Swanson School Civil & Environmental Engineering Fall 2013 Newsletter

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Message from

the Chair

Dear Alumni, Friends and Colleagues, As we begin a new academic year with a growing cohort of students, I am pleased to share with you some of our accomplishments of the past year. Your support for our programs and interest in our research is welcomed by my fellow faculty, staff and our students.

In this issue I’m especially proud to recognize three of our new faculty members–Kyle Bibby, Andy Bunger and Na Wei. Their research foci in environmental engineering, hydraulic fracturing and metabolic engineering are tremendous additions to the department and will contribute greatly to Pitt’s and the Swanson School’s research priorities in energy and sustainability.

In addition, you’ll read about the recent accomplishments of our established faculty, who are not only contributing to their respective fields of research but also being recognized nationally and internationally. You’ll also read about notable accomplishments of our students that make us all very proud and, more importantly, inspire us to be even better instructors and mentors to keep up with their contagious enthusiasm for the profession.

Since Pittsburgh is situated literally on top of the vast Marcellus and Utica Shale formations, the need for greater research into the environmental and energy issues regarding this resource is one of

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Inside

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Student Feature:

Understanding the Dynamics of the Amazon River

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our department’s strengths. Inside are several articles about our research in this area and the national recognition it continues to receive. Our city is also at the forefront in sustainability, from new construction and resource management to community programs and transportation, and so the biannual Engineering Sustainability Conference, sponsored by Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and Carnegie Mellon’s Steinbrenner Institute was once again a success.

I’m also happy to recognize several of our distinguished alumni in this issue. You will find that their impact reaches not only around the world, but also into space.

Thank you again for your continued support. To our alumni I hope to see you on campus or at one of our national events, and to our colleagues I look forward to seeing you at our professional conferences throughout the year.

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

Hydrofracturing

Rocket Man Daniel Hull Receives NASA Achievement Medal

Back Cover MCSI Conference

Student Awards and Accomplishments................ 3 Alumni Honors........................................................... 5 New Faculty............................................................... 8 Pitt and CMU Professors Share Award................. 9 Emeritus Professor Meets with Taiwanese President................................................ 9 Faculty Awards and Recognition......................... 10

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Understanding the Dynamics of the Amazon River

STUDENT FEATURE

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he geomorphology and biodiversity of one of the world’s largest rivers was a focal point this summer for one of the Swanson School’s engineering students.

Kristin Dauer, a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the Earth Processes & Environmental Flows (EPEF) research group, spent two months in Iquitos, Peru, a city located in the midst of the Amazon jungle– accessible only by air or river. The objective of her research is to understand the fluid and geomorphological processes of rivers in the Upper Amazon region and how the geomorphology of the rivers responds to changes in climate. In addition, within the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve of Peru, which contains some of the highest biodiversity in South America, she hopes to learn more about the role that the rivers play in biodiversity by studying the physical processes within the rivers.

“This experience not only allowed her a chance to learn how to use measurement equipment to collect data in the region where she plans to carry out her dissertation research, but also to make connections with students and prominent researchers studying related topics in Amazonia,” explained Jorge D. Abad, PhD, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, who heads the research group.

In Iquitos, Ms. Dauer worked with the Service of Hydrography and Navigation of the Amazon (SHNA) of the Peruvian Navy in order to take measurements of velocity and bathymetry in the rivers, where the difference in water depth between the high and low flow seasons varies by about 10 meters. In addition, she and a team of Peruvian students collected sediment samples along the floodplain of the Ucayali River in order to characterize the sediment characteristics in an area where the river channel has been displaying high rates of migration. Using the data collected this summer to model the rivers within the context of the climatic changes in the region will help to explain the behavior of the rivers and how typical patterns may be changing.

In addition to collecting data for her research, Ms. Dauer also mentored three students from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP) who are working on their bachelor theses.

These students are interested in the interaction between humans and the environment and how changes in the shape and location of the river can impact local populations. During the two months in Iquitos, she met regularly with the students to teach them how to use tools such as GIS to analyze the changes in these rivers over time, explain how to interpret and analyze data, and help them understand how a change in one portion of the river can impact the river upstream and downstream.

Another unique experience over the summer was a two-week short course (CREAR-ED-SPA: Explore and Comprehend Amazonia through Science and Technology, http://www.crearamazonia.org/education/ crear-ed-spa/) offered by CREAR (Center for Research and Education of the Amazonian Rainforest, www.crearamazonia.org) in Iquitos.

During the course there were lectures presented by researchers on the topics of climatology of the Amazon basin, geomorphology, ecology, interaction between humans and the environment, and the dynamics of the rivers in Peru. The course allowed the students to go to the field to get practical experience taking measurements on a three-day voyage along the Amazon River and its tributaries on board of the Peruvian Navy’s vessel.

This experience was made possible by the Freeman Fellowship from ASCE and also from a field grant through the University of Pittsburgh Center for Latin American Studies. In addition, the research was possible due to an agreement that Dr. Abad has with the Peruvian Navy through CREAR. Currently, Dr. Abad is an external technical advisor of the Peruvian Navy and the Academic Director of CREAR. This experience is fostered between the undergraduate and graduate community of the University of Pittsburgh.

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Student Awards and Accomplishments is a member of Pitt’s Society of Mining Engineering student chapter and also served as a summer intern with CONSOL Energy where he worked for the PA Operations Office on Enlow Fork’s overland belt project.

Blaise Bucha received the George V. Weisdack Memorial Scholarship from the Society of Mining Engineers. Blaise serves as President of Pitt’s Society of Mining Engineering student chapter and also was a summer intern with CONSOL Energy where he worked as an Engineering Trainee at the Enlow Fork Mine in Claysville, Pa. He also is one of several undergraduate researchers working on the Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Science (ARIES) research project to help determine the factors responsible for the design of down-dip mine barriers at Pennsylvania coal mines.

The Master Builders’ Association (MBA) and the Construction Advancement Program (CAP) awarded scholarships to Natalie Celmo and Anthony Lester. Both students are enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering’s Construction Management/Civil Engineering Program.

Kristin R. Dauer, S.M.ASCE was selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Society Awards Committee as a recipient of the 2013 Freeman Fellowship. A PhD candidate, Ms. Dauer traveled to the Amazon for a three-month research group project led by Assistant Professor Jorge D. Abad, PhD. Stanislaw Gawel was named a finalist for George Washington Award, presented by the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania and the Swanson School of Engineering. The George

Washington Prize recognizes seniors within the Swanson School of Engineering who display outstanding leadership, scholarship and performance as determined by a committee of eight professional engineers and faculty. The George Washington Prize was named after the first President of the United States and First Engineer, to reinforce the importance of engineering and technology in society, and to sustain and enhance the visibility of the engineering profession.

Graduate student Xuan (Katie) Zheng won the national competition for the best student paper in Graduate Division organized by the Water Environment Federation. With assistance from Kashi Banerjee, PhD, P.E., Senior Technical Director at Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies and adjunct faculty member, Ms. Zheng worked on developing and validating treatment technology that would enable the use of abandoned mine drainage for hydraulic fracturing in Marcellus Shale. She first won the competition for the best student paper organized by the Pennsylvania Water Association and entered the national competition as a representative from Pennsylvania. Ms. Zheng presented the results of her work at a special session of 2013 WEFTEC in Chicago from October 5-9, 2013.

Gordon Louderback was elected President of the University of Pittsburgh’s 2013 Student Government Board. He and his fellow board members were inaugurated during a January 10 ceremony.

Adam Madar received the Lewis E. and Elizabeth W. Young Scholarship from the Woman’s Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. Mr. Madar The University of Pittsburgh ASCE Student Chapter was awarded the 2013 ASCE Distinguished Chapter Award for Region 2 from the ASCE Committee on Student Members. The Pittsburgh Chapter was recommended for the award by the Committee based on activities recorded in the Student Chapter’s 2012 annual report.

Photos: Pitt students particpated in the annual OVSC Student Competition and placed 3rd in environmental; 3rd in Balsa Wood Bridge, 3rd in Concrete Horseshoe and 3rd overall.

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Rocket Man

Daniel Hull Receives NASA Early Career Achievement Medal KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (September 13, 2012) ... Pitt Civil Engineering alumnus Daniel H. Hull, PE (BSCE ‘04, MSCE ‘06), a project manager at NASA Construction of Facilities Division at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was awarded the prestigious NASA Early Career Achievement Medal for “initiative, project management skill, and exemplary achievement in the sustainment of critical KSC facilities and infrastructure.”

He and the other NASA awardees were recognized at KSC in August 2012.

Mr. Hull joined NASA after receiving his MSCE from Pitt in April 2006. His MSCE thesis was entitled On the Applicability of Fixed Point Theory to The Design of Coupled Core Walls and was directed by Kent A. Harries, PhD, FACI, P.Eng, associate professor of structural engineering and mechanics at the Swanson School of Engineering.

This NASA medal is awarded to any Government employee for unusual and significant performance during the first ten years of an individual’s early career (i.e., entry-level professional in a scientific, engineering, administrative professional or technical position) in support of the Agency.

Performance is characterized by unusual initiative or a creative achievement that clearly demonstrates a significant contribution in the individual’s discipline area that directly contributes to NASA’s mission and goals.

According to his nomination, Mr. Hull was selected as a recipient for his successful growth as an employee since beginning his career at NASA. One of his first projects was repair of the Hangar AF Doors and Wharf, which was used as Space Shuttle solid rocket booster Recovery and Disassembly Facility. Later, according to his nomination, Mr. Hull acted in a combined role as lead design, construction, and project manager for emergency repairs to the Jay Jay Railroad Bridge east approach causeway, the NASA Causeway Seawalls project, repairs to the Banana River Bridge machinery, and the prevention of catastrophic erosion at each of KSC’s major bridges.

The Jay Jay Railroad Bridge project in particular was critical to keeping delivery of the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket motors to the center and the Space Shuttle program itself on schedule.

In 2011 he was assigned the role of project management liaison to the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (LX) directorate, in which he managed many of the division’s most significant programmatic Construction of Facilities (CoF) projects. These projects included large scale studies to replace the Jay Jay Railroad Bridge and the Rotation Processing and Surge Facility as well as design/construction packages to improve the crawlerway, roadway crossings,

and entrance into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). In addition, Mr. Hull managed the Technical Authority’s work to revitalize the VAB, VAB Utility Annex, and Launch Control Center, a combined $140M project that included the replacement of the VAB High-Bay 3 platforms, fire suppression pipes, power systems, and the enhancement of the VAB structure and foundations to support future new vehicles.

In 2009, Mr. Hull and his team received the NASA Blue Marble Award for the NASA Causeway Seawall Project Team (KSC), recognizing “Successful Integration of Independent Projects to Obtain and Reuse Demolished Concrete in KSC Coastal Revetment Project.” As part of the project, he identified 23,000 tons of waste concrete at KSC that could be recycled for the project, rather than be buried in a landfill.

NASA’s most prestigious honor awards are approved by the Administrator and presented to a number of carefully selected individuals and groups of individuals, both Government and non-Government, who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency’s mission. The Chair of the Incentive Awards Board (IAB) annually requests nominations for the various NASA honor awards. After a rigorous review, the nominations are forwarded to the IAB chair for approval. NASA medals and/or certificates are, subsequently, presented to the award recipients by the Agency’s highest officials at the annual awards ceremonies held at NASA Headquarters and each NASA Center.

Alumni Honors

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Two Civil and Environmental Engineering alumni were this year’s winners of the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania Engineer of the Year Award and William Metcalf Award.

Thomas G. Leech, P.E., S.E. was the recipient of the Engineer of the Year Award, which recognizes an outstanding engineer who has made profound technical and professional contributions to the field of engineering. Mr. Leech received his M.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh in 1979 and is a certified as a Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and Ohio as well as four other states. He is also licensed as a surveyor in Pennsylvania and Structural Engineer in Illinois. Mr. Leech has over thirty-six years of experience as a project manager and is currently the VP of Gannett Fleming, an engineering and construction firm with a global base of operations.

As a member of the Association for Bridge Construction and Design and past-president of its Pittsburgh chapter, as well as a past president of the ESWP’s International Bridge Conference (IBC), Mr. Leech has a passion for bridge architecture and for sharing this knowledge with the community. He has been a guest editor of several articles for the IBC’s special editions for Pittsburgh Engineer, the ESWP’s quarterly publication.

The William Metcalf Award, established in 1962, recognizes an outstanding engineer whose achievements relate to areas of engineering often associated with western Pennsylvania, including construction. The award’s namesake is the first president of the ESWP and a Pittsburgh native who, before the age of thirty, became general superintendent of the Fort Pitt Foundry, which notably supplied canon for the Union during the Civil War. This year’s recipient is Alex G. Sciulli, P.E., who received both a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1975 and an MBA in 1986 from the University of Pittsburgh. As Executive Vice President and Chief Real Estate Development and Construction Officer at Highmark Inc., a position he was promoted to in March 2012, he is in charge of the process of creating new buildings for the medical corporation.

Previously, as president and chief operating officer the RJ Group, he became known as a leader who made it his business to connect with his customers on the individual level they required. Several noteworthy recipients in recent years include John Mascaro (2003), current University of Pittsburgh Dean of Engineering Gerald Holder (2008), and the namesake of the University of Pittsburgh’s engineering program John Swanson (2011).

Over 200 faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the Swanson School of Engineering gathered in April to recognize the 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.

Tamas S. Tanto, BSCE ’67, President of Tanto International Golf, was recognized as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Alumnus. Mr. Tanto was born and raised in Hungary during World War II and the Soviet occupation of Iron Curtain countries. He came to the United States in 1957 unable to speak English, and settled in the south hills of Pittsburgh with a family who directed him to the University of Pittsburgh. He worked for a local engineering firm while attending college.

Shortly after graduating with a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967, an opportunity to build a local golf course in Murrysville, PA caught his interest. Upon its completion, Mr. Tanto founded

Tanto Construction & Supply. He has built and/or worked on over 350 golf courses around the world, including 25 of the top 100 courses in the world.

At Augusta National Golf Club alone he worked on course projects for 12 consecutive years.

Recently he sold his company in the United States but continued to work as a consultant for the new owner of Tanto Irrigation, LLC. Meanwhile, he founded Tanto International Golf Limited, and presently is involved with course projects in Dubai, Hungary, and Jordan.

Considered an icon in the golf industry worldwide, Mr. Tanto has worked on and consulted with many of the best-known golf course architects including Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Fazio,

Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer.

He has served as a consultant nationally and internationally for the Toro Company for the past 30 years.

Mr. Tanto is also owner and director of the Pittsburgh area course Totteridge, which he built in 2000. Golf Digest currently ranks Totteridge at 19th in the State and among the best in western Pennsylvania.

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With Pittsburgh and the western Pennsylvania region at the nexus of the Marcellus Shale formation, hydrofracturing has created both an economic boon and an environmental controversy. One of the greatest issues facing hydrofracturing in the region is water usage and wastewater treatment, influenced by a legacy of coal mining and acid mine drainage, which continues to be an environmental concern. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are tackling these issues head-on with unbiased, ground-breaking research.

Pitt Researchers Contribute to Sustainable Water Management Strategies used in Hydrofracturing Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are proposing simplified and less expensive methods to analyze potential flowback water from hydraulic fracturing, based on the level of chloride in geographic areas throughout Pennsylvania. The team’s research, “Spatial and Temporal Correlation of Water Quality Parameters of Produced Waters from Devonian-Age Shale following Hydraulic Fracturing,” is the cover story in the March 19, 2013 issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Radisav D. Vidic, P.E., PhD, William Kepler Whiteford Professor and Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and lead

The “Gaping Hole” in Water Quality Data in the Marcellus Shale Region

Radisav Vidic, lead author of the review, “there is no evidence of groundwater contamination–even if it does exist.”

What to do with Marcellus Shale wastewater is one of the biggest concerns in Pennsylvania, and few published studies have evaluated wastewater effects on regional groundwater, according to a review coauthored by professors at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Vidic cites state regulations as a possible cause.

Published online today in the peer-reviewed journal Science, the review stresses the need for scientific data on water pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing and cites a lack of monitoring stations and confidentiality requirements for documentation as potential causes. The review is titled “Impact of Shale Gas Development on Regional Water Quality.”

“Since the advent of hydraulic fracturing, more than one million treatments have been conducted with perhaps only one documented case of direct groundwater pollution resulting from the injection of chemicals,” said

“This gaping hole is likely there because Pennsylvania is one of only two states in the entire United States that doesn’t require monitoring for water quality in individual well supplies,” he said.

Intensive gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale began in the eastern United States in 2005, which has quickly become one of the top five unconventional gas reservoirs in the country. Previous studies have estimated this area could yield 489 trillion cubic feet of natural gas–an amount requiring high volumes of water use for what is often referred to as “slickwater fracturing.” In this method, no viscosity modifiers (thickening agents) are added to the water before being injected into wells.

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investigator, noted that while additional geological studies are warranted, the research indicates that the correlation between the drilling location (spatial) and when the wastewater is extracted (temporal) developed in this study can predict wastewater quality and guide the selection of management alternatives prior to extraction.

According to Dr. Vidic, composition of flowback and produced water from hydraulic fracturing varies both over time and by location in areas throughout Pennsylvania, with the most pronounced differences between the southwest and north east regions. Furthermore, they also elucidated the role of chemical reactions that are governed by the frack fluid quality and solid-water interactions on the quality of water recovered in the early stages of well operation (flowback period) when majority of wastewater is collected.

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The researchers found that concentrations of calcium, magnesium and bromide are higher in southwestern Pennsylvania, while concentrations of barium and strontium are higher in the northeast. They hypothesize that this may be the result of the geologic history of these deposits.

“We can then analyze general trends in the geochemistry of the produced water and provide more comprehensive information to develop more sustainable water management plans. By knowing what waste will be generated at a given site over time, we can more effectively treat and

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reuse the wastewater, rather than utilizing new sources of freshwater that must be harvested and transported to the site.

In addition to Dr. Vidic, the research group included Elise Barbot, PhD, Research Associate at the Swanson School’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Kelvin B. Gregory, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University; and Natasa S. Vidic, PhD, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at the Swanson School.

“By analyzing well sites around the state we found trends that indicated what total dissolved solids would be found in a particular well,” Dr. Vidic explains. “Even though there are various dissolved solids in different amounts in each well, we could correlate these amounts based simply on the amount of chloride in the wastewater, which was the dominant ion regardless of location.”

“It is likely that the water needs will change from these initial projections as the industry continues to improve and implement water reuse,” he said.

“However, it is still necessary to develop specific policies regarding when and where water can be taken from streams to be used for fracturing.”

Dr. Vidic notes that it is well known that a large portion–nearly 90 percent– of slickwater is not recovered during the flowback period, indicating the importance of documenting potential transport pathways and the ultimate disposition of the water. In addition, “stray gas” or gas leakage is a concern for the region.

“While stray gas can be minor and easily remedied, there has been one case attributed to Marcellus shale drillings in which gas accumulation caused a private well water explosion in Pennsylvania,” said Susan Brantley, co-author of the review and Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. “However, there is no evidence for widespread increase in

methane concentration in Pennsylvania groundwater where levels are similar to those recorded in New York, which has a moratorium on large-volume hydraulic fracturing.”

“As these well fields mature and the opportunities for wastewater reuse diminishes, the need to find alternative management strategies for this wastewater will likely intensify. Now is the time to work on these issues in order to avoid an adverse environmental legacy similar to that from abandoned coal mine discharges in Pennsylvania,” Dr. Vidic said.

Co-authors of the review include, from Pitt, Jorge Abad, assistant professor of engineering, and Julie Vandenbossche, assistant professor of engineering.

Collaborators from the Pennsylvania State University include Brantley and Dave Yoxtheimer, extension associate at Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research.

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Our New Faculty

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering welcomes our new faculty to the Swanson School this academic term.

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yle Bibby, who received his PhD in chemical and environmental engineering from Yale University, was appointed assistant professor. Dr. Bibby’s interests center around understanding the presence, ecology, and diversity of microorganisms, such as viruses and bacteria, in an environmental engineering context. Microorganisms are by far the most abundant and genetically diverse biological entities on our planet and are at the core of many

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eological engineer and hydraulic fracturing researcher Andrew P. Bunger, PhD will serve his primary appointment as assistant professor with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a secondary appointment with the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

Dr. Bunger earned a bachelor’s degree in physics/engineering science from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota and his bachelor’s, master of science and PhD in geological engineering from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining Pitt, he served as research group leader, research project leader and research scientist at Australia’s largest science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Melbourne.

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a Wei, PhD has been appointed assistant professor beginning January 2014. Her research will focus on understanding and controlling biological processes at molecular level to address challenges in sustainability of water, energy and natural resources. Dr. Wei holds a B.S. in environmental science and engineering from Sichuan University, China, and an M.S. and PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has been a postdoctoral research associate at the UIUC’s Institute for Genomic Biology and its Energy Bioscience Institute since 2011. While in the Institute’s Molecular and Systems Biotechnology Lab, her research included metabolic engineering for renewable biofuel/value-added chemical production.

of society’s environmental challenges, including sustainable energy production, waste treatment, and environmentally transmitted disease. In the Bibby Lab, emerging molecular biology techniques such as proteomics, genomics, metagenomics and transcriptomics are integrated with fundamental, quantitative environmental engineering practice to develop new insights and solutions to these problems.

At CSIRO, his research has focused primarily on the basic mechanisms which determine how hydraulic fractures grow through rocks by using experimental, analytical, and numerical methods. His study of hydraulic fracturing application areas has included stimulation of unconventional gas and geothermal reservoirs, preconditioning ore bodies to improve the effectiveness of caving‐type mining methods, and modeling intrusion of magma in the Earth’s crust. His secondary research interest is the interaction between shale formations and drilling fluids with the main application in wellbore stability during the development of oil and gas wells.

Previous appointments included graduate research associate in the CEE department at UIUC (20062011), and undergraduate research assistant at Sichuan University (2003-2006).

Through her research, Dr. Wei is interested in understanding and manipulating microorganisms and their communities in order to harness microbial power for beneficial applications in environmental engineering. Specifically she is investigating the production of energy and value-added chemicals from waste or renewable sources through a process called value-added biotransformation, and utilizing microorganisms to transform emerging environmental contaminants in natural or engineered water systems to provide clean water and reduce risks to public health/ecosystems.

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Pitt and CMU Professors Share Prestigious

Environmental Engineering Award

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arnegie Mellon University’s David A. Dzombak and the University of Pittsburgh’s Radisav D. Vidic were recognized by the American Academy of Environmental Scientists and Engineers (AAEES) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for helping to address the global water shortage for use in power plant cooling systems.

Drs. Dzombak and Vidic received the 2013 Grand Prize in the University Research category of the AAEES Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science competition for a project titled “Use of Treated Municipal Wastewater as Power Plant Cooling System Makeup Water.”

The CMU-Pitt research shows that treated municipal wastewater is a common and widely available alternative source of cooling water for thermoelectric power plants across the U.S. However, the biodegradable organic matter, ammonia, carbonate and phosphates in the treated wastewater pose challenges, including fouling and corrosion issues. The researchers along with their graduate students from both CMU and Pitt investigated how to address these challenges.

The two noted that the results of their work show the need to evaluate the growing competition among the energy industry, farmers and residents for scarce water supplies. Every day, water-cooled thermoelectric power plants in the U.S. withdraw more than 200 billion gallons of fresh water from rivers, lakes, streams and aquifers. Freshwater withdrawals for cooling thermoelectric power production alone account for about 40 percent of all withdrawals, essentially the same amount taken for agricultural irrigation, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Emeritus Professor Chao-Lin Chiu Meets with Taiwanese President to Discuss Water Resource Management

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xpertise in water resource management by one of the Swanson School of Engineering’s emeritus professors has attracted the attention of the government of Taiwan. Chao-Lin Chiu, PhD, emeritus professor of civil and environmental engineering, was invited by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou to discuss water issues facing Taiwan at a meeting on December 5, 2012.

According to a report by the Water Resources Agency (WRA) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, by 2021 Taiwan’s total demand for water from conventional sources like rivers and dams will rise to 20 billion metric tons per year, but projected supply of water from such sources, however, will provide only 19.2 billion metric tons per year by 2021, an annual shortage of 800 million metric tons.

For the past several years the Taiwanese government has increased its focus on water resource management. Although the country’s annual rainfall is 2nd in the world, much of it rushes into the sea, and there is little area left in the country to build dams. In addition, according to an editorial by Taiwan Today: “Taiwanese use an average of 271 liters of water per day, much higher than the 250-liter average in Europe and the U.S. More than 70 percent of the nation’s water is used for agriculture, which accounts for only 1 percent of the gross domestic product. From this perspective, Taiwan does not have a water shortage, only wasteful users and ineffective management of water policy.”

Professor Chiu conducts teaching, research and professional consulting work in hydraulics, hydrology and water resources. His research interest includes applications of probability concepts in modeling and measurements of flow and sediment transport in rivers and streams; flow forecasting; velocity and shear stress distributions; transport of sediments and other types of solid materials through pipes and open channels; and applications of probability (stochastic) concepts in analysis and design of hydraulic systems.

Dr. Chiu earned his BSA from National Taiwan University, his MsA from the University of Toronto, and his PhD from Cornell University.

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Faculty Awards and Recognition

John C. Brigham

Kent Harries

Anthony T. Iannacchione

John C. Brigham, PhD, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was awarded a J. Tinsley Oden Faculty Fellowship to visit the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Brigham’s research is focused on fundamental concepts in mechanics and computation which span a broad range of applications from assessing service life of civil, marine, or aircraft structures to diagnosing physiological changes in biological structures. The focus of Dr. Brigham’s visit to the University of Texas at Austin will be to expand upon his current work regarding development of metrics for better understanding and diagnosis of changes to heart mechanical function related to pulmonary hypertension.

The J. Tinsley Oden Faculty Fellowship Research Program at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) was established in 1993 and in March 2003 was renamed in honor of Professor J. Tinsley Oden, who has managed it since inception.

The program’s foremost purpose is to bring in outstanding researchers and scholars to the University of Texas to collaborate with ICES faculty, researchers, and students on advanced research in computational engineering, mathematics, and sciences. The program also hosts internationally renowned specialists who present lectures on new developments while enhancing the stature and visibility of the program.

Dr. Brigham earned his bachelor’s in civil and environmental engineering and mathematics from Vanderbilt University and his MS and PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University.

Kent Harries, PhD., FACI, P.Eng., Associate Professor of Structural Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, received the 2012 President’s Award from The International Institute for Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) in Construction (IIFC).

This award, given every two years at the discretion of the IIFC President, is in “recognition of his distinguished services to the International Institute for FRP in Construction for advancing the understanding and the application of fiber-reinforced polymers in the civil infrastructure, in service of the engineering profession and society.”

Dr. Harries received the award on June 14 in Rome at the 6th International conference on Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE) 2012 conference. CICE is the official biennial conference of IIFC. Dr. Harries is a member of IIFC Council and the IIFC Executive Committee, and is the Editor of FRP International.

The International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC) is the only international professional organization dedicated to the use of fibre-reinforced composite materials (FRP) in Civil infrastructure. The mission of the Institute is to advance the understanding and application of FRP composites in the

civil infrastructure, in the service of the engineering profession and society.

Anthony T. Iannacchione, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Mining Engineering, is the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Member Award from the Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Pittsburgh Section. Dr. Iannacchione will receive the award at the 2013 SME/PCMIA Annual Joint Meeting on Friday, October 25. The award also makes him eligible for nomination as a National Distinguished Member for SME. Earlier this year The Pittsburgh Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) announced that Dr. Iannacchione was selected as Professor of the Year.

Dr. Iannacchione is associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the mining engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. He earned his BS in Geology from California State College, and his MS in Earth and Planetary Science and MS and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Vikas Khanna, PhD, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s annual Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium, October 27-30 in Irvine, California. He will be joined

by Cheryl Bodnar, PhD, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the Swanson School.

The Frontiers of Engineering Education

A wards and R ecognition A wards and R ecognition A wards and R ecognition

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(FOEE) Symposium brings together some of the nation’s most engaged and innovative engineering educators in order to recognize, reward, and promote effective, substantive, and inspirational engineering education through a sustained dialogue within the emerging generation of innovative faculty.

Dr. Khanna’s research and teaching interests are in the general areas of sustainability science and engineering, industrial ecology, and role of environmental policy in engineering decisionmaking. His current focus is on studying the life cycle environmental impacts of advanced biofuels that can act as drop in replacements for fossil fuels. His previous research on the environmental evaluation of nanotechnology focused on the life cycle energy impacts of carbon nanofibers and polymer nanocomposite materials. Dr. Khanna is also developing integrated multiscale economic-environmental models for evaluating the role of environmental policies such as carbon tax and assessing risks to complex industrial systems.

He earned his bachelor of engineering from Panjab University in Chandigarh, India and his master’s in applied statistics and PhD in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University.

Jeen-Shang Lin, Sc.D., P.E., F.ASCE, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, was recently elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE fellows are legally registered professional engineers or land surveyors who have made significant technical or professional contributions and have demonstrated notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at

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least 10 years following election to the ASCE grade of member. Fellows occupy the Society’s second-highest membership grade, exceeded only by distinguished members.

Dr. Lin’s recent research has focused on the discrete and continuum modeling of drilling mechanics and on the geomechanical behavior of methane-hydratebearing deposits. Over the years he has worked on a wide range of problems encompassing earthquake engineering, plate tectonics, the mechanics of biological cells, and discrete-continuum numerical modeling. He has been a member of ASCE since his graduate student days at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s. He has served as the adviser to the University of Pittsburgh’s ASCE student chapter for more than 15 years and to the soil dynamics committee for more than 20 years. A registered professional engineer in Massachusetts, Dr. Lin earned his ScD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Piervincenzo Rizzo, PhD, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, is the co-recipient of the 2013 Outstanding Paper Award from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT).

Dr. Rizzo and his co-author, graduate research assistant Xianglei Ni, were recognized for their article, “Use of Highly Nonlinear Solitary Waves in Nondestructive Testing” by the ASNT Journal, Materials Evaluation [Volume 70, No. 5, pp 561-569, May 2012] The Award will be presented at the ASNT Annual Conference in Las Vegas, November 4-7, 2013.

According to the abstract, “This paper proposes the use of highly nonlinear

solitary waves (HNSWs) for the nondestructive testing (NDT) of structural materials. HNSWs are mechanical waves that can form and travel in highly nonlinear systems, such as in 1D chains of particles, where they are generated by means of a mechanical impact. HNSWs have a constant spatial wavelength and are characterized by the important property that their speed, amplitude and duration can be tuned by modifying the particles’ material or size, or the velocity of the impactor (striker). In the study presented in this paper, the feasibility of HNSWs for the NDT of aluminum, concrete and composites was investigated. Specifically, this study evaluated the capability of HNSWs to assess debonds in an aluminum lap-shear joint, determine the initial setting of concrete, and detect impact-related damage in a composite plate.”

Dr. Rizzo’s academic and professional interests are in the fields of nondestructive testing/evaluation, structural health monitoring, signal processing and automatic pattern recognition for real-time prognosis of structural and biological materials, and implementation of embedded sensor network for the health monitoring of civil, mechanical and aerospace structures. Current works include: 1) the development of guided wave-based SHM methodologies for pipes; 2) the investigation of highly-nonlinear solitary waves for the noninvasive assessment of structural and biomaterials including structural buckling. Dr. Rizzo earned his Laurea (MS) in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy; and his MS and PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of California San Diego.

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Vikas Khann

Jeen-Shang Lin

Piervincenzo Rizzo

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742 Benedum Hall 3700 O’Hara Street Pittsburgh PA 15261

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MSCI Engineering Sustainability Conference L

ess than a century ago, thick, black, sooty smoke rose from Pittsburgh’s steel mills, infiltrating the city air and staining the white collars of men and dresses of women. In recent years, however, the city has moved toward incorporating greener technologies and is now a leader in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) technology.

To foster that new green spirit, leaders in and advocates for sustainable engineering gathered in Pittsburgh for Engineering

Sustainability 2013: Innovation and the Triple Bottom Line, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University April 7-9 at the David Lawrence Convention Center. The conference schedule included green building design, sustainable urban drinking water, and sustainable transportation grids.

Keynote speakers included author Alex Steffen and Khanjan Mehta, Director, Humanitarian Engineer and Social Entrepreneurship Program, Penn State University.

The biannual conference is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.

Univ e r sit y of Pittsburgh | S wa n s o n S chool of Engineering | C EE N ews | Fall 2013