Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering News

Center Receives Grant to Provide Outdoor STEM Field Trips for Area Students

Published October 2, 2020

More than three thousand Western Upper Peninsula (UP) students will have an opportunity to learn outdoors this school year thanks to a $20,000 grant, provided jointly by Mary Nelson and the Wege Foundation, to the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach. The Center’s Outdoor STEM Investigations Field Trip Program is for K-8 students in all 19 school districts in the five counties of the Western UP. Houghton, Baraga, Gogebic, Ontonagon and Keweenaw counties. This past school year, the Program engaged nearly 3000 students in 140 classes from 14 schools in STEM learning outdoors, from physical and earth science, to water quality and forests (numbers were 20% lower due to cancellation of all spring field trips due to Covid-19).

These STEM field trips enhance classroom learning and provide real-world, hands-on experiences for students. All activities are correlated to Michigan Science Standards and connect to the school curriculum. The outdoor classroom allows students to utilize science and math skills, including observing, predicting, data-collection, analysis, and graphing. Each grade has two lesson offerings for each season—Fall, Winter, Spring.

During the Fall field trip season, students investigate the physics of flight, assessing stream health, and designing the best seed get-aways.

During the Winter field trip season, students are provided with snowshoes to incorporate physical exercise into their learning. Students investigate topics such as the “wind chill” effect, which materials make better insulators, and wildlife adaptations to stay warm in winter.

During the Spring field trip season, students explore the benefits and functions of wetlands, soil science, lichens as bioindicators of air quality, and much more.

One teacher observed, “My students absolutely loved the program. Their favorite part was looking for decomposers, which made the food web real.

The Center’s mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and promote environmental literacy and stewardship amongst K-12 students and teachers. For more information about the grant received from Mary Nelson and the Wege Foundation, or the Outdoor STEM Investigations Field Trip program, contact Joan Chadde at 906-487-3341 or jchadde@mtu.edu.

Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program Hosts Midwest Virtual Rail Conference 2020

Published August 24, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

On Aug. 11-12, The Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program, in cooperation with the NURail Consortium and TRB Committee AR040, hosted the Midwest Rail Conference on a virtual platform.

Originally planned for Schoolcraft College, the conference was forced to an on-line platform by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. In spite of the issues, the conference moved forward with a slate of more than 30 speakers, covering issues from across the rail industry.

The final tally included nearly 300 participants. Trains Magazine produced an article recognizing the conference and one of the 10 conference sessions.

Given the short time to switch from a live to virtual format, this conference was a huge success.

By David Nelson, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

NSF Funding for Daniel Dowden on Seismically Resilient Mass-Timber Buildings

Published August 4, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

Daniel Dowden (CEE) is the principal investigator on a project that has received $204,514 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.

The project is entitled, “NHERI Tailwood 10-Story Test Building Shake-Table Payload Research Project: Low-Damage Uplift Friction Damper for Seismically Resilient Mass-Timber Buildings.” This is a two year project.

Extract

This award will investigate a low-damage solution for cross-laminated timber (CLT) seismic force-resisting systems (SFRSs) using a novel uplift friction damper (UFD) device for seismically resilient mass-timber buildings. The UFD device will embrace the natural rocking wall behavior that is expected in tall CLT buildings, provide stable energy dissipation, and exhibit self-centering characteristics. Structural repair of buildings with these devices is expected to be minimal after a design level earthquake. Although CLT has emerged as a construction material that has revitalized the timber industry, there exists a lack of CLT-specific seismic energy dissipation devices that can integrate holistically with the natural kinematics of CLT-based SFRSs.

Project data will be archived and made available publicly in the NSF-supported NHERI Data Depot.

Built World Enterprise Team Wins National Competition

Published July 15, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

A Michigan Tech team, Built World Enterprise (BWE), earned first place in the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) student design competition. The team’s winning submission in the Runway Safety/Runway Incursions/Runway Excursions design category was “Runway Intersection Marking.”

In making the announcement, the ACRP said “The students’ innovative design brought many technologies together in an affordable system for mid-size and general aviation airports.”

The selection was made from 63 entries by a panel of industry, FAA and academic experts. For its winning entry, BWE will receive a $3,000 award which will be divided among the student team members.

First-place teams will receive their awards and present their work at the Keck Center of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC, October 19, 2020. The students will also present their designs at the Airport Consultant Council’s Airport Technical Workshop as a keynote presentation. In addition, they will be given the opportunity to present their winning proposal at an industry professional conference or workshop in fall 2020.

Additionally, Michigan Tech received a second-place award in the Airport Environmental Interactions Challenge, with a $2,000 prize. A list of all winners can be seen on the ACRP website.

BWE addresses challenges typically solved by civil and environmental engineers, including designing infrastructure and solving waste management problems. The team’s advisor is the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair Audra Morse.

Morse said the win was a strong start for the new Enterprise team and for the University

“All BWE teams strove to create realistic design alternatives to address airport issues; however, this team excelled in understanding the true root causes of runway incursions. The winning team members, Lindsey Anderson, Skylar Callis and Kaitlyn Wehner, moved beyond purely technical to incorporate human factors into their design, which is why I believe their design was so well received. Thanks to Bill Sproule, Kelly Steelman, and Brett Hamlin for assisting the team on their win. They could not have done it without their help.”

The Transportation Research Board is a program unit of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine.

Audra Morse Joins the Environmental Engineering and Science Foundation Board

Published July 6, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair Audra Morse has joined the Environmental Engineering and Science Foundation (EESF) board.

The EESF was established to promote and recognize excellence in environmental engineering and science as well as support key strategic objectives of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists®.

New Specialty Area for Civil Engineering MS Degree – Intelligent Infrastructure Design

Published June 30, 2020

By Angela Keranen

News

The specialty area encompasses the design of robust, resilient, digitally interconnected civil infrastructure for smart community design. Students will develop holistic design approaches to streamline the incorporation (monitoring, feedback) of all things digital into structures, transportation, geotechnical, water and waste management with a focus on minimizing environmental impact and the advancement in sustainability and resiliency. This is one possible pathway for students to attain an MS in Civil Engineering, while bridging the traditional “silos” identified within the profession.

Specialty Area Description:

The Intelligent Community Design specialty area is intended to offer training for applying technology to make our communities work more sustainably and efficiently. The pathway consists of courses that provide necessary knowledge of the engineering design and analysis of infrastructure systems (e.g., transportation, water resources/environmental, structural, and geotechnical), data collection techniques (from traditional surveying to more advanced sensor and sensing techniques), and computing (machine learning, optimization, numerical simulation, and big data as it relates to infrastructure/geospatial information). Graduates of this specialty area will be able to meet emerging and rapidly-growing needs for engineers to build more intelligent communities.

Coursework:

The following breakdown of courses is meant to serve as a guide when crafting a degree schedule for students interested in focusing on Intelligent Community Design. Potential courses are provided below; however, alternative courses could be selected based on the student’s interests, goals and prior education. Consultation with a faculty advisor is required.

4-5 core courses that provide a foundation for designing different civil engineering infrastructure systems with a focus on the environment and sustainability. Courses should be selected to provide adequate breadth across the areas of civil/environmental engineering, while also providing sufficient coursework focused on design vs. systems thinking.

Structures:

CEE 4244 Loads for Civil Structures

CEE 5730 Probabilistic Analysis and Reliability

Water Resources:

CEE 4507 Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection Design

CEE 4640/5640 Stormwater Management and Low Impact Development

CEE 5630 Advanced Hydrology

CEE 5666 Water Resources Planning and Management

Environmental:

CEE 4502 Wastewater Treatment Principles and Design

CEE 4503 Drinking Water Treatment Principles and Design

CEE 4503 Air Quality Engineering and Science

CEE 4506 Sustainable Engineering

CEE 5501 Environmental Process Engineering

CEE 5502 Biological Treatment Processes

CEE 5503 Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes

CEE 4505/5505 Surface Water Quality Engineering

Transportation:

CEE 4020 Computer Applications: Visualizing and Communicating Design Information

CEE 5190 Sustainable Pavements

CEE 5401 Advanced Pavement Design

CEE 5402 Traffic Flow Theory

CEE 5404 Transportation Planning

CEE 5417 Transportation Design

Geotechnical:

CEE 4820 Foundation Engineering

CEE 4830 Geosynthetics Engineering

CEE 5810 Advanced Soil Mechanics

CEE 5811 Fundamentals of Soil Behavior and Engineering Laboratory

3 courses should be selected to provide necessary computing skills.
- Machine Learning

CS 4811 Artificial Intelligence

CS 5811 Advanced Artificial Intelligence

EE 5841 Machine Learning

GE 5950 Applied Remote Sensing and Machine Learning

UN 5550 Introduction to Data Science

Database and Data Structures

CS 2321 Data Structures

CS 3425 Intro to Database Systems

CS 4321 Introduction to Algorithms

CS 5321 Advanced Algorithms

Optimization

CEE 5760 Optimization Methods in Civil and Environmental Engineering

MA 5630 Numerical Optimization

Computer Simulation

CEE 5710 Modeling and Simulation Applications for Decision Making in Complex Dynamic Systems

CEE 5740 Introduction to System Identification

CEE 5870 Multiphysics of Porous Materials

Regression/Data Mining

EC 4200 Econometrics

FW 5412 Regression in R

MA 4710 Regression Analysis

1-2 courses related to data acquisition

FW 4540 Remote Sensing of the Environment

GE 4250 Fundamentals of Remote Sensing

SU 5010 Geospatial Concepts, Technologies, and Data

SU 5011 Cadaster and Land Information Systems

SU 5012 Geospatial Data Mining and Crowdsourcing

SU 5013 Hydrographic Mapping and Surveying

SU 5142 3D Surveying and Modeling with Laser Scanner Data

SU 5300 Geospatial Monitoring of Engineering Structures and Geodynamic Processes

SU 5540 Advanced Photogrammetry – Satellite Photogrammetry

SU 5541 Close-Range Photogrammetry

d) 1 course for coding:

SAT 5002 Application Programming Introduction

SU 5601 R for Geoinformatics

Note that selected courses would have to adhere to basic requirements of the Civil MS program. Namely, a minimum of 15 credits must be taken within the CEE Department. In addition, students must take one of the following courses: CEE 5710, CEE 5730, CEE 5740, or CEE 5760. A minimum of 18 5000-level credits must be taken; a maximum of 12 3000- or 4000-level courses can be used towards the 30 credit requirement. All MSCE degree requirements and rules set forth by the Department and the Graduate School must be met in order for a student to finish the program.

Former CEE Chair Vernon Watwood Passes Away

Published June 17, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

Professor Emeritus Vernon Bell Watwood Jr. passed away suddenly June 4 in Tucson, Arizona. He taught in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1973 until his retirement in 1997. In addition, Watwood served as CEE Department Chair.

According to his obituary in the Daily Mining Gazette, Watwood was born in Opelika, Alabama, in 1935. After graduating from Auburn University, he served in the Navy and continued his education at Cornell University and the University of Washington. Watwood’s research involved finite element modeling, equilibrium finite elements with present emphasis on 3D applications, force method procedures, and mining machinery structural analysis.

His wife of 62 years, Patricia, three children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild are listed among the survivors. A private prayer service was held Saturday (June 13) at the Christ Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, with the family on Zoom.

NSF Research Funding for David Watkins on COVID-19 Project

Published June 8, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

David Watkins (CEE/SFI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $190,764 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The project is titled “RAPID: COVID-19, Consumption, and Multi-dimensional Analysis of Risk (C-CAR)“. Chelsea Schelly (SS/SFI), Robert Handler (ChE/SFI) and Charles Wallace (CS/SFI) are co-PIs on this one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Extract

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed household dynamics and dramatically changed food, energy, and water consumption within the home. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing has caused U.S. households to shift to working and schooling from home, curtail outside activities, and stop eating in restaurants. Furthermore, as many households face job loss and increasing home utility and grocery bills, U.S. residents are experiencing the economic impacts of the crisis, while at the same time assessing and responding to health risks. The project team has a unique opportunity to study these shifting household consumption and behavioral responses and quantify the associated economic and environmental impacts. The team will collect household food, energy, and water consumption data as well as survey response data from 180 participating households in one Midwestern county and compare it to data collected before the stay-at-home orders were put in place.

2020 STEM for ALL Video Showcase: Belle Isle Aquarium

Published May 11, 2020

By College of Engineering

For the past four years, the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach has collaborated with Wayne State University and the Belle Isle Conservancy to promote an interest in science and science careers among elementary and middle school students in Detroit Public Schools. The project includes a summer teacher institute, field trips to the Belle Isle Aquarium, and mini grants for teachers. Classes come to the Belle Isle Aquarium to see fish, turtles and frogs, and leave with knowledge and excitement about what they could do in the world of science.

View our entry in the 2020 STEM for ALL Video Showcase, a three-minute video about the Belle Isle Aquarium NSF ITEST project, and VOTE for the Belle Isle Aquarium video for the Public Choice Award. Take a look at some of the other videos, too!

Please also view the newly created Virtual Field Trip and Ecology Lesson at the Belle Isle Aquarium. Before COVID-19, every fifth grade student in the Detroit public school system could visit the aquarium during the school year. The new virtual field trip allows anyone in the world to visit the United States’ oldest aquarium — the Belle Isle Aquarium!

Article by Joan Chadde, a leader in the organization of our teacher professional development summer workshops, Joan is an expert at “educating our educators.” As Director of Michigan Tech’s Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, Joan was recently (2020) named Informal Science Educator of the Year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association.

Dr. Ram’s ‘Creating STEM Pathways at Detroit’s Aquarium’ named an NSF Facilitators’ Choice Video

Jeffrey Ram, Ph.D., professor of Physiology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, in collaboration with Wayne State’s College of Education, the Belle Isle Conservancy and Michigan Technological University, leads a $1.2 million National Science Foundation-funded project that aims to promote the interest of Detroit children in science and science careers.

A video produced by Dr. Ram, “Creating STEM Pathways at Detroit’s Aquarium,” that describes the project, was selected as a Facilitators’ Choice video in the 2020 SEM for ALL Video Showcase. Only 10 of 171 videos entered in the showcase received the honor.

Michigan Tech Student Awarded Virtual Internship

Published May 5, 2020

By College of Engineering

News

A Michigan Tech second-year student whose summer plans were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic has been named one of six recipients worldwide of a scholarship for a prestigious online program.

Malina Gallmeyer, an environmental engineering major from White Lake, Michigan, is a winner of a fully funded program scholarship from Virtual Internships. The scholarships are designed to assist students who are unable to participate in study abroad or in-person internships this summer. Through offering these scholarships, Virtual Internships hopes to support students in accessing global professional experiences while navigating recent challenges.

Gallmeyer is one of only two scholarship winners from the United States. Three are from the U.K. and one recipient is from New Zealand.

This program was established to ensure that all students have access to important learning opportunities and can continue to boost their employability and global networks, even during the current circumstances.

All six scholarship winners will get full access to Virtual Internship programs and all inclusions. Virtual Internships aims to work with all students to identify their skills gained and apply the experience to their employment outcomes.

Gallmeyer said, “A remote internship through Virtual Internships will offer me the same chance to gain experience, which as an engineer, is vital to employability after graduation, but with the bonus of working with people from around the world. Additionally, it would not only allow me to gain experience in my field, but also to understand and participate in the global economy and to learn the best way to connect with people.”