ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH | SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING FALL 2016
Vikas Khanna Receives NSF Grant to Study
Decline of Pollinating Insects
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he National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Vikas Khanna, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, with a $259,582 grant to investigate the impact of declining insect-mediated pollination on the United States economy. Previous studies on insects that carry pollen from flower to flower generally focus on agricultural yields. “Collaborative Research: Quantifying the Critical Importance of Insect-mediated Pollination Service for the U.S. Economy” will expand the research to the impact of these insects on associated industrial sectors. “Economic sectors that are directly impacted by insect-mediated pollination are the agricultural sectors, for example: fruit, tree nut, vegetable and melon farming,” said Khanna. “However, there are other sectors that are indirectly dependent on insect-mediated pollination. These include sectors that provide raw materials and inputs to agricultural sectors such as fertilizer manufacturing, pesticides and agricultural chemical manufacturing and even power generation.” Christina Grozinger, distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State University, will join Khanna on the study. Grozinger lend
her expertise in pollinator biology and health to complement Khanna’s understanding of sustainability science and engineering. Penn State will receive an additional $80,000 from NSF. Prior to receiving the grant from NSF, Khanna published a paper describing some preliminary results on this topic in the December issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The paper was selected as the First Runner Up for the Best Papers of 2015. The researchers anticipate this study to lead to a greater appreciation of the role of surrounding ecosystems on the development of economic products and services, with an emphasis on the need to conserve pollination species, including honey bees and other wild insects. “Understanding the economic value of pollination services attributable to managed honeybees and wild insects will help highlight the critical importance and dependence of the U.S. economy on pollinators and the role played by pollinators in sustaining human and industrial activity. Additionally, estimating economic value of insect pollination is likely to help set a higher priority for conservation,” said Khanna. The three-year grant continues through June 30, 2019.
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Greetings from the Chair
PhDs Conferred
s another academic year begins, it’s my pleasure to share the latest news from Pitt’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This promises to be another banner year for the Swanson School of Engineering and the Department, as we welcome 291 undergraduate students, as well as 96 master’s students and 56 PhD students. Once again this is an academically strong first-year class, with an average 1405 SAT, 4.23 GPA and in the top eight percent of their graduating class.
Abdollah Bagheri
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The growth of our program – as well as the demands of industry – encouraged us to launch a new undergraduate major in environmental engineering. Our department’s expertise in areas such as natural resources, sustainability and transportation provide the backbone for this major, and we’re already seeing interest among our current undergraduates. And speaking of our undergraduates, I am very proud of the success that our ASCE chapter has enjoyed within the competitive Ohio Valley Student Conference. In just two years our students have greatly improved their standings, and I want to especially thank Dr. Anthony Iannacchione for being a great mentor and advisor to the chapter. In last year’s newsletter we announced that Dr. Kent Harries and his colleagues secured funding for the “Bamboo in the Urban Environment” symposium, and now you’ll read about their success in moving toward establishing international standards for construction. Dr. Harries led this symposium of some of the world’s leading experts in bamboo and sustainable design from the U.S., Puerto Rico and the UK, as well as Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The symposium was part of a University of Pittsburgh-led consortium created by the Global Innovation Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. and UK governments to foster multilateral research collaboration with higher education institutions in Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. You’ll also read about our award-winning faculty and students in this issue, as well as news of the latest research underway in our department. I hope you enjoy catching up on our department news, and plan to bookmark fall 2017 when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Pitt’s civil engineering program. Best,
Radisav Vidic, PhD, P.E. William Keppler Whiteford Professor and Department Chair
Advisor: Piervincenzo Rizzo, PhD On the Processing of Highly Nonlinear Solitary Waves and Guided Ultrasonic Waves for Structural Health Monitoring and Nondestructive Evaluation
Shauhrat Chopra Advisor: Vikas Khanna, PhD Graph Theoretic Approaches to Understand Resilience of Complex Systems
Sami Al Ghamdi Advisor: Melissa Bilec, PhD Advanced Green Building Rating Systems Using Life Cycle Assessment
Can He Advisor: Radisav Vidic, PhD, P.E. Application of Abandoned Mine Drainage for Reuse of Marcellus Shale Flow Back Water: Wastewater and Solid Waste Management
Yuan Hu Advisor: Mark Magalotti, PhD, P.E. Improving Coordinated Traffic Signal-timing Through Connected Vehicle Technology
Kaiyuan Li Advisor: Piervincenzo Rizzo, PhD On the Use of Solitary Waves for Energy Harvesting
Zichang Li Advisor: Julie Vandenbossche, PhD, P.E. Development of Wellbore Simulator for Better Understanding Oilwell Cement Behavior and Gas Migration During Early Gelation Under Enhanced Borehole Conditions
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s the demand for energy grows and the human impact on natural resources like fresh water becomes more profound, public and private entities are relying on environmental engineers to address current and future challenges facing our society. In order for its students to capitalize on this changing job market, the Swanson School of Engineering will offer a new environmental engineering major beginning the 2016-2017 academic year. Enrollment has begun and the first graduates who are adjusting their course requirements should graduate in April 2017. The environmental engineering major joins bioengineering, chemical and petroleum engineering, civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, materials science engineering, and engineering sciences in the Swanson School.
Pitt Creates New Environmental Engineering Major
“Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that there’s going to be a great demand for environmental engineers, and many of our alumni and employment partners have indicated this to us as well,” said Leonard Casson, associate professor and academic coordinator of civil and environmental engineering. “Civil engineers in particular need to adapt quickly to
evolving societal needs, and our Department realized that we were poised to create a specific major to give our students an advantage.” According to recent BLS data, “employment of environmental engineers is projected to grow 12 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations.” California, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and Texas currently lead the U.S. in the highest employment level of environmental engineers.
Dr. Casson added that there are currently 67 ABET-accredited environmental engineering programs in the United States. And, locally, he continued, environmental engineers – who use the principles of engineering, biology, and chemistry to develop solutions to environmental problems – will likely have job opportunities in many professional areas including water and wastewater treatment, site remediation, solid and hazardous waste management, energy, green building design and construction, and mining.
“Developing this program was possible thanks to the depth and breadth of our faculty, many of whom are nationally and internationally recognized for their research in water and wastewater management, and sustainability and green design,” Dr. Casson said. “Additionally, we have found that women and minorities with a passion for the environment are greatly interested in this program, and so we anticipate it to be an advantage when recruiting future undergraduate students.” The Department is also one of Pitt’s oldest academic programs, established in 1867 as a direct result of the impact of the civil engineering field during the Civil War.
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Front Row: Todd Wolfram; Danielle Graves; Paul Truban; Back Row: Don Matlack; Al Balluch; Antoun Abraham; Warren Howard; Richard Jaffe; John McCleerey; Todd Hirt; Willie Colquitt
Pitt Civil Engineering Grads –
Calling New Jersey Home 30 Years Later
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n the 1980s, when the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) was looking for civil engineers to fill a growing transportation need and replace an aging workforce, it turned to the University of Pittsburgh to recruit a number of well-educated candidates. During a four-year period from 1983-1987, the University of Pittsburgh supplied more than 20 civil engineering graduates to fill Civil Engineer Trainee positions at NJDOT. Some 30 years later, 14 of those engineers remain at the NJDOT and have established themselves in various leadership positions and as technical experts within the NJDOT, helping to bring the department into the 21st century. “While most of us would have liked to stay around Pittsburgh, we knew that we would have to move outside the region to find employment opportunities,” said Paul Truban (BSCE ‘87), manager of bureau of freight planning and services at NJDOT. “The fact that NJDOT offered all of us jobs made it easier for us to make the move to New Jersey knowing that we weren’t going alone. It was a big change for a lot of us, leaving our families and friends to move to a new state for a job. But all of us took the leap and did not look back. At first a lot of us thought, ‘OK we will go to NJDOT for a couple of years, get some valuable experience, but then return home to Pittsburgh when the job market opened up.’ Well it’s been about 30 years now for most of us, and we are still here in New Jersey.”
At the time of graduation in the mid-1980s, Pittsburgh was in the midst of an identity crisis. The steel industry was disappearing, and the city was beginning to reinvent itself as a key Midwestern hub for the medical and finance industry. Jobs in the transportation sector of civil engineering were hard to find in the Pittsburgh area. “Each of us have established our niche in the department and enjoy what we do. Also for those of us who grew up around Pittsburgh in the 1970s when unemployment was high, we learned that there is a value to having a stable job to go to everyday and that can be more important than going after a job just for the money. There is also ‘loyalty and commitment;’ I think we all share these qualities. We take pride in our work and do not want to walk away from a problem or challenge or leave any job unfinished. These are qualities I think a lot of us learned while going to Pitt and living in Pittsburgh. Pitt taught us how to problem solve and to follow through until the job is done,” said Truban. NJDOT has recruited civil engineers from several east coast colleges, including Rutgers, Penn State, Clarkson and the University of Delaware; but of all of these schools, the University of Pittsburgh has supplied more engineers to NJDOT over the years. In addition, more Pitt graduates have remained at NJDOT and established themselves in key positions in the department.
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Pitt ASCE Makes Waves at OVSC 2016 By Nick Cvetic, Pitt ASCE Vice President
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he University of Pittsburgh American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter has had another successful year competing at the Ohio Valley Student Conference. This year, 47 students and three faculty advisors from the Swanson School of Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Department attended the student conference hosted by Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. This year’s conference was held across the Ohio border in the charming town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana during the first weekend of April. Students from 14 schools located throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Western Pennsylvania participated at this year’s conference. Many aspects of this conference allowed us to take technical knowledge from the classroom and apply it to real-world situations – and we had a great time building camaraderie while doing that! Without a doubt, the Pitt Concrete Canoe was the competition team which made the most progress since last year. After passing a swamp test, this year’s patriotic-themed canoe (nicknamed Ol’ Glory) floated to some exciting finishes. Even after some injuries, Pitt was able to come in first place during our heats for the women’s sprint and co-ed sprint races. Finding other unconventional uses
for building materials, we also participated in the Concrete Baseball Bat and Concrete Bowling Ball competitions. After a trip to the Steel Bridge National Competition in 2015, the Pitt Steel Bridge team faced a significant amount of adversity prior to this year’s regional conference. Due to unforeseen conditions at our fabrication facility, it was unclear whether we would even be able to successfully compete at this year’s conference. However, our dedicated students were ultimately able to safely and effectively design, fabricate, and construct our bridge at this year’s regional competition. Most awarded of all of our competition teams, the Environmental Team earned a First Place Overall Award. Additionally, the superb water filtration treatment system designed by Pitt students was given the First Place Award for Most Sustainable Apparatus, the Third Place Award for Most Creative Apparatus, the Third Place Award for Best Technical Review Paper, and the Third Place Award for Best Poster Display. Furthermore, with the support of our unique professor Dr. Budny, the Surveying Team measured up for the First Place Surveying Award. An
innovative housing plan design and a quality change order completion yielded a Third Place Civil Site Design Competition Award. Because of all of these successes and also due in part to our participation in the Balsa Wood Bridge Competition, the Geotechnical Competition, and the Technical Paper Presentation, Pitt ASCE took home the Third Place Overall Conference Award. This accomplishment made the long bus ride back to Pittsburgh seem much more enjoyable! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with each of the competition teams for their months of hard work and perseverance. Best wishes to everyone competing next year and carrying on traditions of excellence at the 2017 Ohio Valley Student Conference.
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“ Pittsburgh Declaration” at International Symposium Takes the Lead in Setting Standards for Bamboo as a Construction Material
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amboo has a critical role to play in the provision of safe and affordable housing and could be a key contributor to greener urban environments worldwide, according to a leading group of academics, architects and construction experts. This strategic resource combines rapidly renewable properties, strength, and cost-effectiveness – making it an ideal building material and a potential driver of sustainable development in many parts of the world. The case for bamboo is outlined in the ‘Pittsburgh Declaration’ – a 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. Bamboo’s benefits have been recognized recently, following earthquakes in Nepal and Ecuador, where bamboo structures often fared better than buildings made from conventional construction material such as concrete. Bamboo is now expected to play an important role in both countries’ reconstruction. The Declaration follows a meeting at the University of Pittsburgh – the ‘Symposium on Bamboo in the Urban Environment,’ part of a US-State Department and UK British Councilfunded Global Innovation Initiative (GII) project
that is supporting the development of bamboo as a sustainable and engineered alternative construction material. The meeting, which brought together academic, private sector and civil society actors from 14 countries and territories, was jointly organized by the University of Pittsburgh, Coventry University, and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), a multilateral organization with 41 member states. To ensure bamboo is harnessed more effectively and becomes a viable building material for the future, the Declaration makes several recommendations. A key consideration is international standards – the plant’s use in modern structures has been previously hampered by a lack of formal standards and codes. The Declaration invites all bamboo-producer and consumer countries to participate in bamboo standard development within the newly established International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee 296; and to share information and coordinate efforts on new harmonized, best-practice international ISO design standard for round culm bamboo. Other recommendations include inviting businesses, industry and academia to advance national and international standards cooperation; encouraging researchers and business to validate the adoption of testing standards; and requesting the development of a new standard on the structural uses of laminated bamboo.
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Participants at the first Bamboo in the Urban Environment symposium at Pitt.
“The Pittsburgh Declaration clearly demonstrates a growing consensus among experts on the need to harness bamboo as a building material,” says Oliver Frith, INBAR’s Global Programme Director. “Bamboo is a practical, cost-effective and sustainable option that will provide affordable, and as we have seen recently in Nepal and Ecuador, resilient and secure homes. The recommendations included in the Declaration are an important milestone and offer a framework to ensure the plant plays a more significant role in construction.” “The international standardization process promulgated by the Declaration is instrumental to developing broad recognition of bamboo as an engineered construction material,” says Kent Harries, FACI, FIIFC, P.Eng., associate professor of structural engineering and mechanics at Pitt’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and conference 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.”
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Civil Engineering Alumni Receive
Department and School-wide Distinguished Alumni Awards
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ore than 300 faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the Swanson School of Engineering gathered on March 15 to recognize the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients at the School’s annual banquet. Gerald D. Holder, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering, presented awards honoring alumni from each of the School’s six departments, as well as for the Swanson School overall. This year’s recipient for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was Marcella (Marcy) Johnson, BSCE ‘77, MSCE ‘01, President of RHEA Engineers and Consultants, Inc. The overall winner was Lester C. Snyder III, BSCE ‘79, President & CEO of i+icon USA. “The Swanson School Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes past recipients of the departmental awards who have excelled in their careers, who have been an inspiration to faculty and students at the Swanson School, and who through their accomplishments and capacity have had an impact on the next generation of Pitt engineers,” Dean Holder said. “Les truly reflects these dimensions, and has shown himself to be an outstanding alumnus of the Swanson School and of Pitt. “Marcy’s accomplishments as a civil engineer and businesswoman are well recognized by her peers, and so she is well deserving of this department award. “Her firm’s emphasis on sustainable engineering practices exemplify how the field of engineering can help to protect the earth and its resources.”
About Marcy Johnson In 1977 Marcy Johnson graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering. She offers more than 35 years of civil, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental experience in investigation, design, operations and construction management.
Dean Holder (left) with Marcy Johnson and her husband, William.
She says she chose to study engineering after her sophomore year when her brother, a Pitt engineering student, convinced her to attend an outreach program the college was conducting in order to attract talented women into the program. Shortly after her return to her alma mater for a master’s in civil & environmental engineering in 2011, Ms. Johnson launched Rhea Engineers & Consultants, headquartered in Gibsonia, PA. As President, she is responsible for Program and Project Management, Financial Oversight, Marketing & Business Development and Quality Assurance for this 30-person firm with offices in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. One of her initial projects was to work with the University of Pittsburgh personnel and Mascaro Construction to monitor the selection of
materials and methods of construction for a high-tech computer classroom at the University of Pittsburgh, utilizing the draft Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines for building interior renovations. The classroom’s “green” features include a flexible flooring system, low volatile organic compound building materials, a construction waste management plan that included recycling, and the use of sustainable forestry products. Prior to launching Rhea in 2001, Ms. Johnson honed her engineering and managerial skills at diverse private and public organizations including the West Virginia Department of Highways, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Paul Rizzo Associates, and J. A. Jones Environmental.
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About Lester Snyder III Upon graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Mr. Snyder’s career began as an estimator in pre-construction, launching him into project engineering where he would become a project manager. From 1995 to 2004, Mr. Snyder served as executive vice president for American Bridge Company, responsible for expanding the company’s operations along the eastern seaboard, beyond Florida and into the Caribbean. From 2004 to 2011, he was President and Chief Operating Officer for Barton Malow Company, a Michiganbased design and construction services company operating throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Currently, Mr. Snyder is the President and Chief Executive Officer for Infrastructure and Industrial Constructors USA, LLC, branded as i+icon USA, headquartered in Pittsburgh. This is parent company for a family of diversified heavy/civil and industrial construction companies recognized for innovative solutions. Mr. Snyder is a third generation builder. His grandfather was a fixture in the region’s construction industry, followed by his father, who he says is his most influential mentor. In honor of his father achieving his civil engineering degree while completing multiple tours of duty during WWII and the Korean Conflict, Mr. Snyder has endowed the Lester C. Snyder Jr. Scholarship to assist Pitt’s Civil and Environmental Engineering students who have served in the military. His involvement with Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA) has earned him a lifetime appointment to its Board of Governors, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors for AGCA and for its Education and Research Foundation. He is a past Chair of the Building Division, the joint AIA-AGC Committee, the Private/Public Industry Advisory Council, and
a Committee Chair of the Year awardee. He has led various other committees and forums throughout his affiliation. Mr. Snyder is an active member of the Swanson School’s Board of Visitors and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s visiting committee. Les consistently participates in former Governor Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, serves on the Facilities Committee of Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, and assisting with the development of their new STEM building. He also serves on committees for the Allegheny Conference.
Les Snyder III with Dean Holder after accepting his Distinguished Alumni Award.
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FACULTY
AWARDS ACCOMPLISHMENTS Student Awards Undergraduate Students Julia M. Chessa and Stephen P. Dine – ADSC International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC-IAFD) Ohio Valley Chapter Awards Eric R. Danko – 2016 Peter J. Mascaro Fellow in Construction Management Trent M. Dillon – NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Amy Hummel and Christopher Walko – Master Builders’ Association (MBA) and the Construction Advancement Program (CAP) scholarships Nathan Schaeffer – American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2015 Student Leadership Award Apurva Shah (visiting undergraduate researcher, Advisor: Vikas Khanna) – First place, student poster competition, AIChE Annual Conference and Exposition Graduate and Post-Doctoral Students Kevin Alland, John DeSantis and Steven Sachs (Advisor: Julie Vandenbossche) – 2016 TRB AFD70 Gene Skok Award for Outstanding Paper by a Young Author (“Laboratory Investigation into the Effect of Different Interlayer Systems on Reflective Cracking of Unbonded Concrete Overlays
of Existing Concrete Pavements (UBOLs)”) Shauhrat Chopra, PhD (Advisor: Vikas Khanna) – First Runner-up Award for Best Environmental Science and Technology Papers of 2015 (Environmental Policy Section) Omkar R. Lokare (Advisor: Radisav Vidic) – Poster Award, 5th Annual Shale Gas Innovation Contest Cassandra Thiel, PhD (Advisor: Melissa Bilec) – Best Poster Presentation, University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association 2016 Postdoctoral Data & Dine Symposium Jared Kasan (Advisor: Kent Harries) – Innovation award, 16th International Structural Faults and Repairs Conference, Edinburgh (“Limits of Efficacy of Repair Methods for Prestressed Concrete Girders”)
Faculty Awards Assistant Professor Kyle Bibby was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium in Irvine, CA, October 25-28, 2015. The Symposium brings together some of the nation’s most engaged and innovative engineering educators in order to share ideas, learn from research and best practice in education, and leave with a charter
to bring about improvement in their home institution. Dr. Bibby’s interests include understanding the presence, ecology, and diversity of microorganisms, such as viruses and bacteria, in an environmental engineering context. As the most abundant and genetically diverse biological entities on earth, microorganisms are at the core of many of society’s environmental challenges, including sustainable energy production, waste treatment, and environmentally transmitted disease. He received his bachelor of science in civil engineering and geological sciences from the University of Notre Dame, and his master of science, master of philosophy, and PhD in environmental engineering from Yale University. Associate Professor Melissa Bilec received the 2016 Mentor Award from the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association (UPPDA) Executive Board. The UPPDA Mentor Award recognizes a University of Pittsburgh faculty member who shows exceptional mentoring ability by advocating for postdoctoral scholars; providing open lines of communication to postdocs; creating a supportive environment for research and helping postdocs achieve their goals; providing guidance in professional development and assisting postdocs in building a professional network;
and demonstrating a commitment to creating a productive working environment. Dr. Bilec’s research focuses on the built environment, life cycle assessment, sustainable healthcare, and indoor air impacts. She is interested in improving system-level environmental performance of buildings while developing a deeper understanding of indoor environmental quality, occupant impacts, and energy use. She also serves as Deputy Director of Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation. She earned her bachelor’s (magna cum laude), master’s, and PhD in civil engineering from Pitt. Associate Professor John Brigham was selected as the 2015 Professor of the Year by the Pittsburgh Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Dr. Brigham received a bachelor of science in civil and environmental engineering and mathematics from Vanderbilt University, and MS and PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University. Dr. Brigham recently served as Director of the ASCE Pittsburgh Section from 2012-2015. Assistant Professor Andrew Bunger received the Best Paper Award, Proceedings 13th International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) Congress, Montreal, Canada. “Laboratory Investigation of Hydraulic
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Fracture Growth Through Weak Discontinuities with Active Ultrasound Monitoring.” Professor Xu Liang and Associate Professor Piervincenzo Rizzo were recipients of the 2016 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Awards from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Liang is a world-renowned scholar in macroscale hydrological modeling where she has made influential contributions to the study of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and has translated her modeling analyses into important insights concerning Earth’s climate system. She is the recipient of the 2014 Carnegie Science Environmental Award and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Her research interests include discovering fundamental laws that govern water and energy cycles, and investigating how these cycles affect the health of our environment and ecological systems. She has been a leader in the growth of the Swanson School’s hydrology and water resources PhD program. Dr. Rizzo’s research focuses on nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring. He has authored eight book chapters, 82 refereed papers, more than 150 conference papers and technical reports, and two patents. He is the only individual who has received both the Achenbach Medal (2012) and the Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year award (2015). Both honors are selected by the editors of SHM: An International Journal, the top journal in the field. Dr. Rizzo holds a Laurea (5-year degree) in aeronautical engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, and a PhD in structural engineering from the University of California San Diego.
Professor John Oyler and colleagues David Wright and Todd Wilson were recognized by the ASCE Pittsburgh Chapter with the History & Heritage Section Citation Award. Research Assistant Professor David Sanchez, Co-Director of the Pitt/RMU Energy Inventor Labs, was one of four Swanson School faculty named as winners of the 2016 Energy Leadership Awards, presented by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The program honors individuals who have paved the way for the vibrant growth of the Pittsburgh region’s energy sector and recognizes outstanding performance in the western Pennsylvania energy industry, from academia and industry to policy and research. He also received the 2015 Swanson School of Engineering Faculty Diversity Award for his significant contributions in enhancing and supporting the school’s diversity priorities. He received his master’s degree and PhD in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Portland. Associate professor Julie Vandenbossche was selected as the 2015 Marlin J. Knutson Award for Technical Achievement by the American Concrete Pavement Association. The award is presented annually to an individual or group who has made significant contributions to the development and implementation of innovative technical approaches in design or construction of concrete pavements. According to ACPA, Dr. Vandenbossche has “made many significant, high-quality contributions to our industry. In particular, recent work on design of concrete overlays
on asphalt pavements is the foremost achievement represented through this award. The design models you have developed offer the concrete pavement industry new opportunities as we continue on our quest to provide alternatives to traditional asphalt resurfacing.” Dr. Vandenbossche leads the Swanson School’s Pavement Mechanics and Materials Lab, which is fully equipped to cast, cure and test concrete specimens as well as other pavement materials. Dr. Vandenbossche received her bachelor’s and master’s in civil engineering from Michigan State University, and her PhD in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota.
New and Renewed Research Assistant Professor Kyle Bibby, “Developing Cross-Assembly Phage as an Indicator of Fecal Pollution in the Environment,” National Science Foundation. Associate Professor Melissa Bilec, “Developing a Framework to Better Engage Students in STEM via Game Design,” National Science Foundation. Associate Professor John Brigham, “Adaptive and Reconfigurable Tiles for Building Surfaces,” National Science Foundation. Assistant Professor Andrew Bunger, “Initiation of Multiple Hydraulic Fractures,” Schlumberger. Associate Professor Kent Harries, “Development of Titanium Reinforcing Bars for Concrete and Masonry,” Perryman Co. Associate Professor Kent Harries, “Collaborative Research: Full Culm Bamboo as a Full Fledged
Engineering Material,” National Science Foundation. Assistant Professor Vikas Khanna, “Fractionation and Catalytic Upgrading of Bio-Oil,” U.S. Department of Energy. Assistant Professor Vikas Khanna, “An Optimization-based Decisionmaking Framework for Economical and Environmentally Conscious Management of Water-energy Nexus for Shale Gas,” EDF. Assistant Professor Vikas Khanna, “Collaborative Research: Quantifying the Critical Importance of Insectmediated Pollination Service for the U.S. Economy,” National Science Foundation. Associate Professor Jeen-Shang Lin, “Developing Constitutive Relations for Geomechanical Property and Numerical Study of HBS, Rev 1,” URS Corporation. Mark Magalotti, Senior Lecturer and Co-director of the Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, “WalkWorks 2015,” Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Associate Professor Piervincenzo Rizzo, “Highly Nonlinear Transducer Arrays for Structural Health Monitoring,” National Science Foundation. Associate Professor Julie Vandenbossche, “Development of an Improved Design Procedure for Unbounded Concrete Overlays,” University of Minnesota. Professor Radisav Vidic, “Fate and Control of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) Produced by Unconventional Gas Industry,” National Science Foundation.
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Former PhD Student and Dr. Kent Harries Receive Award in Edinburgh
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ormer Pitt PhD student, Dr. Jarret Kasan (PhD 2012, now with American Bridge) and Kent Harries were awarded the Innovation award at the 16th International Structural Faults and Repairs Conference held in Edinburgh in May 2016. While the award was given for their paper entitled “Limits of Efficacy of Repair Methods for Prestressed Concrete Girders,” the innovation award recognizes the greater impact of Dr. Kasan’s doctoral work on which the review paper is based. The award was presented in the Edinburgh Council Chambers by the representative of the Lord Mayor of Edinburgh. Both Drs. Kasan and Harries were in Edinburgh to receive the award. This award brackets Dr. Kasan’s graduate career as he won Best Paper Award at the 2009 APFIS conference held in Seoul, South Korea. The 2009 paper, “Repair of Impact-damaged Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders with CFRP,” represented the pilot study (as it were) for the recent award.
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