Engineering Progress Magazine Spring 2023

AS WE COME TO THE CLOSE of another academic year at UC Davis, I am reflecting on our engineering community’s achievements and dedication.

We have made tremendous progress on our Next Level strategic vision, and our investments in the three pillars –research, education and community – are paying off. Our college is steadily advancing in alignment with our core value of engineering a better world for all.

This May, we celebrated the grand opening of the Diane Bryant Engineering Student Design Center, or ESDC. This $22 million expansion project more than

Message from the Dean

doubled the size of the previous space and, with the co-location of the Student Startup Center, established one roof under which our students can hone their engineering expertise and foster their entrepreneurial spirit. The ESDC is the hub of our college’s innovation ecosystem and a key facilitator of the inspiring, inclusive and impactful experiences inherent to our strategic education vision.

The college continues to rank among the top graduate schools that offer Ph.D. degrees in engineering. Among public institutions surveyed, all 10 of our engineering graduate programs are ranked in the top 20. Overall, notable gains were made in electrical engineering, which advanced eight spots to No. 30, and civil engineering, which rose four to No. 9. Three other programs moved up, and our biological and agricultural engineering program is ranked No. 3 in the nation.

Our faculty continue to receive national recognition. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis was elected to the National Academy

of Engineering, and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Randy Carney received an NSF CAREER award, to name two. At the college level, four outstanding faculty were selected for excellence in research and teaching.

We have much to look forward to in the coming year. Twelve new faculty hires, recognizing eight Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medalists at Alumni Celebration and the Coffee Center grand opening are just a few of the highlights.

During the summer months, I am hopeful that our engineering community – you included – can find time for relaxation and reflection. I look forward to staying in touch as we approach another ambitious academic year this September.

Go Ags!

Richard L. Corsi Dean, UC Davis College of Engineering

You’re on a long road trip. You’re enjoying your favorite tunes as your self-driving car moves you down the road. Then suddenly, a driver going in the other direction swerves into oncoming traffic right at you.

Will the artificial intelligence, or AI, in the car have enough time to react and save you from a head-on crash?

The answer to that question is the nexus of the research of Junshan “Joshua” Zhang in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

By Sarah Colwell

Computing on the Edge

A NEED FOR REAL-TIME AI

Professor Zhang’s research falls in the general field of information networks and data science, specifically in state-of-the-art edge AI, reinforcement learning, and optimization and control of networked systems. He is exploring how to use networked systems and the Internet of Things, or IoT, to improve the data processing and AI decision-making capability on the edge of the object’s network.

“We are trying to push AI from the Cloud data center to the edge of the Internet,” Zhang said, “because there are so many new applications that require real-time intelligence where the decision-making has to be made right here, right now.”

Currently, AI model training relies on the Cloud for collecting, transferring and processing data. While this process is relatively fast in a historical context, it is far too slow for applications in some modern and future technological advancements, such as self-driving cars.

Edge computing and edge AI in particular, which is Zhang’s focus, moves the transfer and processing of data away from the Cloud and into the edge of the device’s network. With this technology, data are processed and transmitted to the device instantly. It also expands the network's capacity from thousands to millions. It is a complicated process that uses distributed and connected intelligence and wireless edge networks. Its application could transform the effectiveness of such things as automated vehicles, 5G (and beyond) wireless networks, IoT, and 'the smart grid'.

THINKING AHEAD

Zhang is one of the first in the world to pursue this type of research and has been credited as being a pioneer of transactional networks and fog computing. (Fog computing is the layer of computing that resides between the Cloud and edge computing.) He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of

humanity, and has won numerous best paper awards from the organization for his work.

He started working in the field about 10 years ago in his lab at Arizona State University. He was working on 5G wireless networks and smart phones at the time when he saw an opportunity to both make use of the research available at the edge of the internet and optimize communications and computing across the edges of networks.

“We were trying to think ahead,” Zhang said, “We found there was an urgency to help build a foundation for edge AI.”

an explosion in the number of IoT devices, which demanded more instantaneous data transfer. In 2015, around the time that Zhang entered the field, there were 3.6 billion IoT devices; in 2021, there were 12.2 billion; by 2025, that figure is expected to grow to anywhere between 27 to 41.6 billion according to the International Data Corporation.

“So, there is a big need to push AI from the Cloud to the edge,” he said. “The question is, how do we do it? There are still many exciting, open problems for us to explore. We’ve been working very, very hard on that.”

DRIVEN TO DAVIS

Zhang came to UC Davis in 2021, having worked for 20 years at Arizona State University. Zhang said he was motivated to make the move because of the caliber of colleagues in the College of Engineering and at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, which is the leading university center in the world on sustainable transportation.

“I think there is a strong synergy between the College of Engineering and the Institute of Transportation Studies and there is great potential for us to collaborate to do something bigger,” he said. “Personally, I believe selfdriving is the next big technology wave.”

FROM THE CLOUD TO FOG TO THE EDGE

In 2015, he helped establish OpenFogConsortium — a public-private ecosystem formed to accelerate the adoption of fog computing to solve the bandwidth, latency and communications challenges associated with IoT. Other founding partners included Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University Edge Computing Laboratory.

Together with Mung Chiang and Kaushik Pillalamarri, he then co-founded Smartiply, Inc., a Fog/edge computing company to boost network connectivity and embedded real-time edge intelligence for IoT applications, which was sold to Wistron AiEdge Corporation in 2020.

His work focused on fog/edge computing, after seeing

Computing on the Edge

MOSAIC

For the past year, Zhang has been working with colleagues in the College of Engineering and ITS to advance a strategic goal of both groups: transforming mobility. They recently submitted an NSF proposal to build a center called MoSAIC, which stands for Mobility Science Automation and Inclusion Center. The Center’s goal is to advance transportation mobility that is focused on safety, equity and sustainability.

“Beyond the acronym, there is a deep philosophical meaning behind the name of MoSAIC,” he said. “We are trying to bring together experts from different domains and different areas across campus and the nation to build sustainable mobility technology.”

Zhang emphasized the importance automated vehicles can play in improving diversity, equity and inclusion in society. Improvements to self-driving technology will open opportunities for more people who currently are unable to drive, including older adults.

MULTIFACETED CHALLENGES

The collaborative center of MoSAIC is needed because issues around improving autonomous transportation are multifaceted. For example, even when automated

vehicles do take root more prominently in society, there will be a transition period where both human and automated vehicles are on the road. Researchers must therefore create AI models that can perceive an environment, make a prediction, plan a trajectory and then execute a plan that is in reaction to any litany of scenarios, and do so all in the blink of an eye.

“So, one of the questions we are working to solve is, how can we ensure safety in a mixed autonomy driving environment, where there is the interplay between human decision making and machine decision-making?” Zhang said, adding that having consistent wireless connectivity among automated vehicles is also another challenge they are working through.

The opportunity to build MoSAIC at UC Davis, as well as the chance to collaborate with neighboring technology and automotive companies in the Bay Area, excites not only Zhang, but his other colleagues from Arizona State University as well. Multiple members of his lab team from ASU followed him to UC Davis.

“We are working on AI at the edge, and this is very, very challenging,” Zhang said. “There is still a lack of deep understanding. But, the things we don’t understand, those are the things that we are working on that are most exciting.”

Engineering Student Design Center

Center

EXCITEMENT AND FUN AT THE ESDC GRAND OPENING!

The Diane Bryant Engineering Student Design Center officially opened on May 5, 2023. Bryant '85, contributed $6.5 million to the project — the largest outright gift ever by an individual to the College of Engineering. Construction of the 23,000-square-foot space took just under two years at a cost of $22 million — all donor funded. The space houses new machinery and features a welding room, a carpentry and plastics room, a composites wet lab and more.

With 11 lathes and 15 mills, the expanded lab combines the best in traditional manufacturing with cutting-edge additive and composite manufacturing capabilities.

Various welding technologies, including but not limited to TIG welding, MIG welding and gas welding, and a hot works area for metalworking.

ENGINEERING STUDENT DESIGN CENTER

TOUR

STUDENT COLLABORATIVE PROJECT ZONE

STUDENT WORK AREA

DESIGN CLASSROOM WEST

DESIGN CLASSROOM EAST

HUDDLE ROOM WEST

Two flexible learning spaces for instruction, events and student teamwork feature interactive projection walls with instructor-programmed controls. The workbenches were designed and built by ESDC staff.

COMPOSITES WET

BAUM SHELTER

Photos by Rishi Donapati Design by Sam Sellers

The entrance to the new center features a welcoming lobby and an executive conference room.

WELDING ROOM

MACHINING & FABRICATION LAB

This lounge is a meeting space for students and the entry to the Student Startup Incubator, which is open to all students campuswide.

TOOLBOX

CONFERENCE ROOM

INNOVATION GATEWAY

STAFF OFFICE SUITE

HUDDLE ROOM EAST MGR. OFF.

BREAK ROOM

CARPENTRY & PLASTICS ROOM

SANDING & SHAPING ROOM RESTROOMS

STUDENT STARTUP INCUBATOR

ELECTRONICS & RAPID PROTOTYPING LAB

With an hour of training, students of all majors can access this space and engage in rapid prototype development via 3D printers, laser cutters, soldering stations and printed circuit board (PCB) mills, among other electronics.

LOBBY

Home to a community of student entrepreneurs with a network of mentors from startups throughout the Sacramento and Silicon Valleys, the center helps UC Davis students develop the skills and knowledge necessary to build a company.

ALUMNI CELEBRATION ALUMNI CELEBRATION

Meet the 2023

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal Recipients

John A. Bissell

B.S. '08 Chemical Engineering Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Origin Materials

Andrew J. Botka

B.S. '87 Electrical Engineering Vice President of Strategic Planning, Keysight Technologies

Robert D. Caligiuri

B.S. '73 Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering Corporate Vice President & Principal Engineer, Exponent, Inc

Michael P. Coffey

B.S. '84 Electrical Engineering Senior Vice President of Mass Markets Product Management, AT&T

Kerry A. Kinney

B.S. '88 Chemical Engineering, M.S. '93, Ph.D. '96 Civil & Environmental Engineering Professor, The University of Texas at Austin

Terry C. Lowe

B.S. '78 Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering Research Professor, Colorado School of Mines

Richard R. Neptune

B.S. '91, M.S. '93, Ph.D. '96 Mechanical Engineering Professor, The University of Texas at Austin

JoAnn Silverstein

B.S. '77, M.S. '80, Ph.D. '82 Civil Engineering Professor Emerita, University of Colorado, Boulder

Thursday, November 2, 2023 5-8 p.m.

Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center

Return to UC Davis to celebrate the College of Engineering and our amazing alumni. Visit with faculty and fellow Aggie Engineers, enjoy student demonstrations, and join us in recognizing our 2023 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal recipients for their outstanding achievements.

Future of Engineering Alumni Engagement Begins with a Single Step

HORSFIELD, RECOGNITION WAS NEVER A FACTOR when he and his wife, Louanne, created the Once an Aggie Engineer, Always an Aggie Engineer Alumni Engagement Fund at UC Davis.

Sitting in downtown Davis in April, Brian says it’s about showing what’s possible when someone makes the decision to give back.

“It has to start somewhere,” Brian said. “There’s all sorts of people who wish things or want something. But it has to start with somebody sponsoring something that’s concrete. My hope is that with this seed money, others will be attracted to that.”

The Once an Aggie Engineer, Always an Aggie Engineer Alumni Engagement Fund is a first-of-its-kind fund that will help usher in a new era of alumni relations for the College of Engineering. By providing a stable source of income annually, college staff will be able to execute a sophisticated engagement plan designed to grow and impact various programs.

The impetus for endowing the fund came to Brian in 2018 when he gave his acceptance speech as the 2017 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal recipient. He’d been thinking of the loyalty other groups build and the Marines with their “once a Marine, always a Marine” slogan came to mind. That lifelong enthusiasm and loyalty struck a chord with him as an environment to replicate with College of Engineering alumni.

“We finally created an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is,” Brian joked. “There’s a possibility that it sets an example for someone else.”

Brian attended Santa Rosa Junior College and transferred to UC Davis, graduating with his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 1966, the same year he and Louanne met. He later earned his master’s of engineering in 1968 and a doctorate in agricultural engineering in 1971.

Following his first faculty appointment at Purdue University, he joined the UC Davis Department of Agricultural Engineering in 1974, where he led research into alternative fuels using agricultural byproducts.

Brian was later hired by the Weyerhaeuser Company, where he became a vital member of the company’s research and development team in Tacoma, Washington. Several of his 11 patents involved the development of recyclable produce boxes to replace the traditional, nonrecyclable wax-saturated boxes used for transporting certain produces. He retired from Weyerhaeuser as a senior R&D project engineer in 2008 and he and Louanne returned to Davis.

The Horsfields were also driven after noticing how the experiences of students in the College of Engineering had changed in the years since Brian was a student and faculty member.

In those days, he recalled professors deriving equations on a blackboard and racing as fast as possible to copy one down before the next one was written.

“You could kind of look in the door of the shop but don’t touch anything,” he recalled.

Today, students aren’t just leaving with the knowledge of their coursework and a piece of paper. They leave with practical experience on real-world projects with an emphasis on doing research as much as learning about it.

That approach was something Brian wanted to support.

“I was really inspired by that,” Brian said. “That step of going from idea to making it something is very, very educational because sometimes you find out how hard it is. So, I thought this is really the right way to go.”

Though the fund does not bear their name to keep the focus on its mission, the Horsfields will always be known as those who took the first step in securing the future of the college’s alumni engagement. Their passion for giving comes in part from Andrew Carnegie, who famously donated 90% of his fortune and believed in giving wealth away during one’s lifetime.

“I’m not out here for that,” Brian says of recognition. “But if it inspires somebody else to do something similar, I think that’s worth it. You can’t take [money] with you, so what are you going to do with it? That’s a big part of it.”

“EVERY TIME WE PUSHED OVER THE TOP OF THE PARABOLA AND STARTED FLOATING, I FELT LIKE EVERYTHING I LEARNED ABOUT PHYSICS WENT OUT THE DOOR.”

– M.S. STUDENT KYLIE COOPER FOR BRIAN

Louanne and Brian Horsfield. (Rishi Donapati/UC Davis)

Smart Nails, Talking Tattoos and Advanced Prosthetics:

Wearable Technology in the College of Engineering

By Matt Marcure

WELL-DRESSED INTELLIGENCE

The classic image of a cyborg, or an organism composed of human and machine parts, is cold and monstrous, like the antagonistic Borg species in “Star Trek” or the hero in 1987’s “RoboCop.” That picture couldn’t be further from the innovations in the Interactive Organisms Lab at the University of California, Davis, which researches and develops devices that enhance the human body through smart beauty technologies. Led by computer scientist and assistant professor of design Katia Vega, a leading voice on wearable technology, the lab has produced accessories like mushroom-based necklaces, bracelets and crowns with embedded electronics and acrylic nails that can communicate with your smartphone.

One recent project in the lab was led by Shuyi Sun, a graduate student in the Department of Computer Science, who is designing facial jewelry that can turn a blink of an eye or an eyebrow raise into various wireless commands to discreetly do tasks such as turning down lights or sending messages.

Technology

Fashion is a powerful tool to express ourselves and our relationship to others. Wearable technology pushes that even further, advancing the human body’s potential through non-invasive augmentation of our abilities, from enabling us to communicate with devices with facial gestures to keeping track of our vital signs. Here are four intelligent wearables woven into reality by researchers in the College of Engineering.

A CONDUCTOR ON A LOOM?

Materials like yarn, wool and cotton are soft but durable enough to transform into sweaters and slacks, whereas machine components are hard-wearing but inflexible. What if that were to change, and electrical and hardware components became part of our daily clothes? That is what Biological and Agricultural Engineering Distinguished Professor You-Lo Hsieh’s group advanced, researching biologically derived one-dimensional nanomaterials for novel conducting fibers, aerogels, thin films, and nanocomposites. While their recent review highlighted promising prospects for wearable applications of these conductors, from embedded sensors to wearable heaters, the team concluded that much more research is needed to develop them at an industrial scale.

Wearable Technology

TATTOOS THAT TALK (HEALTH DATA, THAT IS)

Biomechanical tattoos, or designs that create the illusion of the body as a series of gears, cables and other machinery, are one thing, but how about tattoos that are electrical in their own right? Hyoyoung Jeong, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed just that: a wireless, skin-interfacing device dubbed the e-tattoo that functions as a personalized health monitor. The battery-free e-tattoos connect to a patient’s skin and are made of multiple thin layers, such as a slim circuit and sensor layer, that can wirelessly transmit health data in real time. The constant flow of data on things like someone’s heartbeat could significantly improve medical care by providing a better picture of someone's vital signs. The wearable technology is also highly adaptive, both to the needs of individuals and in its applications; in addition to disease monitoring, Jeong has applied his technology to track vocal fatigue and scratching habits for adults with dermatitis, among others.

AN OPEN-SOURCE HAND AND A MIND-READING ARM

Assistant professor Jonathon Schofield is progressing the field of prosthetics. In his Bionic Engineering and Assistive Robotics Laboratory, or BEAR Lab, part of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Schofield has helped develop the BEAR-PAW, an open-source prosthetic hand capable of complex movement for children 8 years and up (find the code and hardware specs on GitHub). Through the project, Schofield and his team of researchers at UC Davis and the Shriners Children’s Hospital hope to understand the muscular capabilities of children born with limb differences and to develop highly functional prosthetics for them, as prostheses made for adults or children who have lost limbs present separate and more established challenges. He is also part of a joint effort at UC Davis and UC Davis Health to develop smart prostheses that use machine learning to read signals from reinnervated nerves, or nerves that have been reconnected to remaining muscle tissue, rather than severed in an amputation. These devices have the capability of decoding the user’s intentions to move their missing limb by measuring the reinnervated muscles’ contractions and using this to carry out actions like bending a prosthetic elbow or making different grasping motions to hold objects — advancements that stand to revolutionize and simplify the process individuals go through to adapt to their prosthetic limbs.

Empowering Women in Engineering

Women have historically been underrepresented in engineering fields, but student organizations in the College of Engineering are reversing that trend. These student-run clubs provide a community and platform for Aggie Engineers of all gender identities to empower each other on their academic journeys. Read more about these organizations to learn about their missions.

Club of Future Female Electrical Engineers

The Club of Future Female Electrical Engineers, or COFFEE, was founded in 2018 by women in the electrical and computer engineering department to meet the gap in support for the transition between lower and upper division courses. Classmates supported each other unofficially but found that there was a need for something more official. Among the ways COFFEE supports women in the department is a mentorship program that connects undergraduates, graduate students or faculty members with other students so that mentors can support mentees.

Female Association of Civil Engineers

FACE exists to support women and non-binary students pursuing degrees in civil and environmental engineering as an arm of the UC Davis chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In addition to social events, guest speakers and professional workshops, FACE provides networking opportunities, professional development and community for women pursuing civil and environmental engineering degrees.

Society of Women Engineers

For more than seven decades, the Society of Women Engineers, or SWE, has empowered women to achieve their full potential throughout their engineering journeys. SWE provides opportunities for scholarships, numerous events, and partners with industry leaders in its goal to bring gender parity and equality to engineering and technology fields. SWE’s student executive board features representatives from six different College of Engineering departments.

Women in Computer Science

Women in Computer Science, or WiCS, has a mission to create a platform for women in tech to share ideas about personal projects, promote interest in programming, and attend hackathons. Through this platform, the club aims to prepare women for the tech industry as well as inspire women to explore educational and professional opportunities in computing through mentorship and community. The club has a weekly newsletter and a Discord channel, among numerous options to connect, and a guide for new students in computer science at UC Davis.

Women Machinists Club

The Women Machinists Club began in the spring of 2020 and has been providing a community for its peers ever since. The club’s leadership is divided into five categories: Education, Publicity, Outreach, Finance and Historian. Its website features a robust section of resources and tutorials to assist members outside of class.

Engineering an Inclusive Future

Engineering an Inclusive Future and a Better World for All

THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING WAS AGAIN RECOGNIZED FOR ITS COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY and inclusion by the American Society of Engineering Education, or ASEE, Diversity Recognition Program, achieving Bronze-level recognition for 2023 through 2025.

The ASEE Diversity Recognition Program was created to “publicly recognize those engineering and engineering technology colleges that make significant, measurable progress in increasing the diversity, inclusion and degree attainment outcomes of their programs.” The college was part of the first-ever group of recognized institutions to achieve the then-highest Bronze-level status in 2019.

A PLAN FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

The college’s diversity and inclusion plan was developed in alignment with the UC Diversity Statement, the campus’s Principles of Community and the Strategic Vision for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, at UC Davis. It outlines the college’s commitment to achieving greater DEI in engineering, realizing that inclusive, diverse professions are more capable of determining meaningful solutions for today’s grand challenges and engineering a better world for all.

With leadership from the Faculty Advisor to the Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Sanjeevi Sivasankar and in

collaboration with various stakeholders, the college is making steady progress on its plan. Goals include:

● Increase and support a diverse engineering faculty

● Recruit and admit populations reflective of California’s diverse demographics

● Retain, from matriculation to degree completion, populations reflective of California’s diverse demographics

● Establish dedicated college infrastructure related to diversity, equity and inclusion

● Increase knowledge and understanding of issues of diversity, equity and inclusion

● Improve accessibility for all

Read the college’s entire diversity and inclusion plan.

“I am excited to empower marginalized voices within the College of Engineering and promote an inclusive environment where diversity is celebrated,” said Sivasankar upon appointment.

Efforts to broaden participation at the graduate level have been expanded through new partnerships with minority-serving California State University campuses. Undergraduate retention initiatives like Leadership in Engineering Advancement, Diversity and Retention, or LEADR, for first-generation and historically underserved engineering students and AvenueE for transfer students, are proving successful. In 2023, a pilot program was launched to provide research, inclusion and mentoring experiences for doctoral student mentors and undergraduate student mentees.

DEDICATED INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT DEI

A faculty- and staff-led DEI Committee was established in 2021 to advise and promote DEI initiatives collegewide. More than 20 staff and faculty from the Dean’s Office and several academic departments are involved. Representation ranges from early-career faculty to a tenured department chair among faculty, and individual contributors to a director among staff.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion to me means that everyone can bring their authentic self to work and reach their true potential,” said Cindy Rubio-González, associate professor of computer science, committee co-founder and the inaugural Faculty Advisor to the Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. “Promoting DEI requires input from all stakeholders of the college. Thus, there was a need to form a committee bringing

together staff and faculty to achieve a shared vision.”

The committee received a UC Davis Citation of Excellence for Faculty-Staff Partnership in 2022. The membership was recognized for working together to promote an open dialogue about complicated topics and engage in difficult conversations to collaboratively address DEI issues.

Subcommittees actively address DEI-related training and workshops, retention and culture, and curriculum, and student recruitment.

Departments have also established committees to promote DEI. The Health, Equity and Wellness, or HEW, Committee in the Department of Biomedical Engineering is one such example.

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, the department created the HEW committee to promote greater DEI within the biomedical engineering community at UC Davis and improve all aspects of bolstering the health and wellness of everyone within the department. The committee is composed of faculty, staff, students, postdoctoral scholars and alumni.

“I think [our committee's strength in addressing health, equity and wellness issues] comes from having a group of people who are really passionate about all these issues and come together to discuss what needs to be done and then take action to get those things done,” said third-year Ph.D. student Hannah O’Toole.

Faculty, staff and student members of the Health, Equity and Wellness Committee in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. (Rishi Donapati/UC Davis)

Sabbie Miller Paves the Way for Making Concrete

— One of the Largest Emitters of Greenhouse Gasses —

Environmentally Safe

By Matt Marcure

WHEN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Sabbie Miller was a child, she talked her parents into converting their avocado farm to organic production.

“My mom claims that I was actually the one who insisted on the farm being organic, although I was so young that I don’t recall [doing that],” Miller said.

“The farm was conventional [when we moved there] and I was apparently so upset that the dogs would be around toxic chemicals that I convinced them to go organic,” Miller said.

Presumably embarrassed by the admission, she offered a defense for her younger self: “It’s not like I asked them to do something that would, you know, break their bottom line, but I’ve always been really worried about how things interact with the environment, looking at what we’re doing to it.”

A tilled field grows green after rain on the Miller family farm in Southern California. The Millers grow organic Hass avocados and row crops.

Miller has upheld that innate concern about the environment since. Within the past few years, she’s directed a lot of that concern toward the environmental impacts of concrete — the most used human-made material in the world.

Since joining the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Davis, in 2016, Miller has founded two separate labs to study building materials: the Engineered Sustainable Infrastructure Materials and Structural Systems and the Resilient Infrastructure Materials laboratories.

Her research can broadly fall into three categories: seeking to quantify the environmental impacts of materials production and the efficacy of mitigation strategies, establishing tools and frameworks for building materials to be environmentally safe, and researching bio-based, sustainable materials that could be used in the built environment.

As a result of her work, Miller has been asked to participate in the United Nations Environment Program Sustainable Building and Climate Initiative, where she has served as an author on eco-efficient cement research, and the American Concrete Institute, which is responsible for writing the reinforced concrete design code that the construction industry must adhere to.

Miller’s work has also contributed to the successful passing of the landmark California legislature Senate Bill 596 in 2021. The first-of-its-kind law mandates that the Golden State reach a net-zero carbon emission rate from concrete production as soon as possible and no later than 2045.

“I suggest next time you're out for a walk, consider all the gray stuff that you're surrounded by,” she said with a playful tone belying the seriousness of her challenge. “You start to realize how much concrete we're actually surrounded by.”

THE CONCRETE IMPACTS

Extending the view beyond our neighborhoods, per Miller’s challenge, it’s an even more staggering observation: We use 30 billion tons of the gray stuff around the globe every year. Its production also accounts for 8% of the world's carbon emissions.

Most greenhouse gas emissions attributed to concrete are from the manufacture of cement, which conventionally reacts with water to become what can be thought of as the glue that holds aggregate, or the pieces of crushed rock and sand, together to make concrete.

To create cement, fossil fuels are used to heat limestone, clays, and other materials to a very high temperature (think: 2600°F) in a kiln, releasing carbon dioxide in the process.

However, the thing is, concrete itself isn’t necessarily the cause of its outsized environmental burdens, explained Miller. What’s driving its high carbon emissions instead is our incredibly large consumption of it, which is only second to water.

That’s one of the primary issues that Miller wants to address in her research — how can we lessen the environmental burdens of a globally important resource? It’s a complicated question to answer.

AN ‘OVERLOOKED’ RESEARCH FIELD

Miller first became interested in concrete as a postdoctoral fellow in environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley when her advisor, Arpad Horvath, asked her to investigate the environmental impacts of concrete in the mid-2010s.

“Once I started doing various types of models [for the environmental impacts of concrete], we realized together, ‘Oh, this is a much bigger issue than we thought’,” Miller said.

The research she did at UC Berkeley resulted in a paper summarizing the challenges and accomplishments of reducing the environmental impacts of concrete, which the team published in Nature Materials in 2017. While they found that concrete or its production is not inherently bad for the environment, the incredibly high consumption rate is. That realization changed her career forever.

“Since then, it's been a field that I've continued to pursue because of the potential for substantial impacts,” she said. “We've been paying a lot of attention to reducing emissions from transportation and building energy use, and we have been for a while, whereas industrial emissions have actually been largely overlooked.

“Because odds are that we're going to keep using concrete. So, how do we make it something that's acceptable, something that doesn't cause huge environmental damage?”

Much of her work has centered around finding substitutes for cement, like rice hull ash, to reduce carbon emissions. In late 2022, her team published a report showing that 1.3 gigatons of carbon emissions across the globe could be diverted by using secondary materials in concrete. She’s also led promising research mandated by the CalEPA that may lead to carpet being upcycled into concrete, avoiding the landfill entirely.

“There are thousands and thousands and thousands of permutations of concrete,” Miller said, “and a lot of what our group does is trying to understand how we should be optimizing those different ratios. What can we do to reduce the impacts associated with producing cement? How can we engineer new mineral additives such that we don't need as much cement?”

Miller is also interested in turning the materials of the built environment, like the concrete in buildings, into carbon sinks. The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy recently funded a project of hers that proposes to make carbon sequestration in building materials a reality.

“Concrete is actually one of the few areas [that is large enough to] use it to sequester carbon dioxide that's in the atmosphere or that’s emitted from flue gas without having to use a geologic reserve and meaningful amounts of energy,” she said.

A GLOBAL RESOURCE’S FUTURE

In general, Miller is uncomfortable with predictions. Yet she’s comfortable with her bet that concrete will be around for a while.

“I realize there's a huge interest in using other building materials that have potentially lower environmental impact types, but this is a really cheap material that we're very comfortable with and the construction industry is not the fastest to spin on a dime,” Miller said. “So, [in the coming years], we might be using this material in a way that really reduces the environmental impacts tied to it.”

Miller hopes to continue her research into carbonsequestering materials and how they might positively impact things like human health. Of particular interest to her is addressing the environmental harm brought

onto low-income communities through the production of materials like concrete.

On that last part, the future of concrete has already begun, according to Miller.

“We’re doing a fair bit with different types of state organizations [right now] and trying to understand policy levers that can benefit impacted communities,” Miller said. “And the amount of attention that federal and state policymakers are paying to building materials right now is really promising in terms of how quickly we might anticipate some breakthroughs coming into play for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions."

PAVING THE WAY FOR OTHERS

Miller likes to joke that she became a professor because it’s the family business. Both her parents are emeritus professors.

However, it wasn’t so easy for her to discover, as a kid who naturally gravitated toward math and science courses in school, that she could apply her passion for the natural world through engineering.

“I didn't know it was an option to look at the built environment and try to mitigate environmental impacts to try to understand how it interacts with the systems that are surrounding it [through civil and environmental engineering],” she said.

To help other kids realize that there are more doors in their life than they may realize, educational outreach has been important to Miller. When she was a student at Stanford, she taught science engagement courses for underrepresented middle and high schoolers in the Bay Area; at UC Davis, she has worked with K-12 students to help make STEM topics accessible and engaging.

“A lot of our outreach is trying to let students know what options are out there,” Miller said of her research group. “Not necessarily that they have to do this, but rather don't close doors and don't assume engineering is just math and nothing else. There are so many things that one can do as an engineer, and there's so much wonderful change that we can have as engineers.

“It's not just trying to get a building to stand but rather getting that building to stand, getting it to serve the people that need it and trying to undo the harm associated with all the buildings we made before.”

Alumni Spotlight: Tom Chunat '86

By Noah Pflueger-Peters

AT AGE 22, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING ALUMNUS

Tom Chunat ’86 sold most of his belongings and moved to UC Davis to become an unlikely first-generation college student. Though he started out terrified and on his own, he soon fell in love with the community and used the connections, curiosity and hands-on skills he gained to become an innovative engineer and corporate leader.

“At first, it was a little overwhelming, but when you’re surrounded by brilliant and inquisitive minds, you take a step back and look at the world differently,” he said. “It made me think that maybe I can do more than I thought I could, or what I was told I could, and it just made me curious.”

Growing up, not much was expected of Chunat. He came from a poor blue-collar family with alcohol problems and his sixth-grade teacher told him that he would never amount to anything. He left home not long after his 17th birthday and was forced to finish high school early and start working to pay for food and rent.

After five years, he felt like he was at a dead end and decided to take a chance and attend college.

“There’s a lot of people like me who don’t take that chance because people have told them they won’t make it, but there was that sort of defiance on my side,” he said. “Like, ‘What do you mean I can’t do it? I should at least try.’”

TAKING A CHANCE

Chunat started as a chemistry major but switched to chemical engineering after a professor advised him that it might be more practical.

“I didn’t have a 100% understanding of what a chemical engineer did, but I knew it was using chemistry and

creating things and both of those were things I liked to do,” he said.

As he learned more about the field, he found a home in the department’s unit operations laboratory, a lab where students could develop and build their own pilot plants for new technology. It was his first exposure to hands-on engineering work and got him thinking about real-world applications.

He made the most of the space in his senior year, during both his senior design project and an independent study, where he designed and built a new apparatus for students to use. The experiences taught him how to work with people and embrace failure while giving him confidence in his abilities.

“That experience in the unit operations laboratory was one of the things that inspired me,” he said. “Like, ‘I have an idea. I can go build, I can build a process, I can build a pilot plant. It also got me excited about how things work, and I just followed that passion.”

FINDING A COMMUNITY

Chunat was drawn to UC Davis by its biking culture and strong community and he found that the campus and town had everything he needed.

He found good mentors in Professors Emeritus Alan Jackman and Dick Bell, and a friend group in the campus American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) chapter. Some of his best memories are attending and organizing AIChE picnics, campouts, houseboating and skiing trips that gave him the time to truly get to know his classmates and professors.

“What’s uniquely different about UC Davis was that I knew everybody in my class — everyone,” he said. “It felt comfortable and close and that was pretty wonderful.”

MOVING FORWARD AND GIVING BACK

Two weeks after graduating with a B.S. in chemical engineering, Chunat was flying across the country to help French company Air Liquide start new production plants. After working there for seven years and traveling around the world, he moved to the refining industry and worked his way up to managerial and eventually executive positions.

Today, Chunat is the director of technical excellence at Motiva, a refining and petrochemical company in Houston, Texas. He loves being able to contribute to both corporate strategy and innovation while integrating technologies like computer modeling, drones and AI/machine learning into the refining processes.

“It’s really, truly exciting, which is why I’m still working when most people my age are retired,” he said. “Every day, I go to work at something new and exciting and there’s just a ton of satisfaction in it.”

Chunat feels blessed to have had the opportunity to solve problems from multiple different perspectives, and he says it wouldn’t have been possible without the curiosity UC Davis instilled in him.

“It was that curiosity that kept me challenging myself and wanting to do more, looking for challenges and unique problems to solve and then to have the courage to try something that hadn’t been done, or to continue to do something when others have failed,” he said. “The climate at Davis allows you to build that curiosity.”

Chunat tries to give back by sharing his story to inspire others and serve as a role model. He advises students to remain open-minded and embrace failure as a way of learning.

“Think about what we can do and don’t focus on what we can’t do,” he said. “I think that brings a lot more satisfaction. You also need failure for success. I learned a lot of what not to do early in my career and that allowed me to learn what I can do and what I’m capable of.”

Chunat is still good friends with several of his classmates, and kept up with Jackman and Distinguished Professor Ahmet Palazoglu for many years. He also still feels connected to UC Davis and tries to visit campus when he can — especially the still thriving AIChE chapter.

“It’s wonderful to maintain a connection with UC Davis,” he said. “[The community] offered me everything I needed and it just felt right to me.”

Tom Chunat and his wife, Theresa. (Courtesy)

“THINK ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO AND DON’T FOCUS ON WHAT WE CAN’T DO.”

- TOM CHUNAT

Distinguished

Professor of Civil and Environmental

Engineering Jay Lund on the State of Water in California

By Matt Murphy

WHEN IT COMES TO CALIFORNIA WATER ISSUES, Jay Lund is the foremost expert who is often contacted to provide context and meaning to one of the more complex issues facing the state. With numerous periods of heavy rain over the winter, Lund was called in to provide expert context and perspective on a near-daily basis. With all of that water now sitting or on its way to reservoirs and waterways across the state, catch up on everything you need to know about California’s evershifting water landscape.

ON THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA’S LEVEES GIVEN THIS UNPRECEDENTED AMOUNT OF WATER, LUND SAYS...

“These levees were built at very different times over the last more than 100 years — in some cases, about 150 years. Some of the early levees, which are still around, were made basically by farmers and landowners piling up dirt between them and the river. On some occasions, those have been formalized, and certainly for the major levees that are protecting large cities, we now have, you know, pretty well-engineered, pretty well-maintained levees that all provide finite amounts of protection.”

[NPR, 1/17/23]

ON THE OUTLOOK FOR CALIFORNIA’S NATIVE FISH SPECIES THAT HAVE SUFFERED THROUGH DROUGHTS, LUND SAYS...

“They've been depleted for quite some time and over several droughts. They never seem to recover during the wet years as much as they decline during the dry years.”

[Cap Radio, 3/7/23]

ON WHETHER THE STATE CAN CAPTURE ALL OF THAT WATER FROM THE WINTER STORMS, LUND SAYS...

“In some places, almost all that water will be absorbed into groundwater because there's no other place for it to run off. And other places close to the ocean, there's fewer opportunities for it to be intercepted and recharged to groundwater, or to make it into streams before it makes it to the ocean.” [KCRW, 1/4/23]

ON WHAT CALIFORNIA’S WET WINTER DID FOR ITS WATER CRISIS, LUND SAYS...

"There's two kinds of water emergencies...when you have too much and when you have too little. And sometimes we have to worry about both in the same year. And this is one of those years." [CBS News, 3/9/23]

NEXT LEVEL STRATEGIC VISION FOR EDUCATION

The College of Engineering launched its new strategic vision for education. Education follows Research as the second of three pillars in our overall vision to take our college to the next level with a commitment to our core value: engineering a better world for all.

Our students are inspired continuously from their first day on campus until they cross the stage at graduation and beyond.

We equip our undergraduate and graduate students to be agile leaders empowered to better society and the planet.

Three Themes for Engineering Education

With input from faculty, staff and students, we have identified three aspirational themes to build on this vision and inform our plan.

Inspired

Our students are inspired to cultivate a bold engineering identity through learning experiences that foster creativity, curiosity and awareness of their potential to change the world for the better.

Inclusive

Great minds don’t think alike. They think together. Our college is an inclusive, collaborative community, bringing diverse perspectives together to engineer a better world for all.

Impactful

Our students are prepared to be innovative and agile leaders who create solutions to the world’s grand challenges.

UC Davis College of Engineering

One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616

Ranked #1 Biological and Agricultural Engineering undergraduate program in the nation

Ranked #3 Biological and Agricultural Engineering graduate program in the nation – Rankings by U.S. News & World Report

Ranked #9 Civil Engineering graduate program in the nation

@UCDavisCoE engineering.ucdavis.edu

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