work. CEE has more than doubled its number of endowed professorships and faculty chairs since 2018, thanks to generous gifts from alumni and friends of the School.

Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy

Amekudzi-Kennedy joined the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1999 and was granted tenure in 2005. She currently serves as the Associate Chair for Global Engineering & Entrepreneurship. Her research focuses on transportation systems engineering and infrastructure asset management. Amekudzi-Kennedy was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2019 and is an American Society of Civil Engineers Fellow.

Susan Burns

Dwight H. Evans Professor

Burns joined the school as an associate professor in 2004 and was promoted to professor in 2010. She currently serves as the Associate Chair for Administration and Finance. Burns’ research expertise is in geotechnical engineering with an emphasis on: sustainability and beneficial use of waste materials; erosion, infiltration, and stormwater treatment on roadway rights-of-way; bio-mediated ground improvement; and fundamental chemical and engineering behavior of soils.

Yongsheng Chen

Bonnie W. and Charles W. Moorman IV Professor

Chen joined the faculty in 2009 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2017. His research focuses on environmental nanotechnology and sustainability. Chen’s research is particularly focused on smart manufacturing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, sustainable energy production and the biological effects of nanomaterials in the environment.

Frederick Law Olmsted Professor

Randall Guensler

Guy J. Lookabaugh Professor

Guensler joined the faculty in 1994 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to professor in 2005. He currently holds a courtesy appointment in the School of City and Regional Planning. His research expertise lies in transportation systems with a focus on the development and implementation of lifecycle energy and emissions modeling tools. His teams develop and employ computation modeling tools for a range of spatial and temporal scales. He has served as the Associate Director for the National Center for Sustainable Transportation since 2014 and is an active member of the Transportation Research Board.

Kimberly Kurtis

Kurtis joined the school in 1999 as an assistant professor, was granted tenure in 2005 and promoted to professor in 2010. She also serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship in the College of Engineering. Her research focuses on construction materials and the multi-scale structure and performance of cement-based materials. Kurtis’s research is recognized for using emerging methods and novel approaches to provide new fundamental insights into the behavior of cement pastes, mortars and concretes necessary for improving their early-age behavior and long-term durability. She is a fellow of the American Concrete Institute and a fellow of the American Ceramics Society.

Jorge Macedo

Frederick L. Olmsted Early Career Professor

Macedo joined the faculty in 2018 as an assistant professor. His research focus is on geotechnical earthquake engineering, performance-based and risk engineering applied to natural and man-made multi-hazards, and mining geotechnics. Macedo combines performance-based engineering, reliability, and machine learning tools with advanced numerical modeling, and novel experimental procedures to address these topics.

Carlos Santamarina

G. Wayne Clough Chair

Santamarina's research focuses on the science of geomaterials and subsurface processes to advance engineering solutions for the global energy challenge. This spans resource recovery as well as energy and waste geostorage.

Raymond Allen Jones Chair

New Faces

CEE WELCOMES NEW FACULTY

Katherine Graham

Assistant Professor

Graham’s work is motivated by global trends in population growth and climate change that strain water and sanitation infrastructure and put human health at risk. Her interdisciplinary research involves environmental engineering, biological engineering, environmental microbiology and public health.

Sharon Just

Professor of the Practice

Just is an environmental engineer and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of broad consulting experience. She has expertise in industrial wastewater treatment of technically challenging waste streams.

Aditya Kumar

Assistant Professor

Kumar’s research focuses on developing theoretical and computational tools to describe, explain and predict fundamental phenomena related to mechanics and physics of solids, particularly polymeric solids.

Carlos Santamarina

G. Wayne Clough Chair & Professor

Santamarina's research focuses on the science of geomaterials and subsurface processes to advance engineering solutions for the global energy challenge. This spans resource recovery as well as energy and waste geostorage.

STUDENT TRAVEL

International student travel grew in popularity in the 2022-23 academic year. Our students utilized Mundy Funds to travel across the world to explore and gain new cultural perspectives. Students traveled to Quebec, Chile, Singapore and across Southeast Asia. The Joe S. Mundy Global Learning Endowment provides financial support for CEE students to travel for the purpose of cross-cultural development.

Clockwise from top left: 1) Earl Harris in Cajon del Maipo, a giant lake and water reservoir for the city of Santiago, Chile; 2) The view of the Andes mountains from the campus of the Ponificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; 3) The Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal; 4) Shreya Nainwhal and her friend traveling in Quebec.

Clockwise from top left:1) Anikait Dhond and his friends from the exchange program at Nanyang Technological University; 2) National Day fireworks at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore; 3) In rural areas of Cebu, Philippines, Dhond hitchhiked in the colorful ricksaws called jeepneys; 4) Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea; 5) Forest Miller and friends in Angkor Wat

Kenneth Hyatt Distinguished Leadership Speaker Series

OUR 2023-2024 SPEAKERS

The Hyatt Distinguished Leadership Speaker Series brings distinguished leaders to campus each fall and spring to share wisdom and insight with the School’s students and the wider Georgia Tech community.

It is made possible by the generous support of Kenneth Hyatt, CE 62,

MS IM 66.

Jose Bern, CE 95 Executive VP Empresas Bern

Fall 2023

Spring 2024

Jean Lou Chameau President Emeritus California Institute of Technology

G. Wayne Clough President Emeritus Georgia Institute of Technology

Guiomar Obregón Shares

Wisdom from 25 Years as an Entrepreneur and Engineer

By Melissa Fralick

Guiomar Obregón has blazed her own trail. After growing up in Colombia, she went on to earn multiple degrees in the U.S., raised a family and started a thriving civil engineering company. Along the way, Obregón has worked to help others find success in engineering and construction.

Obregón, who delivered the Fall 2022 lecture for the Kenneth Hyatt Distinguished Leadership Speaker Series on Oct. 11, told students about her life story and the way she built her business from the ground up. She shared lessons from her journey and told students that there are many paths for them to succeed after graduating from Georgia Tech.

“There is no one formula,” Obregón said. “You are the talent of the future. You will be changing the world.”

Obregón is the CEO and co-founder of Precision 2000, also known as P2K, a general contractor in civil infrastructure and transportation-related projects. P2K works with government clients around the Southeast on infrastructure projects like airports, military bases, roads, and sidewalks. The company specializes in concrete paving and repairs, using high-strength concrete to repair runways at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and highways throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

Engineering is part of Obregón’s DNA. Both of her parents were civil engineers, and she knew early on that she wanted to be an engineer, too. Obregón worked in structural design for several years in Colombia before she decided to pursue a master’s degree. She found her way to Georgia Tech, inspired by the possibilities of an international education in the U.S. Obregón graduated from Georgia Tech with dual master’s degrees in civil engineering and management. From there, life got busy: Over the next three years, Obregón married fellow Georgia Tech alumnus Carlos Sánchez, had a baby, and started a business.

She told students that being an entrepreneur isn’t easy.

In the beginning, Obregón worked around the clock. She maintained a full-time job to pay the bills and dedicated her evenings and weekends to P2K. But after a couple of years, the hard work paid off: She was able to leave her day job and work for herself.

“Growing a business is hard work. You have to wear many hats, especially at the beginning,” she said. “But you can have a business, and have a family, and be successful.”

Giuomar Obregón

KENNETH HYATT DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP SPEAKER FALL 2022

There is no one formula. You are the talent of the future. You will be changing the world.

– Guiomar Obregón

"

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Lorraine Green Shares How to Start Strong in Engineering Career

By Melissa Fralick

Lorraine Green shared her life story and gave students the kind of advice she wished she’d received on her journey from entry level worker to CEO.

Green, ChE 84, MS EnvE 93, is the retired CEO of Pond, the largest architectural, engineering, and construction firm in Atlanta.

At age 28, Green started her own business specializing in corrosion management. In the 1990s, there were few women-owned engineering companies. Throughout the course of her career, and especially at the beginning, she found that she was often the only woman in the room.

She encouraged students to celebrate what makes them unique as they enter the professional world.

“What is important, I think, as I look back on my career: I was always true to myself but I never viewed myself as different,” Green said. “It was about the work. It was about getting the job done.”

In 2008, Green sold her business to Pond, where she worked her way up the ranks to President and CEO. Under her leadership, Pond grew to become the largest architectural, engineering and construction business in Atlanta and expanded globally with new offices in Canada, Japan, and Spain.

As someone with experience as both a small business owner and an executive of a major company, Green challenged students to think carefully about the size of the firms they are considering for their first job.

“In a small company, you get to do a lot of different things and wear a lot of different hats. So if you like not being in the same role every day, then a smaller firm is probably for you,” Green said. “If you like knowing what you're going to be doing for the next year or so, if you like having a very defined career path…then a larger firm is probably what you want.

“It’s very personality driven, and you don't want anybody to steer you in a direction that's not where your heart is.”

Green encouraged students to research the many possibilities that a career in engineering provides.

What has inspired Green throughout her engineering career is the ability to have a positive impact on the world. The kind of infrastructure work that civil and environmental engineers do improves communities and the environment, she said.

“A doctor changes lives, one person at a time. We can change lives by thousands at a time with the work we do and that makes me get up every morning,” Green said.

Lorraine Green

KENNETH HYATT DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SPRING 2023

We can change lives by thousands at a time with the work we do and that makes me get up every morning.

– Lorraine Green

New Members Join External Advisory Board

Five alumni began their three-year terms on the School's External Advisory Board. We are pleased to welcome:

• Marty Boyd, CE 94, MS CE 97 | President, Carter & Sloope

• Andrea Hence Evans, CE 99 | Owner/Attorney, The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans

• Lorraine Green, ChE 84, MS EnvE 93 | Retired President, Pond & company

• Alvin James Jr, CE 01, MS CE 04 | Vice President, Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc.

• Clifford Wang, CE 94, MS CE 97 | Senior Vice President, RBC Wealth Management

From left: Marty Boyd, Andrea Hence Evans, Lorraine Green, Don Webster, Clifford Wang, Murray Griffin

External Advisory Board

Carlyle Bernard Founder/President, St. Martin Consulting LLC CE 86, MS MS 94

Marty Boyd President, Carter & Sloope CE 94, MS CE 97

Fred Carlson Project Development Manager, Alliance Exchange FL CE 01, MBA 04

Christy Darden Director Engineering, Fleet, and Sustainable Operations, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region CE 92

Raul Delgado

Founder and CEO, CESEL Engineers CE 66, MS CE 68

Darion Dunn

Managing Partner, Atlantica Properties CE 01

Andrea Hence Evans Owner/Attorney

The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans CE 99

Lorraine Green

Retired President, Pond & Company ChE 84, MS EnvE 93

Murray Griffin, P.E. Advisory Board Chair Chairman, Atlantic Coast Consulting, Inc. CE 79

Frank Evan Haren Jr., P.E. President and CEO, Haren Construction Co. Inc. CE 77

Richard H. Hummel II, CFA Founder, Commodore Investments Co-Founder, Federal Holdings, Inc. CE 89

Alvin James Jr. Vice President, Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc. CE 01, MS CE 04

Cayman James Project Manager, Jacobs Engineering Group CE 99, MS EnvE 01

Karen Jenkins Managing Partner, Shear Structural M Arch 92, MS CE 93

Brian Lu Founding Partner, The Leaven Group CE 99

Larry McDowell Senior Principal, Uzun+Case, LLC CE 76

Orlando R. Mendez, P.E. Chief Executive Officer, Dorado Beach Resort CE 91, MS CE 92

Michael Montgomery Retired CE 70, MS CE 76

Rebecca Nease Retired Branch Chief, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission CE 79

Guiomar Obregón CEO & Founder, Precision 2000 MS CE 93, MS MGT 94

Donald W. Paul Retired, Georgia Pacific CE 80

CEEatGT External Advisory Board Members provide an important outside perspective on our programs that is essential to maintaining their relevance to industry. They play a significant role in vetting programs designed for students, alumni and corporate constituencies to ensure we maintain the highest quality standards in our curriculum, practice and outreach.

Meg Pirkle, P.E. Chief Engineer, Georgia Department of Transportation MS CE 97

Jacqueline Quinn NASA-KSC Liaison, NASA Kennedy Space Center CE 89

Ike. J. Scott III President and CEO, Scott Bridge Company CE 74

Zakiya Seymour Expert Management Consultant, Arcadis MS EnvE 13, Ph.D. EnvE 13

Barbara Sloan

Retired Principal, Cambridge Systematics, Inc. MS CE 77

Knox W. Tull Jr. President, Jackson and Tull MS CE 72

Clifford Wang

Senior Vice President, RBC Wealth Management CE 94, MS CE 97

H. Arthur Williams President, Williams Steel Erection Company, Inc. CE 83

Corporate Affiliates Program

The Corporate Affiliates Program is an opportunity to partner with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Our goal is to provide meaningful engagement to industry partners and to connect them with our undergraduate and graduate student populations. Engagement opportunities extend past the standard career fair and give industry partners year-round access to students and programming to not only recruit but to build recognition and to build targeted relationships with our student body, while giving valuable insight into the practice of being a civil or environmental engineer. Through CAP, companies are also invited to CEE signature events and initiatives and gain special access to our faculty and research.

Our Members

AEC inc

Arcadis

Archer Western

Blue Cypress Consulting Llc

Brasfield & Gorrie

Carroll Daniel Construction

CHA Consulting Inc.

Clark Construction

Consigli

Dewberry

Em Structural

EMC Engineering

Engineered Earth Solutions

Ferrovial

Foresite

G. Ben Turnipseed Engineers

Gilbane Building Company

Holder Construction

HRC

Jacobs

Kimley-Horn

KPFF Consulting Engineers

McCarthy Building Company

MC2

Norfolk Southern Corporation

Pond & Company

Shear Structural

Skanska

Stability Engineering

STV Incorporated

Swinerton

Tensar

The Home Depot

Union Pacific Railroad

Uzun and Case

Williams Industries

Winter Construction

Interested in joining our Corporate Affiliates Program? Visit ce.gatech.edu/cap

Thank You 2022-2023 Donors

INDIVIDUALS

Neel Ackerman

Jim Anderson and Sharon Just

Chloé Arson

Garry and Jennie Lee C. Colosi Balboni

Bonnie Barksdale

Marty and Stephanie Boyd

Christopher and Gillian Brazell

General Philip and Cindy Breedlove

Karen Brooks

Matt Brune

Lev Buchko

Jim Case

Lucia Case

Joseph Charbonnet

Jo Ann Czekalski

John Davis

Tradd Dennis

Rear Admiral Patrick and Cheryl Drennon

Darion and Raquel Dunn

Andrea and Christopher Evans

Dwight and Sharon Evans

Linda Farrell

Christopher and Mary Alexa Finke

Emily Foster

Aris Georgakakos

Edmund and Sharon Glover

Robert Graham

Bobette and John Grant III

Paul Greene

Murray and Jan Griffin

James and Jamie Hamilton

Evan and DeLane Haren Jr.

BIll and Elizabeth Higginbotham

Michael and Jane Houlihan

John Huffman

Christina and Richard Hummel II

Sally Jabaley

Alvin and Teia James Jr.

Karen and Daniel Jenkins

James Jones

Stephen and Charlotte Jensen

Thomas Kaney

John Knezevich Jr.

Eve Kuniansky

Todd and Kelli Long

Paul Mayne

Larry and Laurie McDowell

Robert McKenzie Jr.

Orlando and Gerladine Méndez

Mike and Jenny Messner

Fred Meyer

Margaret Mitchell

Marvin Mitchell III

Neda Mohammadi

Emmy and David Montanye

Becky Nease and Anthony Gody

Guiomar Obregón and Carlos Sanchez

Christopher and Susan Pappas

Blake and Mary Peck

Don Paul and Rixey Jones

Lee and Donita Presley

Christine Roller

Richelle Southwick

Mary Ann Stith

James Stokes

Damian and Melinda Taylor

Rick and Mindy Toole

Ben and Cheral Turnipseed

Margaret Tutwiler

Robert Unger

Anna Walker

Joseph Walker Jr.

Clifford and Nicole Wang

Elaine Wang

Donald and Jennifer Webster

Art and Susan Williams

Frank Wyatt

Carolyn and John Wylder

Rick and Charlene Zalesky Jr.

CORPORATIONS & FOUNDATIONS

2MNext

AEC, Inc.

Alaska Air Group, Inc.

Alfred Benesch & Company

American Endowment Foundation

American Institute of Steel Construction Inc.

ARCADIS

Atlas Technical Consultants, LLC

Aulick Engineering LLC

Ayres Associates Inc.

Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund

Barr Engineering Co.

Berkel & Company Contractors

Brasfield & Gorrie General Contractors

Blue Cypress Consulting

Carroll Daniel Construction

CHA Consulting

Cintra

Clark Construction Group, LLC

Consigli Construction Co., Inc. Contour Engineering, LLC

Crittenden and Associates

Dewberry

Durham Geo Slope Indicator

ECS Corporate Services LLC

Edmund C. Glover Foundation Inc.

EM Structural

EMC Engineering Services, Inc.

Engineered Earth Solutions LLC

ExxonMobil Corporation

Ferrovial

Fidelity Investment Charitable Gift Fund

Foresite Group, LLC

Geocomp Consulting, Inc.

Geo-Hydro Engineers, Inc.

Geo-Instruments

Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

Gilbane Building Company

Gresham Smith

Health Effects Institute

Holder Construction Company

Huff Family Foundation

HRC Engineers

InfoTech

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

JE Dunn

Keller Group NA

Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.

KPFF

MC Squared LLC

McCarthy Holdings, Inc.

Moffat & Nichol

Mulhern + Kulp

Neel-Schaffer

Norfolk Southern Corporation

Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, Inc.

ORM Management LLC

Pond & Company

Prime Engineering Inc.

Pros

RK&K

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Russo Structural Services LLC

S&ME, Inc.

SABRE Holdings Corporation

Schnabel Engineering

Schnabel Foundation Co.

Shear Structural

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.

Skanska USA Building, Inc.

Southern Company Services

Speedwell Foundation

Stability Engineering

STV Incorporated

Stifel

exxonMobil Corporation

Swinerton Foundation

T. Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving

Tensar International Corporation

Terracon, Inc.

The American Gift Fund

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

The Enchiridion Foundation

The Home Depot

The Walsh Group

Thornton Tomasetti Inc.

Turnipseed Engineers

Union Pacific

United Airlines, Inc.

USEngineering Solutions Corp

Uzun + Case Engineers

Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

Vecellio Family Foundation

Williams Enterprises of Georgia

Williams Family Foundation of Virginia Corp.

Winter Construction Company

Wood, PLC

WSP Foundation

Wurster Engineering & Construction, Inc.

The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans, LLC