2017 Swanson School Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Newsletter by PITT

ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH | SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING FALL 2017

Collaborative Research Examines the Environmental Tradeoff of Novel Reuse Systems

he “decentralized” water system at the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, which treats all non-potable water on site, contributes to the net-zero building’s recognition as one of the greenest buildings in the world. However, research into the efficacy of these systems versus traditional treatment is practically non-existent in the literature. Thanks to a collaboration between Phipps and the Swanson School of Engineering, researchers now have a greater understanding of the life cycle of water reuse systems designed for living buildings, from construction through day-to-day use.

“Evaluating the Life Cycle Environmental Benefits and Trade-Offs of Water Reuse Systems for Net-Zero Buildings,” published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b03879), is the first-of-its-kind research utilizing life-cycle assessment (LCA). Co-authored by Melissa M. Bilec, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and deputy director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI), collaborators at Phipps included Richard Piacentini, executive director; and Jason Wirick, director of facilities and sustainability management. Pitt PhD graduate student, Vaclav Hasik, and Pitt undergraduate,

Naomi Anderson, were first and second authors, respectively. “As water becomes more of a precious resource around the globe, there is a greater focus on developing new methods of water efficiency and water conservation,” Dr. Bilec said. “We’ve worked closely with Richard and Phipps since the CSL was first designed, and its decentralized water system provides a unique opportunity to explore how these strategies can be an alternative to traditional systems.” Although LCA has been used to compare centralized and decentralized water systems in continued on page 5 > > >

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Greetings from the Chair Dear Friends and Colleagues, With the beginning of a new academic year, I am excited to share with you news from the Swanson School’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This past year has been exceptional with respect to academic programs, student accomplishments and research productivity, and I hope you enjoy this glimpse into civil and environmental engineering at Pitt. Our enrollment for this fall includes 292 undergraduates, 103 master’s students and 54 PhD students. The Swanson School’s overall averages for the new incoming first-years continue to impress, with an average GPA of 4.325, average SAT of 1406, and average class rank in the top eight percent. Even as freshman, these students will have the opportunity to engage in research that will have a positive impact on their futures, like recent alumna Naomi Anderson featured in this issue. Likewise, our faculty research continues to attract national awards and attention from other researchers and institutions as well as the public atlarge. For example, you will read about Melissa Bilec and her research with the nearby Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. As we continue to examine the impact of climate change on our freshwater supply, this first-of-its-kind life cycle assessment provides a novel look at how we as engineers can incorporate similar systems in future developments.

MCSI Seed Grants Fund New Round of Sustainability Research

he Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) has announced the recipients of 2017-2018 MCSI seed grant funding. The annual seed grant program engages a core team of researchers who are passionate about sustainability. Seed grants support graduate student and post-doctoral fellows on one-year research projects.

Lastly, I am proud to announce that this year we are launching our new Master of Science in Sustainable Engineering through the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Development. Developed in collaboration with faculty across the University, as well as alumnus Jack Mascaro, this degree will provide students with the ability to develop innovative and scalable solutions with broad impact. As always, I look forward to seeing you on campus or on the road. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in collaborating with us or identifying new opportunities to benefit our students. Sincerely,

Radisav Vidic, PhD, P.E. William Keppler Whiteford Professor and Department Chair

The University of Pittsburgh projects and faculty members to receive funding include: • “Protein lithograph: a sustainable technology for sub-5-nm nanomanufacturing.” Mostafa Bedewy, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering. • “High efficiency refrigeration and cooling through additive manufactured magnetocaloric devices.” Markus Chmielus, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. • “Toward machine learning blueprints for greener chelants.” John Keith, Assistant Professor, Inaugural Richard King Mellon Faculty Fellow in Energy, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

• “H2P: HydroPonics to Pyrolysis: An enclosed system for the phytoremediation and destruction of perfectly persistent emerging contaminants in our water.” Carla Ng, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; David Sanchez, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. MCSI developed the research seed grant program to provide faculty with funding support to allow students to participate in high-quality research, teaching, outreach and creative endeavors. The goals of the grants are: (1) seed funding to develop ideas to the point where external funding can be obtained; (2) awards to support scholarship in areas where external funding is extremely limited; (3) resources to introduce curricular innovations into the classroom; or (4) tools or techniques to encourage community outreach and education.

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Geosciences-Inspired Engineering

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Pitt Professor Receives NSF Award to Study How Naturally Occurring Geological Features Can Inspire New Methods in Petroleum Engineering

he Mackenzie Dike Swarm, an ancient geological feature covering an area more than 300 miles wide and 1,900 miles long beneath Canada from the Arctic to the Great Lakes, is the largest dike swarm on earth. Formed more than one billion years ago, the swarm’s geology discloses insights into major magmatic events and continental breakup. It and the roughly 120 other known giant dike swarms located across the planet may also provide useful information about efficient extraction of oil and natural gas in today’s modern world. To explore how naturally occurring dike swarms can lead to improved methods of oil and gas reservoir stimulation, the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences awarded a $310,000 award to Andrew Bunger, assistant professor. The result of molten rock (magma) rising from depth and then driving cracks through the Earth’s crust, dike swarms exhibit a self-organizing behavior that allows hundreds of individual dikes to fan out across large distances. Although petroleum engineers desire to achieve the same effect when creating hydraulic fractures for stimulation of oil and gas production, the industrial hydraulic fractures appear far more likely to localize to only one or two dominant strands. This localization leaves 30-40 percent of most reservoirs in an unproductive state, representing an inefficient use of resources and leading to unnecessary intensity of oil and gas development. In the study, “Self-Organization Mechanisms within Magma-Driven Dyke and Hydraulic Fracture Swarms,” Dr. Bunger will take a novel approach to understanding the mechanics of fluid-driven cracks, which he refers to as “geosciences-inspired engineering.” Like the growing field of biologically

inspired engineering, he will be looking to processes in the natural world to better understand the constructed or engineered world. “If you look at dike swarms,” Dr. Bunger explains, “They have been called ‘swarms’ for decades, but there has never been an effort to identify the mechanical origins of the three forces that are known to be present any place that swarming morphology is observed. When we view dikes in this way, we see that the alignment and repulsive forces have been recognized for years, although never placed in the broader context of their role in swarming. However, the origin of the attractive force is problematic. Why do all these dikes have any mechanical impetus to grow near each other? Because the mechanical origin of the attractive force has not been known, it is unclear why natural fluid-driven cracks – dikes – tend to exhibit swarming behavior while such an outcome is far less commonly observed in man-made fluiddriven cracks associated with hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas reservoirs.” “We will use computational models and analogue experiments, which use artificial materials to simulate the Earth’s processes, to develop a new theory of fluid-driven crack swarms,” says Dr. Bunger. “Through this advance, we would like to improve the stimulation methods used for oil and gas production. This will be a win-win for both industry and our society that depends upon the energy resources they produce. Industry will benefit from more efficient methods, and society will benefit from lower energy costs and a decreased environmental footprint associated with resource extraction.” Pictured above is Dr. Bunger in his Benedum Hall lab with the newly-installed compression frame he uses to simulate the high-stress environment deep inside the earth.

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Fueling the Future Research Collaboration Led by Pitt Engineering Demonstrates Potential Environmental Sustainability Benefits in Full Life Cycle Assessment of Second-Generation Biofuels

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umerous studies have raised critical concerns about the promise of corn ethanol’s ability to mitigate climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Some of the studies have suggested that after a full life cycle assessment – meaning an analysis of environmental impact throughout all stages of a product’s life – biofuels like corn ethanol may not offer any greenhouse gas emissions reductions relative to petroleum fuels. The Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy & Environmental Science recently published research by a team from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oklahoma investigating the full life cycle impact of one promising “second-generation biofuel” produced from short-rotation oak. The study found that second-generation biofuels made from managed trees and perennial grasses may provide a sustainable fuel resource. “Multistage torrefaction and in situ catalytic upgrading to hydrocarbon biofuels: analysis of life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions” (DOI: 10.1039/C7EE00682A) took a novel approach to the production of second-generation biofuel while also comprehensively accounting for all of the steps involved in the full supply chain. “Corn ethanol environmental impacts weren’t really studied until after its commercialization,” explained Vikas Khanna, assistant professor and corresponding author of the study. “The great thing about this project is it addresses full life cycle sustainability questions of new fuel sources before they come up later down the road.” In 2007, the United Nations called for a five-year moratorium on food-based (or first-generation) biofuels because of concerns that they would consume farmland and lead to worldwide food shortage. Dr. Khanna and his team’s study used wood from oak trees, as they can be harvested year-round and reduce the need for large-scale storage infrastructure. “Second-generation biofuels differ from first generation biofuels because they don’t come directly from food crops like corn and soy,” said Dr. Khanna. “They include woody crops, perennial grasses, agricultural and forest residues, and industrial wastes.” A significant metric for determining the efficacy of fuel is the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) ratio. The EROI of petroleum crude production remains high at about 11:1, meaning an investment of one unit of energy will yield 11 units of energy. However, the EROI has been steadily decreasing since 1986 and will continue to worsen as fossil fuels become more scarce and difficult to access. When researchers study potentially promising energy sources, they look for a ratio greater than 1:1. Corn derived ethanol, for example, has a EROI of 1.3:1. The study found the median EROI for multistage second-generation biofuel systems ranges from 1.32:1 to 3.76:1.

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The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 states that cellulosic biofuels, like the ones used in the study, must outperform the greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels by reducing relative emissions by 60 percent to receive economic incentives from the government. The study surpassed minimum requirements and showed an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to baseline petroleum diesel. Additionally, there was a 40 percent reduction in hydrogen consumption relative to a single-stage pyrolysis system. “Pyrolysis is the process of heating biomass to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen to and create biofuel,” said Dr. Khanna. “If it’s done

quickly, in one stage, a lot of carbon will be lost. Our research showed that a multistage, lower temperature system of pyrolysis can increase the carbon chain length, create more liquid fuel and improve the energy output of the entire process.” Co-authors of the study included: George G. Zaimes, senior engineer at KeyLogic and former PhD advisee under Dr. Khanna; Andrew W. Beck, graduate research assistant at the University of Pittsburgh; Rajiv R. Janupala, research assistant at the University of Oklahoma; and University of Oklahoma faculty members Daniel E. Resasco, Steven P. Crossley and Lance L. Lobban.

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Water Reuse Systems... different contexts, the Phipps CSL research is the first to consider both water supply and treatment at a comprehensive site or in the context of a netzero energy/water building. “Using groundbreaking processes in the building of the CSL has allowed us to work with Pitt to conduct research and learn about their efficacy, and will allow others to use this knowledge to advance their own work,” says Richard Piacentini, Phipps executive director. “The only way to make a difference is by providing the resources for others to succeed.” Dr. Bilec noted that while the research found that a decentralized water system operates well for a facility like the CSL, the environmental benefits or trade-offs for such systems are dependent upon their lifetime of use, and may not necessarily be practical or environmentally preferable. For example, a similar system might be more environmentally and economically efficient for a development of multiple homes or buildings, rather than one structure. Conversely, the relative impact of a decentralized system built in a water-scarce region may be more beneficial than its environmental footprint. The decision of what water system to build and its scale, she says, should be evaluated within the context of the entire life of the structure or site it supports.

She also said that research such as this is valuable because of the community-minded approach shared between Pitt, MCSI and Phipps, and its impact on students. For example, PhD candidate Vaclav Hasik is utilizing the CSL study to inform his dissertation on resilient and sustainable systems, while summer undergraduate Mascaro Center researcher, Naomi E. Anderson, was a key participant, illustrating the success of MCSI’s summer program. “The CSL at Phipps is a tremendous case study because it has achieved four of the most soughtafter awards in sustainable construction,” Dr. Bilec noted. “Richard, his board and employees are incredibly forward-thinking and committed to not only the concept of a living building but also supporting its evolution through research, and that makes Phipps a wonderful collaborator. Opportunities such as this not only advance research in the field, but also provide a tremendous experience and inspiration for students.”

Other co-authors of “Evaluating the Life Cycle Environmental Benefits and Trade-Offs of Water Reuse Systems for Net-Zero Buildings” include William O. Collinge, postdoctoral associate, University of Pittsburgh; Vikas Khanna, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Pittsburgh; Amy E. Landis, the Thomas F. Hash ‘69 Endowed Chair Professor, Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University; and Cassandra L. Thiel, former postdoctoral associate, now assistant professor, New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

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of Bicycles and Glaciers Naomi Anderson, First Graduate of Pitt’s New Environmental Engineering Major, “Excited to Serve Pittsburgh”

riven by passions for water conservation and bicycling, Naomi Anderson has studied artificial glaciers in the Himalayas, helped to launch a campus bicycle cooperative and designed prize-winning solutions to mitigate abandoned mine drainage in the South Hills. In addition to these highlights of her five years as an undergraduate in the Swanson School of Engineering, Anderson has coordinated sustainability projects on and around campus and pedaled with friends to Washington, D.C., on the Great Allegheny Passage trail – twice. Anderson, who graduated on April 30, is one of the first two students to receive the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s new bachelor of science degree in environmental engineering. When she arrived at Pitt, her preference for hands-on solutions made her choice of an engineering discipline easy: “It was civil or nothing,” she says. But her path there wasn’t all smooth. A required course in concrete structures had Anderson in an unhappy spot. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this major anymore,’” she says, admitting she considered leaving engineering. Anderson’s adviser, Leonard Casson, encouraged her instead to consider switching to the brand new environmental engineering major, which she did early in her final school year. “Everything came together at the right time,” Casson says. Anderson is exactly the sort of student the department had in mind when it created the new major, says Casson, an associate professor and the civil and environmental engineering department’s academic coordinator.

“With her intellect, she’s capable of doing anything,” he says of Anderson. Summer experiences with a Student Conservation Association trail crew that worked to correct water drainage on forest trails in Vermont sent her along the path to environmental engineering. “It was cool to build something I could immediately see, helping nature,” she says. Her interest in water resources led her to the topic of artificial glaciers, and a resulting freshman research paper on the subject got the attention of a University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher who invited Anderson and her coauthor, fellow Pitt engineering student Taylor Shippling, to join her in the mountains of northern India to research the structures up close. Summers there are short, so farmers need melt water from glaciers to arrive at just the right time in the planting season if their crops are to succeed. As the glaciers recede, water takes longer to flow from higher on the mountain. To remedy the problem, engineers there have built structures to trap the melting water at lower altitudes, where it freezes in an ice dam and later melts at the expected time. “It was interesting learning about the technology – and to do so in a way that’s not like westerners traveling abroad to fix problems in the third world, but rather to learn,” Anderson says, not only about hydrology, but also from the local experts and their solutions. continued on next page > > >

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Elsewhere beyond the classroom, as president of Pitt’s chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, Anderson coordinated projects to winterize students’ homes; to test the potential of wind belts, which are flapping straps that can generate power; and to create a rain garden in conjunction with an Oakland community group. In 2015, she joined with friends to found the Pitt Bicycle Collective to support the campus cycling community. The collective’s proposal to create a bike repair space in the Posvar Hall underpass won the $10,000 top prize in the 2017 Sustainable

Solutions competition on campus. The Bike Cave will launch before fall, she says. Gena Kovalcik, codirector of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI), grew to know Anderson as both passionate and prepared in her proposals when seeking funding for sustainabilityrelated projects. MCSI summer research funding contributed to the paper that led to Anderson’s journey to India. The center also provided some matching funds for ESW projects and the Bike Cave, Kovalcik says.

“Hers were more than just lofty ideas. Every time she’d come into my office, I knew she had a plan. It was always well thought out and thorough. She came in with a budget and a strategy to make it happen. I’m so excited to see what she does next,” Kovalcik says. This article, “Graduating Senior Profiles: Naomi Anderson,” originally appeared in the May 4, 2017 issue of The Pitt Chronicle. Author: Kimberly K. Barlow. Reprinted with permission.

Lisa Stabryla Receives 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship

isa Stabryla, graduate researcher and teaching assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received a 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship from the United States Department of Defense equal to full tuition and $153,000 in stipend funds.

Stabryla is one of three students from Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering to receive the NDSEG Fellowship in 2017, along with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science’s Emily Cimino and Erica Stevens. “The NDSEG Fellowship offers the freedom and opportunity for me to engage in interdisciplinary collaborative research on a topic that I find fascinating and that aims to improve global public health,” said Stabryla. “The fellowship not only provides me with the financial stability to pursue my research endeavors but is also an honor to become a member of a distinguished network, and it inspires confidence as I launch my research career.” Stabryla earned a B.S. in engineering science from Pitt and is currently pursuing a PhD in environmental engineering under the advisory of Dr. Leanne Gilbertson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering. Stabryla joined Dr. Gilbertson’s lab in 2016 as a graduate researcher and teaching assistant. Previously she worked as an undergraduate student researcher in the Bibby Lab and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI). As a PhD student in Dr. Gilbertson’s lab, Stabryla is pursuing research questions related to the sustainable design of nanomaterials. In particular, she focuses on design of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) aimed at combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the ability of bacteria to resist toxic effects of chemical agents. AMR is one of the biggest threats to global public health and poses a problem to numerous industries including health care, agriculture, water treatment, and drinking water distribution. The relevance to NDSEG stakeholders includes the potential future need to defend against intentional use of resistant organisms to cause harm. ENMs offer the potential to serve as a next-generation solution to combat AMR because of the ability to tailor high efficacy and their multiple modes of inactivation. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the United States Department of Defense. NDSEG selections are made by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research and the Army Research Office. The American Society for Engineering Education administers the NDSEG Fellowship.

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017 Landis 2 s t n e s e r P ic

on Klemencic, P.E., S.E., Hon. AIA, chairman and CEO of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, was named the 2017 Landis-Epic Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh. Presented on February 2, Klemencic’s lecture examined engineering marvels that seemingly defy the laws of nature in height, span or form.

Lecture

“Structural engineering and improved building materials have transformed the limits of what we thought possible to construct while taking into consideration the risk of natural disasters such as high winds, storms and earthquakes,” noted Kent A. Harries, associate professor and the event’s director. “Ron is recognized around the world for his innovation in structural engineering and cost-effective design of megatowers, and so we are proud to name him the 2017 Landis-Epic Lecturer.” In “Beyond Theory: Real Life Adventures in Structural Engineering,” Klemencic discussed traditional examples of captivating and imaginative buildings such the Great Pyramid, the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge as well as his experiences developing some of the world’s tallest buildings, including the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which is currently under construction and planned to be the first structure to surpass one-kilometer in height. The Landis-Epic Lectureship was established by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1991 in honor of Donald H. Landis, president of Epic Metals Corporation and a 1952 graduate of Pitt. Mr. Landis is a nationally recognized as a leader in the design and construction of coldformed steel structures. The distinguished lectureship is made possible through the generosity of Mr. Landis. Pictured from left is Mr. Klemencic, with Dr. Harries.

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Pitt, MCSI Launches Master of Science in Sustainable Engineering Program

nswering a demand for professional programs that help students find sustainable solutions to regional and global engineering issues, the University of Pittsburgh launched a new Master of Science in Sustainable Engineering (MSSE) program in fall 2017. The major and professional degree will utilize a systems-based approach to help students identify and address complex environmental and socioeconomic problems. Housed within the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) with the degree granted from the Swanson School of Engineering, the 30-credit MSSE integrates with nine current masters’ degree programs in engineering, and provides students the opportunity to complete two M.S. degree programs with a limited time increase. The MSSE curriculum combines an engineering technical formation with the study of sustainability from multiple perspectives such as business, policy and economics. Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty member

and Deputy Director of MCSI, Melissa Bilec, led the development of the MSSE program. “Sustainability is integrated throughout our engineering curriculum, especially at the undergraduate level, and this new master’s program complements and builds upon this foundation,” noted Eric J. Beckman, Distinguished Service Professor and MCSI Co-Director. “Industry, government, nonprofits and even the military today understand that sustainability impacts the triple bottom line of environmental, societal, and economic problems, and is much more than recycling materials or “going green.” The MSSE will give our students a distinct advantage in pursuing sustainable solutions in various professional settings.” According to Dr. Beckman, the MSSE may also integrate community-based servicelearning opportunities to help students develop regional and nationally scalable sustainability solutions. This enables students to address actual issues up

close while learning to communicate sustainability issues and solutions to multiple audiences. “MCSI has a proven track record in connecting faculty research with underserved populations in the Pittsburgh region, and so this degree program will not be limited to the classroom and lab, but will also reach out into the communities that Pitt serves,” Dr. Beckman said. “Sustainability is a global issue, but its strength lies in community engagement and helping the average person understand how sustainability impacts daily life.” For more information, contact David Sanchez, Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering and MCSI Assistant Director for Education and Outreach at davidsanchez@pitt.edu or 412-624-9793.

CivilE Construction Management Professional MS Program 2016-17 Highlights .. The 2017 Peter J. Mascaro Endowed Fellow in Construction Management is Edward Hasis, a second-year graduate student. Hasis receives full tuition reimbursement for one year. He plans to work as a project engineer and eventually a project manager after graduation. .. The Master Builders’ Association (MBA) and the Construction Advancement Program (CAP) awarded three scholarships totaling $16K to Pitt students at the MBA’s Annual Membership Meeting. The 2017 scholarship awardees were Taylor Williams, Thomas Tresky, and Amy Hummel. .. “The Panther Estimators” beat out nine other teams to win first place and $1,500 at the inaugural Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania

(CAWP) Student Estimating Competition. The competition required students to assemble bid packages based on pre-job documents and a pre-bid meeting on a highway construction project. .. The MBA also sponsored the Pitt Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Student Chapter Officers attendance at the National AGC Conference in Las Vegas. Thomas Tresky (president) and Jon Abbey (vice president) received a $1,000 stipend to offset traveling costs. .. Jon Abbey received the Robert B. & Celine Fay Scholarship-Civil Engineering. The $8K scholarship provides financial assistance for students interested in a career in construction and is offered by the AGC Foundation.

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Swanson School Recognizes Two Civil Engineering Alumni for Career Achievements

he 53rd annual Distinguished Alumni Banquet brought together honorees from each of the Swanson School of Engineering’s six departments and one overall honoree to represent the entire school, and this year two Civil and Environmental Engineering alumni were recognized with the departmental and overall awards. Wanda M. Austin, PhD, MSCE ’77, MS Math ’77, retired president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, received the overall school award, while the recipient for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was Michael Flowers, MSCE ’78, retired, President and CEO, American Bridge Company. “Civil engineering was the first engineering program established at Pitt 150 years ago, and so our civil engineering alumni have influenced the field for generations,” said Dean Holder. “Of course, one of civil engineering’s most important, historic accomplishments and contributions to society has been building bridges to connect people. Both Wanda and Michael represent that strong tradition.” About Wanda Austin Dr. Austin earned a BS in mathematics from Franklin & Marshall College, MS degrees in systems engineering and mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in systems engineering from the University of Southern California (USC). She is the former president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the application of science and technology toward critical issues affecting the nation’s space program. From January 2008 until her retirement in October 2016, Dr. Austin managed The Aerospace Corporation’s 3,600 employees and annual revenues of $917 million. She was the sixth president and first female president of the organization and is internationally recognized for her work in satellite and payload system acquisition, systems engineering and system simulation. Dr. Austin served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and she was appointed to the Defense Science Board in 2010 and the NASA Advisory Council in 2014. She is an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a Councilor of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the International Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for USC and the Board of Directors for the Chevron Corporation.

Pictured above is Dean Holder with Dr. Austin at the Distinguished Alumni Banquet.

She is the author of “Making Space: Strategic Leadership for a Complex World,” which explores the leadership principles she learned during her decades-long journey as an engineer and executive in the space industry. About Michael Flowers Michael Flowers received his MS in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1978 and his BS in civil engineering from West Virginia University in 1974. He joined American Bridge Company in 1975 as a design engineer in the Pittsburgh Regional Engineering office. In the early years of his career, he worked on the repair and maintenance of a variety of steelmaking facilities for American Bridge’s parent United States Steel Corporation. In 1978, Flowers was assigned to a business unit in American Bridge responsible for major commercial construction projects in the United States, working on both high-rise buildings and bridges. In 2006, Flowers became the continued on next page > > >

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Building the Sound Barrier project director for the American Bridge-led joint venture building the new $1.9 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Self-Anchored-Suspension Bridge in California. There he oversaw all aspects of the construction of this one-of-a kind suspension bridge project in the highly seismic Bay Area. Flowers assumed CEO responsibilities of American Bridge in January of 2011. In his capacity as CEO, he led the company’s participation in joint venture wins for the new Queensferry Crossing, a three-tower cable stayed bridge over of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the new Tappan Zee Hudson River Bridge in Tarrytown, NY. In June of 2016 he retired as president and CEO of American Bridge.

Piervincenzo Rizzo Receives NSF-EAGER Award to Study New Acoustic Barriers

lthough it may not fit the traditional definition, acoustic noise is a form of pollution because of its negative impact on human health. Indoor-generated noise is especially a problem in the workplace, where noise can cause minor distractions or even mental stress. Thanks to an award from the National Science Foundation, associate professor Piervincenzo (Piero) Rizzo is exploring fundamental new research that may lead to new sound barriers that mitigate acoustic noise. Dr. Rizzo is principal investigator for a two-year, $200,000 NSF-EAGER grant for the project “EAGER: Acoustic Diode as Architectural Material (ADAM). “Engineers and architects strive to create effective and fine solutions to mitigate indoor- and outdoor- generated noise in order to enhance the comfort of the occupants, improve personnel efficiency in the workplace, guarantee privacy, and to provide distraction-free spaces. However, traditional building materials have limits, whether structurally or economically,” Dr. Rizzo said. “Through this award we’ll explore a new architectural system based on the concept of acoustic diodes acting as a sound barrier that impedes unwanted noise in an environment.” According to Dr. Rizzo, acoustic diodes offer low resistance to sound in one direction and high resistance in the opposite direction, which cancels out sound transmission along one direction. His hypothesis is that a diode, embedded in novel architectural material, can be scaled at multiple lengths to shield indoor noise and eventually transit-generated noise.

Pictured above is Michael Flowers with Radisav Vidic at the Distinguished Alumni Banquet.

“Our research will explore “trapping” acoustic noise in building materials via acoustic diodes, where they would reflect and decay,” Dr. Rizzo said. “By integrating several disciplines including acoustics, nonlinear dynamics, and architectural engineering, we hope to determine the feasibility of this potential technology.”

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FACULTY & STUDENTS

AWARDS ACCOMPLISHMENTS Faculty Kyle Bibby, assistant professor, was one of five Swanson School faculty to receive an NSF CAREER grant in 2017. Quantitative viral metagenomics for water quality assessment (#1653356) focuses on developing new DNA sequencing methods to directly measure viral loads in water and better indicate potential threats to human health. U.S. beaches and waterways are often closed to human contact when tests indicate an increase in E. coli, usually after heavy rains overwhelm sewage systems. However, the concentration of these common bacteria is not a reliable indicator of viruses in the water, which present a greater danger of causing illness in humans. Dr. Bibby’s group, which previously studied persistence of the Ebola virus in the environment and has worked to develop novel indicators of viral contamination, will utilize quantitative viral metagenomics for viral water quality assessment. Melissa Bilec, LEED AP, associate professor and deputy director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, was appointed as the inaugural Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow. Made in recognition of Dr. Bilec’s outstanding productivity as a member of Swanson School faculty, her appointment was based on her contribution to scholarship, graduate and undergraduate studies, external research support, research quality, leadership, and diversity. The fellowship was created by Ms. Luxbacher, BSChE ’78, Retired Vice President for Wholesale & Specialties - Global Business Unit, ExxonMobil

Fuels, Lubricants and Specialties Marketing Company, and Chair of the Swanson School Board of Visitors. The ACSE Pittsburgh Section named assistant professor Andrew Bunger the 2016 Professor of the Year. The ASCE Section Award Committee selected Bunger for his continual excellence in teaching, contribution to professional guidance and the development of civil engineering students by reinvigorating the geotechnical engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh, among other criteria. Bunger’s research interests include the mechanics of hydraulic fractures, interaction between shale formations and drilling fluids, the emplacement dynamics of magma intrusions, core discing and poroelasticity. His experience includes research for the oil and gas industry, geothermal industry, mining industries and carbon sequestration. Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) selected assistant professor Leanne Gilbertson as one of 36 nationwide recipients of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. The award will enable Dr. Gilbertson to engage in research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee for her research proposal titled, “Simultaneous In Situ Characterization of Multiple Carbon Nanomaterial Properties Using Liquid Cell TEM-STEM at ORNL.” Building on her previous work on the importance of surface chemistry and the potential to manipulate reactivity of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs), she will aim to characterize CNMs in an

experimental aqueous phase using in situ liquid and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as well as scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Dr. Gilbertson was also selected as a recipient of the 2017 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, which recognizes outstanding faculty for research, experience and academic leadership. The award provides financial support of $15,000 annually for three years and includes an invitation to 3M’s Science & Engineering Faculty Day in June. The 3M company established the Non-Tenured Faculty Award to encourage the pursuit of new ideas among non-tenured university professors and gives them the opportunity to interact with their peers and 3M researchers. Lastly, Dr. Gilbertson along with Dr. Bibby were two of 17 engineering and science faculty from around the world recognized with the 2016 ES&T Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T). The ES&T Excellence in Review Award was established in 2003 to recognize recognizes individuals who consistently provide the journal with scholarly and timely reviews. Kent Harries, FACI, FIIFC, P.E., associate professor and Bicentennial Board of Visitors Faculty Fellow, was awarded a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship by the Leverhulme Trust in the UK. Dr. Harries will serve as Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Bath from September 2017 – August 2018. Dr. Harries, whose research focuses on the use of

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ollowing the successful Symposia held in Pittsburgh (May 2016) and Winnipeg (August 2015), the third Bamboo in the Urban Environment Symposium was held March 7-9, 2017 in Bogor Indonesia, just outside Jakarta. The Symposia series was supported as part of a US-State Department and UK British Council-funded Global Innovation Initiative (GII) project that is supporting the development of bamboo as a sustainable and engineered alternative construction material. The group focuses on the use of bamboo in third-world countries where bamboo is a more sustainable, economical and structurally-sound construction material. The Jakarta meeting, which brought together academic, private sector and civil society actors from 15 countries and territories, was jointly organized by the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, Bogor Agricultural University, Coventry University, and the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR), a multilateral organization with 42 member states. The 2016 ’Pittsburgh nonconventional materials in construction, will utilize his professorship to develop curricula and other programs on fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) in collaboration with Bath researchers and instructors. Commonly used in the UK and EU for structural design and repair, FRPs are relevant to UK industry and to code/standards development, with implications for other types of nonconventional materials utilized around the world. Established in 1925 by the will of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers, the Leverhulme Trust provides grants and scholarships for research and education, and is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK. Piervincenzo (Piero) Rizzo, associate professor, was awarded the 2017 Outstanding Paper from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), for “Fractal Analysis Applied to Laser Spot Thermography,” published in the journal Materials Evaluation [Volume 74, Issue 3, pgs. 409-417, March 2016]. The ASNT Outstanding Paper in Materials Evaluation

Declaration’ was unanimously reaffirmed at the closing section with new delegates signing on to this important global call to action that seeks to increase international recognition of the benefits of bamboo, and outlines recommendations designed to more effectively harness the plant as a building material. “The international standardization process promulgated by the Declaration is instrumental to developing broad recognition of bamboo as an engineered construction material,” says Kent Harries, associate professor, GII PI and Symposium organizer. “Our continuing research at Pitt and other institutions have shown bamboo is one of nature’s perfect building materials, and is primed for greater international use. As the global population continues to increase and the threat of natural and climate disasters threaten greater numbers of people, bamboo is especially poised to become our go-to material for emergency shelters.”

Award is presented to a person or persons for a manuscript published in Materials Evaluation, which, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, is an outstanding contribution to the advancement of nondestructive testing. Dr. Rizzo will be recognized at the 2017 ASNT Annual Conference in Nashville, October 30-November 2. Associate professor Julie Vandenbossche received the Gerald J. Rohrbach Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Dedicated in honor of Gerald J. (Gerry) Rohrbach, who was an integral part of MnDOT for more than 35 years and retired as the Director of the Office of Materials and Road Research, the Award recognizes significant contributions to pavement engineering in areas such as implementation and research that have an impact on the pavement engineering professional as a whole.

Students Heather Amper: Air and Waste Management Scholarship from the Allegheny Mountain section (advisor: David Sanchez)

Adrian Garcia: Doctoral fellowship to the Applied Ocean Science and Engineering joint program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (advisor: David Sanchez) Tianqiao Liu, PhD, Postdoc: Recipient of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association for Bridge Construction and Design scholarship (advisor: Kent Harries) Kate Lundy and Jordan Walk: American Concrete Institute, Pittsburgh Chapter Founders Award Lisa Stabryla, graduate researcher and teaching assistant: 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship from the United States Department of Defense Inducted into Carson Scholars Hall of Fame Recipient of the Water Works Operators’ Association of Pennsylvania David A. Long PhD Memorial Scholarship continued on next page > > >

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Civil Engineering Doctor of Philosophy Degrees Awarded December 2016 Xiao Ma Dissertation Director: Kyle J. Bibby Dissertation Title: Fungal Ecology and Disinfection in Drinking Water Systems Chunlin Pan Dissertation Director: Qiang Yu Dissertation Title: Effects of Shape and Material Mismatch on 2D Finite Domains Containing Inclusions Steven Gerald Sachs Dissertation Director: Julie M. Vandenbossche Dissertation Title: Development of a Joint Faulting Model for Unbonded Concrete Overlays of Existing Concrete Pavements through a Laboratory and Numeric Analysis Teng Tong Dissertation Director: Qiang Yu Dissertation Title: Computational Modelling of Concrete Time-Dependent Mechanics and its Application to Large-Scale Structure Analysis George G. Zaimes Dissertation Director: Vikas Khanna Dissertation Title: Integrated Life Cycle Framework for Evaluating the Sustainability of Emerging Drop-In Replacement Biofuels April 2017 Benay Akyon Dissertation Director: Kyle Bibby Dissertation Title: Biological Treatment of Hydraulic Fracturing Produced Water Tianqiao Liu Dissertation Director: Kent A. Harries Dissertation Title: Stability Behavior of Pultruded Glass-Fiber Reinforced Polymer I-Sections Subject to Flexure Weijin Wang Dissertation Director: Qiang Yu Dissertation Title: Subcritical Crack Growth Induced by Stress Corrosion in Quasibrittle Materials

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continued from page 13 Nemi Vora, graduate researcher: Selected for the prestigious International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Young Scientists Summer Program 2017. She spent three months in Laxenburg, Austria working at IIASA. The article titled “Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Quantifying Embodied Energy and GHG Emissions from Irrigation through Virtual Water Transfers in Food Trade” authored by Ms. Vora is highlighted on the cover page of March issue of the American Chemical Society journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. The Master Builders Association of Western Pennsylvania awarded three scholarships through its Construction Advancement Program. Established in 1961, CAP addresses the needs of contractors engaged in commercial, institutional, and industrial construction. The 2016 recipients were: Taylor Williams (1st) Thomas Tresky (2nd) Amy Hummel (3rd) A team of students finished in the top spot at the inaugural Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania (CAWP) Student Estimating Competition. The Panther Estimators, led by civil and environmental engineering student Thomas Tresky, won the competition with a total of 208 points, securing a narrow victory over the second place team from the Pennsylvania State University, which scored 207.2 points. Team Abbey, also from the University of Pittsburgh and led by civil and environmental engineering student

Jon Abbey, came in third place with a score of 193.5 points. The full team rosters were: Panther Estimators • Thomas Tresky (captain) • Lee Anderson • Matt Lane • Janet D’Anna • Hannah Schell Team Abbey • Jon Abbey (captain) • Katelyn McEneaney • Andrew James • Phillip Paulone • Charles Riddle • Matt Eastburn Five universities participated in the CAWP competition: University of Pittsburgh main campus, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg and Carnegie Mellon University. The CAWP developed the Student Estimating Competition to encourage students to understand the benefits and opportunities the heavy-highway construction industry has to offer. CAWP, established in 1934, is a non-profit organization that assists workers in the heavy, highway and utility construction industry and improves relationships between contractors, their employees and the general public.

itt welcomed engineers from around the country as they hosted the AFD50 Rigid Pavement Design and AHD50 Rigid Pavement Construction Transportation Research Board Mid-Year Meeting. These committees are housed within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and serve to identify research needs, provide information to the transportation community on research priorities and procedures, review papers for presentation at the TRB Annual Meeting and for publication, encourage the incorporation of appropriate research findings into practice, and develop special programs, conferences, and workshops.

Pitt ASCE Student Chapter Wins Back-to-Back Distinguished Chapter Awards

or the second consecutive year, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) selected the University of Pittsburgh student chapter as recipient of the Distinguished Chapter Award for Region 2. The Pitt chapter was also a returning finalist for the Robert Ridgway Student Chapter Award, awarded annually to the single most outstanding student chapter nationwide.

One particular highlight from the Pitt chapter’s past year was the Ohio Valley Student Conference. This meeting of more than 350 civil engineering students and professionals representing 15 schools from Ohio, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania challenged students with competitions such as building a steel bridge, writing and presenting a technical paper, and constructing a concrete canoe and racing it.

The ASCE Distinguished Chapter awards are based on information from the chapters’ 2016 annual reports. The Pitt chapter’s annual report outlined strategies for growing the chapter, events and activities, and plans for 2017.

Pitt ASCE placed third overall out of 14 universities at the 2016 OVSC and took first place overall in the environmental category, the surveying category, and the most sustainable apparatus category of the environmental competition. Other awards included third place in four categories: most creative apparatus (environmental), best poster/display (environmental), civil site design, and best technical review paper.

In 2016, the chapter increased first-year membership by 40 percent compared to the previous year. Fundraising increased around 200 percent, and 24 companies attended the civil engineering-specific Fall Career Fair at Pitt. The chapter also invited members of other professional chapters to give presentations at the October ASCE meeting. Attendees included Associated General Contractors, Institute of Transpiration Engineers, American Society of Highway Engineers, and the American Institute of Architecture Students.

“We had a very successful year last year, and I think earning the Distinguished Chapter Award is a testament to the members and faculty of ASCE,” noted Chaz Donnelly, 2017-18 ASCE Pitt Student Chapter President and senior in civil engineering. “Our chapter takes pride in every event, because our members genuinely enjoy civil engineering. This is reflected in the way our school is represented at career fairs, professional events, and OVSC.”

Throughout 2016, 60 percent of the Pitt chapter’s members participated in at least one volunteer day, with events including: • Pitt ASCE joined 3,500 Pitt students during the university-wide Pitt Make a Difference Day, helping with service projects around the city of Pittsburgh. • Presenting the fundamentals of civil engineering to younger students during the Middle School Engineering Day. Ten ASCE members brought samples of concrete and steel for the students to examine and used balsa wood bridges to demonstrate how forces work. Looking ahead to 2017, the Pitt ASCE chapter will host the annual Region 2 assembly, which will bring members of ASCE to Pittsburgh from Washington, DC, parts of northern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The assembly will provide professional development opportunities through presentations on current engineering design practices as well as chances for students, professors, and practitioners to meet and interact.

Pictured above from left are Pitt ASCE chapter members Pete Eyre, Chaz Donnelly, Connor Bassett, Dr. Andy Bunger, Cameron Schmidt, and Anna Thomas.

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Civil & Environmental Engineering

New Faculty Pictured from left are Lev Khazanovich, Steven Sachs, Max Stephens, and Hao Sun.

Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Pavements (BCOAME) funded by NCHRP, and the development of an improved design procedure for Unbonded Concrete Overlays of Existing Concrete Pavements, which is funded under an FHWA pooled fund study. Max Stephens, Assistant Professor

Lev Khazanovich, the Anthony Gill Chair Professor Dr. Khazanovich received his BS from Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering and PhD from the University of Illinois. Prior to joining Pitt, he was a professor at the University of Minnesota. Over the past 25 years he has been involved in various aspects of pavement research, design, and evaluation, including performance prediction modeling, non-destructive testing, and finite element modeling. He has been Principal Investigator on many high-profile research projects sponsored by the National Academies, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and Department of Energy. During development of the AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide, Dr. Khazanovich served as a member of Rigid Pavement Leadership Team responsible for structural modeling of rigid pavements and overlays, development of neural networks to predict critical structural responses, subgrade characterization procedures, and development

of faulting prediction. His papers have received awards from the Transportation Research Board and International Society for Concrete Pavement. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering and a former member of Board of Directors of the International Society for Concrete Pavements. Steven Sachs, Assistant Professor Dr. Sachs received his BS and PhD degrees in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 and 2016, respectively. His doctoral dissertation examined the development of a joint faulting model for unbonded concrete overlays. His primary research interests include finite element modeling of pavement structures, rigid pavement design and analysis, and mechanisticempirical design procedures. Significant research projects include the calibration of the rigid pavement performance models for Pavement ME (Mechanistic-Empirical) Design Guide, the development of a design guide for Bonded

Prior to joining Pitt, Dr. Stephens was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where his research was supported by the New Zealand Centre for Earthquake Resilience. He received his BS and MS in civil engineering from Portland State University, and PhD in civil engineering with a structural focus from the University of Washington. His research focuses on the development of resilient communities and structures using experimental and analytical methods. Hao Sun, Assistant Professor Dr. Sun’s research interests include resilient and intelligent structures, advanced sensing, data analytics, uncertainty quantification and inverse computational mechanics for structural health monitoring. Dr. Sun is the receipt of multiple scholarships and awards, such as two poster competition awards from EMI Conference 2014, Boeing Fellowship, NSF Workshop Travel Award and China National Merit Scholarship. He obtained his PhD and M.Phil. in engineering mechanics and MS in civil engineering from Columbia University, after completing his BS in civil engineering at Hohai University in Nanjing, China. Prior to joining Pitt he was a postdoc associate and research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Safer Carbon Nanomaterials, by Design

NSF Funds Study to Design More Sustainable Carbon Nanomaterials

arbon nanomaterials (CNMs) are a class of engineered nanomaterials that can be used for many environmental applications, including water treatment and contaminant sensing and remediation. While they are prized for their ability to detect, remove, or degrade contaminants in the environment, CNMs don’t just disappear after they are used. “Like any chemical that persists in the environment, there is concern about impacts on organisms and systems that results from the inherent hazard of the material, its degradation products, and its potential to bioaccumulate – or build up in the bodies of living things,” explains Leanne Gilbertson, assistant professor. Dr. Gilbertson and her research team are studying the inner workings of CNMs to develop the best design practices that result in environmentally sustainable CNMs, enhancing the ability to control their desirable and undesirable impacts. To support her research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Dr. Gilbertson $285,670 for the “SusChEM: Decoupling Structure and Surface Chemistry Impacts of Carbon Nanomaterials on Environmentally Relevant Electrochemical and Biological Activity.” “The conventional pursuit of research focuses on either the potential risks posed by a given nanomaterial or the development of beneficial applications,” says Dr. Gilbertson. “Our goal is to outline a rational approach to CNM design that considers potential risks and benefits simultaneously, to sustainably advance nanotechnologies. This means uncovering ways to control the inherent hazard of a material and the desired functional properties it provides.” Dr. Gilbertson believes the two primary concerns about CNMs are human exposure and the unknown consequences of CNMs released into the environment. The greatest risk of human exposure

occurs while handling during processing, product manufacture, and at the end of the products useful lifetimes. Despite the danger, CNMs have one of the highest production volumes of any class of engineered nanomaterials and account for more than a quarter of the nanomaterial market, according to a report by Reports & Markets. “There are many examples where a chemical was used to advance technology and later determined to cause adverse consequences to humans or the environment: tetraethyl lead in gasoline, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a refrigerant, and asbestos for electrical and thermal insulation, to name a few,” adds Dr. Gilbertson. Dr. Gilbertson and her team will develop a framework to inform design of CNMs in a way that minimizes the potential for future unintended consequences. This work is being pursued through controlled manipulation of surface chemistry coupled with biological and electrochemical activity testing. Once they have characterized their physiochemical properties, electrochemical properties, and the biological reactivity, they will apply statistical methods to identify correlations between specific CNM properties, function, and hazard. These correlations will be the key to unlocking new relationships that optimize the future design of CNMs. Dr. Gilbertson has been leveraging surface chemistry as a design handle to manipulate CNM properties since she was a graduate student. Her dissertation research proposed mechanisms for the influence of surface chemistry on the cytotoxicity of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes: • Impact of Surface Functionalization on Bacterial Cytotoxicity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes • Realizing Comparable Oxidative and Cytotoxic Potential of Single- and Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes through Annealing

• Toward Tailored Functional Design of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs): Electrochemical and Antimicrobial Activity Enhancement via Oxidation and Selective Reduction • Toward safer multi-walled carbon nanotube design: Establishing a statistical model that relates surface charge and embryonic zebrafish mortality She was also involved in collaborative work exploring the impacts of surface functionalization on conductive properties of carbon nanotube thin films: • Enhanced dispersion and electronic performance of single-walled carbon nanotube thin films without surfactant: A comprehensive study of various treatment processes • Highly Conductive Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Preparation by Direct Alignment on Substrates from Water Dispersions In March 2017, Dr. Gilbertson published a paper in a special “Rising Stars” issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal Green Chemistry about her research suggesting the underlying structure of a material plays and important role in relation to the surface chemistry of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide, which will be the CNMs at the focus of her research funded by the NSF grant. “These recent findings are exciting for the proposed research, which not only allows for exploration of inherent material properties as a function of structure and surface chemistry, but in collaboration with Arizona State University, we will also expand our CNM hazard evaluation to include a complete range of environmental trophic levels, including biomolecules, bacteria, algae, and aquatic organisms,” says Dr. Gilbertson.

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Eddy Hasis Named 2017 Peter J. Mascaro Fellow in Construction Management

ohn C. “Jack” Mascaro (ENGR ’66, ’80G), founder and chair of Mascaro Construction Company L.P., established the Peter J. Mascaro Endowed Fund in 1996 to provide tuition assistance each year to a graduate student with a focus on Construction Management and who plans to receive a master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh. This year’s Peter J. Mascaro Fellow in Construction Management is Edwin Hasis, who will receive full tuition reimbursement for his graduate studies, enabling him to better focus on his first year of graduate school. “During his first year as a graduate student, Eddy has shown outstanding commitment to understanding all the steps of the construction process and has the potential to become an excellent leader in the construction industry,” said John Sebastian, LEED, AP, the McKamish Director of the Construction Management Program. In addition to meeting Pitt academic standards, candidates for the Mascaro Fellowship must have a desire to stay within the western Pennsylvania region following graduation. As part of the selection process, candidates interview with an advisory group who helps to assess their construction knowledge and interest and their business acumen. UNIVERSITY O F PI TTSBU RG H | SWAN SO N S C H O O L O F E N G I N E E R I N G | C E E N E W S | FA L L 2 017