2015 Swanson School Civil & Environmental Engineering Newsletter

The historic outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa that began in March 2014 and has killed more than 11,000

people since has raised new questions about the resilience of the virus and tested scientists’ under-standing of how to contain it. The latest discovery by a group of microbial risk-assessment and virology researchers suggests that the procedures for disposal of Ebola-contaminated liquid waste might underestimate the virus’ ability to survive in wastewater.

Current epidemic response procedures from both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that after a period of days, Ebola-contaminated liquid can be disposed of directly into a sewage system without additional treatment. However, new data recently published by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Drexel University, and the National Institutes of Health indicate that Ebola can survive in detectable concentrations in wastewater for at least a week or longer.

“Initial research by the WHO and CDC recom-mended disposing of Ebola-contaminated liquid waste into a latrine or treatment system without disinfection because the virus wasn’t expected to persist in wastewater,” explained Kyle J. Bibby, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and principal investigator of the

study “Persistence of Ebola Virus in Sterilized Wastewater,” published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. “However, we found that the virus persisted over a period of at least eight days.”

The researchers gathered their data by observing the change in viral particle concentration in two

samples, spiked with different concentrations of the virus, over an eight-day period. The testing was performed in a secured lab at the NIH. While the researchers observed a 99 percent decrease in concentration after the first day, the remaining viral particles were detectable for the duration of the experiment.

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL

ENGINEERING

FALL 2015

Ebola Research Advances at Pitt

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Welcome from the Chair

This promises to be another productive year in Pitt’s

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and I’m excited to share our latest news and updates with you. Enrollment at the Swanson School continues to grow, with 633 first-year students arriving at Benedum Hall. Academically this is another strong class, with an average SAT of 1397 and GPA of 4.2. Our department welcomed 77 MS students and 44 PhD students this fall, another strong cohort.

These students will have the opportunity to work with our outstanding faculty on research, some of it groundbreaking. In particular I’m proud to share in this newsletter the latest from one of our junior faculty, Dr. Kyle Bibby. Kyle’s interests center around understanding the presence, ecology, and diversity of microorganisms in an environmental engineering context. Since his arrival at Pitt he has worked with Dr. Leonard Casson and colleagues at other institutions, including Drexel and the NIH, to further understand the persistence of Ebola in the environment. His research has been gaining national and international attention, and has been featured as the cover article in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Additionally, Kyle’s research has had an impact in the region with his Pittsburgh Water Microbiome project. With the help of Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Carnegie Science Center, he and his students are mapping the types of microbes found in Pittsburgh’s drinking water distribution system and its many streams and rivers.

This year we also welcome three new faculty members: Carla Ng, formerly senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland; Leanne Gilbertson,

who joins us from Yale University; and John Sebastian as McKamish Construction Management Director, who brings decades of industry experience from Dick Corporation and dck worldwide to help further develop one of our most popular programs. We’re very excited to welcome them to the Department.

Among the student and faculty accomplishments included inside, you’ll read about our ASCE student chapter, which captured second place at OVSC, their highest ranking

ever. And on the academic side, you’ll find our recent PhD recipients.

The success of these students also is incumbent upon the support we receive from our alumni and friends. Many of you remember Dr. Charles Sorber, a noted researcher, former Dean of the Swanson School, and accomplished academic and president within The University of Texas system. After his passing in 2013, his wife Linda worked with us to establish the Charles A. and Linda E. Sorber Fellows Fund to support undergraduates in sustainable engineering. We are very thankful to Linda for establishing this fund and helping to maintain Chuck’s legacy at Pitt.

I do hope you enjoy the latest from the Department, and hope you will visit us online at engineering.pitt.edu/civil for the latest news. On behalf of my colleagues I wish you a prosperous new academic year and hope you will keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Radisav Vidic, PhD, P.E. William Kepler Whiteford Professor and Department Chair

PhDs Conferred in 2015Tieyuan ZhangAdvisor: Radisav Vidic, PhD, P.E.

Origin and Fate of Radium in Flowback and Produced Water from Marcellus Shale Gas Exploration

Nicole CampionAdvisor: Melissa Bilec, PhD

Advancing Life Cycle Assessment: Perspective from the Building and Healthcare Industries

Jie ZhangAdvisor: Qiang Yu, PhD

A Unified Viscoelasto-plastic Damage Model for Long-term Performance of Prestressed Concrete Box Grinders

Zichang LiAdvisor: Julie Vandenbossche, PhD

Development of Wellbore Simulator for Better Understanding Oilwell Cement Behavior and Gas Migration During Early Gelation Under Enhanced Borehole Conditions

Shauhrat ChopraAdvisor: Vikas Khanna, PhD

Graph Theoretic Approaches to Understand Resilience of Complex Systems

Zhen ChenAdvisor: Mark Magalotti, PhD, P.E.

Impact of Ride-sourcing Services on Travel Habits and Transportation Planning

Abdollah BagheriAdvisor: Piervincenzo Rizzo, PhD

On the Processing of Highly Nonlinear Solitary Waves and Guided Ultrasonic Waves for Structural Health Monitoring and Nondestructive Evaluation

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Bioaccumulative Chemical Researcher Carla Ng Joins Pitt

Carla Ng, senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland, will join the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an assistant professor this fall.

Dr. Ng’s research focuses on bioaccumulative substances, with special emphasis on emerging chemicals, including perfluorinated alkyl acids (PFAAs).

“Carla’s research examines the effects of human activity on the environment with the goal of developing more resilient human-environment systems,” said Radisav Vidic, PhD, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor and Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “She shares our department’s commitment to emphasizing sustainable development and leaving future generations with a high quality of life.”

Dr. Ng received her bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She received her PhD at Northwestern University, where she modeled chemical accumulation in Great Lakes food webs that were highly altered by chemical pollution and invasive species.

As a postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Ng originally joined the Safety and Environmental Technology group at ETH Zurich to study the contribution of transformation products to the overall persistence and fate of chemicals emitted in the environment. She is currently a senior scientist in ETH Zurich’s Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering as well as a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Systems Science.

In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Ng is supervising a PhD project in collaboration with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The project aims to describe the fate of DDT in a highly dynamic tropical lake system within the Brazilian Amazon.

“These results demonstrate a greater persistence of Ebola virus in wastewater than previously speculated,” said Charles Haas, co-author; head of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; the LD Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering; and director of the Environmental Engineering Program. “While the Ebola virus was found to be generally less persistent than enteric viruses in wastewater, the identified survival period might suggest a potential of a wastewater exposure route.”

Historically, it was believed that the virus could only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, but there have been cases where people contracted the disease without apparently coming in contact with infected fluids. This, the study suggests, could be an indication that large liquid droplets might be a vector for the virus—

which means greater care should be taken when handling contaminated liquid waste. And given that an infected patient may produce up to nine liters of liquid waste per day, if infected liquid could carry the virus to someone else, this could be a significant risk factor.

The team also notes that the virus’ seemingly early decay upon entry into wastewater might be due to the viral particles clumping together or latching onto other particles in the water, rather than the virus dying. These phenomena would actually make the viruses less susceptible to environmental factors, such as disinfectants, that would normally kill them off.

A proposed solution, already adopted by the WHO, would be to hold the contaminated liquid waste for a longer period of time before releasing it into the sewage system. Another might be to pretreat it with an antiviral agent, such as chlorine,

although performance data on disinfectants is needed as well. These options would provide more time for the viral concentration to decay and for the remaining viruses to be inactivated.

“These results indicate that further research is needed with a more holistic approach to assess-ment of Ebola-infected wastewater, from storage to treatment to disposal and continued monitoring, including a precautionary approach to wastewater handling in all epidemic responses,” Bibby said.

In addition to studying whether or not Ebola can actually be contracted from exposure to wastewater, the next step for this research thread would be to review variations in the wastewater composition, such as temperature, microbe population and pH level, the use of disinfectants, and the viral concentration’s effect on the decay and inactivation of the virus.

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A University of Pittsburgh-led consortium is one of 14 new multilateral university partnerships created by the Global Innovation Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. and UK

governments to foster multilateral research collaboration with higher education institutions in Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. The consortium’s winning proposal, “Bamboo in the Urban Environment,” brings together leading experts in bamboo and sustainable design to engage in extensive, cutting-edge analysis and testing of bamboo as a safe construction resource in urban areas.

With partners at Coventry University (UK), the Pitt-led team includes collaborators at Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia); the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (India); an intergovernmental partner, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (China); and industry partners in the US and UK. The two-year, $200,000 award will support multiple international student and faculty exchanges and three international workshop/symposia including a flagship symposium to be held at Pitt in May 2016.

“This collaborative research has both significant technical and social relevance through the potential to reduce the cost and environmental impact of safe housing for a significant proportion of the world’s population,” noted Kent Harries, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering and the consortium’s principal investigator. “With continued population growth, especially in developing and lagging countries, the need for a sustainable yet safe and strong construction material is an incredibly pressing need. This work addresses the global grand challenges of urbanization and resilience in the face of natural hazards and climate change through the use of bamboo, one of nature’s most renewable ‘green’ materials.”

The program also allows for undergraduate and graduate students at each institution to participate in the research.

International Consortium Led by Pitt Engineer Receives Grant to Explore use of Bamboo as an Urban Construction Material

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According to Dr. Harries, there is an increasing socio-technical-economic gap developing between scientifically “advanced” countries (e.g. US and UK) and those that are “proficient” (e.g. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), “developing” (e.g. Indonesia) and “lagging” (e.g. Nepal). For those proficient, developing or lagging countries, a lack of stable infrastructure is cited as a primary barrier to the adoption of technology, while the increased emphasis by advanced countries on ‘sustainable practices’ is viewed as largely unattainable. “Compounding this, migration of the rural poor into urban centers places even greater pressure on informal urban settlements around the world,” he explained. “It’s estimated that more than one third of the world’s urban population lives in inadequate housing. Exposure to natural hazards and the effects of global climate change further compound the global grand challenge of providing adequate and safe urban housing. Bamboo, one of the world’s oldest construction resources, is now being rediscovered as a viable, sustainable and engineered alternative to present construction practices in many areas of the world.”

Dr. Harries’ research interests include the use of non-traditional construction materials such as bamboo, which he describes as “the most rapidly renew-able structural material in the world.” Bamboo can grow up to 30 meters in six months and be mature for structural purposes within three years, achieving mechanical properties that surpass those of oak. When used in its untransformed pole-form, bamboo has a smaller environmental impact than other conventional structural materials, including timber. Bamboo’s light weight and relative flexibility make it a particularly attractive alternative for residential construction in seismic regions.

Nonetheless, he said, the majority of knowledge of bamboo construction is based on cultural tradition, with approximately one billion people world-wide living in non-engineered or vernacular bamboo structures. To enable the better use and acceptance of this strong, economical and sustainable material, Harries explained that the award will help to empower engineers, architects and builders with modern and comprehensive design and construction standards.

“While the use of bamboo in structures dates back thousands of years, the science is in its infancy. Only in the last decade have bamboo construction standards emerged in India and Colombia, as well as being promulgated by the International Standards Organization (ISO),” Dr. Harries said. “By establishing a pathway to standardization we aim to enable greater acceptance of bamboo as a construction material.”

The Global Innovation Initiative is funded by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which also serves as the implementing partner in the UK; and the U.S. Department of State. In the United States, the Institute of International Education is implementing the grant program in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Global Innovation Initiative was created to support multilateral research collaboration to address global challenges, in keeping with the vision of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama’s joint statements on UK and U.S. higher education co-operation in 2011and 2012.

Nanomaterial Researcher Leanne Gilbertson to Join Pitt

Leanne Gilbertson, a postdoctoral associate at Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry

& Green Engineering, will join the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an assistant professor this fall. Dr. Gilbertson’s research focuses on the underlying material properties that govern nanomaterial cytotoxicity.

“Leanne’s research into mitigating the potential negative human health and environmental impact of nanomaterials meshes perfectly with our environmental engineering research,” said Radisav Vidic, PhD, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor and Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “She has shown great potential at Yale, and we look forward to her joining us this fall.”

Dr. Gilbertson graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and education from Hamilton College in New York in 2007. She

began her post-graduate studies in 2009 at Yale University, where she received a master of science, master of philosophy, and PhD in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Her doctoral research identified underlying material properties that govern carbon nanotube (CNT) cytotoxicity for the development of more sustainable nanotechnology that is both functional and inherently safer.

After receiving her PhD, Dr. Gilbertson continued her research at Yale in the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering as a postdoc-toral associate. During that time she studied effective ways to reduce the uncertainty of predictive models used to evaluate the unintended implications of nanomaterials across their life cycles as nano-enabled products and processes.

Last December, University of Pittsburgh researchers shared their findings from three

studies related to shale gas in a recent special issue of the journal Energy Technology, edited by Götz Veser, the Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.

In the special issue focusing on shale gas, Pitt faculty authors look at “smart wells” that use wireless communication, wastewater management, and information gaps between legislators, regulators, industry representatives, researchers, and the public on the health and environmental impacts of shale gas drilling. The issue also includes contributions from experts from across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Veser, who is on the journal’s editorial board, says, “I saw an opportunity to create visibility for the journal by issuing a special issue on this topic, which has garnered much attention worldwide, and at the same time highlight some of the

world-class expertise in this area on our campus as well.”

Pitt faculty members contributed three papers to the issue.

Smart Wells

Andrew Bunger and his co-authors propose the development of a series of sensors sunk into wells that will allow drilling companies to pull data from the deep and use that information to optimize sections of productive wells, ramp up or shut down unproductive sections, and find pockets of gas or oil that have been overlooked.

Bunger, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, along with Ervin Sejdic, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Nicholas Franconi, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering, and Marlin Mickle (deceased), professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, believe academics and industry are poised to improve extraction through wireless communication.

Bunger likens this nascent technology to cell phone communication, with the signal being passed from tower to tower on a call from, say, Pittsburgh to Los Angeles rather than beamed directly over great distance. The stepwise process is necessary, he says, because of the difficulty of sending data long distances through rock and other geological media.

Wastewater Management

Department Chair Radisav Vidic investigates methods to safely reuse drilling wastewater and ways of removing potentially harmful substances, including naturally occurring radioactive materials, from the wastewater.

Vidic, a nationally recognized expert in water issues related to fracking, reviews the manage-ment of wastewater produced during fracking in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale reserve. In this paper, he is joined by co-authors Can He, Tieyuan Zhang, Xuan Zheng, and Yang Li, all from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Information Gaps

Shanti Gamper-Rabindran examines the gaps in the collection of information-and access to that information-which prevents the public, researchers, regulators, and investors from fully understanding the health and environmental impacts from the shale industry. Resolving these information gaps would enable further innovations in risk-management strategies and, thus, benefit the industry and society.

She is an associate professor in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Economics within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

“Informed public debate in the lifecycle of unconventional shale gas development is critical because of the uncertainties in its benefits and risks, the unequal distribution of these benefits and risks in society, and the need to make evidence-based trade-offs between the benefits and costs of risk-mitigation strategies,” Gamper-Rabindran writes.

The State of Shale

Pitt Faculty Edit, Contribute Findings to Special Issue of Energy Technology

Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure Partners with WalkWorks Program to Promote Pedestrian ActivityThe Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure (CSTI) in

the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has partnered with WalkWorks to improve the health of Pennsylvania residents by conducting walkability assessments of pedestrian routes throughout the state.

WalkWorks, a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), encourages people to increase the amount of time spent walking as a preventative health measure. The program identifies, develops, and promotes community-based walking routes, particular in areas where data has shown high rates of poor health.

The CSTI originally began working with WalkWorks to help spread awareness of the changes in government policy that are making these pedestrian-friendly initiatives more achievable. One of the major challenges often associated with improving pedestrian infrastructure is informing communities that funding exists to make these improvements.

“You can do a lot of great things, but the money needs to be there to do them,” said Mark Magalotti, PhD, CEE senior lecturer and co-director of CSTI. “It’s a fairly new development to use transportation engineering funding for pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes instead of highways. We are trying to show communities how they can use that funding to improve pedestrian infrastructure.”

A variety of studies have shown walking or other moderate physical activity for about 30 minutes a day can provide health benefits. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who are physically active live longer and have a lower risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, and some cancers. Additionally, the CDC reports that improving spaces and having safe places to walk can help more people become physically active.

To encourage people to choose active transportation over motorized vehicles, WalkWorks routes often include educational information about the area’s history, the surrounding flora and fauna, or other themed points of interest along the walking route in the built environment. The program also coordinates walking groups, which offer support and a social component to the experience for those interested in walking as a recreational activity in addition to daily exercise.

Developing these walking routes requires technical and transportation engineering assistance, so Pitt’s GSPH sought the help of CSTI and the CEE department. Dr. Magalotti and Richard Feder, CEE adjunct lecturer, along with

graduate students Yuan Hu and Halima Bariyeh assess proposed walking routes first-hand to see if they need safety improvements. Since many of the routes are located in rural Pennsylvania communities, they must make sure they have sufficient sidewalks, well-timed traffic signals and crosswalks, and a low risk of hazards like pedestrian-vehicle conflicts. Their reports and research assisted WalkWorks when it came

to promoting infrastructure planning, design, implementation, and maintenance policies.

The four Pennsylvania counties that currently offer WalkWorks routes and groups are Blair, Fayette, Indiana, and McKean. There is also a route in the Capital Complex in Harrisburg. As communities throughout

Pennsylvania continue to develop, WalkWorks, CSTI, and other partnering organizations are encouraging government officials to include pedestrian concerns in local and regional planning efforts.

This past spring, CSTI developed the Complete Streets Workshop with GSPH and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. “Complete Streets” is a general term that refers to roadways that are designed and operated to accommodate all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities. The workshop provided participants with fact sheets on the benefits of Complete Streets and policy implementations, a detailed overview of the elements necessary for a successful policy, and examples of the Complete Street policies and guides.

“We are trying to look further into the future of what you can do as a community to make sure you have sustainable transportation infrastructure,” said Dr. Magalotti.

Created in August 2007, CSTI works to advance sustainable transportation research through multi-disciplinary efforts, education, and dissemination of new technologies and knowledge. Researchers explore sustainable ways to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future. By partnering with organizations like the American Society of Highway Engineers, PennDOT, and the State Transportation Innovation Council, CSTI aims to define the role engineers will have in the future of sustainable transportation development.



2015 ASCE Ohio Valley Student CompetitionThe Swanson School of Engineering’s student chapter of the American

Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, from March 26-28, 2015 to compete in the Ohio Valley Student Conference (OVSC) competitions.

The students took 2nd place overall in the competition—the highest Pitt has ever ranked at OVSC. In addition, their success in one of the most popular categories, the steel bridge, earned them their first ever invitation to a national engineering competition.

“The biggest reason they’ve become better is because we’ve had an excellent group of student leaders over the past few years,” said Anthony T. Iannacchione, associate professor and director of the Mining Engineering Program. “They’re building on the achievements of the last group, and it was nice to break into that upper echelon of schools this year.”

The OVSC brings together more than 350 civil engineering professionals and students representing 15 schools from Ohio, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania. Students participate in a variety of events designed to demonstrate how their classroom education is applied in the field and to develop professional skills such as project management, teamwork, and effective communication.

Emphasizing both practical and creative solutions to problems, categories include technical paper writing, land surveying techniques, and civil site design. Many of the competitions require students to take a hands-on approach to the construction of objects; for example, they must build a 21- to 22-foot steel bridge, a geotechnical structure composed entirely of soil, and a concrete canoe which students then pilot in 200 and 600-meter races.

Among the 15 universities, Pitt placed 2nd in the overall ranking for the con-ference behind Western Kentucky University. Pitt students received 2nd place for their technical paper submission and steel bridge display. They received 3rd place in multiple categories including concrete horseshoes, balsawood bridge, surveying (leveling), surveying (sewer line delineation), steel bridge (overall), steel bridge (construction speed), and steel bridge (economy).

Winning third place in the steel bridge competition earned the Pitt team a spot at the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) National Steel Bridge Competition, which took place on May 22 in Kansas City, Mo. The Pitt students ranked 38th in the nation.

“I’ve been both a judge and a faculty advisor for these competitions at different locations over the last decade,” said Iannacchione, who serves as the ASCE faculty advisor. “What I enjoy most is seeing these really great young people doing something constructive, having fun with the competition, and making good memories that will be meaningful to them in the future.”

Steel bridge competition

Concrete canoe competition

Surveying competition

It may not be an Oscar, but for Pitt engineering students, this win was solid gold.

Members of the University of Pittsburgh Humanities, Engineering and Design Club have for the past four years catalogued their engineering abroad projects in the Panamanian communities of Kuna Nega, La Paz, and San Francisco, located about ten miles outside of Panama City. After producing a four-and-a-half minute video about their February 2015 trip, the students entered it in the ASEE Community Engagement Film Festival, and captured the award for “Greatest Community Impact.”

Being considered for the awards was a challenge in itself. The videos, which were posted on YouTube, not only had to be viewed, but also “liked” by viewers. Pitt’s video came in second in that category, with more than 400 likes. The community impact award was presented to the program advisor, Dan Budny, during the 2015 ASEE Conference this past June in Seattle.

For the project, students surveyed the communities to effectively design the water distribution system for the growing population of more than 2,000 residents, including a 56-foot pedestrian pipe bridge. Water is stored in a new 25,000-gallon water tank constructed with 215 cubic feet of concrete.

One of the most important projects was the design and construction of Kuna Nega’s first septic tank and public bathrooms, which were later completed by village residents. Each project is expected to improve the quality of life of these remote communities.

Undergraduate student participants (Class of 2015) included Caroline Baggot, project manager; Daniel Blemler, Andrew Rodgers and Daniel Thabault, bridge design; and Chelsea Herrity, Scott Johnson, Benjamin Tyke and Sarah Watte, water design. The video was produced by alumnus Eric Budny (2014). Project volunteers included Rick Montanari, vice president of Footprint Possibilities Inc.; John Oyler, adjunct associate professor and owner of Oyler Consulting Services; and guide translators Colon Guardia Amores and Barb Bernal.

The Panama project grew out of a 2010 engineering education research project in Ecuador, in collaboration with Engineers Without Borders, to measure the impact international exposure had on influencing the senior design experience. The annual Panama projects began in 2011, allowing successive student and faculty cohorts to continue and expand the impact of the previous cohort.

Visit www.youtube.com/pittengineering to view the winning 2015 video as well as the students’ previous video projects. For more information about the Panama Project, contact Dr. Dan Budny at [email protected].

The ASEE Community Engagement Division aims to promote scholarly discussion and dissemination of knowledge on the value and impact of engaged scholarship in engineering education; to encourage efforts to improve the design, implementation, and assessment of engaged scholarship pedagogy; and to enhance the status of engaged scholarship teaching and learning in institutions of higher education.

Students Capture Top Award at ASEE CED Film Festival


How an Internet search about artificial glaciers brought two Pitt undergraduate civil engineering majors to the ancient Himalayan capital city of Leh.In their freshman year, Naomi Anderson and Taylor Shippling decided to poke around Google to find interesting topics for a paper they were writing as part of a first-year engineering conference. They came across an intriguing but sparsely documented subject: artificial glaciers.

“I expected to find a lot of data, drawings, reports, and papers on the topic, but we found almost none of those things,” says Anderson, “and writing the first-year conference paper was a challenge for this reason. It also showed the need for more study of the topic, especially at a technical level.”

For centuries, farmers in the Himalayas relied on the melting of natural glaciers to water crops in the spring. But the rapid recession of natural glaciers has caused water shortages during the planting season. Engineers began experimenting with giant reservoirs of ice to solve these irrigation problems in the late 1980s. Since then, a dozen man-made glaciers have been built in Ladakh, India on the western edge of the Tibetan Plateau, but water scarcity still poses a serious threat to the future of agriculture in the region.

After Anderson and Shippling uploaded their paper to the School of Engineering Web site, another fortunate Google search brought it to the attention of Carey Clouse, assistant professor of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an expert in climate change and landscape architecture of Northern India. The two students’ work appeared in a journal article, and they were even invited by Dr. Clouse on an expedition to Leh, the capital of the Ladakh region. They spent two months learning about the local agricultural and water needs and seeing artificial glaciers first-hand.

“The original idea for artificial glaciers, according to the lead designer on the projects, came from noticing streams of water freezing in shady areas and continuing to flow in sunnier ones during the winter,” says Shippling. “Ladakh is definitely on the front lines of climate change, and the region’s innovation and adaptability are things that we can all learn from.”

Anderson and Shippling have detailed their findings in a technical paper and plan to present their work next year at the Himalayan Studies Conference hosted by the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies in Austin, Tex. Both students hope to continue researching water resources and civil engineering while they complete their degrees.


Pitt Engineering Associate Professor Piero Rizzo Named 2015 Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year

Piervincenzo (Piero) Rizzo, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, was

named the 2015 recipient of the Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award by the International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (IWSHM). Rizzo received the award at the IWSHM tenth annual conference at Stanford University in September.

According to IWSHM, the award recognizes accomplishments and outstanding contributions to the field of SHM that will benefit society. Contributions can be in the form of theory, analysis, applications, education, or other ways that support the discipline of SHM and benefit society. Awardees are selected by the editors and associate editors of Structural Health Monitoring: An International Journal.

“Piero’s research and teaching in structural health monitoring is well regarded at the Swanson School, and so we are pleased he received this recognition by his international peers. He is an outstanding faculty colleague and a dedicated

teacher and advisor to his students,” said Radisav Vidic, department chair.

Rizzo’s academic and professional interests include nondestructive testing/evaluation, structural health monitoring, signal processing and automatic pattern recognition for real-time prognosis of structural and biological materials, and implementation of embedded sensor network for the health monitoring of civil, mechanical and aerospace structures. Current research is focused on the development of guided wave-based SHM methodologies for pipes, and the investigation of highly-nonlinear solitary waves for the noninvasive assessment of structural and biomaterials including structural buckling.

Rizzo earned his laurea (MS) in aeronautical engineering

from the University of Palermo, Italy, and his Master and PhD in structural engineering from the University of California – San Diego.

Naomi (left) and Taylor engaging in field work on an artificial glacier site at an altitude of ~14,000 feet, one of six they studied over the summer. The two are measuring part of the structure that dams water and stores large masses of ice for use in the early spring months. They would later use these measurements to create maps and diagrams of all of the functional components of each artificial glacier.

Pictured from left to right are professor Wieslaw Ostachowicz, Chairman of the Award Committee, from Technical University of Gdansk, Poland, professor Piero Rizzo, and professor Fu-Kuo Chang, Conference Chair, from Stanford University.


Associate professor JOHN BRIGHAM was invited to be a visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology from April through September, 2015. His duties include engaging in education and research as a faculty member of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering. Founded in 1881, the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) is one of Japan’s leading largest educational institutions in the field of science and technology. In 2014/15, its QS World University Ranking was #15 in all of Asia, and #68 in the world. It is also ranked one of the top 5 universities in Japan. Its enrollment is approximately 10,000 students (about half are undergraduates, and the other half are graduate students), and it employs around 1,200 faculty members.

DAN BUDNY, associate professor and academic director of the first-year engineering program, was elected Chair of the ASEE North Central Section for a two-year term. Dr. Budny’s academic and professional interests are in the fields of basic fluid mechanics and in the development of programs that assist the entering freshman student either on a standard track or an academically disadvantaged student by providing counseling and cooperative learning environments for the standards in their first and second semester freshman engineering courses. He has numerous publications in this and other engineering education areas.

Assistant Professor KYLE BIBBY’s ‘Pittsburgh Water Microbiome Project,’ an outreach project involving undergraduate and middle-school students to investigate the microbiology of water throughout Pittsburgh has been included in a Carnegie Science Center exhibit. Media coverage of the project included local news and an interview on the local NPR affiliate station.

Associate Professor MELISSA BILEC was invited to participate in the upcoming National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium in Irvine, CA, October 26-29, 2014. FOEE brings together about 75 faculty members who are developing and implementing innovative educational approaches in a variety of engineering disciplines. The meeting is highly interactive and allows attendees and speakers to network, share ideas, and learn new effective practices.

ANDREW BUNGER, assistant professor, presented an invited session keynote entitled “Hydraulic Fracture Growth Geometries in Unconventional Reservoirs: Closing Gaps among Perceptions, Predictions, and Reality” at the

Joint Assembly of the AGU-GAC-MAC-CGU (American Geophysical Union, Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada, and Canadian Geophysical Union) held in Montreal, Canada, May 3-7, 2015. This talk was presented in the Union Session on the topic of Hydraulic Fracturing: The Great Debate. Additionally, this past year Bunger taught over 60 students in the class “Hydraulic Fracturing Mechanics and Applications,” making Pitt’s hydraulic fracturing class one of the largest attended in the country.

ANDREW BUNGER and RADISAV VIDIC were two of seven Pitt engineering faculty named to the Pittsburgh Business Times’ annual “Who’s Who in Energy,” which recognizes southwestern Pennsylvania-based key players in the energy industry.

The Center for Transportation Infrastructure (CSTI) co-sponsored with the Oakland Transportation Management Association (OTMA) to present the 2nd Annual Oakland Transportation Fair, held on Thursday, September 25, 2014 at the University of Pittsburgh, held in conjunction with the University’s Year of Sustainability. The fair hosted 20 vendor table exhibits, and 50 attendees to the Vendor Luncheon with Keynote Speakers Dr. Costas Samaras, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Allen Biehler, Executive Director of the CMU University Transportation Center. The transportation fair included an additional out-door exhibit hosted by Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities displaying ‘Alternative Fuel Vehicles.’ Students from the CEE department including DR. MAGALOTTI’s class in Transportation Engineering attended the fair to learn more about transportation planning for alternative modes.

Associate Professor ANTHONY IANNACCHIONE participated in a Department of Energy - Office of Science conceptual design program review of its Long Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment project at the Fermi National Laboratory near Chicago. This undertaking represents the largest science project every attempted by the DOE’s Office of Science with a projected budget of $1.5 billion and over 25 participating countries. He is also a member of the Environmental, Safety and Health Oversight Committee whose purpose is to advise the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA) Board of Directors on all aspects of the overall Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota) EHS programs and implementation.

CCOMPLISHMENTSAWARDS

A

FACULTY


Professor XU LIANG was appointed a William Kepler Whiteford Professorship from the Swanson School of Engineering for her accomplishments in engineering education, research and service. Professor Liang is also the recipient of the 2014 Carnegie Science Environmental Award. She was invited to presented “Challenges and Opportunities of Large-Scale Land Surface Modeling for Climate Studies: A Personal Perspective” lecture at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, U.K., on June 4, 2014, CliSAP, University of Hamburg, Germany on June 24, 2014 and Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Germany on June 25, 2014. In August, she organized a one-day science camp for middle and high school students at the Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, together with Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and IUPUI, on ecology, hydrology, water resources, and soil and plant sensors and wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring.

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) awarded Associate Professor PIERVINCENZO (PIERO) RIZZO and the University of Pittsburgh one of five 2015 ASNT Graduate Fellowships. The fellowship consists of a $20,000 grant to support a Pitt graduate student and develop a unified structural health monitoring system based on multiple approaches controlled by a single unit.

Department Chair RADISAV VIDIC received the 2014 Swanson School of Engineering Board of Visitors Faculty Award, recognizing his contributions to academics, research and service. Additionally, he was a 2015 Finalist in the Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization contest sponsored by Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

JOHN BRIGHAM

MARK MAGALOTTI

KYLE BIBBY

ANTHONY IANNACCHIONE

MELISSA BILEC

XU LIANG

DAN BUDNY

PIERVINCENZO RIZZO

ANDREW BUNGER

RADISAV VIDIC


Graduate Student AccomplishmentsMATT GRASINGER (advisors: John Brigham and Julie Vandenbossche) is the recipient of a Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship, a prestigious ten-week summer educational program. Mr. Grasinger completed his fellowship at Los Alamos National Lab. The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program provides students with opportunities to gain hands-on research experience with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy. This program has mentored several hundred of the best and brightest students from across the nation for future careers in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) and provided insight into how the DOE is working to meet the energy challenges of the future. MLEF was awarded the Secretary of Energy’s EEO/Diversity Best Practices Award in 2007.

The goal of the MLEF program is to improve opportunities for women and minority students in STEM majors, however all eligible candidates are encouraged to apply. Selected candidates will train under the mentorship of program officials and scientists on focused research projects consistent with the mission of the Office of Fossil Energy. During the ten weeks, Fellows will receive a stipend and some students may be eligible to receive housing and travel allowance for the duration of the program. At the conclusion of the program, Fellows attend a “Technical Forum” where they present their research findings and tour a technical site located nearby.

ELYSE STACHLER (advisor: Kyle Bibby) was one of thirteen University of Pittsburgh students to receive a 2015 Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. The fellowships were awarded to three graduating seniors and ten graduate students.

The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program is designed to ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States. It recognizes and supports outstanding students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees. The fellowship program has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers.

NEW RESEARCH Assistant Professor Kyle Bibby and Associate Professor Leonard Casson, “RAPID: Collaborative Research: Survival of Ebolavirus in the Water Environment: Surrogate Development and Disinfection Effectiveness,” National Science Foundation.

Assistant Professor Kyle Bibby, “UNS: Developing Cross-Assembly Phage as a Marker of Human Fecal Pollution in the Environment,” National Science Foundation.

Assistant Professor John Brigham and Associate Professor Julie Vandenbossche, “Developing a Methodology for Interpreting Falling Weight Deflectometer Nondestructive Testing Data for Jointed Plain Concrete and Hot Mix Asphalt Pavements,” Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Assistant Professor Vikas Khanna and Radisav Vidic, “Development of Membrane Distillation Technology Utilizing Waste Heat for Treatment of High Salinity Wastewaters,” US DOE Office of Fossil Energy.

Professor Xu Liang, “Improving Spatial Precipitation Distribution Map Analysis for Bridge Inspections and Emergency Response,” Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Mark Magalotti, Senior Lecturer and Co-director of the Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, “Identifying Impediments and Solutions to Sidewalk Project Implementation in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Associate Professors Piervincenzo Rizzo and Julie Vandenbossche, “Noninvasive Assessment of Existing Concrete,” Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Associate Professor Julie Vandenbossche, “Pavement Preservation: A Workplan for the Development of Improved Guidelines and Designs for Thin Whitetopping,” California Department of Transportation. Lead investigator: John Harvey, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Davis.

Professor Radisav Vidic, “UNS: Collaborative Research: Fate and Control of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) Produced by Unconventional Gas Industry,” National Science Foundation.

Assistant Professor Qiang Yu, “Waterproofing Bridge Abutments,” Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has appointed John T. Sebastian the inaugural McKamish

Construction Management Director. Mr. Sebastian, president of Sebastian Consulting Solutions, is a faculty member in the Department.

The Directorship was made possible through a gift from the McKamish Family and David McKamish, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh contracting firm McKamish.

“The Construction Management concentration is a key component of both undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and I especially want to thank the McKamish Family for establishing this important directorship,” said Radisav Vidic, Department Chair. “The program prepares students to manage the rebuilding of our public infrastructure and the modernization of our private buildings and plants, which is a critical 21st century challenge. John’s decades-long career in the construction industry will make him a valuable member of our faculty, and his expertise will help to shape the program’s course development, student engagement, and research.”

“I am honored to receive the inaugural appointment as the McKamish Director of the Construction Management Program,” Mr. Sebastian said. “I look forward to working

with the faculty in the Civil and Environmental Department of the Swanson School of Engineering to develop the Construction Management program into one of national prominence.”

Pitt’s Construction Management program encompasses public and private sector perspectives, building and engineering construction, and the roles played by all the participants on the construction team (owners, contractors, design professionals, and other supporting professionals). The program emphasizes managerial decision-making in an engineering context and teaches students decision-making skills that are important to the successful completion of construction projects as measured by time, cost, and quality objectives. In addition, the program develops in the students those professional qualities that will make them effective managers – communication skills, computer applications, ethical standards, and leadership attributes.

Mr. Sebastian’s management consulting firm, Sebastian Consulting Solutions, LLC, was founded based on his more than 35 years of experience in the construction industry. Mr. Sebastian was Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of Dick Corporation, a national general contractor and dck worldwide, an international contractor and successor company to Dick

Corporation. Both companies had annual revenue in excess of $1 billion and were consistently ranked in the top 50 General Contractors in the United States by Engineering News Record.

Mr. Sebastian played a key role in the development and construction of numerous landmark construction projects including: the Historic Renovation of Union Station in Washington, DC (for which he won the Build America Award as the on-site project manager), PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, The Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas, The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas and many monumental government, military and commercial projects among others.

Mr. Sebastian is a LEED accredited professional and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, holding a BS in civil engineering as well as an MBA. He is a Construction Excellence Peer for both General Services Administration and the Veterans Administration. He is a board member, executive committee member, finance chair and treasurer of the Sarah Heinz House of Pittsburgh, and is a member of numerous industry groups.

John Sebastian Named Inaugural McKamish Director of Pitt Engineering’s Construction Management Program

D E P A R T M E N T O F

CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTALE N G I N E E R I N G

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted

its annual Welcome Picnic for undergraduates on Thursday, September 10. The Pitt ASCE

Chapter, led by student president Jayne Marks, hosted a raffle as

well as displays of its steel bridge, balsa wood bridges, and concrete canoe from the OVSC

competition earlier this year.


New Endowment in Honor of Former Dean, Charles Sorber, and his Widow Linda Supports Sustainable Engineering Fellows

To recognize the legacy of former engineering dean Charles A. Sorber, the Swanson School of Engineering

announced that his widow Linda has established the Charles A. and Linda E. Sorber Fellows Fund. The endowment will benefit outstanding undergraduate engineering students who are conducting research projects in sustainable engineering, specifically in the areas of wastewater treatment, sanitation, disinfection or disease control in the Swanson School’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation.

Dr. Sorber, who passed away October 18, 2013, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sanitary engineering at Penn State and a doctorate at The University of Texas at Austin. He served as dean of Pitt’s engineering school from 1986-1993.

“Chuck’s leadership is considered by many to have helped transform our engineering school into a major research institution,” noted Gerald D. Holder, PhD, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering. “His academic, administrative and research accomplishments have had a tremendous impact here and at The University of Texas System. On behalf of our students, we’re very grateful to Linda for establishing the Sorber Fellows Program.”

While at Pitt, Dr. Sorber became involved in the Stockholm Water Symposium, the Stockholm Water Prize (similar to a Noble Prize awarded by the King of Sweden but not established by Noble) and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize,

an international competitive award to high school students for outstanding research in water issues. Dr. Sorber served as chairperson of the US committee to select an entrant into the competition, as well as chairperson of the international award selection committee.

“Chuck felt it was vital to cultivate an early interest in students into research issues affecting one of earth’s most precious resources. It is my hope that this fellowship will carry forward his interests and encourage students at Pitt to pursue careers in this important area,” Mrs. Sorber said.

Born in Kingston, Pa., Dr. Sorber began his professional career with the U.S. Army, serving in Europe with the U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. For his service he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters. In 1975 he joined The University of Texas at San Antonio, where his wife Linda was also a faculty member. At UT San Antonio he began the Center for Applied Research and Technology in the College of Science and Mathematics. By 1980 he became associate dean of engineering for academic affairs at the College of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

After his tenure at Pitt, he returned to The University of Texas System as president of

The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. In 2001 he rejoined UT Austin to teach and conduct research, then in 2002-2003 served as Vice Chancellor for Special Engineering Projects at UT System, in 2003-04 served as interim president of The University of Texas at Arlington, and later from 2009-10 served as interim president of The University of Texas Pan American.

From 2007-2008 he served as Special Assistant to the Vice President for Student Services and interim Director of Student Financial Services at UT Austin in a time of turmoil in that office.

Dr. Sorber authored or co-authored more than 130 papers and reports in the areas of land application of wastewater and sludges, water and wastewater reuse, water and wastewater disinfection and higher education. Most notably he was a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers; a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers; and served as President of the Water Environmental Federation during 1992-93. He remained active with the Stockholm Water Prize and Junior Water Prize until 2008.

742 Benedum Hall 3700 O’Hara Street Pittsburgh PA 15261

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH | SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING | CEE NEWS | FALL 2015

River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics 2015

Peru’s tropical rainforests are the largest and most pristine in the world. They are the source of the Amazon River—one of the seven natural wonders of the world and the

world’s largest river by volume. In the heart of the rainforest, on the banks of the Amazon River, lies Iquitos City, the “capital of the Peruvian Amazon.”

Iquitos provided the backdrop for the 9th Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics from August 30 – September 3, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, the Center for Research and Education of the Amazonian Rainforest, the Peruvian Navy, and the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research. Dr. Jorge Abad, assistant professor, served as a conference organizer.

Promoting an interdisciplinary approach to river and coastal problems, the symposium brought together applied mathematicians, engineers, geologists, ecologists, geomorphologists, biologists, and computer scientists to discuss interactions between basic research and engineering applications, blending aspects from fundamental advances in fluid mechanics to laboratory experiments and field studies.

In addition to courses and lectures in morphodynamics, the conference provided opportunities to study the science, culture, technology and history of the Amazon River and offered tours of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve.

Documents

2015 Swanson School Civil & Environmental Engineering Newsletter