Category: Research

Chaitanya Bhat on Pavement Life-Cycle Assessment

Chaitanya Bhat
Chaitanya Bhat

PhD Candidate, Chaitanya Bhat, was featured in the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s (NAPA) Action News. Chait was a NAPA intern in 2018 and was featured in NAPA’s Action News for presenting at the 2020 Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting held January 12–16, 2020, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, in Washington, D.C.

The meeting program covered all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. A number of sessions and workshops focused on the spotlight theme for the 2020 meeting: A Century of Progress: Foundation for the Future.

Bhat’s attendance at last year’s annual meeting involved a notable 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) presentation.

Multiple Projects Funded by MDOT

MDOTTim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $1,300,080.64 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “Bridge Design System Ongoing Modernization and Support – Phase 3.” Chris Gilbertson (CEE) and Gary Schlaff (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this potential five-year project.

Colling is also the principal investigator on a project that has received a $518,050 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2019 Michigan Local Technical Assistance Program.” Chris Codere (CEE) and Pete Torola (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this potential 15-month project.

Colling is the principal investigator on another project that has received a $115,012 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Transportation Asset Management Council Technical Assistance Activities Program.” Mary Crane (CEE) is the Co-PI on this one-year project.

Chris Gilbertson (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $491,229.52 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. Zack Fredin (CEE) and Tim Colling (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this 23-month project entitled, “Michigan Local Bridge Load Rating & Inspection Support and Technology Transfer FY 2019-2022.”

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $224,280.94 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Transportation Asset Management Council Education Program Work Plan.” Pete Torola (CEE) and Chris Gilbertson (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this one-year project.

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $896,267.05 other sponsored activities contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Roadsoft Asset Management Development & Support.” Gary Schlaff (CEE/CTT), Nick Koszykowski (CEE/CTT) and Luke Peterson (CEE/CTT) are Co-PI’s on this one year project.

Meingast and Heldt Publish in Biotechnology Progress

Christa Meingast
Christa Meingast

Environmental Engineering PhD Candidate Christa Meingast published a paper in Biotechnology Progress titled “Arginine Enveloped Virus Inactivation and Potential Mechanisms.” The work was co-authored by James and Lorna Mack Chair in Bioengineering Caryn Heldt.

https://doi.org/10.1002/btpr.2931

Meingast is a King-Chávez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship Program Fall 2018 recipient and a Portage Health Foundation Graduate Assistantship Fall 2019 recipient.

Article Extract

Arginine synergistically inactivates enveloped viruses at a pH or temperature that do little harm to proteins, making it a desired process for therapeutic protein manufacturing. However, the mechanisms and optimal conditions for inactivation are not fully understood, and therefore, arginine viral inactivation is not used industrially.

Once the mechanisms of arginine viral inactivation are understood, further enhancement by the addition of functional groups, charges, or additives may allow the inactivation of all enveloped viruses in mild conditions.

Read more at Biotechnology Progress.

Lake Michigan Database Project Funding for Pengfei Xue

Pengfei Xue
Pengfei Xue

Pengfei Xue (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $109,790 research and development cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan.

The project is entitled, “The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR): Long-Term Data Assimilative, Temperature and Currents Database for the Great Lakes (Year 2: Lake Michigan).

This is a one year project.

Xue is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $125,199 research and development cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan. The project is entitled, “Coastal Coupling in Large Lakes for Total Water Prediction.” This is a potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Ryan Kibler Presents at Michigan Space Grant Consortium Annual Conference

Ryan Kibler
Ryan Kibler

Last Saturday (Oct. 12, 2019), the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) hosted its 30th Annual conference at the University of Michigan.

CEE graduate student Ryan Kibler gave a talk pertaining to Daisuke Minakata’s (CEE) NSF funding focused on the Initial Photochemical Transformation of Dissolved Free Amino Acids under Sunlit Irradiation in Water. Kibler is currently working under a MSGC Graduate Fellowship Grant that he was awarded in Spring 2019.

Rail Transportation Activity

Michigan Rail Conference 2019

The Michigan Tech Rail Transportation and Michigan State University Railway Management programs recently collaborated to execute the seventh annual Michigan Rail Conference.

The event was held at the Henry Center on the MSU campus Aug.7-9, and featured speakers from across the country and across the many disciplines that make up the rail industry.

Ron Batory, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration was the keynote speaker, and more than 140 people from all aspects of the rail industry participated.

Pasi Lautala, director of Tech’s Rail Transportation Program (RTP) was a speaker for the Local Impacts and Opportunities panel, and David Nelson, senior research engineer from RTP, spoke as part of the Crossing Safety session. Details about the conference including a selection of conference photos are available on the RTP web site.

By the Rail Transportation Program.
MEDA 2019 meeting graphic

National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Conference

Pasi Lautala (CEE) director of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program gave an invited presentation entitled “Survey of Railway Crossing Research at Michigan Tech” at the National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Conference. The conference had almost 300 participants and took place in Pittsburgh, Aug. 19-22.

Michigan Economic Developers Association Annual Meeting

Lautala was one of three panelists discussing Mobility in Michigan as part of the Michigan Economic Developers Association annual meeting Aug. 16 in Marquette. Lautala also provided testimony as part of the public hearing on “Rail service in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan”, organized by State Senator Ed McBroom and Wisconsin State Senator Tom Tiffany in Marquette Aug. 26.

New Funding

Kuilin Zhang (CEE/MTTI) is the primary investigator on a project that has received a $567,230 contract with the Federal Railroad Administration. This project is entitled, “Developing Safe and Efficient Driving and Routing Strategies at Railroad Grade Crossings Based on Highway-Railway Connectivity.” Pasi Lautala (CEE) is the Co-PI on this potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Zhanping You on Rubber Technology for Kalamazoo County Road Repair

Binder Spray using a truck

SPOTLIGHT – Road Commission of Kalamazoo County

2018 Scrap Tire Market Development Grantee

Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy sent this bulletin at 08/20/2019 10:00 AM EDT

The Road Commission of Kalamazoo County (RCKC) was awarded a Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Scrap Tire Market Development Grant in partnership with Michigan Technological University (MTU) for scrap tire innovation. An estimated 13,672 scrap tires were recycled on the project, which took a significant amount of coordination with the partners due to its experimental nature.

The project includes the use of new rubber technology never before used in the United States. The project utilized hot rubber chip seal (HRCS) and hot rubber thin overlay (HRTO) on two different segments of W Avenue from the Schoolcraft Village Limits to Portage Road. There were also two conventional chip seal application segments installed as control sections. Each of the four project sections spanned 4,000 feet of West W Avenue.

“The purpose of the project is to evaluate the new reacted and activated rubber and to investigate the applicability of such rubber mainly composed of finely grinded scrap tires. The aim is to create a more cost-effective, long-lasting, safe and environmentally friendly, mixes and surface treatments,” Dr. [Zhanping] You said.

Read more at the EGLE bulletin.

Pasi Lautala Presents at Summerail 2019

Gateway ArchPasi Lautala (CEE), director of Rail Transportation Program, participated in the Summerail 2019 in St. Louis, MO on July 24-26. Dr. Lautala gave the presentation “Moving Forest Products in Upper Midwest—are there benefits from increased rail movements?” He also chaired the “TRB AR040—Freight Rail Transportation” committee meeting.

The conference is designed to bring together railroad professionals, government officials, and academics to discuss the past, present and future of the U.S. railroad industry.

Seawater Intrusion-Impacted Aquifer Project Funding for Alex Mayer

Alex Mayer
Alex Mayer

Alex Mayer (Civil-Environ Eng / GLRC) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $319,950 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “CBET-EPSRC Efficient Surrogate Modeling for Sustainable Management of Complex Seawater Intrusion-Impacted Aquifers.” This is a potential three-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Extract

Water management in densely populated coastal regions is one of the most pressing sustainability challenges worldwide. Coastal groundwater is especially vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise due to the potential for seawater intrusion into groundwater aquifers. Seawater intrusion has reduced water supply in all coastal regions of the US. This has resulted in high costs to society.

We propose to address this challenge by developing models that are orders of magnitude faster than current models.

These modeling advances will be made in collaboration with water supply agencies, with the goal of increasing the utility of groundwater modeling for coastal communities. Successful development and adoption of these approaches will help agencies tasked with the protection of coastal aquifers devise sustainable management strategies to protect scarce water resources.

Read more at the National Science Foundation.