Timothy Colling (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $208,659 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation.
John Kiefer (CEE) and Chris Gilbertson (CEE) are co-PI’s on the project, “2017 Transportation Asset Management Council Education Program Work Plan.”
This is a one-year project.
Michigan Tech Facilities Management leveraged resources in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department to fortify their team of snowfighters. Four members of the Facilities Management team participated in a day-long motor grader operator training, offered by the Center for Technology and Training (CTT) Monday, Nov. 7.
Jeff Shook, retired operator from Genesee County and instructor for the CTT, familiarized the Facilities Management team with basic and advanced grader controls.
Tech combats snow with its motor grader “almost every day in the winter,” says Facilities Management Site Engineer Dan Liebau. Operating a grader in a snowstorm when “it’s dark and there’s low visibility requires a different technique, a different finesse,” stated Shook.
Facilities Management’s investment in its personnel, using on-campus resources like the CTT, benefits the entire campus community by ensuring that its team is prepared for the winter ahead.
By Center for Technology & Training.
The Center for Technology & Training (CTT), a part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, hosted its first annual Roadsoft User Conference of the United States (RUCUS). RUCUS was held Nov. 1, 2016, in Lansing and was attended by 96 individuals representing 64 Michigan road agencies, as well as participants from Indiana and Pennsylvania. Roadsoft is a roadway asset management system for collecting, storing and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure. Roadsoft is developed and supported by the CTT with principal funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Conference attendees engaged on a variety of topics including data integrity, using the Roadsoft mobile application, safety, pavement management strategies and Inventory Based Rating (IBR) for unpaved roads. The event also provided attendees with networking opportunities with other agencies and with the CTT staff.
CTT staff participating at the conference were research engineers John Kiefer, PE and Dale Lighthizer, PE; CRM administrator and software support analyst Carole Reynolds; data support and account specialist Joseph Snow; principal programmers Nick Koszykowski and Luke Peterson; and software engineers Mary Crane, Byrel Mitchell, Mike Pionke and Sean Thorpe.
Following the conference, on Nov. 2, the CTT staff visited the Allegan County Road Commission and the cities of Grand Rapids and St. Ignace to provide on-site Roadsoft training and technical assistance.
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, held on Oct. 12, featured 10 speakers from departments across the University. The 3MT celebrates the research of graduate students across the world. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
Six of the students who participated advanced from the preliminary heats to compete in the finals. The winner of the competition, who will advance to the Midwestern Association of Graduate School’s 3MT Competition in April, was Divya Kamath’s (Environmental engineering PhD candidate) presentation on improving water quality with aquesous phase advanced oxidation processes. Muraleekrishnan Menon’s presentation on improving wind turbine rotors using active flow-control devices took second. The audience selected Leigh Miller’s (Civil Engineering PCMI student) presentation on the protection of clean water in Panama as their favorite for the People’s Choice Award.
The event was sponsored by the Graduate Student Government and the Graduate School. Thank you to all of the judges, volunteers and competitors who helped make the event a success.
Staff from the Center for Technology and Training (CTT), a part of the department of civil and environmental engineering, provided training and technical assistance for the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council’s (TAMC) 2016 fall conference, held in Marquette on Thursday (Oct. 13, 2016). The bi-annual conference brings together representatives from Michigan’s transportation agencies as well as agencies’ superintendents, managers and staff.
The TAMC awarded CTT Director Timothy Colling with the Carmine Palumbo Individual Award for his asset management-related service in Michigan. Additionally, Colling delivered a presentation entitled “Inventory-based Rating and Roadsoft Enhancements” during the conference. Colling, in conjunction with Technical Writer Victoria Sage, represented the CTT and helped plan and facilitate the conference.
Pasi Lautala (CEE/MTTI) is the PI on a project that has received $271,223 from the U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Rail Administration. Myounghoon Jeon (CLS) and Dave Nelson (CEE) are Co-PI’s on the project, “Driver Behavior at Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Using NDS and Driving Simulators.”
This is a two year project.
Timothy Colling (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received $447,807 from the Michigan Department of Transportation. Christine Codere (CEE) and John Kiefer (CEE) are Co-PI’s on the project titled “2017 Michigan Local Technical Assistance Program.”
This is a one year project.
Faculty, students and staff involved in the Rail Transportation Program (RTP) had a busy summer in both presenting at and organizing conferences and events.
In late May, Pasi Lautala, director of the program, had a poster presentation on paper by Hamed Pouryousef and Lautala at the 11th World Congress in Railway Research, in Milan, Italy. Lautala also participated in the 2nd Railway Talent workshop as part of the conference.
In early June, Lautala made two presentations at the Global Level Crossing Safety & Trespass Prevention Symposium 2016, in Helsinki, Finland. Both presentations were authored by Myounghoon Jeon, Steven Landry, David Nelson and Lautala. The titles of the presentations were “Design and Evaluation of In-Vehicle Auditory Alerts for Railroad Crossings” and “Driver Behavior at Level Crossings Using Naturalistic Driving Study Data.”
Qingli Dai (CEE/MTTI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $287,518 research and development grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Zhanping You (CEE) is Co-Pi on the project “Fiber-reinforced High Performance Rubber Concrete for Concrete Structure Construction and Repair.”
Dave Watkins is the principal investigator on a research and development project that has received a $1,477,068 grant from the National Science Foundation. Buyung Agusdinata, Chelsea Schelly, Rachael Shwom and Jenni-Louise Evans are co-PIs on the project, “Reducing Household Food, Energy and Water Consumption: A Quantitative Analysis of Interventions and Impacts of Conservation.”
This project starts on Oct. 1 and is scheduled to finish in 2021.
From Tech Today.