Civil and Materials
ENGINEERING
Alumni Newsletter - Spring 2016
IN THIS ISSUE • Faculty News • Two New Faculty Members Join CME • Ozevin, Derrible Receive NSF CAREER Awards • Researching the Great Lakes • ASCE-UIC Compete at the Great Lakes Student Competition • Engineers Without Borders Revived • Student Profile: John Mulrow
Chicago’s Research University
Message from the INTERIM DEPARTMENT HEAD
A Department on the Rise
CME Faculty HIGHLIGHTS Professor Burke Inducted into National Academy of Construction CME’s Professor of Practice Christopher Burke, PhD, PE, D.WRE. Dist.M.ASCE has been inducted into the National Academy of Construction. Chris is a leading expert in stormwater management, and an excellent and innovative educator at CME, where he teaches hydraulics, hydrology and the senior capstone design class. This is the one of many awards Burke has received in recent years. Additional awards include the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Edmund Friedman Professional
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elcome to the Spring 2016 CME Newsletter. I hope you enjoy the stories on our faculty and student successes over the past six months. We have some inspiring stories on our students, as well as some great news on the department. First, I would like to let you know of our “hot off the press” data from the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of graduate Civil Engineering programs. We have moved up each year since the 2014, and the latest 2017 data have us increasing nine spots to 62nd overall, which is the 39th percentile of all Civil Engineering programs. Although results can vary from year to year, I believe this progressive and significant improvement is a sign of the recognition we are getting for our great program and great faculty. Two examples of this can be found in this newsletter. CME Assistant Professors Sybil Derrible and Didem Ozevin received the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award for young faculty. CAREER is the top award the NSF gives for junior faculty and to have two wins this year is a great achievement. Now, one fifth of our faculty are CAREER award winners. Additional stories highlight grants by CME Assistant Professor Sheng Wei Chi and CME Professor Krishna Reddy, my own research in the Great Lakes, as well as the induction of CME Professor of Practice Chris Burke into the National Academy of Construction. Next we shift to stories on our students (and future alumni). The Engineers Without Borders student chapter at UIC re-started this year, and we also highlight one of our graduate students with a non-traditional background, and finish with a recap of the ASCE Midwest regional competition. I can’t wait to share even more great news in our Fall 2016 newsletter.
Karl Rockne, CME Interim Department Head and Professor.
“We are excited to finalize the start-up process with EWB-USA so that we can begin working on a project. We are looking into the option of re-establishing our relationship with Cerro Alto, Guatemala, the village with whom UIC’s previous chapter of EWB-USA worked.”
Regards,
- Jessica Taskila, president of EWB-USA at UIC
Karl Rockne, Professor and Interim Department Head
Connect with alumni and students on 2
Recognition Award — where he is one of only five Distinguished Fellows in the Chicago area — the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Purdue Engineering Alumni Christopher Association, the Burke Charles Ellet Award from the Western Society of Engineers, the Corporate Philanthropic Award from the West Suburban Philanthropic Network, and an American
Public Works Association (APWA) Top Ten Leader of the Year Award. Burke is the founder and President of Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd. Based in Rosemont, Ill He also is an active member of CME’s Civil Engineering Professional Advisory Council (CEPAC), which was established in 2000 to enhance undergraduate education at UIC and consists of civil engineering faculty members and professional practitioners. Learn more about Professor Burke at Burke Profile.
Professor Reddy Awarded $77,150 Supplement Grant
Professor Chi Recieves New $149,302 DoD Grant
Professor Krishna Reddy received a $77,150 supplement grant to his National Science Foundation (NSF) project entitled “Modeling Coupled Dynamic Processes in Landfills: Holistic Long-Term Performance Management to Improve Sustainability.” In September, Reddy was awarded a three-year $280,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a model to transform dry-tomb landfills into efficient Krishna Reddy waste treatment systems. “This project will develop a new coupled mathematical tool to enable the design and operation of stable, effective and sustainable engineered landfills, thereby minimizing longterm risks to the surrounding environment and public,” said Reddy. “The tool will enable practitioners and regulators to predict the highly complex landfill stabilization period, and allow for the planning of beneficial reuse of landfill space, such as recreational facilities, by accurately accounting for a differential settlement and stabilization period.” With controlled, predictable, rapid municipal solid waste decomposition and a reduced stabilization period non-degradable municipal solid waste may be mined and processed, reducing the amount of landfill mass encapsulated within a landfill; post-closure monitoring can be shortened and associated expenditures considerably reduced; and concerns about the long-term performance of geosynthetic liners and related environmental risks can be addressed. This research involves multiple disciplines, including geoenvironmental engineering, sustainable engineering, biology, and computational mechanics. Reddy is the director of CME’s Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory and Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory. Learn more at Reddy Profile.
Professor Sheng-Wei Chi has been awarded a new $149,302 grant entitled “Meshfree Modeling of Munitions Penetration in Soils” from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. Associate Professor Craig Foster is co-PI on the grant, which runs until Feb. 26, 2017. The objective of this proposal is to develop physically based models to predict the pene- Sheng-Wei Chi tration depth of common military munitions in various soil conditions. Ultimately, the models will be used to determine probable depths of munitions in the soil of formerly used defense sites in support of planning for remediation. These results will be used to aid sensor detection and removal of these munitions. The project will benefit DoD by providing a robust numerical framework for modeling penetration into soils. Eventually, the results of the simulations will translate into a set of tables for probable depths of munitions based on soil conditions, projectile type, and firing conditions. The modeling will also have broader impacts to the engineering and scientific communities. The framework will be able to model other penetration scenarios for soil, rock, and concrete, for applications as diverse as deep penetrators designed to target underground bunkers to meteor impacts on extraterrestrial bodies. The constitutive models will further our fundamental understanding of soil behavior as we move toward physically based models for capturing observed soil responses. In addition, the numerical algorithms will enhance the set of tools available to solve many physical problems, especially those involved large deformation, material separation, and coupled physics problems. Learn more at Chi Profile. 3
2016 NSF CAREER AWARD WINNERS Derrible Researching the Development of Sustainable Communities By David Staudacher
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“This research places itself at the nexus of urban metabolism [which is the study of flows of material and energy in cities] and complexity theory. The main idea is that urban metabolism follows distinct mathematical laws at the community scale that can be captured using elements of complexity theory.” — Assistant Professor Sybil Derrible
ybil Derrible, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been selected to receive the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award is the most prestigious honor for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering. Along with the highly-competitive award, Derrible will procure a $500,000 grant from the NSF. Professor Derrible received the award to support his research for the project entitled “CAREER: Understanding the Fundamental Principles Driving Household Energy and Resource Consumption for Smart, Sustainable, and Resilient Communities.” “The funding will help to discover the fundamental principles that govern how location and lifestyle matters for energy and resource consumption,” said Derrible. “The contributions from this research will directly assist in the development of effective policies for more sustainable communities that consume less energy and resources.” A better understanding of energy flows in cities will provide planners and engineers with information that will enable them to design smarter and more resilient infrastructure systems that are decentralized and distributed. The research also will have a significant impact for the broader public as it includes the development of a smartphone application to enable anyone to calculate their daily carbon footprint and track their performance. “This research places itself at the nexus of urban metabolism [which is the study of flows of material and energy in cities] and complexity theory,” said Derrible. “The main idea is that urban metabolism follows distinct mathematical laws at the community scale that can be captured using elements of complexity theory.” Derrible plans to use various mathematical laws (e.g., power law, lognormal distribution, uniform distribution) using agent-based modeling techniques to generate a theoretical space that will include every possible community profile in terms of energy and resource consumption. The laws will be tested for individual communities using freely available data from municipal open data portals. The research will utilize elements of machine learning to classify communities based on their energy and resource consumption patterns, and network science to better understand the inter- and co-dependence between the usage of electricity, water, natural gas, and transportation infrastructure. The project period begins August 15, 2016 and runs through July 31, 2021 (estimated). Learn more about Professor Derrible’s research and UIC’s Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at Derrible Profile.
About the NSF’s CAREER Program
The NSF’s CAREER program offers support to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. These activities build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. 4
“The research objective is to empower civil engineers to design bridges and other critical structures that will naturally provide signals about their structural state with only a minimum amount of sensors installed. This will result in safer and more resilient infrastructure as new construction and retrofitting incorporates these designs.” — Assistant Professor Didem Ozevin
Ozevin Investigating Safer and More Resilient Structures By David Staudacher
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idem Ozevin, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been selected to receive the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award is the most prestigious honor for up-and-coming researchers in science and engineering. Along with the highly-competitive award, Ozevin will receive a $500,000 grant from the NSF to support her research for her project entitled “CAREER: Engineered Spatially Periodic Structure Design Integrated with Damage Detection Philosophy.” “The research objective is to empower civil engineers to design bridges and other critical structures that will naturally provide signals about their structural state with only a minimum amount of sensors installed,” said Ozevin. “This will result in safer and more resilient infrastructure as new construction and retrofitting incorporates these designs.” According to Ozevin, this is significant because critical structures have been failing without sufficient warning despite the fact that the cracks in the structures were already being inspected and monitored with the latest modern techniques. Her research has the potential to transform the field of structural engineering by detecting damage at the earliest stage. Additionally, the educational impact of her research will include modifying existing steel and prestressed concrete design courses to introduce damage detection concepts to undergraduate students, developing
Honors College research projects, involving high school and undergraduate students into research, and developing mentoring program for female civil engineering students. “During the research, an acoustic based damage detection method will be introduced into the design stage by adding spatially periodic subsystems into structural elements,” said Ozevin. “Existing structures exhibit some localized periodicity such as perforated beams, and equally spaced bolts in steel connections where spacing is based on stress distribution and spacing requirements.” The structure can be tuned periodicity to make the design behave as an acoustic metamaterial, which can be able to block, redirect, and strengthen propagating elastic waves released by newly formed crack surfaces in the deployed infrastructure. Local resonance in an acoustic metamaterial medium affects the elastic wave spectrum in a way that certain wave 5
frequencies cannot propagate to the medium if the frequency falls within these stop bands. “Once the periodicity is modified by damage, the elastic wave spectrum will change, and then structural damage can easily be detected as a disturbance of the normal resonant frequencies,” said Ozevin. “Highly narrowband and sensitive micro-mechanical transducers will be tuned to the stop band of the periodic subsystem and positioned strategically so a single sensor will be sufficient to detect the localized damage.” The combined response of structural design and periodic behavior will be tested with analytical and numerical models and validated on laboratory scale structural tests. The project period is from June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2021. Learn more about Professor Ozevin’s research at UIC’s Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at Ozevin Profile.
Researching the GREAT LAKES
A Growing DEPARTMENT
Q&A with CME’s Two New Faculty Members
Click to watch the video.
An Li (left) and CME’s Karl Rockne take the last sample on Lake Superior in 2011 after nearly two weeks at sea. Photo by Margaret Corcoran, UIC graduate student in Earth and Environmental Sciences.
Examining Pollution in Great Lakes Sediment By Sharon Parmet, UIC News
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n Li and Karl Rockne have been working together for more than five years to monitor and measure environmental pollutants in Great Lakes sediment. Through the Great Lakes Sediment Surveillance Program, Li, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the UIC School of Public Health, and Rockne, professor and interim head of civil and materials engineering in the UIC College of Engineering, have collected more than 1,000 sediment samples in the lakes. Rockne analyzes the physical and bulk chemical structure of the sediment samples, looking for information that will provide clues of how the sediment deposited and what that means for the timing or speed with which chemical pollutants have accumulated in the lake bottom mud. Li looks at the chemical composition of the samples to identify what kinds of industrial pollutants are present. These typically fall into one of two categories: legacy chemicals, or those that may persist in the environment even though their production has ceased (the pesticide DDT, for example) and chemicals of emerging concern. These
chemicals can be known or unknown. Rockne has found that the lakes have responded to legislation and regulation that have been put in place to reduce air pollution. Lake Michigan in particular has seen significant reductions in soot deposition since enactment of the Clean Air Act. However, the situation is not as good for nutrient loading, as algal deposition due to photosynthesis has not decreased as strongly since the enactment of the Clean Water Act. One reason the surveillance program is so important, Li said, is that “we need to constantly be on the lookout for the presence of new chemicals in the environment that may be hazardous to health.” Li recently discovered a suite of chemicals called polyhalogenated carbazoles in the deep sediments of Lake Michigan. These are similar in structure to dioxins and PCBs, but more research needs to be done to determine where they came from and if they are toxic. “We keep finding new things — that’s the fun part,” Li said. Learn more about Professor Rockne’s reserch at Rockne Profile. 6
Joseph Schulenberg Assistant Clinical Professor
Sean Vitousek Research Assistant Professor
How did you become interested in engineering? I’ve always been able to do math and science work, so a profession in engineering seemed to make sense. I would have to say that it may have begun playing in the sand as a child building sand castles. You learn that your structure will be stable until it dries, walls can only be built so high. Later this makes sense based on your understanding of surface tension and capillary pressure, but as a kid you just observe.
How did you become interested in engineering? I became interested in engineering in College. I had a fantastic Civil Engineering professor (David Billington) who taught how works of engineering can transcend simple infrastructure and become art. Not art only in the sense that works of civil engineering are visually impressive, but art in the sense that they are a thoughtful convergence of form and function.
What experiences led you to this position? The short answer is that I worked with a highway department and then a small consulting firm over summers while in engineering school. I worked in consulting for a few years out of graduate school and then took a position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Despite having a Ph.D. I felt it was important to work in the “real world.” Later, a colleague encouraged me to get into teaching and since then I have gained an appreciation for the adage, “the best way to learn something is to teach it.” I’ve found that my teaching experience has enriched my professional practice and the students appreciate being able to bring examples from practice.
What experiences led you to this position? My experience growing up in Hawaii has led to my current research. I have always loved waves and the ocean. The ocean is a very dynamic and unpredictable environment. While working on my master’s degree and Ph.D., I became very interested in numerical simulation, using computers to solve physics problems that cannot be solved by hand. My graduate research gave me experience in simulating complex systems like the ocean. In many cases, numerical models are almost capable of predicting the unpredictable … almost. There is a lot of work left to be done to make predictive models a reality and this is what has lead me to my current research.
Have you received any awards or recognitions? What are your secrets to receiving them? I worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers for 13 years. Of the awards that I am most proud was Lakes and Rivers Division Engineer of the Year. I would say the secret to achieving this award was to be fortunate to work on a highly visible project and hopefully, to enjoy your job.
Have you received any awards or recognitions? What are your secrets to receiving them? I received funding awards for my Ph.D. from the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and for my postdoctoral research from the Mendenhall Research Fellowship Program at the US Geological Survey. I think that my secret to success, like other scientists, is a deep interest in my topic of study. I really want to understand the topics that I research, and this provides the necessary motivation to work hard and navigate the difficulties of solving complex problems.
What is your favorite hardware/software? I am a big advocate of Excel. I like this tool because it is intuitive, available, and much more powerful than many people know. Thanks to some encouragement, I was able to run a Fast Fourier Transform to convert square waves in the time domain to the frequency domain to evaluate the potential for railroad interference using Excel. Arc Map is another favorite. I like Arc Map because you can combine databases with pictures, so it’s a great communication tool.
What is your favorite hardware software? My favorite software tool is Matlab. I do a lot of research on novel numerical methods for fluid simulation, and matlab a fantastic tool for prototyping. It is very easy to implement numerical models, run experiments, and visualize results using one software tool. Are you involved with any organizations? Not much yet, but working for the U.S. Geological Survey was a tremendous opportunity for me to learn about field monitoring and surveying techniques, and to integrate field data with computer modeling efforts.
Are you involved with any organizations? An area that I need to develop is involvement with professional organizations. As a graduate student and periodically as a professional, I have enjoyed attending meetings of the ASCE Geo-Institute.
Read more about Joseph Schulenberg and Sean Vitousek at www.cme.uic.edu. 7
Great Lakes STUDENT CONFERENCE
ASCE Members Compete at Regional Conference By David Staudacher, UIC
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IC placed in the top half of the highly competitive Great Lakes Student Conference on April 14-16 at IIT in Chicago. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) members competed against 18 universities during the annual conference, which is made up of schools from southern Wisconsin, northern and central Illinois, and Indiana, and it is one of the largest regions based on number of schools. The schools competed in a set of Civil Engineering-based competitions. At a regional level, eight competitions are typically hosted. Two of the most anticipated competitions were the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge competitions. Building a canoe with concrete doesn’t make much sense – unless you are a civil engineer. “The canoe competition is one of many competitions in which students think ‘outside the box’ in order to make the impossible, possible,” said Hector Barajas, a CME student and the Concrete Canoe team captain. The competition tested the students’ understanding of construction materials, concrete mixtures, management, creative thinking, and a little bit of athleticism. The goal is to draw attention to the capabilities of concrete as a construction material among civil engineering students and the general public. It also provides students with the opportunity to gain practical experience by working with concrete mixtures and construction management. Despite having several experienced members from last year’s competition working with many new members, UIC faced many challenges before April. “We designed and built a completely new mold,” said Barajas. “The reinforcement and the mix are still the same, but the design is more streamlined to make it narrower and shallower.” Building a concrete canoe is not a simple weekend project. The team dedicated hundreds of hours outside the classroom working hard in the workshop and preparing for the competition. “I have spent about 12 to 24 hours every week since the beginning of the spring semester,” said Barajas. “Apart from building the canoe, the team also dedicated two to six hours on weekends in September and October practicing paddling in a canoe.” While the team finished in the middle of the pack, they should be commended for taking on a challenge that most people wouldn’t attempt. “I am proud of myself and my team,” said Barajas. “It’s a very hard project to take on especially having to balance it with other schoolwork and projects.” In 2015, the Steel Bridge team captured third placed in the regional competition and participated in the national competition for the Steel Bridge competition.
Above, the UIC team show off their concrete canoe during the Great Lakes Student Conference in Chicago.
ASCE UIC Concrete Canoe pour day timelapse 2016.
Despite a strong performance this year, the team didn’t qualify for nationals. The objective of the competition is to increase awareness of real-world engineering issues such as spatial constraints, fabrication processes, project management, effective teamwork and much more. Each team is given a problem statement then must design, fabricate, and erect a steel bridge within the given specifications. The scores were based on display, construction speed, lightness, stiffness, construction economy, structural efficiency, and overall performance. “This year the bridge had to be a foot longer than last year so that required the most attention while designing the bridge,” said Rodrigo Moreno, president of ASCE-UIC. Like most years, the team is made up of returning members and new members, and all of them contributed hundreds of hours designing, fabricating, and practicing for the competition. “This year is a growing year for the team as many members have recently graduated or are graduating in May,” said Moreno. “There are several new members this year that are excited about the opportunity to apply the fundamentals from the classroom.” A highlight for UIC was placing third in the “Mystery Design” competition on Saturday. As the title suggests, the task was not revealed until the students arrived for the captains meeting on Thursday, and presented like a professional project in the field. A problem was presented and the team had a limited amount of time and resources to plan, execute, and test a solution. Apart from placing in the top half, the UIC team members gained experience they will take back to the classroom or to a new job when they graduate. Throughout the weekend, the students bonded as a team, took chances, overcame obstacles, and competed hard. They may be students, but when they had to face hard work and new challeneges they stepped up as professionals. And that makes them all winners. Learn more about UIC’s ASCE chapter at ASCE-UIC. 8
Far left, several team members celebrate when the canoe floats after being intentionally sunk. At left, the team gets ready for the men’s endurance race. Below, the Steel Bridge team works together to construct their bridge. Photos by David Staudacher, UIC.
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Engineers WITHOUT BORDERS
CME STUDENT SNAPSHOT
Students Restart Organization to Help Those in Need By David Staudacher, UIC
John Mulrow is a Man on a Mission By David Staudacher, UIC
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he UIC community is encouraged to be leaders and facilitate positive social change through service. Now, all engineering students have a new opportunity to help others through the re-established Engineers Without Borders USA at UIC (EWB-USA at UIC). EWB-USA at UIC is a community of driven students and professionals who build a better world through engineering projects that empower communities to meet their basic human needs and equip leaders to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. The founding members recently received official approval from both UIC Campus Programs and EWB-USA to start a UIC chapter. The chapter is off to a strong start with approximately 20 people attending general meetings. However, there is still a lot of room for more students to join the revamped organization. Apart from making the world a better place, the organization provides members with the opportunity to gain engineering experience, boost their resume, travel, and network with mentors from the industry, other student chapters and their mentors, faculty advisors and classmates. UIC’s previous chapter worked on a water quality improvement project for the residents of Cerro Alto, Guatemala, in 2006. The chapter made several assessment trips and implemented a project to bring safer water to the 1,200 residents for cooking, drinking and bathing. “We are excited to finalize the start-up process with EWB-USA so that we can begin working on a project,” said Jessica Taskila, president of EWB-USA at UIC. “We are looking into the option of re-establishing our relationship with Cerro Alto, Guatemala, the village with whom UIC’s previous chapter of EWB-USA worked.” The group also is considering other programs, added Taskila, a Civil and Materials Engineering student. “Then we will start identifying professional mentors who can guide us as we dig into some real engineering work,” she added. For more information or to get involved with EWB-USA at UIC, contact Jessica Taskila at jtaski2@uic.edu.
via bike, and his only communication home was the occasional satellite phone call. It was this experience that turned him on to renewable energy, off-grid living, and natural resources. It was this experience that changed his life and lead him to switch his major to Earth Systems when he returned to school. “I got turned on to local environmental issues. I was concerned about climate change, food, society, and consumerism,” said Mulrow. “When I moved back to Chicago, I
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ohn Mulrow is going to change the world for the better! He is about to complete his Master’s Degree in Civil and Materials Engineering with a focus on Environmental Engineering. With two additional years of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, you would think the 29-year-old would be eager to start working on his Ph.D. Instead, the new CME alumnus is getting ready to report for basic training with the U.S. Army.
CME graduate John Mulrow recently earned his Masters Degree from UIC and is slated to start basic training for the Illinois National Guard. Photos courtesy of John Mulrow. Members of the UIC chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA at UIC work on a water quality improvement project for the residents of Cerro Alto, Guatemala, in 2006. After a lull, UIC students have re-established the chapter at UIC and they are in the process of planning a project to help a community in need. Photos courtesy of EWB-USA at UIC.
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“I’m taking a little hiatus from the studies to be certified as a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear response specialist for the Illinois National Guard,” said Mulrow. “I’m taking a break to do that, and then I’ll come back to my studies.” Before coming to UIC, the Wheaton, Ill. native was a double major in French and African studies at Stanford University. He wanted to study abroad and took a break from school to work in Africa. “I had the opportunity to work in Zambia in Southern Africa where there is a series of refugee camps,” he said. “I lived in the refugee camp and worked for a United Nations contractor doing computer education in French. It was a blast.” In Africa, he was living off the grid. Energy came from solar power, he had fetch and sanitize water, traveling was
looked for projects that were pro-resilience and local self-reliance, and I found Plant Chicago and got involved there.” According to Mulrow, a big part of self-reliance is a strong technical capability, and that is why he chose to pursue an engineering degree at UIC. While earning his degree he was able to implement new engineering concepts at Plant Chicago, where he is the vice president of the board of directors and served as the interim executive director for nine months. Joining the National Guard is something he always wanted to do. It’s also plays a part in his long-term plans. “The Army yields a massive amount of resources for protecting people and emergency response,” said Mulrow. “I looked into the position and decided this one would be fun.” More student, faculty and department news can be found at www.cme.uic.edu. 11