3
Letter From the Chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering Dear alumni and friends, It’s my pleasure to present our 2021 annual report. I am pleased to share that the CEIE Department continues to grow strongly and smartly, despite the challenges we face because of the pandemic. We ended the year with a record high incoming undergraduate class enrollment of more than 60 first-year students. The number of PhD students enrolled continued to grow steadily to 56 students, still the highest among all PhD programs in the Volgenau School of Engineering. This year our research expenditures reached an all-time high of $3.1 million, a 25 percent gain from the previous year. Our researchers use the latest technologies, including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, remote sensing, and building information modeling to find new and innovative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. In this issue, you can read about some of our outstanding projects that ensure our water is clean, transportation systems are efficient, and buildings, bridges, and other structures are safe.
In 2021, our students and faculty earned national and international recognition. Student teams competed against other engineering schools and received numerous awards and prizes. Most notably, they placed second in the Water Environment Foundation 2021 International Student Design Competition, held in Chicago, Illinois. This rigorous competition included 23 elite student engineering teams from five countries. This is only the second time a Virginia engineering school has reached the podium in the 20-year history of the competition. Our faculty also received several notable awards and recognitions. Elise Miller-Hooks was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at the University of Texas, Austin, Celso Ferreira was nominated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program to serve as an author for the Fifth National Climate Assessment Coastal Effects publication, and I was honored myself with receiving the National 2021 Educator of the Year Award from the Construction Management Association of America. These achievements and successes wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work of our faculty, staff, and students, and the support of our alumni and CEI and Advisory Board members, whom I want to thank and wish them all another healthy, successful, and happy year! g Best, Sam Salem, PhD, PE, CPC, LEED AP Department Chair and Dewberry Professor
We ended the year with a record high incoming undergraduate class enrollment of more than 60 first-year students.
