CEE News - Fall 2018

CMU.EDU/CEE

Powerful Collaborations Driving Industry Advancements with Robotics and AI

Fall 2018

CEE NEWS Fall 2018

Editor & Designer Mireille Mobley Writers Rachel Mohr Handel Amanda King Mireille Mobley Georgia Schumacher Marika Yang For more news and information about CEE please visit us at: cmu.edu/cee Something to share?

We want to hear from you!

Please email news to mmobley@andrew.cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status or genetic information. Furthermore, Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate and is required not to discriminate in violation of federal, state, or local laws or executive orders.

Inquiries concerning the application of and compliance with this statement should be directed to the vice president for campus affairs, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, telephone 412-2682056.

Carnegie Mellon University publishes an annual campus security and fire safety report describing the university’s security, alcohol and drug, sexual assault, and fire safety policies and containing statistics about the number and type of crimes committed on the campus and the number and cause of fires in campus residence facilities during the preceding three years. You can obtain a copy by contacting the Carnegie Mellon Police Department at 412-2682323. The annual security and fire safety report is also available online at http://www.cmu.edu/ police/annualreports/.

C

arnegie Mellon is well known for research, development, and education in robotics and computer science, strengths which have been leveraged by all units in the College of Engineering and by the entire university for many years. This has certainly been the case for CEE. We were among the first to develop a graduate program in computer-aided engineering in the 1970s, in field robotics in the 1980s, in computational mechanics in the 1990s, and in advanced technologies for infrastructure systems in the 2000s.

Our cover story describes some of the current research that has evolved from our history of innovation in bringing advanced technology into civil and environmental engineering. Professor Burcu Akinci, along with colleagues from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and from Northeastern University, is investigating the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones�) for rapid inspection of infrastructure. With bridges as a test case, drones are being used to collect imagery and other data for rapid generation of 3D models that inspectors can use on site. In other work, Professor Hae Young Noh and colleagues in Electrical and Computer Engineering are developing drone technology for use in searches for survivors inside buildings after fires, earthquakes, and other disasters. We are also bringing drone technology into the classroom. For example, Professor Costa Samaras has first-year students in his Exploring CEE class making measurements with drones for a site on campus to assist with earthwork calculations.

Other research highlighted in this issue includes the work of Professor Kaushik Dayal and his students in use of quantum mechanics in material modeling to gain insights into the behavior of new materials such as aircraft composites and lightweight sensors. Also described is the work of Professor Sean Qian and his students on the use of big data in transportation system modeling and design. Qian leads our Mobility Data Analytics Center, a joint enterprise with the Heinz College. Professor Greg Lowry, building on research by his group as part of the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology, has several ongoing projects with his students related to use of nanomaterials in agriculture.

Plans are being finalized for complete renovation of our 6000-square-foot environmental engineering laboratory space used for work with water, soil, sediment, and waste. Work will begin in December and take about nine months. Please consider supporting this critical project at giving. cmu.edu/waterlab.

Professor Emeritus Francis McMichael, teacher and mentor to generations of CEE students, former CEE head, and important builder of the CEE environmental engineering program and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon, passed away in July. CEE owes him a lot, and we miss him.

Carnegie Mellon is celebrating the inauguration of President Farnam Jahanian on October 2627. Information about the special events planned is available at cmu.edu/inauguration. The CEE Alumni Advisory Council will be meeting on October 26; we look forward to welcoming the council members back to their CEE home.

The faculty, students, and staff of CEE thank all of our loyal and generous alumni who support the Department in so many and much appreciated ways. We send our best wishes to all of you.

Hamerschlag University Professor CEE Department Head

CEE NEWS

Inside This Issue 8 11

Water Matters to Metal Nanoparticles

4

CEE researchers make a breakthrough discovery that gold nanoparticles can dissolve when they interact with freshwater aquatic plants—instead of remaining stable as commonly thought.

Powerful Collaborations

Rethinking the Rink: Designing a Safer Hockey Rink for the Pittsburgh Penguins

Driving Industry Advancements with Robotics and AI

Teams of interdisciplinary students collaborate and propose solutions to increase the safety for Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey rink.

12

Science Behind Composites in Aviation

13

MSTV/CEE: Preparing the Next Generation of Innovative Engineers

How CEE faculty continue to innovate the use of field robotics in civil and environmental engineering in their research.

Professor Kaushik Dayal has received a grant from the Department of Defense to develop new methods to use quantum mechanics to provide fundamental insight into the behavior of new materials.

Students combine a passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and engineering in the new dual-degree Master of Science in Technology Ventures/Civil and Environmental Engineering program.

26

Redesigning the Environmental Engineering Research Space To better accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s research—and the equipment it requires—the Environmental Engineering Labs are undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation, with construction starting in January 2019 and the new labs opening in August 2019.

2019 Program Rankings *

Our Faculty & Research

Civil 12th - UG 10th - Grad

13 4 5

Full Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors

5

Faculty with Active NSF Career Awards

Environmental 7th - UG 8th - Grad

* Source: U.S. News and World Report

Enrollment AY 2018-2019 Bachelors Masters Doctoral FALL 2018

93 150 62

45%

of CEE Students are Women

61% Undergraduate Women 38% Graduate Women

$6.46M Annual Externally Funded Sponsored Research in FY18

Remote Reconaissance Vehicle, 1983 First vehicle to enter the basement of Three Mile Island after a meltdown in March 1979.

PhD student Adeola Bannis adjusts vibration sensor on mini drone

POWERFUL COLLABORATIONS Driving Industry Advancements with Robotics and AI

At Three Mile Island, the basement of the damaged nuclear reactor was left untouched and unseen for five years until, in 1984, a robot entered the site to begin inspection and cleanup of the most serious commercial nuclear power plant accident in US history.

That robot was designed by CMU Civil Engineering Professor William “Red” Whittaker (MS ’75, PhD ’79), and his students. It was the first of many innovations to come from the Field Robotics Center, founded by Whittaker, now the Fredkin Research Professor at the CMU Robotics Institute, to focus on robots for work sites and natural terrain. Before long, a second of their robots was collecting core samples from the basement walls at Three Mile Island. That same year, the Terregator was built—the first autonomous outdoor navigation robot capable of successfully exploring rugged grounds.

“Civil Engineering jumped right in on the robotics work going on at the university and in the outside industry,” asserts Ben Motazed (BS ’78, MS ’80, PhD ’85), one of Whittaker’s students at the time. “No institution in the world was doing the kind of things we were doing.”

For Motazed, his time in the Field Robotics Center was life-changing. After his studies, he stayed at Carnegie Mellon for 10 years working in sensing and autonomous ground vehicles. From there, he applied these skills to do everything from engineer autonomous flight systems to help launch Google’s drone-based delivery service, Project Wing. Today, as an enterprise 4

CEE NEWS

Bridge inspector drone scanning underpass

account manager at Intel, Motazed helps companies use drones to improve their operations in the oil and gas, construction, utilities, and agriculture industries.

While the Field Robotics Center has since moved from CEE to join the Robotics Institute, this spirit of innovation remains at the core of our department. Today’s CEE faculty and students build on this legacy, continuing to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics developments that bring groundbreaking solutions to the complex infrastructure and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.

Inspecting Deteriorating Infrastructure Hundreds of feet above the ground or below water, bridge inspectors must attempt hazardous climbs and squeeze their way into tight dark spots.

It’s difficult, time-consuming work that requires expensive, specialized equipment. It’s also an essential task for safe and high-performing infrastructure.

FALL 2018

Yujie Wei with data collection rig

CEE Professor Burcu Akinci, along with members of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and researchers at Northeastern University, have been working on a safer, lower-cost, and more efficient way to inspect bridges with drones.

Already, some organizations capture infrastructure imagery and video with drones, but this footage provides only a limited view. Akinci and her collaborators have a different approach.

Their drones collect and use data to rapidly construct interactive 3D models of bridges that inspectors can review. These drones become the inspector’s apprentice, automatically identifying and analyzing objects for defects. From the finished model, you can produce detailed inspection and assessment reports featuring objective measurements with defined degrees of certainty. You can also compare models year over year to review structural changes over time.

For Akinci, collaborating with the Robotics Institute is nothing new.

“When I started at CMU in 2000, it was clear that we were missing a complete 3D understanding of what was happening in infrastructure and facilities,” she says. “I saw a need to develop better approaches to quality control, inspections, and condition assessments.”

Burcu Akinci

While the group is still refining algorithms and software, their prior work has received much attention and was even demonstrated to President Barack Obama in 2016.

5

With this realization, Akinci approached her colleagues in robotics and computer vision, who quickly jumped on board to assist with a research proposal for National Science Foundation funding. It was the start of a long line of projects that have led to today’s drone-based bridge inspections.

“They bring the vision expertise and I bring the civil engineering expertise in solving these problems. We need both,” she declares. “The Carnegie Mellon culture is extremely unique. It is not easy to identify another place where someone could so easily create these kinds of collaborations. It’s been close to 18 years and there’s not a single year we haven’t worked together.”

Designing Smart Space Habitats Bridge inspection drones aren’t the only piece of flying technology on Akinci’s mind lately; she’s also participating in a project featuring technology designed to go far beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Using their knowledge of smart buildings on Earth, Akinci and fellow CEE Professor Mario Bergés are helping NASA design self-diagnosing and selfrepairing systems for smart habitats in space.

Mario Berges, seated left As NASA plans lunar orbits and deep space missions, maintaining functioning systems in a space habitat could be a matter of life or death. Even in minor cases, repairs take away precious 6

Costa Samaras discusses drone project in Exploring CEE course with first year students time from experiments and scientific exploration. “The astronauts have limited time and their missions have specific budgets and goals. Anything that deviates from what they’re tasked to do is costly,” explains Akinci.

Adding to that difficulty is that, in deep space, real-time communication with mission control on Earth is non-existent.

Receiving messages takes too long.

“You have to aim for real autonomy where the space habitat itself, either in conjunction with the occupants or on its own, can resolve issues that arise during the mission,” says Bergés. The goal is a system that can predict and fix potential malfunctions, or at least guide the astronauts in implementing solutions, before any flaw becomes critical.

and predict using data from sensors inside the NASA Sustainability Base at Ames Research Center in California.

Moving forward, they’ll study how to apply these predictions in smart space habitats and draw on the team’s knowledge of innovative facility management technologies to devise strategies to equip systems for selfrepair.

“The constraints of space make the project more complicated but more interesting too,” says Bergés. “In this case, the entire building system is really a life-support system.”

As a researcher, Bergés focuses on extracting useful information from sensed measurements of infrastructure systems, including buildings. “Take the meter on your house,” he shares.

“Through machine learning and statistical analysis, using only the electricity measurements captured by that meter, we can identify when each specific appliance turns on and off and even discover flaws in your appliances.”

Working with NASA, Bergés and Akinci will first see what they can uncover

Hae Young Noh CEE NEWS

Simplifying Drone Operations

employs one large drone with GPS and high-resolution cameras to monitor and localize the smaller, lower-cost worker drones washing the windows.

Hae Young Noh is another CEE professor working on life-saving technology. In fires, earthquakes, and other emergencies, drones can help find survivors inside buildings. Yet controlling and localizing drones is complicated indoors. GPS isn’t reliable and the drones’ built-in cameras aren’t enough in low-visibility conditions.

“These projects are both partnerships with ECE Professor Pei Zhang, who is a drone and systems expert,” says Noh. “With my expertise in vibration, I focus on data analysis and probabilistic model updating. I also work on incorporating building information into drone navigation, especially for search and rescue.”

You can add expensive sensors, but it’s not ideal. Maneuvering through halls and doors, with the potential for human collisions, indoor drones must remain small and lightweight. Extra sensors increase the drone’s payload and decrease battery life.

Noh’s other projects range from sensors that monitor the elderly’s movements as they walk or rise from bed—alerting caregivers of potential issues before falls happen—to sensors that can transform any tabletop or surface into a touch screen by tracking tapping and swiping movements. “The opportunities to incorporate AI and machine learning into our work are incredibly vast,” she says.

Noh and her Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) colleagues propose an alternative. When the drone flies, the noise of the spinning propellers is recorded. Combining that sound with building information, the researchers can localize the points of the drone’s four propellers to estimate both the drone’s location, and trajectory.

To help identify individual drones within a group, Noh’s team is also implementing low-cost, lightweight vibration sensors on each drone, so that they can match the movement captured on the drone’s camera with the unique vibration signature tracked by the sensor.

Introducing Future Engineers to Advanced Technologies While many CEE students assist in our faculty’s boundary-pushing research, that’s far from students’ only opportunity to interact with such technology, and student research collaborations abound across departments.

With these methods, Noh and her colleagues can reduce both dronelocalization and identification times in situations where time is of the utmost importance.

What’s more, our faculty are bringing robotics technology into the curriculum earlier than ever, with our first-year Exploring CEE class featuring a project that demonstrates how engineers can use technology to understand the world around them.

Like other faculty, Noh is quick to note that many of her projects involve robotics or AI. For example, the same team has generated a novel approach to managing outdoor drones that wash skyscraper windows, another job dangerous for humans. Here, the group

For the project, students must first estimate by hand the area of a space on campus and the soil required to fill it. Later, they repeat the task using a drone’s camera and software, comparing the benefits and challenges of the two experiences.

FALL 2018

Costa Samaras

“Our goal is for new students to understand how advanced technology can help them do their jobs better, to consider the civil and environmental engineering applications for sensors and robotics, and to also identify current technology limitations,” says course instructor Costa Samaras.

The possible uses, benefits, and costs of technology is a subject Samaras looks at often in his own research. In 2018 alone, his work has explored pressing questions on the environmental impacts of drone package delivery; economic, environmental, and travel implications of changes in parking choices due to driverless vehicles; and how automated vehicle technologies could reduce US fuel consumption.

“At CEE, it’s in our DNA to understand and work with robotics and advanced technology,” Samaras says. “It’s important that we encourage students from the beginning to use their judgment of when and how to incorporate these tools—and even question how these technologies could be improved. In doing so, we train civil engineers to think differently and find new ways to solve our infrastructure problems.”

7

Water Matters to Metal Nanoparticles CEE researchers make a breakthrough discovery that gold nanoparticles can dissolve when they interact with freshwater aquatic plants—instead of remaining stable as commonly thought.

By understanding these nano-bio interactions, researchers can use them to our benefit in designing better materials.

When you purchase anything from makeup to paint to sunscreen, chances are it contains engineered nanoparticles.

These nanoscale materials have properties that are revolutionizing products—from medicine to agriculture to electronics. Eventually, those nanoparticles will reach natural environments. To use them safely and to their fullest potential, we need to know how they behave in real environments—and if that behavior leads to any unintended consequences.

CEE Professor Greg Lowry studies how nanoparticles behave in and impact the environment. One way researchers have studied nanoparticle fate is by tracking gold nanoparticles, because they are stable and easy to find—or so researchers thought.

Recently, Lowry and post-doctoral researcher Astrid Avellan have made a breakthrough discovery: gold nanoparticles actually dissolve in freshwater environments when they come into contact with mircroorganisms found on aquatic plants.

During the process, gold ions are released, which behave differently from the nanoparticles and could be toxic to some microorganisms. The study did not measure toxicity, so this doesn’t mean gold nanoparticles are harmful—instead, by better understanding their behavior in biologically active environments, researchers can ultimately use this knowledge to design better nanomaterials. Their findings were published in Nature Nanotechnology.

“This study has opened our eyes to the importance of plants and the plant microbiome in determining the fate of engineered nanomaterials in freshwater environments,” says Lowry. “These plants, and biofilms in general, are important

The mesocosms at the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology at Duke University

8

CEE NEWS

they interact with biofilm in water environments.

Microscopy images showing the microorganisms present in the biofilm found on subaquatic plants that cause the gold to dissolve. sinks for nanomaterials and are a fascinating compartment to study.”

They looked at what causes this transformation and how quickly it occurs. They conducted their tests in what is called a mesocosm—a controlled natural freshwater environment. The mesocosm, housed at the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology facility at Duke University, contains soil, sediment, water, plants, insects, fish, and microorganisms that ordinarily live in these natural environments.

The team released gold nanoparticles into the mesocosm water in very low amounts every week to mimic longterm, low-dose inputs expected from nanomaterial uses. They wanted to see how the nanoparticles would behave in a complex, biologically active ecosystem.

After six months they found that 70% of the gold was accumulating with the aquatic plants, and that all of the gold nanoparticles had dissolved and changed. When they looked at the biofilm, a sticky substance made up of bacteria and microorganisms found on plants, they found that the microorganisms released cyanide that was interacting with the gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles dissolved (or ionized), forming gold-cyanide along with other gold compounds that remained with the plants.

FALL 2018

Nanoparticles are aggregates of atoms forming particles between 1 and 100 nanometers, or one-hundredth to onethousandth of the thickness of a human hair. Their size confers novel properties that benefit many applications: they could treat water better, they could kill bacteria on a wound, they could create stronger but lighter materials.

“We found that gold was accumulating like crazy in the aquatic plants, which was not what we were expecting,” says Avellan. “So we explored that and found that gold was associated with these plants, but it wasn’t nanoparticulate anymore.”

This is a major breakthrough because gold nanoparticles were thought to be a stable material and have often been used as a tracer to understand how nanomaterials behave—if you find the nanoparticles, then you know where the nanoparticles accumulate. The findings from this paper imply that even relatively inert metal nanoparticles like gold can actually dissolve when

“The interactions of nanomaterials with the phytobiome can potentially be leveraged to benefit agriculture,” says Lowry. “The research community is only beginning to understand the role of the phtyobiome on plant productivity. This study indicates the potential to design nanomaterials that work together with the phytobiome to improve plant productivity. Successful interventions in agriculture will need to consider how to work synergistically with nature.”

Though the effects of the gold transformation need to be studied more, it is possible that it could be toxic to some organisms. The ions could also move faster and farther away than the nanoparticles, distributing differently in organisms and in the environment.

The good news is that now researchers have discovered how and why they dissolve, so they can be smart about future uses and applications of nanoparticles—even leveraging this phenomenon for our benefit.

“Now we know why and in what conditions gold nanoparticles dissolve,” says Avellan. “So we can take this knowledge and use it to our advantage to design better materials.”

Greg Lowry and Astrid Avellan next to the growth chamber in the CEE Environmental Lab 9

2018 COMMENCEMENT Commencement Awards ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Julissa Cruz H.A. Thomas, Sr. Distinguished Service Cindy Weng H.A. Thomas, Sr. Scholarship Yingtian (Catherine) Zhu James P. Romualdi Civil and Environmental Engineering Hunter Lawrence Outstanding Teaching Assistant Mahnoush Babaei Paul P. Christiano Outstanding Service Abhishek (Josh) Ghosh Mao Yisheng Outstanding Dissertation Navid Kazem

10

CEE NEWS

that can be provided by the board to puck and players. With many groups working toward the same goal, Chen believed the finished designs would show similarities.

At the final presentation, each group had distinct ideas. “That was really surprising and inspiring. I felt more and more confident that we clearly saw the potential in our ideas to solve the problem without compromising game performance.”

Rethink the Rink is a first-of-its kind project, providing students with a strong opportunity to showcase their critical thinking skills and ingenuity. Chen, a native of Hangzhou, China, says her education prepared her to be a valuable part of the team, mostly through the building classes she’s taken. “I got a good sense of how to put pieces together and how far the gaps [in the boards] should be.” Chen also utilized experience from her civil engineering courses to determine the best ways to test, control variables, and understand results.

Rethinking the Rink: Designing a Safer Hockey Rink for the Pittsburgh Penguins Concussions are a hot topic of conversation in sports—from football to soccer to hockey.

To create a safer environment for ice hockey players, 22 students from Carnegie Mellon University, including CEE sophomore Sally Chen, were asked to create improved dasher board systems that minimize player injury during impact. The week-long Maker Space Rethink the Rink challenge took place in partnership with The Pittsburgh Penguins and Covestro, a worldleading supplier of high-tech polymer materials.

“The school, the Penguins, and Covestro were really giving a lot of support in terms of coaching and providing materials,” she says. Chen’s group was tasked with differentiating the “give”

FALL 2018

Students of varying degree levels and majors— representing 11 Carnegie Mellon University departments—worked in Hamerschlag Hall’s Maker Space. The experience allowed Chen to learn first-hand from Covestro experts about the materials her team considered using. “For example, [we discovered that] constructing nonlinear spring can give the same effect as layers of foams with different densities,” she says.

Proposed solutions were presented to the CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the CEO of Covestro at an event held at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. According to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the prototypes will be submitted to both the National Hockey League and USA Hockey for feedback. Future testing by amateur players may take place at the Lemieux Sports Complex’s FedEx Rink.

Chen didn’t know the ins and outs of hockey before taking on the project. But after a week of learning the game and potential threats to player safety, she considers herself a fan.

She says the students’ passion for creating a workable solution shined through during final presentations. “We were focused on improving player safety.”

11

Science Behind Composites in Aviation

Conventional aircraft have typically been built with familiar materials such as aluminum. Newer aircraft that the Air Force is flying use a significant amount of composite materials, such as carbon fiber. These are materials that the Air Force knows very little about, at least compared to the traditional materials, which have been used for decades.

The fundamental science behind the behavior of these materials can be understood using quantum mechanics.

CEE Professor Kaushik Dayal has received a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the Department of Defense to develop new methods to use quantum mechanics to provide fundamental insight into the behavior of new materials.

“We aim to apply fundamental models from chemistry to applied engineering problems,” says Dayal.

“Doing this requires us to develop new computational methods.”

This project relies heavily on collaboration between CMU, California Institute of Technology (the lead institution), UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, and the Air Force Research Lab. The MURI program brings together interdisciplinary teams of researchers to problem-solve highpriority topics involving a cross-cutting

12

approach. This multidisciplinary approach brings forth innovation, accelerates research progress, and expedites a transition of results.

Awards are made in research topics specified by the participating defense agencies each year. This grant is for $7.5 million, $1.215 million of which will go to support Dayal and the CMU team’s research.

“The team includes experts in chemistry, applied mathematics, and mechanics of materials,” Dayal says. “This enables us to bridge the gap between fundamental theory and real-world application.”

This project has applications that go well beyond aircraft composites. For instance, lightweight sensors, actuators, and other sophisticated electronics on aircraft use cutting-edge new materials whose properties can be predicted only through quantum mechanics. Dayal’s research specializes in developing analytical and computational multiscale techniques and applying these techniques to materials engineering, positioning his group to make progress on this project.

With the help of this research, we will have a better understanding of how composite materials perform in the real world. These insights into the practical uses of materials have the potential to allow for a wide range of future innovations.

CEE NEWS

MSTV/CEE Preparing the Next Generation of Innovative Engineers

Xulu Liu knew that the dual-degree Master of Science in Technology Ventures/Civil and Environmental Engineering (MSTV/CEE) program was right for her for two reasons: she wants to start her own venture and she missed living on the West Coast.

Now, Liu is a member of the first graduating class of MSTV/CEE students.

She completed her CEE studies at Pittsburgh, her MSTV studies in CMU’s Silicon Valley campus, and an industry internship.

“The dual degree builds on the foundation and reputation of the traditional CEE coursework,” says David Vey, Graduate Admissions and Recruiting Manager for CEE. He adds that the MSTV curriculum allows students to add entreprenurial skills to their engineering knowledge, allowing them to launch careers that initiate change and build the products and solutions to complex problems.

Liu has a passion for entrepreneurism and innovation and hopes to start a company in the smart home or smart building industry. She sought a program focused on students who wish to use an engineering degree in a non-traditional way. She’s enjoyed learning about small start-ups and has expanded her expertise in emerging technologies FALL 2018

while meeting start-up founders, CTOs, CFOs and CIOs, experiences that make the program realistic and unique, according to Liu. “In Silicon Valley, it’s easy for us to take field trips to great companies where we learn about the tech ecosystem, in person and in detail.” She adds that her professors were supportive and experienced professionals who brought their own personal connections into the classroom. Their positions within the industry helped Liu to build her professional network.

Before she starts a company in China, Liu knows she needs to build her resume. “I want to get more working experience in mechanical design to learn more about the building environment, product design and product management,” she explains.

Her coursework in technology, product management, company law, and fundamental finance for start-ups will provide a foundation for her company, but her Silicon Valley internship showed her how to put it all to work.

“My internship was really hands-on in a small company that allowed me to be close to the founder,” she says. Liu worked in engineering for the firm, which designs the third-generation

LIDAR system for automated cars. “I combined my structural engineering knowledge with a real-world project.

Working with the founder taught me things that I couldn’t learn in books.”

The internship also showed Liu how a start-up operates, how to prepare for future development, and that she wants to begin her career working in product design.

“Thanks to this experience, I found a new way to approach my career— instead of only looking for a civil/ structural engineering position, I can look for product-design or mechanicaldesign opportunities. My internship helped me to get several interviews for mechanical engineering positions in LIDAR design.” Liu adds that the dual program is also beneficial to engineers who wish to enhance their leadership skills—and that studying in Pittsburgh and the Silicon Valley was an adventure.

“Silicon Valley is a great place for people who want to innovate and create,” says Vey. Adding that splitting education between two areas is core to the program’s success. “The MSTV/CEE curriculum bridges the gaps between the past, present, and future of industry.”

13

Celebrating the Career of Professor Jacobo Bielak

Professor Jacobo Bielak’s impact on his students, peers, and the industry was celebrated at his retirement party at CMU Carnival. From across the globe, people came to support a mentor, friend, and colleague described as a brilliant researcher on the forefront of earthquake simulation research—with a humble, compassionate approach to teaching and life.

Bielak summed up his 40 years as an instructor by stating that the relationships he’d formed enriched his life. “CMU has been the base from which I worked with colleagues from the United States and the world. I’m thankful for my family and friends who bring inspiration to me.”

The retirement event began with an overview of Bielak’s path to teaching— he grew up in Mexico City and attended Caltech and UCLA. In 1990, he made an indelible mark in the field with the Quake Project that predicted the impact of earthquakes on urban infrastructure.

College of Engineering Dean Jim Garrett added that he took one of Bielak’s first classes—when he was a sophomore in 1979. “I never saw anyone fill up a chalkboard so fully and effectively. He combines wonderful expertise and technical sophistication with amazing humanity.”

An open mic allowed former students and colleagues to toast Bielak’s successes. Bielak’s wife, Joyce, was also lauded for the counsel and guidance she provided to students who were 14

often on campus during holidays and special events. “Their home was always open to students and we spent many wonderful days with the Bielak family,” said Loukas Kallivokas (MS ’90, PhD ’95).

Former CEE faculty member Omar Ghattas added that his career was shaped by Bielak’s passion for research.

“We had 16 years of shared research, friendship, and collaboration. Today, what Bielak started is a robust field with thousands of researchers worldwide performing earthquake simulations.”

Noting that Bielak also helped to place CMU on the map as a leader in quake research, Ricardo Taborda (PhD ’10) said that Bielak’s research is respected and frequently cited. “People who know his work have enormous respect for it. He’s famous in the world of civil engineering.”

In his remarks, Bielak wished he could personally thank each individual in the room. This humility is what sets Bielak apart, according to Tom Siller (PhD ’88).

“He is one of the pillars of my academic life.” Former colleague Enrique Bazan added, “One of the things I’m most proud of is having my name on the same academic papers as Jacobo Bielak.”

Dean Garrett mentioned that while Bielak is retiring as an instructor, CMU is excited to continue working with him on research. “He’s a brilliant mind. We can’t let him go.”

CEE NEWS

FACULTY NEWS

Cohon Receives Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award CMU President Emeritus Jared Cohon was awarded this year’s Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cohon, University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, and director emeritus of CMU’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, was recognized for his devotion to promoting innovative environmental efforts that enhance the quality of life in Western Pennsylvania.

Under his leadership, CMU offered its first environmental ethics course, built the first LEED-certified residence hall in the world, and pledged to purchase 100 percent of the university’s electricity from renewable energy sources.

Before joining the university, Cohon was the dean of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University (19921997), and was a faculty member and administrator at Johns Hopkins University (1973-1992). He served as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and coordinated a U.S. National Academies study on the hidden costs of energy.

FALL 2018

Mauter to Lead Research Team to Develop Novel Solar-Thermal Desalination Process CEE/EPP Associate Professor Meagan Mauter will lead the CMU research team that received over $700,000 in research funding from the Department of Energy to create and test a new solar-thermal desalination process called Nanophotonics-Enabled Solar Membrane Distillation (NESMD).

“To date, research evaluating NESMD and other solar desalination technologies has been limited to bench scale analyses that can’t adequately scope the strengths and limitations of these innovations,” says Mauter.

“This project will take an integrative

approach, combining fundamental heat and mass transport modeling, module and process optimization, technoeconomic assessment, and field scale piloting to clearly identify the potential for distributed solar desalination technologies.”

Mauter and her team’s project is one of 14 funded projects by the DOE that focus on reducing the cost of solar desalination technologies and helping them reach new markets, including areas that aren’t connected to the electric grid.

CEE Professor Costa Samaras led sessions on Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in the SUCCEED teacher workshop for K-12 educators from the Pittsburgh area.

15

Qian Awarded NSF CAREER Award are traveling, they can better plan or be guided to avoid congestion. This reduces the overall strain on the system, ensuring better, more consistent transit times.

Almost everyone knows—and dreads— the feeling of getting stuck in traffic.

Annually Americans spend billions of hours idling in egregious congestion, yet this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.

vehicular and passenger flow from one day to the next, or the day-today variance. His project will examine unique factors that distinguish each day to predict how individuals will move through the system.

CEE Assistant Professor Sean Qian works with big data and transportation system modeling to develop a mathematical framework to improve the flow of traffic, and to improve the way we design, plan, and operate transportation systems. For his work, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded him the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, complete with $500,000 in funding for the next five years.

He will also examine how likely the vehicle/passenger flow exceeds a threshold at any location in the transportation network, rather than an average. This can be learned from massive data collected over many years.

This would allow more informative and reliable decision-making on infrastructure design and operation.

Many of those who will use his framework will be engineers who are currently still in school. Qian believes that now is the time to prepare them for the challenges ahead. With the lessons learned through this project, he will develop graduate and undergraduate infrastructure management courses that place greater emphasis on data analysis.

“If we know that there will be higher demand, we can allocate more resources and workers to manage this,” says Qian. “If there’s an incident, we can do the same, or possibly redesign the road to reduce the possibility or effect of future incidents.”

“It’s very important to teach the next generation of engineers how to design a bridge, a mobility service, and infrastructure, and also how to manage, monitor, and operate them by leveraging existing data and resources,” says Qian.

For Qian, an incident isn’t just a traffic accident or a natural disaster; an incident can be any major event that disrupts traffic, be it a sporting event, road closure, or an unplanned work zone. If we can help travelers understand when and where people

Some of the sources for Qian’s data include the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the City of Pittsburgh, the Port Authority of Allegheny County, the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, and the Western Pennsylvania municipalities of McKees Rocks and Cranberry.

Qian’s work uses massive amounts of data available from various sources to better understand and predict the function of multi-modal transportation systems (combinations of multiple transportation systems, such as highways, urban streets, public transit, parking, bikes, connected automated vehicles, etc.).

The data Qian uses are already available; however, but are siloed, meaning split between multiple transportation agencies. This makes it practically impossible to analyze or draw inferences about the operation of the overarching multi-modal system. Qian’s project will bring together disparate data sets, fusing the information to create a clearer picture of how each system functions and affects the next.

This will better reflect how individuals move through and between systems toward their destinations.

The information gleaned from Qian’s work will help transportation agencies manage their respective systems. To enable this, he’ll look at changes in 16

CEE NEWS

CMU, Howard University Offer Dual Engineering PhD Degrees Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering has announced a new partnership with the College of Engineering and Architecture of Howard University. This partnership will cover a wide range of initiatives between the two institutions, including a dual-degree PhD program that allows students to earn a PhD degree from both schools.

To qualify for this dual-degree program, students must apply and be admitted to engineering PhD programs from both institutions, but the programs need not be in the same department at both institutions. Students will spend balanced time at each institution, including at least three academic semesters in each location.

Students will have an advisor from each program who will collaborate with them on research and to select relevant coursework from both schools that satisfies the requirements of each program. They may transfer courses between the programs and will submit and defend a single dissertation. In addition to the benefit of two academic advisors, students will have access to a greater number of courses, a larger set of research facilities and a wider research community located in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. “The clear opportunities presented by this new CEA-CMU Partnership constitute yet another outstanding example of what we can and will continue to accomplish as a college,” says Achille Messac, dean of Howard University’s College of Engineering and Architecture.

FALL 2018

In addition to this dual-degree program, the partnership will include a bridge program to provide eligible undergraduates with the opportunity to engage in research at the other institution over the summer. The program will also include coaching for those students transitioning into the dual-degree PhD program, as well as professional development programs.

Deans Jim Garrett and Achille Messac

Jonathan Cagan, College of Engineering associate dean for graduate and faculty affairs at CMU, and Shawn Blanton, professor of electrical and computer engineering and chair of the Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach Committee, will lead the dual-degree program and other initiatives.

“Our aim is to explore a number of different forms of collaboration between Howard and CMU, such as joint research proposals and a dualPh.D. program,” says Jim Garrett, dean of the College of Engineering.

Applications for the dual-degree PhD program will open this fall.

17

STUDENT NEWS

PhD candidate Kelly Good was recently named as one of the Class of 2019 Siebel Scholars. Good, who is advised

by Professor Jeanne VanBriesen, is researching the implications of source water bromide changes on disinfection byproduct formation at downstream drinking water treatment plants.

This highly competitive award supports top graduate students in the fields of business, computer science, energy science, and bioengineering.

Established in 2000 by the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, the Siebel Scholars program awards grants to 16 universities in the United States, China, France, Italy, and Japan.

Recent PhD graduate Navid Kazem placed second place in the CMU 3 Minute Thesis competion.

Kazem’s thesis integrates his civil and environmental engineering field with mechanical engineering and physics to develop an insulative and conductive rubber, dubbed “Thubber.”

Find out more about his work at: bit.ly/thubber-cee-video.

Professor Dave Dzombak joined CEE graduating seniors who were honored at the College of Engineering May 2018 Honors Convocation. We are proud of this outstanding group of leaders committed to advancing communities and quality of life for people everywhere.

Pictured left to right, starting in back row: Hunter Lawrence, Cari Hartigan, Allan Khariton, Jonathan Ying, Yingtian Zhu, James Crnkovich, Jeremy Summers, Sebastian Hernandez, and Dave Dzombak. Front row: Sarah Mahler, Emmett Horton, Lee Hsu, Renee Rios, Cindy Weng, Joseph Kim, Julissa Cruz, Jeanette Pong, Amber Jiang, and Kate Markuson.

Recent PhD Theses

CEE PhD student Miranda Gorman, was recently awarded the Best Young Scientist Oral Presentation award at the International Conference on Resource Sustainability in Beijing, China.

Gorman’s research focuses on the exploration and advancement of sustainable mining and now focuses on how to apply these techniques to copper mining.

18

CEE PhD candidate Mostafa Mirshekari won first place at the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute 2018 paper competition in Boston for his paper “Human Health Tracking through Gait-Induced Floor Vibrations Across Different Structures.”

Mirshekari, who is advised by Professor Hae Young Noh, looks at using footstep-induced floor vibration to monitor and characterize occupant behavior and characteristics, such as their identity, location, and activity types. This information can be used to better serve the occupants and increase operational efficiency in smart structures, marketing, and healthcare.

Adam Cadwallader - Impacts of Bromide and Nitrogen Wastewater Discharges on Downstream Drinking Water Treatment Plant Disinfection Byproducts - Advisor: VanBriesen Navid Kazem - Soft Multifunctional Materials Using Liquid Metal - Advisor: Majidi Xiangfei Sun - Modeling the Biota Population Impact on Polychlorinated Biphenyls Transport and Simulating PCBs Anaerobic Biodegradation in the Lake System - Advisor: Small Xuejiao Zhang - Evaluating Indirect GHG Emissions of Biofuel and Implications for Renewable Energy Policies - Advisors: Small and Griffin CEE NEWS

Students Gain a Summer of Research Experience While many of their classmates left the Pittsburgh region for summer internships, Ruoyu Wang (MS ’18), Sally Chen (BS ’20), and Sharika Hegde (BS ’20) remained on campus to work alongside professors on research projects that provided valuable resumebuilding opportunities.

Wang, Chen, and Hegde joined the summer CEE research program which gives undergraduate and masters students an opportunity to gain research and hands-on engineering experience.

Sally Chen, who worked alongside Professor Mario Bergés on a project titled “Fine Grained Occupancy Estimator Using Kinect For HVAC Control,” says her internship helped her to become more familiar with the research process.

“It also let me learn more about the track that interests me in the CEE field, which is smart infrastructure.”

Chen mentions that she was inspired by her work and discoveries—particularly that research was not always about solving a problem but instead finding and defining the problem.

Hegde adds that her internship helped her to fine-tune future plans to focus on transportation issues within civil engineering. “It was beneficial to work with GIS software and learn about traffic flow. I know this will help me down the road.”

She worked on a mobility data analytics project with Professor Sean Qian.

Together, they created a mathematical model for pavement deterioration curves—as well as a GIS model for the City of Pittsburgh.

Clockwise: Sally Chen, Sharika Hegde, and Ruoyu Wang

The project was in collaboration with Michael Baker International (MBI), and Hedge filled the position of transportation software developer intern.

Hedge states that her experience was enhanced by the data analytics classes she took at CEE. Masters student Wang believes that his summer research provided a strong foundation for future coursework in membrane distillation experiments and impedance measurement.

Wang collaborated with Professor Meagan Mauter on the project “Validation of Nusselt Correlation Correction Method and Membrane Surface Temperature Measurement Technique.”

Sharika Hegde presents her summer research project at a student poster session at the end of the program.

FALL 2018

“I’m interested in membrane technology. The summer research experience opportunity was so valuable because I want to pursue a PhD in this area,” he adds.

19

In Their Words: Summer Internships Masters degree candidate Liz Alexander spent the summer interning for the nonprofit Current. In her position, Liz helped to create sustainable economic growth by connecting partners in water technology commercialization.

“My internship role was on the technical side—I helped to understand and explain the technologies that come to us—and analyze how they can fit with our partners’ needs. I worked at a nonprofit that focuses on innovation in the water industry by bringing together players from different arenas. This includes everyone from startups to researchers and utilities.

“The goal was to help each player to fill a void. For example, we helped startups get their technology to market, utilities to de-risk new technologies that save customers money, and researchers to acquire funding and collaborate with industry players.”

Tessa Weeden (CEE ’20) spent her summer far from Pittsburgh—as an intern at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP). Her work focused on making borough buildings more efficient to save both energy and money.

“As a research intern working to make borough buildings more energy efficient, I analyzed incoming data from DDC sensors inside several borough buildings. I used Python code to organize, graph, and interpret these large datasets. I also created a user interface to input specs on fans, pumps, and other equipment and perform energy analysis on it using live DDC data. To get the specs on the equipment, I looked at building plans and go on site visits “ Joseph Iacobellis (CEE/EPP ‘21) worked on “Restoring the George,” an initiative of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to maintain the structural health of the George Washington Bridge. He interned with El Sol Contracting and Construction which is overseeing the widening and addition of pedestrian walkways and a lookout area for tourists.

“I went into the field and logged material takeoff, kept track of subcontractors’ progress, ensured that our laborers had all the proper tools and equipment they needed, and measured various things—including steel, drilling, times, lumber, and electrical—to track billing and progress.”

Undergraduate Simone Stein (CEE/EPP ’20) spent her summer in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the Coal Combustion Products team at Duke Energy where she assisted the group to implement the safe closing of their coal ash basins.

“I worked on a variety of projects and did a fair amount of water testing analysis from data that came from field tests. I examined how water quality was changing over time. This data was used to determine how we will treat the water to meet state guidelines.”

20

CEE NEWS

ANSYS CTO Provides Hands-On Assistance to Summer Interns When assistant teaching professor Jim Thompson and his two summer research interns began working with a software package from ANSYS, they found they had a few questions. So they went directly to the source.

Thompson reached out to ANSYS chief technical officer Joseph Solecki, a 1984 CIT graduate. Solecki was generous enough to come to campus and work with the interns for several hours to help them through the issues they were experiencing.

Thompson explains that the software is a general-purpose finite element and engineering simulation package. “We were looking at the software to perform structural engineering analysis and simulations for vibrations.”

Thompson’s interns were tasked with learning how to use the software, then showing Thompson how it could work as a tool in his CEE classes.

The summer project hit a snag when the students experienced difficulty

discerning whether they were using the software in the most advantageous way.

When Thompson reached out to Solecki and other senior ANSYS staff, he was encouraged by their dedication in personally assisting the summer interns. Tim Pawlak, a research and development fellow at ANSYS, joined Solecki during the working session.

“ANSYS is very committed to working with CMU to help us use their software,” says Thompson.

In addition to the alumni connection, CEE has a strong relationship with ANSYS, an engineering simulation software company that’s partnering with Carnegie Mellon University to build the 30,000-square-foot ANSYS Hall in

the heart of the College of Engineering.

The new building will welcome students in fall of 2019.

The experience allowed the summer research students to complete the software analysis and report back to Thompson on its potential uses in the classroom.

Learn more about ANSYS Hall, a LEED certified Gold green building, here: cmu.edu/cdfd/ansys

CEE was well represented at the ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development. The event, hosted in Pittsburgh, provided insight into the public sector on connected and autonomous vehicles development, deployment, and growth from leaders in the field.

FALL 2018

21

2018 Alumni Awards

Our CEE alumni awards are designed to recognize our alums for their dedication, support, and contributions to both the department and the general world of civil and environmental engineering. These four awards are the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Outstanding Service Award, Lt Col. Christopher K. Raible Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Recent Alumni Achievement Award.

CEE celebrated our alumni award winners with a reception during Spring Carnival Weekend. Please vist: cmu.edu/cee/alumni/events/alumni-awards for award descriptions.

Distinguished Alumni Award Rachel Reinitz (BS ‘87) Rachel Reinitz graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1987 and is the founder and CTO of the IBM Cloud Garage in San Francisco. She identified a need for no-frills cloud consulting without compromising technical expertise—and was instrumental in pioneering the IBM Cloud Garage Method consulting practice.

Reintz is an IBM Fellow, is a trusted advisor to strategic clients, and is committed to nurturing technical talent. She created an internal mentoring program that has helped consultants to achieve increasing levels of professional certification.

Her work inspired a new way of working at IBM—and showed companies that business transformation is an achievable goal regardless of budget, existing infrastructure, or size.

As Cloud Garage CTO and IBM Fellow, she is at the forefront of IBM’s DevOps transformation.

CEE NEWS

Outstanding Alumni Service Award Janel Miller (BS’80, MS’84) Janel Miller began her career working at Alcoa in automotive R&D as an engineer and manager. She was known for her strong communication skills and, after retirement, decided to take those talents into a mentorship at CEE. While she was back in the department, Miller worked with faculty members to define expectations for writing assignments in their classes. She also developed and instructed CEE’s undergraduate and graduate writing courses while coaching students on their resume and interview skills. She and her husband, Jim, moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2014 where she taught professional and technical communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Millers recently established their second ACS Legacy Scholarship directed to CEE undergraduate students. “I am honored to receive the award. I never considered what I was doing to be service. I was doing what needed to be done at the time,” she says.

Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible Distinguished Public Service Award Ram Sriram (MS’82, PhD’86) Ram Sriram earned his masters and PhD degrees at CMU and is currently the chief of the software and systems division at the Information Technology Laboratory within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He also served in the design and process group in the manufacturing systems integration division, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, conducting research on standards for interoperability of computer-aided design systems. He joined the faculty at MIT and led the development of the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory. Sriram co-authored or authored nearly 275 publications and conceived and developed research programs that led to important technological developments for the nation and for the engineering profession.

His work in education and in the federal government has brought honor and visibility to CMU. “I was excited to learn that I’d won the award. But my service is nothing compared to what Lt. Col. Raible or his family did for our country,” Sriram says.

Recent Alumni Award Brittani Grant (BS, MS ‘12) As an undergraduate, Brittani Grant interned with Turner Construction and after graduation, was hired as a Project Manager with Clark Construction. At Clark she worked on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Grant has won numerous awards for her work on the museum, which opened in 2016.

During her time at Clark, Grant created a relationship between the company and CMU that’s resulted in many opportunities for students and recent alumni.

Grant lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and now works at DPR Construction.

FALL 2018

ALUMNI NEWS

Kutchko Named SPE Distinguished Lecturer With three elimination stages, it’s an arduous process to be named a Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) distinguished lecturer. Nearly two-thirds of applicants don’t make it through the nine-month evaluation process.

When Barbara Kutchko (PhD ‘08) learned that she’d made the final cut, she was overjoyed—and immediately began formulating an intense travel schedule that will take her from Kansas to Alaska, India, Greece, and Hungary.

Kutchko is a Pittsburgh-based senior research scientist specializing in wellbore integrity and subsurface environments. She works at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), United States Department of Energy—and applies her experience working with professors Dave Dzombak and Greg Lowry directly to her research at NETL. “CEE fostered a well-rounded creativity and was an invaluable part of my research career. It’s a supportive, nurturing place where I learned so much more than just academic skills,” she adds.

As she prepares to embark on her lecture schedule, Kutchko is busy researching international locations where she’ll consolidate five years of research findings into a 30-minute talk.

24

“My presentation topic is on a foamed cement study I led, conducted through a joint effort between the National Energy Technology Laboratory and the API Sub-Committee 10.” It examines the differences between foamed cement slurries generated with laboratory equipment and field foamed cementing equipment.

Kutchko’s lecturer nomination process began in February 2017 and didn’t conclude until her October 2017 inperson presentation in San Antonio, Texas. “It honestly felt like my PhD dissertation all over again. During the presentations, the committee evaluated different aspects including the overall speaking and presentation style, ability to interact with the audience, and time management. I honestly had no idea whether or not I made it.”

DiGioia Honored as Italian-American Man of the Year Congratulations to Tony DiGioia (BS ‘56, MS ‘57, PhD ‘60), who was honored by Pittsburgh Italian Scholarship Fund as the Pittsburgh Italian-American Man of the Year at its annual banquet in recognition of his professional accompishments and contributions to the community.

DiGioia and fellow alum Richard (Dick) Gray (BS ‘56) founded the consulting firm General Analytics Inc (today known as GAI).

Then in “retirement,” DiGioia founded with Dick Gray the firm DiGioia Gray & Associates which has grown to more than 100 employees and six offices.

While the pressure is now off, Kutchko states that the real work is just beginning. And she’s relying on the skills she gained at CEE to prepare for the busy months ahead.

“CEE set an example of professionalism, team work, and work ethic that I carry with me to this day.” She states that her instructors cared about her success.

“They taught me the importance of time management, organization, selfmotivation, and team work.”

CEE NEWS

Leite is currently an associate professor of civil, architectural, and environmental engineering at University of Texas - Austin. Her main research area is Building Information Modeling (BIM) which sits at the interface of visualization, collaboration, and automation in construction.

At 97, Jerry Bozzo (BS ‘42) broke his own record for oldest trainer to win a thoroughbred race. Bozzo’s horse, Gusty Wind, took first place in the fifth race.

The Incline Pittsburgh named Chris Watts (BS ‘08) as one of the 17 people under 40 who are impacting how Pittsburghers get around.

Watts is the vice president of mobility for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a role that has him leading and implementing initiatives to make Downtown a more “active, engaging, and accessible place to live, work, and play.”

Carnegie Corporation has named Shahzeen Attari (PhD ‘09) a 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Attari was chosen as one of 31 fellows from nearly 300 nominees in the fields of science, law, technology, business, and public policy.

Her research focuses on environmental decision-making at the individual level, and she studies the biases that shape people’s judgments and decisions about resource use and climate change.

Fernanda Leite (PhD ‘09) was named CIIProjSuccess Outstanding Researcher at The CII Annual Conference in Indianpolis.

CEE Alumni Check List You may not be on campus every day but you will forever be part of the CEE family. Staying connected and up-todate with us will only take a few minutes but keeps you informed of what’s happening in your department!

Our alumni relations manager, Deb Lange, is your direct link to CEE. You can email her at: dlange@cmu.edu.

PHOTO CREDIT SHAMUS FATZINGER

Attari currently serves as an associate professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

The retired aeronautical engineer, industrialist, and World War II veteran sold his Pennsylvania bottle manufacturing company in 1969.

He has been breeding and training thoroughbreds in South Florida since the 1970s.

Bozzo first became the oldest trainer to win a race on June 3, 2017, when Cotton Tooyah won at Gulfstream for the then96-year-old.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! We love to hear about our alumni’s professional and personal acheivements. Send an email to: mmobley@andrew.cmu.edu.

Moved since graduation? Make sure we have your current contact information by checking out the CMU Alumni Association Online Directory: cmu.edy/alumni Connect with us on social media! Keep up with department events and research on any of our channels. cmu.edu/cee/cee-social-media.html We love photos! Send us a photo of you in the field or meeting up with fellow alumni. We love to see what you are up to!

You can email Deb Lange at dlange@cmu.edu

FALL 2018

25

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Redesigning the Environmental Engineering Research Space

Inside the Environmental Engineering Labs in Porter Hall, students and faculty explore complex issues essential to the health of our planet, conducting cutting-edge research on treatment, characterization, and remediation strategies for water, soil, sediment, and waste.

The accomplished CEE professors behind that work include professors David Dzombak, Kelvin Gregory, Greg Lowry, Meagan Mauter, and Jeanne VanBriesen.

Sharing this space are numerous students completing course projects and supporting faculty research.

Since their last renovation in 1994, these labs have been a place to experiment and learn for approximately 1,000 students, and the work done here has evolved much over those nearly 25 years. To better accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s research— and the equipment it requires—the Environmental Engineering Labs are undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation, with construction starting in January 2019 and the new labs opening in August 2019.

“The updated laboratories will provide a world-class facility where we can continue to make contributions to basic and applied research in environmental engineering and science,” says Lowry, who is closely involved in the facility’s design. “This will also help us remain competitive for funding opportunities in our core research areas and move into new critical areas of research, such as the food-energy-water nexus.”

The renovated labs will feature a bright, open, and flexible space that allows for the easy flow of people, materials, and equipment. Most casework and lab benches will be moveable, and fixed fume hoods will be complemented with overhead equipment that can be adjusted to provide other areas with temporary ventilation.

According to CEE Department Head Dzombak, “Renewing this space will give our students the firstrate facilities they deserve and enable us to continue to attract top faculty and students from around the world.”

To support this important renovation, visit: giving.cmu.edu/waterlab.

26

CEE NEWS

Remembering Fran McMichael Dr. Francis Clay McMichael, emeritus professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon and former CEE department head, passed away on July 28, 2018, at 80 years old. McMichael left a profound legacy at Carnegie Mellon, which he joined in 1967.

He graduated from Girard College in 1954, a primary and secondary school for single-parent children in Philadelphia. McMichael earned a B.S. in Mining Engineering (1958) from Lehigh University, and an MS in Geophysics (1959) and a PhD in Civil Engineering (1963) from the California Institute of Technology.

Joined Mellon Institute at Carnegie Mellon in 1967 as part of the American Iron and Steel Institute Water Resources Group Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) Faculty Member CEE department head from 1975-1979 Appointed the first Walter J. Blenko, Sr. Professor of Environmental Engineering in 1981

Following a postdoctoral research appointment at CalTech, McMichael joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Princeton University.

He was recruited in 1967 to the Mellon Institute at Carnegie Mellon to join the American Iron and Steel Institute Water Resources Group. He was appointed in the departments of Civil Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy in 1972.

CEE Department Head David Dzombak, a student of McMichael as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon in the 1970s, says of his mentor, “Fran McMichael had a broad background in engineering and science, and a wide spectrum of interests. He brought his brilliant, interdisciplinary perspectives to work every day to inspire students and colleagues in the classroom and in research project meetings. He built the environmental engineering program at Carnegie Mellon, starting with a tremendous volume of teaching and research of his own in the 1960s and ‘70s, and then leading efforts to hire others to expand the environmental engineering

FALL 2018

program. The program has been consistently ranked as among the top environmental engineering programs in the nation for decades. He was a mentor and friend to generations of students and faculty members at Carnegie Mellon, including during his 16 years in emeritus status. CEE owes Fran McMichael a lot and we will miss him greatly.”

In addition to his contributions to CEE and EPP, McMichael was instrumental in founding the Green Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon, along with CEE Professor Chris Hendrickson and Professor Lester Lave of EPP and the Tepper School. Through the Institute, he sought to address product design that attempts to minimize the use of non-renewable resources and the spread of toxic materials.

His green design research applied concurrent engineering concepts to the design of products and processes to mitigate environmental impacts over their entire life cycle.

He published extensively on topics from environmental engineering, to life cycle analysis, to technology and design assessment for integrated waste management. He was wellknown as one of the nation’s leading researchers and educators in interdisciplinary engineering-based environmental problem solving.

“Dr. McMichael’s influence on the college and the field of environmental engineering was indispensable, both as department head and as a professor,” says Dean of the College of Engineering Jim Garrett. “He asked probing questions and he pursued the truth no matter the consequences to him. He was an inspiration to many, including me. He will be greatly missed.”

27

Presorted First Class Mail U.S. Postage PAID Pittsburgh, PA Permit #251

5000 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

CarnegieMellonUniversityCEE

www.cmu.edu/cee #cmucee

@cmu_cee bit.ly/linkedin-cmu-cee

Give strategically, Support generously.

JERRY BOZZO (CE ’42) turned his passion for horses into a lifelong career as an award-winning horse trainer. As a retired veteran, aeronautical engineer, and businessman, he has had an impact on many fields throughout his life. Now 98 years old, Jerry is currently the oldest horse trainer to win a race.

At Carnegie Mellon University, Jerry has created a lasting legacy by establishing a gift to support undergraduates in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Jerry says that he is motivated to give back to his alma mater in recognition of the opportunities that his education has given to him.

PHOTO CREDIT SHAMUS FATZINGER

Learn how easy it is to achieve your philanthropic vision through a planned gift by visiting giftplanning.cmu.edu.

Contact the Office of Gift Planning today at 412.268.5346 or askjoebull@andrew.cmu.edu.

CEE NEWS