CEE Magazine fall 2019

CEE

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fall 2019

The future starts now New faculty Modernization update Alumni news and features

VISIT THE CEE MODERNIZATION WEBSITE modernize.cee.illinois.edu Read the latest news about the plan to

CEE

The CEE magazine is published twice a year for alumni and friends of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Benito MariĂąas Professor and Head Celeste Bock Senior Director of Advancement Operations Kristina Shidlauski Assistant Director of Communications Vicki Dixon Associate Director of Operations

modernize Illinois CEE, support the project,

Katya Trubitsyna Strategic Data Manager

learn about named spaces, and scroll

Keely K. Ashman Coordinator of Alumni and Corporate Relations

through our photo archives.

Sheree Eyestone Office Manager CEE Magazine Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign 1201 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory MC-250 205 North Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801 (217) 333-6955 celeste@illinois.edu Cover: Smart city abstract in mixed media. metamorworks/istockphoto.com cee.illinois.edu

CEE

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Now is the time!/Benito Mariñas

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Looking back, looking ahead/John P. Kos, P.E., (BS 77)

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Modernization update: New initiatives, opportunities

“This is a monument to three surveyors and one other guy.”

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The future starts now: New faculty

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Global Leaders program welcomes new director

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Softening agents may increase pathogen risk

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CEE team helping drone delivery take flight

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Alumnus teaches surveying to CEE students

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Memories of survey camp

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What are you working on? Brian Hackman (BS 96, MS 98)

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Cording, Fenves, Hendron, Herrin, Lopez receive Distinguished Faculty awards

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Department news

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New department awards honor Chaiseri, Hamada

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Alumni news

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Alumni Awards dinner

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Student awards

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In memoriam

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CEE Online program upgrades, expands

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Your gifts, your impact

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Parting shot: Boneyard flows orange

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A $65 million test track for autonomous vehicles is coming to CEE’s Rantoul transportation research facility.

Check out these and other stories at

uCEE.ILLINOIS.EDU/NEWS researchers will develop sensors u CEE that measure pressure, wind and wind loading on structures during thunderstorms, tornadoes and other high-wind situations, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

CEEAA Board of Directors President John P. Kos, P.E., (BS 77) H.W. Lochner Inc. Chicago Vice President Paula C. Pienton, P.E., S.E., (BS 85) T.Y. Lin International Group Chicago Second Vice President and Secretary David L. Byrd (BS 01, MS 06) Blinderman Construction Chicago Past President Colleen E. Quinn, P.E., (BS 84) Ricondo & Associates Inc. Chicago Directors Nicholas L. Canellis (BS 94) AVA Consultants LLC Continental Painting and Decorating Chicago John E. Conroyd, P.E., S.E., (BS 83, MS 85) Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Corp.

Chicago James M. Daum, P.E., (BS 77) Bowman, Barrett & Associates Chicago Kevin C. Fuhr (BS 96) Lochmueller Group Inc. Chicago James K. Klein, P.E., S.E., (BS 78) Illinois Department of Transportation Springfield Justin R. Lewis, P.E. (BS 07, MS 08) Hayward Baker Inc. Roselle, Illinois

by CEE at Illinois alumna Angela Wolters u Aandbookco-author Laura Hahn highlights the stories of pioneering women in the College of Engineering.

Michael J. Mack (BS 89) Burns & McDonnell Downer’s Grove, Ill. Dana B. Mehlman, P.E., (BS 99, MS 01) Vedder Price Chicago Doug Pelletier (BS 95) Fermi Research Alliance LLC Batavia, Ill. Katherine Pripusich-Sienkiewicz (BS 03, MS 13) Fermilab Batavia, Ill.

professor Megan u Assistant Konar writes about what can be learned from her team’s first-of-its-kind, highresolution map of the U.S. food supply chain.

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Robert Risser (BS 87, MS89) Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Chicago David A. Schoenwolf, P.E., (BS 77, MS 78) Haley & Aldrich Inc. McLean, Virginia Richard Sieracki (BS 74) The Kenrich Group LLC Chicago Michael Vitale, P.E., (BS 82, MS 84) Mott MacDonald Cleveland, Ohio Daniel J. Whalen, P.E., (BS 84, MS 85) Hanson Professional Services Inc. Springfield

Please consider acting on this historic challenge to support our CEE Modernization project ... showing to the university community and the world that CEE at Illinois also leads in giving back. .

A final challenge to act: Now is the time!

By Benito Mariñas Ivan Racheff Professor of Environmental Engineering and Head Dear CEE at Illinois alumni and friends, I am amazed that nearly five years have gone by since I was appointed head (after one year as an indecisive interim head) of our second-to-none Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (CEE at Illinois). As I write this message, I do so with mixed emotions, because in less than three months (February 15, 2020, is my last day) I will be stepping down as department head and returning full-time to my teaching and research.

On the one hand, I am looking forward with great excitement to going back to being once again a regular faculty member of CEE at Illinois and to reenergizing my teaching and research program. On the other hand, I know I will miss interacting as much as I have done in recent years with the approximately 3,000 of you that I met individually, hosted on campus, greeted at gatherings or congratulated at graduations. I also regret that there was not enough time for the opportunity to meet our remaining 12,000 alumni and friends. Of all the many roles that I played as department head, meeting and interacting with alumni and friends have been the most rewarding.

Learning about the Illinois experiences and careers thereafter of these new friends allowed me to develop a clear sense that there are two main factors contributing to the top reputation of our department. One is the outstanding leadership that you provide to the civil and environmental engineering profession and to a wide range of other professions that many of you went into with your impactful problem-solver training.

The other one is your generosity in giving back to the department with your time, talent and treasure which enriches tremendously the educational experience of

our students, and gives us the resources to succeed in attracting the most talented students, faculty and staff.

I have been thinking for a while what message to provide with these final words. In previous messages I have talked about the leadership role that our department is playing in modernizing the CEE curriculum and developing a strategic research agenda in response to global grand challenges regarding our infrastructure and the environment. But on this occasion I feel like focusing my words toward expressing the feeling of deep gratitude with which I will leave the position of department head. I am grateful, proud and humble for the opportunity to have led our amazing department with its top-notch students, staff and faculty, and to have met many, though not most, of our loyal, talented alumni and friends. I am also deeply grateful for the amazingly generous support that many of you have provided to ensure that our department maintains the top-quality educational experience of our students.

As you read this edition of our CEE Magazine you will find information about some of the great things that have happened this past year-and-a-half within the CEE at Illinois family. I would like to highlight in this final paragraph the one project to which I have dedicated much of my time and energy as department head: fundraising for the new building component of the CEE Modernization project.

As of today we have 424 of you who have contributed to it, and I am deeply grateful for your generous support. However, as you will notice in the floor plans presented in this magazine, we still have many of the projects not fully funded. And so I would like to end this message – and my tenure as Head – with a final challenge to act: Now is the time! Please consider giv-

ing back and making history with us; now is the time! If you find that we are honoring a faculty member or alum who impacted you while at Illinois and/or later in your career please contribute at whatever level you are able to; now is the time! If you find that there is an impactful faculty member, alumnus or alumna who is not recognized yet and you would like to do so with one of the spaces still available for naming please contact me; now is the time! If you have contributed already with a one-time gift and are interested in complementing your contribution with a multi-year pledge please let Katya Trubitsyna know; now is the time! If you have contributed and would like to become a champion to challenge other alumni in your close network please do so; now is the time!

You will soon be receiving an email reminder that our goal is to have 20 percent of our alumni and friends (3,000 of you) contributing to this historic fundraising effort. In my years as Head, I have learned of all the many ways in which our alumni lead in addressing grand challenges throughout the world. Please consider acting on this historic challenge to support our CEE Modernization project, and join me and my wife, Yolanda, in showing to the university community and the world that CEE at Illinois also leads in giving back.

With Orange and Blue Gratitude and i Pride Now and Forever!

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 5

Looking back, looking ahead

By John P. Kos, P.E., (BS 77) President, CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors

Civil engineering must have sounded “cool” to a then-13-yearold. It remained “cool” as I entered the University of Illinois to study engineering.

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Many of you have attended reunions in the past – family, high school, college, fraternity, work – the list goes on. Last fall I attended the 50th reunion of my grade school graduation (St. Pancratius Grade School, Chicago) and reconnected with former classmates, many of whom I had lost contact with over the years. Prior to the reunion event, we completed a questionnaire about our careers after graduation and how that compared to the survey we completed prior to graduation.

Luckily, the reunion committee included my completed survey from years ago, because I did not remember indicating an intention to become an engineer back in 1968. Reflecting on why I chose engineering, I give credit to my brother Wally. He was the first of my family to go to college, graduating in 1971 with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois.

Civil engineering must have sounded “cool” to a then-13-year-old. It remained “cool” as I entered the U of I to study engineering. Wally and I took similar professional paths: graduating with a B.S. in civil engineering with an emphasis in transportation and working for transportation agencies in the Chicago area. Wally and I both served on the CEE Alumni Board, and our terms overlapped for a few years; we were the first brothers to serve on the CEE Alumni Board at the same time. Reflecting upon my profession and my professional career as a civil engineer, thanks go to the University of Illinois for providing me with an outstanding engineering education and the skill set to pursue my dreams, and to my brother Wally for being a mentor and helping to guide his kid brother.

In the fall of every even calendar year the Civil and Environmental Engineering

Alumni Board has a new look. Officers move into new roles and new members join the Board. It is my honor to serve as the President of the CEEAA Board of Directors, arguably the best department alumni board for the best engineering department at the University of Illinois!

Many thanks to my predecessors, Colleen Quinn, who transitioned to the role of immediate past president, and Al Staron, who ended his term on the board after 14 years. A complete list of former CEEAA presidents are on the CEE website at cee. illinois.edu/alumni/alumni-association/ current-board-directors/past-presidents.

A few weeks ago, the CEE Alumni Board held its fall meeting on campus, strategically scheduling the meeting to coincide with an Illini home football game and a CEE pre-game tailgate at Grange Grove. You may be familiar with some of the members of the board either through your time on campus, career overlap or involvement in the civil engineering profession. Take the time to reach out to our board members. Thank them for their commitment to the CEE department, reestablish contact or introduce yourself to them as an alumnus who wants to engage and support our department and university.

In 2016 the CEE Alumni Board established a Distinguished Faculty Award, an award designed to recognize our most accomplished faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the department, to the education of our students, and to the pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of society through research.

At our fall meeting, the Board recognized the Distinguished Faculty Class of 2019: Professor Steven Fenves, Professor Leonard Lopez, and Professor Moreland Herrin

I hope to meet many of you over the next few years on campus during a football game or during one of our many CEE events.

(posthumous). It was an honor to present the award to these distinguished educators and engineers and to listen to them reminisce about their time on campus as students and professors. U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks the civil and environmental engineering department near the top of the undergraduate and graduate civil engineering programs.

The quality of our teaching and research faculty, graduate assistants and research assistants continues to exemplify outstanding engineering talents, just as Professor Fenves, Professor Lopez and Professor Herrin did during their tenure with the department.

Under the leadership of CEE department head Benito Mariñas, the CEE department continues to attract a talented and diverse student body, including an incoming freshman class consisting of 73 percent Illinois residents and 30 percent women, with another new record of high achievement. Benito has also been able to successfully articulate to the College of Engineering the need to increase the size of the faculty, with seven new faculty members joining the staff in 2019 and five more coming in 2020. While this is great news, it also comes at a time when the State of Illinois remains in a state of flux financially, so navigating through these uncertain times is challenging.

So what can you do to assist in fulfilling the mission of engaging and supporting the department? Since all of us are enjoying the benefits of a CEE degree, the opportunities to engage and support are endless: recruit graduates, mentor students, advocate for the department/CEE program, participate in CEEAA events, get involved in the Backpack2Briefcase program helping students transition to pro-

fessional life, consider joining the board, and of course support the department financially. On average, about 5 percent of our CEE graduates/alumni make a regular contribution to the CEE department. Initiatives like offering scholarships, updating laboratories and outdated facilities, and embarking on major projects such as the ongoing modernization of the Hydrosystems Laboratory take a significant amount of funding; this is where you, our alumni, come in. If we can raise the percentage of CEE alumni (we are 15,000 strong) who make a regular contribution to the CEE program, we can make a significant and positive impact on our department. Thank you to all of you who give to the CEE department on a regular basis, and thank you in advance to those who will join the ranks of regular contributors to the CEE department! We need you!

Speaking of supporting CEEAA events, the calendar is set for several of our 2020 events; these are listed in the box at the right. An official save-the-date email and postcard will be sent to the alumni contact list on file later this year, but since you are reading this article you now have the benefit of knowing about these events in advance! Additional event dates will be included with the save-the-date mailing.

You can also learn about upcoming alumni events by checking the events page of the department’s website at cee.illinois. edu/alumni/events.

I hope to meet many of you on campus during a football or basketball game or during one of our many CEE networking events. If you are already involved, thank you and continue to stay involved.

If you are not yet involved reach out and introduce yourself – let’s talk!

Go Illini! i

CEE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION UPCOMING EVENTS Annual Alumni Awards Dinner March 12, 2020 Union League Club/Chicago CEE Beer Tasting June 10, 2020 Ballast Point Brewery/Chicago CEE Golf Outing July 23, 2020 Cog Hill Golf Course/Lemont CEE Tailgate TBD Grange Grove (Memorial Stadium)/ Champaign

NOMINATIONS INVITED Know any outstanding CEE Illini?

The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award and the Young Alumnus/ Alumna Achievement Award recognize those who have distinguished themselves in the field at different career stages. The next deadline is August 1, 2020. For more information, visit cee.illinois.edu/alumni/awards.

VOLUNTEER Interested in serving on the CEEAA Board of Directors? If you are interested in serving the department as a board member, fill out an online application at cee.illinois.edu/alumni.

For more information, contact Keely Ashman, (217) 333-6454, kashman@ illinois.edu.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 7

MODERNIZATION UPDATE Exciting new initiatives are under way to honor the department’s people and its history with named rooms and displays in the new Hydrosystems Laboratory addition. The current plans are detailed on the following pages, along with many opportunities for donors to be part of this historic moment in department history.

KAVITA AND LALIT BAHL SMART BRIDGE: TEACHING TOOL, CAMPUS LANDMARK

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he Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge was made possible with a generous gift from the Bahls, long-time supporters to the University and friends of the department. Additional opportunities still exist to contribute to the various collaboration areas along the bridge and at its entrance on the Newmark Lab side.

The bridge will be a highlight of the new construction and a new campus landmark, so the public areas along the bridge promise to be popular areas for students to gather. A mixture of lounge seating and tables will dot the bridge deck, and windows on both sides will offer a unique view of the engineering quad

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to the west and the campus to the east.

The bridge will be a living laboratory featuring the latest innovations in infrastructure sensing, a showcase for sustainable energy and environmental design options, and an instructional tool to teach about the effects of dynamic forces on the built environment.

Ideas for instrumenting the bridge and adjacent portions of the new building include strain gauges; accelerometers; inclinometers; pressure sensors; fiber optic cables; and environmental sensors for relative humidity, temperature and wind. In addition to this monitoring of the bridge structure and its foundation, the depart-

Much more information, plus feature stories and photos, available at:

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ment is also looking into instrumenting the indoor areas of the bridge and adjacent spaces with respect to sensing for occupancy, energy consumption, ventilation and indoor air quality; monitoring pedestrian traffic flow; and perhaps even developing the street beneath the bridge as an autonomous transit testbed. Data from all the sensors will be displayed on the bridge, also contributing to the popularity of the space.

The department hopes to establish an endowment to support future updates to the bridge instrumentation, so its technology will always reflect the latest innoi vations in infrastructure sensing.

Contacts:

For questions about the project or naming a space: Benito MariĂąas, Professor and Head marinas@illinois.edu (217) 333-6961 For requests to meet with the Department Head: Vicki Dixon, Associate Director of Operations vdixon@illinois.edu (217) 244-0857 For questions about making a gift: Katya Trubitsyna, Strategic Data Manager katia@illinois.edu (217) 300-0194

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Opportunities for naming gifts range from $20,000 to sponsor a graduate student work space to $16 million to name the entire building addition.

modernize.cee.illinois.edu The bridge was made possible by a gift from Kavita and Lalit Bahl. Lalit is an alumnus of Illinois’ Electrical and Computer Engineering department who earned his master’s degree in 1966 and his Ph.D. in 1969. Kavita’s late first husband, Ravindar K. Kinra, earned his Ph.D. in 1968 from Illinois CEE. Gratitude for their education and the research assistantships the two men received during that time motivates Lalit and Kavita’s continued philanthropy to this day.

KAVITA AND LALIT BAHL SMART BRIDGE Chester P. Siess Smart Bridge Gateway Chester P. Siess Space Collaboration Smart Bridge Gateway Collaboration Space

William L. Gamble Collaboration Space William L. Gamble Collaboration Space

German Gurfinkel Mete Sozen Collaboration Space Collaboration Space German Gurfinkel Mete Sozen Collaboration Space Collaboration Space

Arthur R. Robinson Collaboration Space Arthur R. Robinson Collaboration Space

Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge

Chester P. Siess Smart Bridge Gateway Collaboration Space Fully funded Fully funded Name established with gift; additional funding needed NamePlanned established withyet gift; additional funding needed but not funded Planned but not yet funded

A leadership gift from alumnus Thomas H.C. Lum (MS 59) has named this space in honor of late professor emeritus Chester P. Siess (MS 39, PhD 48). Siess spent nearly 30 years on the department faculty, serving as Head from 1973-1978. Additional gifts are needed to fully fund this space.

BRIDGE COLLABORATION SPACES ­— additional gifts needed

William L. Gamble Collaboration Space

German Gurfinkel Collaboration Space

Mete Sozen Collaboration Space

Arthur R. Robinson Collaboration Space

Alumnus and Professor Emeritus William L. Gamble (MS 61, PhD 62) taught on the department faculty from 1963 until his retirement. He taught courses on reinforced and prestressed concrete, and on the fire resistance of structures.

Alumnus and Professor Emeritus German R. Gurfinkel (MS 57, PhD 66) has taught in the department for nearly 60 years. He has received numerous awards for teaching, research and professional practice in structural engineering.

The late CEE alumnus and Professor Emeritus Mete A. Sozen (MS 52, PhD 57) made a profound, lasting impact on students and colleagues during his 65-year career in structural engineering research and education. We hope this collaboration space is just the first project to honor him.

The late CEE alumnus and Professor Emeritus Arthur R. Robinson (MS 53, PhD 56) taught on the department faculty for more than 30 years. He specialized in dynamic elasticity, numerical methods analysis, non-linear structural problems, earthquake ground motions and numerical solutions of ordinary differential equations.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 9

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MODERNIZATION UPDATE FIRST FLOOR

Vernon L. Snoeyink Water Chemistry Lab

William J. and Elaine F. Hall Classroom

Concrete Canoe Display

Robert and Glenda Johnson Student Collaboration Space

CEE Showcase Robert H. Dodds Commons

Robert and Glenda Johnson Collaboration Space

Fully funded Name established with gift; additional funding needed Planned but not yet funded

Concrete Canoe Display The concrete canoe competition was founded at Illinois by Professor Clyde E. Kessler (BS 43, MS 46) as a class assignment. This display will honor that history. Additional gifts are needed to fully fund this space.

The Robert and Glenda Johnson Student Collaboration Space, fully funded with a gift from Rashod R. Johnson (BS 00, MS UIC 05), will communicate CEE’s commitment to Rashod R. Johnson diversity and invite students of all backgrounds to commit their talents and energy to the critical profession of civil and environmental engineering. It is named in honor of Johnson’s parents. See page 49 of this issue for more information about this gift.

FIRST-FLOOR SPACES WITH ADDITIONAL GIFTS NEEDED

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Vernon L. Snoeyink Water Chemistry Laboratory

William J. and Elaine F. Hall Classroom

Robert H. Dodds Commons

Professor Emeritus Vernon L. Snoeyink taught water quality engineering for more than 35 years on the CEE faculty. The lab will feature a glass wall so that visitors can view the activities going on inside.

Professor Emeritus William J. Hall (MS 51, PhD 54) served on the structures faculty for 40 years. He was department head from 19841991. The classroom will be the largest in the building.

Professor Emeritus Robert H. Dodds Jr. (MS 75, PhD 78) spent his career on the Illinois CEE faculty, serving as department head from 2004-2009.

The Dodds Commons will be the main lobby of the new building.

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CEE Showcase Established with gifts from family members of Nathan M. Newmark, the showcase will be an art installation highlighting the worldchanging advancements of faculty and alumni of CEE at Illinois and the exciting ways that civil and environmental engineers will shape the future.

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All gifts may be made by pledging to pay the full amount over up to five years.

SECOND FLOOR Milhouse Family Classroom

Graduate Student Workstations

Faculty Lounge

CEE Legacy of Excellence Displays

ExxonMobil Conference Room

Judith S. and Jon Liebman Gallery

Distinguished Faculty Office

Faculty Office

Faculty Office

Faculty Office

Faculty Faculty Office Office

Faculty Office

Nathan M. Newmark Distinguished Faculty Faculty Office

Office

Nathan Newmark Distinguished Faculty Office

Fully funded Name established with gift; additional funding needed Planned but not yet funded

Milhouse Family Classroom A gift from alumnus Wilbur Milhouse (BS 94, MS 95) and his wife, Dawn, has established the Milhouse Family Classroom. The classroom name has a dual meaning: in addition to Milhouse’s personal family, it also refers to the individuals who work at Milhouse Engineering & Construction Inc., the firm he founded in 2001.

The mid-20th century has been called the Golden Era of CEE, when Nathan M. Newmark served as Head and the department’s world-class reputation was forged. A gift from the Newmark family has established this faculty office for senior faculty.

SECOND-FLOOR SPACES WITH ADDITIONAL GIFTS NEEDED Judith S. and Jon Liebman Gallery

ExxonMobil Conference Center

Jon and Judith Liebman joined the faculty of CEE at Illinois in 1972. Judith moved to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and is now Professor Emerita of Operations Research. Jon is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Engineering. He served as both Associate Head and Head of CEE. The Liebman Gallery will be a student collaboration space and home to a glass sculpture donated by the Liebmans.

For many years, graduates of CEE at Illinois have gone on to exciting careers at ExxonMobil. In addition, the company’s commitment to philanthropy in higher education has benefited generations of CEE students. In recognition of this strong partnership, Illinois CEE alumni and friends who are current or retired ExxonMobil employees are contributing to fund a named space in the new building addition.

SECOND-FLOOR SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NAMING CEE Legacy of Excellence Displays

Graduate Student Workstations

Faculty Lounge

For more than 150 years, CEE faculty and alumni have been making history and changing the world. Located in a prominent spot on the second floor, a series of display cases are planned to highlight impactful people from the department.

Graduate student office space is in critically short supply in the department. New office spaces will help CEE recruit top students and ensure adequate work spaces for those who pursue advanced study and research in the department.

Individual work stations are available for naming at $20,000 each.

The Faculty Lounge will be a place for faculty to relax between classes, get coffee and a snack, and consult and build relationships with their colleagues.

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MODERNIZATION UPDATE THIRD FLOOR Graduate Student Workstations

E.W. and J.L. Merritt Structural Design Lab

Transportation Faculty Classroom

Instructional Technology Hub

Chi Epsilon Alpha Chapter History Display

Sidney Epstein Alumni Welcome Center

CEEAA Board of Directors Student Collaboration Space

Alfredo H.S. Ang Faculty Office

Ben Chie Yen Library

Ellis Danner Faculty Office

James Clark Faculty Office

Faculty Office

Faculty Office

Edwin H. Gaylord Jr. Dick Distinguished Faculty Shaffer Office

Faculty Office

Edwin H. Gaylord Jr. Distinguished Faculty Office Edwin Gaylord Jr. was a member of the Illinois CEE structures faculty from 1956-1971. A gift from his daughter and son-in-law, William A. and Marjorie Gaylord Bardeen, fully funded this space.

Fully funded Name established with gift; additional funding needed Planned but not yet funded

THIRD-FLOOR SPACES WITH ADDITIONAL GIFTS NEEDED CEEAA Board of Directors Student Collaboration Space Present and past members and friends of the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors are sponsoring this spacious student collaboration area, prominently located near the entrance to the Smart Bridge and by the alumni welcome center. Additional funding is needed to fully realize this space.

Ben Chie Yen Library In 35 years on the faculty, Yen helped establish CEE’s leadership in hydrology. The Yen library will house books on this and related topics.

Transportation Faculty Classroom During long careers at the University of Illinois, alumni and professors emeriti Barry J. Dempsey (BS 60, MS 66, PhD 69) and Marshall R. Thompson (BS 60, MS 62, PhD 64) educated and inspired generations of students who became leaders in transportation engineering.

Al Ang

James Clark

Ellis Danner

Dick Shaffer

Faculty Offices Leadership gifts have been made to honor a number of former faculty with named offices. All require additional funding.

THIRD-FLOOR SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NAMING Graduate Student Workstations

Chi Epsilon Alpha Chapter Display This display will celebrate the history of Chi Epsilon, a national civil engineering honor society founded at the University of Illinois in 1922.

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Graduate student office space is in critically short supply in the department. New office spaces will help CEE recruit top students and ensure adequate work spaces for those who pursue advanced study and research in the department. Individual work stations are available for naming at $20,000 each.

Faculty Offices Adequate office space for CEE’s growing faculty is a critical need that serves recruitment and retention of top faculty. Available for naming at $100,000.

Tech Hub Technology is key to the modernization of the curriculum and the introduction of innovative teaching methods.

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All donors of any amount will be recognized by name in the building.

BASEMENT Terzaghi, Peck and Deere Geotechnical Lab

Tech Resource Room

Cording, Davisson, Fernandez, Gary Parker Hendron, Lenzini, Mesri Morpho- Resource and Nieto dynamics Recovery Lab Geotechnical Lab Lab

Ernest J. Barenberg Concrete Materials and Pavement Instructional Lab

Environmental Fluid Mechanics Lab

Gary Parker Morphodynamics Laboratory Fully funded Name established with gift; additional funding needed Planned but not yet funded

Professor Gary Parker is the only current faculty member to be named to the National Academy of Sciences. His research interests are the mechanics of sediment-laden flow in rivers and turbidity currents, and resulting flow-boundary morphodynamic interactions.

BASEMENT SPACES WITH ADDITIONAL GIFTS NEEDED Terzaghi, Peck, Deere Geotechnical Laboratory Ernest J. Barenberg Laboratory Alumnus and Professor Emeritus Ernest J. Barenberg (PhD 65) served for more than 40 years on the CEE transportation engineering faculty. His expertise was in concrete pavements, paving materials and railroad track systems.

Cording, Davisson, Fernandez, Hendron, Lenzini, Mesri and Nieto Geotechnical Laboratory Clockwise from top left, faculty Edward J. Cording (MS 63, PhD 67), Melvin T. “Tom” Davisson (MS 55, PhD 60), Gabriel G. Fernandez (MS 72, PhD 77), Alfred J. “Skip” Hendron Jr. (MS 59, PhD 60), Peter A. Lenzini (MS 71), Gholamreza Mesri (BS 65, MS 66, PhD 69), and Alberto S. Nieto (not pictured) helped forge the department’s reputation in geotechnical engineering.

Engineering geologist Don U. Deere (PhD 55) (middle) and geotechnical engineer Ralph B. Peck (far right), both professors of civil engineering at Illinois, and “father of soil mechanics” Karl von Terzaghi (left), a visiting research professor and frequent lecturer at Illinois, built the world’s premier geotechnical engineering program at Illinois.

BASEMENT SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NAMING Technology Resource Room Technology is key to the modernization of the curriculum and the introduction of innovative teaching methods.

Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory CEE has a long history of leadership in environmental fluid mechanics.

A state-of-the-art laboratory dedicated to fluid mechanics research and instruction will ensure that CEE students receive an excellent education in this critical field and that Illinois retains its preeminence in this area.

Sanitation and Resource Recovery (SR2) Laboratory If properly managed, wastewater can provide society with a reliable and abundant source for three of the 21st century’s most critical resources: energy, nutrients and water. The SR2 Laboratory will provide the necessary facilities to enable CEE students and researchers to obtain, store and experiment with raw human excreta in biologically-safe, appropriately ventilated conditions.

This system would be unique among American universities and a model for resource recovery research and education.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 13

THE

FUTURE STARTS NOW Today’s civil and environmental engineers are doing things that couldn’t have been imagined a generation ago.

To prepare the CEE leaders of the future, CEE at Illinois is modernizing its curriculum and its facilities, and embarking on an ambitious hiring plan that aims to increase the faculty to more than 60 by 2020. In the past year, CEE has welcomed seven new outstanding teachers and researchers, featured on the following pages. They join our worldclass faculty in taking on the greatest challenges society has to offer, now and into the future.

Xiaojia Shelly Zhang

“We do need to reinvent and redefine CEE for the well-being of humanity.”

Anonymous gift empowers faculty hiring plan

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Structural Engineering | Societal Risk Management Ph.D. Georgia Tech | M.S., B.S. University of Illinois What are your research interests?

Topology optimization is a technique for generating optimal shapes of structures. My research explores topology optimization and additive manufacturing to develop resilient, smart, sustainable and innovative engineering infrastructures and materials for applications at different scales — from as large as high-rise buildings to as small as material microstructures. We do need to reinvent and redefine CEE for the well-being of humanity.

What drew you to Illinois?

Personal and cultural aspect: U of I is my Alma mater; I obtained my undergrad and master’s degrees both from U of I. It feels like a dream come true to come back to my home department and to start my professional career here.

Top excellence in scholarship: U of I is a unique place that aggregates top experts in so many research frontiers. Moreover, the university is filled with excellent students and equipped with state-of-theart facilities. It is a visionary place with unlimited opportunities for research and collaborative efforts.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

I hope to utilize topology optimization to help designers do better bridges and buildings, and to use novel materials and metamaterials that can contribute toward

a sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? Because they can make a more significant impact in the world and experience the results of their work. For instance, they can help design the infrastructure of the future, which will accommodate autonomous and emission-free vehicles.

They can also contribute to improving our air quality, which can lead to a better and more sustainable environment.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

• Automation of design and manufacturing

• Data-driven modeling and engineering designs

• Smart and adaptive structures • Next-generation materials with multi-

functionality My research will focus on the integration of topology optimization, machine learning, and advanced additive manufacturing, which can offer a promising avenue to achieve these exciting innovations and developments.

Anything else to add?

I feel that I made the right career choice.

I am at the right place at the right time. i

hanks to an anonymous, $1.5 million gift, the department has embarked on an aggressive plan for faculty growth.

Seven new faculty were hired this past year.

New hiring is key to the department’s ongoing Modernization Plan, which includes a curriculum redesign, sweeping facilities upgrades and strategic growth, said department head professor Benito Mariñas.

The donor’s intent was that the gift be used for hiring both men and women. This year the department hired three women – Tugce Baser, Eleftheria Kontou and Shelly Zhang – and four men – Nishant Garg, Lewis Lehe, Junhui Yan and Lei Zhao. Plans are underway to hire five more faculty members in 2020.

“We began hiring top faculty aggressively this past year,” Mariñas said. “However, competing for top faculty with peer institutions requires significant resources.

The generous anonymous gift that we received could not have been more timely.”

The biggest cost associated with hiring is for “startup packages,” expenses necessary to get a new faculty member up and running. This typically includes moving expenses, travel expenses, money for equipping laboratories and offices, and graduate research assistant salaries.

Startup packages average $800,000 over two years.

“The anonymous gift has encouraged us to become more aggressive in terms of completing the faculty recruitment component of our Modernization Plan, Mariñas said. “This coming year we plan to add a diverse group of five more faculty, which will position CEE at Illinois as the top department for decades to come.

“We are deeply grateful to this donor, who has found a unique, unexpected and profound way to support i our Modernization.”

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Tugce Baser Geotechnical Engineering Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability Ph.D. Univ. of California San Diego M.Sc. Bozok University B.Sc. Cukurova University What are your research interests?

Geotechnical engineers are required in nearly every infrastructure project, therefore research in “designing for sustainable and renewable” can have significant impacts on our society’s economy, environmental impact, and energy portfolio. My fundamental research focuses on how coupled relationships of thermohydro-mechanical processes play a role in geotechnical systems to provide sustainable energy solutions.

What drew you to the CEE field?

I am from Adana, the fifth biggest city of Turkey, where I spent most of my life.

When I was 13 years old, Adana was hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale. I remember how my family and I, as well as all others in the neighborhood, felt scared and unsafe, so we spent nights outside on the streets.

The experts were on TV explaining how it happened and why it happened. Although strike-slip fault mechanism did not really make any sense to a 13-year-old, the consequences struck me. The earthquake killed at least 145 people and left 1,500 people wounded and many thousands homeless in Adana and Ceyhan.

That unfortunate event led to a realization of the role of civil and environmental engineers in the public’s health and safety.

What drew you to Illinois?

The quality, strength and diversity of the faculty, students and facilities. In addition to those, University of Illinois has

Jinhui Yan Structural Engineering Tugce Baser

its richest history in especially geotechnical engineering. This department was a home to my heroes such as Karl Terzaghi and Ralph Peck, so I cannot think of a better institution to serve and help maintain its leadership in civil and environmental engineering.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

Finding sustainable, renewable geotechnical and geo-energy solutions to prevent climate change while providing society’s needs.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE?

Ph.D. Univ. of California San Diego M.S. Peking University B.S. Wuhan University What are your research interests?

I develop high-fidelity computational methods and models to predict the dynamical response of the most complex structural systems in complicated environments.

What drew you to Illinois?

The reputation of the engineering program and the strong support from the university for junior faculty.

Illinois is a world-renowned university, and the CEE department that I am join-

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the most fundamental needs are at the bottom of the pyramid, including water, shelter and warmth. These are closely/directly related to the projects that civil and environmental engineers are involved in. It is very exciting and rewarding to be a part of these projects to contribute to our society’s basic needs (physiological and safety).

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

Multi-disciplinary approaches are becoming very desirable for geotechnical engineers, and will increasingly become more important and even essential. I think the biggest development will be the adoption of holistic approaches to solve problems in the area. i Jinhui Yan

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“The world needs your passion for doing good — for abundant clean drinking water, for safe roads and bridges, for flood protection and reduction and much more.” ing is gaining a lot of momentum, especially in the structure-related areas. There are some really exciting opportunities in Illinois for me to develop my career. I enjoyed the campus visit, the view of a beautiful campus, and all the technical discussions with my future colleagues.

At that moment, my heart was telling me that this is where I wanted to live and work.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

I hope the methods and techniques developed by my lab can be widely used in the world, providing meaningful guidelines for engineering design and analysis.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? Civil and environmental engineers are on the front lines of some of the world’s most pressing problems, building solutions and putting technology to work for the good of all. The world needs your passion for doing good — for abundant clean drinking water, for safe roads and bridges, for flood protection and reduction, and much more.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

I think in the next 10 or 20 years, as computers become more and more powerful, computational science and engineering are becoming more and more important in engineering design and analysis. i

Nishant Garg Construction Materials Ph.D. Aarhus University M.S. Iowa State B.S. Thapar University What are your research interests?

Annual CO2 emissions from worldwide cement production alone are comparable to the yearly total CO2 emissions from all of the European Union. My research group will focus on developing and characterizing cements that are not only sustainable and environment-friendly but also result in durable infrastructure.

What drew you to the CEE field?

I have always believed that a healthy infrastructure and clean environment is critical for a civilization. Without these, there is no history or future. The field that directly addresses these two issues is Civil and Environmental Engineering.

What drew you to Illinois?

The top-ranked engineering programs, excellent and state-of-the-art experimental facilities, and an opportunity to do innovative and scholarly research were some of the factors.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

I have two major goals with my research work. First, I plan to design lowCO2, environment friendly, cementitious binders based on waste materials Continued on page 18 Nishant Garg

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THE FUTURE STARTS NOW “For mitigating the risks and dangers associated with global warming and the consequential climate change, we need more and more civil and environmental engineers.�

Lewis Lehe Transportation Engineering

Continued from page 15

Ph.D. Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley M.S. Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley M.A. University of Leeds B.Phil. University of Pittsburgh

for which I would like to see real-world applications. My second goal is to inspire the next generation of civil engineers to employ a materials science approach to understanding cement and concrete.

What are your research interests?

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? Our future is dependent on the continued existence of a safe and stable climate on Earth. For mitigating the risks and dangers associated with global warming and the consequential climate change, we need more and more civil and environmental engineers.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

The field of in situ concrete characterization and monitoring is likely to advance significantly in the next two decades.

Handheld spectrometers will become more and more common in diagnosing and detecting issues related to concrete.

For concrete construction, there will be many binders of many different chemistries available for different applications as opposed to the standard ordinary Portland cement that is dominant today. These will enable easier construction in challenging environments (polar caps, extraterrestrial spaces) as well as upcoming technologies like 3D printing.

Anything else to add?

I am excited to be part of a historically renowned department and surrounded by many friendly intellectuals and experts. i 18

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Lewis Lehe

Lei Zhao Environmental Engineering and Science Ph.D. Yale University B.S. Nanjing University What are your research interests?

My research concerns the physical and engineering processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer where most human activities and environmental systems are concentrated, with a particular focus on built environment. I am interested in what major climatedriven problems cities will face in the future, and what we can do about it.

I research downtown congestion.

That involves traffic flow theory as well as economic theories of how travelers react to prices, taxes and regulation.

What drew you to the CEE field?

What attracted me most to this field is that in this field, one can utilize a broad range of tools (mathematical, physical, computational, observational and experimental, etc.) to tackle challenging environmental problems such as climate change, heat stress, air pollution, water scarcity and energy security, etc., and deliver practical impacts to human society.

What drew you to Illinois?

The very diverse student and faculty population, the collaborative and innovative atmosphere, the strong interdisciplinary goals and the global perspective.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

My research aims at addressing urban challenges in the face of global climate

Whatever you wind up doing, take some time on your own every month to get better at programming.

What drew you to the CEE field?

Perhaps because my father is an urban planner, I’ve always been fascinated by cities. Over time I became especially attracted to transportation because it combines both physical constraints and human choices in an interesting way.

What drew you to Illinois?

Its reputation and the department’s commitment to research.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

I hope I can help cities strike a smarter balance among competing demands for

urban roads. For example, currently, local leaders are figuring out how to regulate bikesharing, electric scooters and ridehailing apps.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? CEE is a broad field to which you can bring a wide range of tools to bear on everyday problems. For example, if you like computers, you can do data science to understand traffic. If you like optimization, you can help plan bus schedules.

CEE lets you do whatever you like to do, but you’ll be addressing basic problems that civilization faces.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

In the next ten years, cities will be able to understand and control traffic in real time, due to better sensing. In the next 20 years, we’ll probably see autonomous vehicles and widespread electric vehicles.

Anything else to add?

Whatever you wind up doing, take some time on your own every month to get better at programming. i

New technologies, urban planning and developing choices will emerge to make the future metropolis a more sustainable, resilient and enjoyable place. change. The significance of my work not only resides within the increasing urgency and severity of the problem per se, but also (indeed more importantly) concerns its radiating impacts on human life, society and development in the long run.

Through my work, I hope to help make future cities resilient, sustainable and enjoyable for people.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? Civil and environmental engineering strives to make modern human life possible and better. It not only concerns technologies, science and mathematics, but also involves/fosters high skills of

communication, leadership and entrepreneurship. It is the field that enables you to deliver real benefits to human society and to make the world a better place to live.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

I think in the next 10-20 years, the biophysical and biogeochemical processes in urban areas will be much better understood and modeled. New technologies, urban planning and developing choices will emerge to make the future metropolis a more sustainable, resilient and enjoyable place in the face of climate change.i Lei Zhao

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 19

THE FUTURE STARTS NOW “I’m excited to witness the transformation of the transportation sector, from its decarbonization with diversification of its energy source to its automation.”

Eleftheria Kontou Transportation Engineering Ph.D. University of Florida | M.Sc. Virginia Tech B.Sc. National Technical University of Athens Eleftheria Kontou

What are your research interests?

My research interests lie in the fields of sustainable transportation planning, as well as transport and energy sectors interdependencies. My group will focus on modeling transportation systems to maximize societal benefits from the introduction and use of electrified and emerging services and technologies.

What drew you to Illinois?

Its research excellence, top-tier students, and the opportunities to foster interdisciplinary collaborations.

What attracted you to the field of civil and environmental engineering?

The versatile nature of civil and environmental engineering projects that requires not only problem-solving skills but also creativity and adaptability.

What do you hope to accomplish in the world through your work?

My research group aims at contributing new models and algorithms to the transportation and energy fields, and facilitating their seamless integration.

For more information about the ways in which we are modernizing our curriculum and facilities, visit:

MODERNIZE.CEE.ILLINOIS.EDU

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Through complex data interpretation my lab can assist with accelerating the transition to more sustainable transportation systems. I look forward to educating the civil engineering workforce of the future.

Why should today’s high school students consider CEE? Civil and environmental engineering ingenuity solves critical problems in building and managing infrastructure systems, contributing to economic growth.

The next generations of civil and environmental engineers have the opportunity to work with high tech tools and use computational methods to improve quality of life for all.

Predict the future in your area of work: what exciting innovations or developments do you see happening in the next 10-20 years?

I’m excited to witness the transformation of the transportation sector, from its decarbonization with diversification of its energy source to its automation in the next 20 years. In the short run, cities will leverage real-time data for smarter transportation operations. i

Global Leaders program welcomes new director

E

rnest-John Ignacio is the new director of CEE’s program Global Leaders in Construction Management (GLCM), a fiveyear curriculum combining the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The program’s primary focus is to provide students with a balance of industry practice and academic theory with a global perspective on the construction industry.

Ignacio is working on his Ph.D. in CEE, which he expects to complete in May 2021. His dissertation is titled, “Optimizing the Planning of Utility Relocations to Expedite Highway Projects.” He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from CooEJ Ignacio per Union in New York.

Ignacio worked for 11 years in the construction industry in New York, beginning as an intern at Bovis Lend Lease Inc. during his undergraduate degree. Major construction projects on which he worked include Columbia University Manhattanville, John F. Kennedy International Airport and the World Trade Center – Deutsche Bank.

His most recent position before pursuing his Ph.D. at Illinois was as a project manager for Lend Lease, a position he held for seven years.

Ignacio teaches the introductory construction class CEE 320 Construction Engineering, and two newly developed classes, CEE 498CS Construction Safety and CEE 498CF Construction Finance.

In addition to a curriculum guided toward more practice-oriented topics, GLCM students experience three practical components throughout the year: an international experience visiting construction projects abroad, a summer internship and a national trip to construction projects in the United States.

The GLCM program began in 2005,

“As we send our students into the workplace, what we get in return is a larger network.”

Students from the Global Leaders in Construction Management program toured the Oculus, the new transit hub at the World Trade Center in Manhattan in March 2018.

and with the graduating class of May 2019, the program achieved 100 alumni, Ignacio says. This growth strengthens both the Illinois CEE name and the aspirations of its students, he says.

“The great thing about this program is that as we send our students into the

workplace, what we get in return is a larger network,” he says. “We have reach all over the world. So as our network continues to grow, it not only leaves the Illinois CEE impact, but it is also planting the flag for prospective students to demonstrate how far they can go.” i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 21

Softening agents may increase pathogen risk

By Lois Yoksoulian any city drinking water systems add softening agents to keep plumbing free of pipe-clogging mineral buildup.

According to new research, these additives may amplify the risk of pathogen release into drinking water by weakening the grip that bacteria – like those responsible for Legionnaires’ disease – have on pipe interiors.

M

Helen Nguyen

Wen-Tso Liu

Biofilms, which are similar to the films that grow on the glass of fish tanks, are present in almost all plumbing systems and anchor themselves to mineral scale buildups in pipes. They are teeming with harmless microbial life and incidents of waterborne illness are rare.

“The groundwater that supplies many 22

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cities may be high in magnesium and calcium,” said Helen Nguyen, a professor of civil engineering and co-author of the study. “When combined with other elements, they can form thick deposits of mineral scale that clog up engineered water systems. Because of this, water treatment plants add chemicals called polyphosphates to dissolve the minerals to keep the scale buildup under control.”

A recent study by co-author and civil and environmental engineering professor Wen-Tso Liu has shown that even with the addition of antimicrobial agents by water companies, the bacteria that grow on the mineral scale can reproduce to harmful levels in supplies that stagnate within indoor plumbing.

In a new study published in the journal Biofilms and Microbiomes, a team of University of Illinois engineers shows that the addition of anti-scalant chemicals cause the biofilms to grow thicker and become softer.

The team measured the thickness and stiffness of lab-grown biofilms using magnetomotive optical coherence elastography – a tool used to measure the strength of cancer tissues. The analytical method, developed by Stephen Boppart, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and study co-author, allowed the team to quantify the effect that polyphosphate has on the strength of biofilms.

To reproduce what happens in engineered plumbing systems, the team used PVC pipe and groundwater from the Champaign-Urbana area source to grow biofilms. They set up multiple scenarios with and without added polyphosphates.

All scenarios produced biofilms, but the system that used polyphosphates grew a much thicker and softer biofilm than the others, the researchers said.

“Increased biofilm thickness means more bacteria, and the softening increases the chance that pieces will detach

and foul the water supply under normal flow pressure,” Nguyen said. “Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency up to the property line, not the tap. So, in buildings where water has been stagnating for a while, this could become a public health issue.”

A problem, according to researchers, is that some sort of anti-scalant chemical is required to maintain adequate water flow through pipes. “Of course, one solution could be to replace pipes once they become clogged with mineral buildup,” Nguyen said. “But that would be a very expensive endeavor for public utilities and property owners in a country as large as the United States.”

Nguyen believes that the most affordable and realistic solution will come through a better understanding of water chemistry, not by trying to kill all microbes, ripping out pipes or changing regulations.

“Before this work, we did not have a good understanding of the relationship between the water chemistry and microbiome that exists in plumbing. This work has given us initial insight and tools to help determine what chemicals will work best and at what concentration,” Nguyen said.

The team is moving ahead with related studies that look at ways to help physically remove biofilms while pipes remain in place and others that look at the effects of anti-corrosive chemicals on biofilms and water quality.

“We will not be able to control how long a drinking water user will allow water to stagnate, but we can work to understand how the chemicals we add to our water interact with biofilms.”

The U.S. EPA, the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Institutes of Health supported this study. Former graduate student Yun Shen (PhD 16) conducted the study as a part of her doctoral thesis. i

CEE team helping drone delivery take flight

By Emily Jankauski Drones are set to become the newest carrier pigeons in the sky. Imagine drones swooping in to deliver your latest online purchase right to your front door. That’s the hope of courier delivery services such as UPS and Amazon, who plan to use drones to deliver packages in the future.

The soon-to-be common practice is already in use at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, where UPS drones deliver medical samples, such as blood, across the medical campus eight times a day — a journey that, according to CBS News, would take 45 minutes on foot.

The barrier to translating that into home delivery of packages is logistics. That’s a problem CEE researchers hope to solve.

CEE professor Yanfeng Ouyang is working on it with postdoc Chao Lei, graduate student Rui Feng She (BS 18) and former doctoral student Zhaodong Wang (PhD 18). The joint research project — low-altitude air traffic management/planning — is partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The difference between drones delivering within a medical campus and the delivery of goods to your front door is the increased distance and volume, which require efficiency as well as flexibility. To bridge the gap, delivery services will likely use a hybrid approach of trucks and drones.

“Hybrid delivery mode has gained more and more attention in recent years,” Ouyang said. “The main idea of the truckdrone delivery is that a truck carries large volumes of goods and drones over long distances to neighborhoods. A drone would depart from a truck, which would continue moving, fly to a designated customer where it makes the delivery, and then return to the truck at a different location.”

Drones will likely take flight in the last

Drones will likely only take flight in the last mile of delivery. Their maximum inflight time is 30 minutes, their package weight capacity comes in at 10 pounds and their battery performance is lackluster. mile of delivery. Their maximum in-flight time is 30 minutes, their package weight capacity comes in at 10 pounds and their battery performance is lackluster.

While logistical juggernauts like Amazon dream big with proposals for a flying warehouse, where drones depart and return all to one place, and Uber suggests an aero taxi service equipped with flying cars, Ouyang says it is “critically important” to find the best tradeoff between truck travel versus drone travel.

But that’s not all. Another important question is how to regulate the air traffic once multiple courier delivery services launch drone-based package delivery.

“When that happens in the near future — with many drones flying from/to all different directions within a thin layer of

low-altitude air space — the issue of aerial congestion would inevitably emerge,” Ouyang said.

The solution could boil down to mathematics.

“My research aims to develop some general-purpose mathematical models for operating truck-drone delivery systems over a continuous spatial area while considering the truck-drone coordination requirement and the potential impact of aerial congestion,” he said.

He also intends to study drone flight trajectories and traffic patterns to lessen potential aerial congestion for both inbound and outbound package delivery.

Minor kinks aside, Ouyang is confident that the future of drone-based package delivery is nothing but clear skies ahead. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 23

Alumnus teaches surveying to CEE students P ointing to a picture of Mount Rushmore National Memorial that hangs on his wall, Parkland College Associate Professor Todd Horton deadpans, “This is a monument to three surveyors and one other guy.”

Horton (BS 86) is the Construction Management Program Director at Parkland, where he has been teaching surveying to CEE at Illinois students every year since 2012. Surveying has been a part of the CEE curriculum since the University of Illinois was founded, but it was dropped in

students to view pre-recorded lectures online and make the trip just once a week for lab. In recent years, an average of ten students – mostly CEE students, plus a few from the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences – take the class each semester.

“The class is a broad overview intended to help people understand core concepts,” Horton said. “And, at minimum, be able to communicate well with surveyors as engineers, but also have some basic skills when they go out in the field.”

Horton said that visualization skills are one of the most impor“This is a monument to tant things he teaches the students, because when they are three surveyors and engaged in the measurement one other guy.” process that serves as the basis for design, they understand the information far better. A typical assignment Horton sets is a basic station and offset mapping job, in which students use instruments to collect data, and then use that information to hand draw planned views, crosssection views and profile views.

He also teaches them how to use total station instruments – one of the main workhorses of the the early 2000s after the last professor to surveying industry, Horton said – to take teach it – Kam Wong – retired. CEE leader- angle and distance measurements sufship then established a partnership with ficient to help them draw a topographic Parkland College which allowed CEE at Il- map. linois students to study surveying at Park“Contour lines are understood by a very land while still earning Illinois credits. small percent of the population, but we After a rough start during which few take them to the point where not only do students wanted to commute to Parkland they understand contour lines but they campus multiple days per week, a class can create them from scratch, having schedule was developed that allowed taken the measurements themselves,” he

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Todd Horton said.

Construction plan reading is also part of this course, and Horton likes to walk students through a nearby subdivision with plans in hand so they can compare what is on the drawing to what it looks like in real life.

“Even if we’re only out there for half an hour, it has a really huge impact,” Horton said. “That’s one of our goals – to make sure that people see the relationship between the plans the engineers put together and reality.”

These days, a surveyor needs to have a broad range of knowledge in order to understand complex modern surveying equipment, software and data quality issues, and be able to go from taking measurements in the field to drafting in the office, Horton said. It is an asset for an engineer to have these multidisciplinary skills, but even a basic understanding of them is useful – particularly in transportation and construction management fields, where engineers will often find themselves interfacing with surveyors.

Not only is surveying beneficial to an engineer’s career, but it can appeal to those who enjoy history. For example, a land surveyor might find himself searching out old section corners – the corner of a one square mile piece of land – that were set with stone markers during the 1800s, digging through historical records to find an original plat to settle a boundary dispute, or investigating old fences to see what people have been considering to be their property lines.

Summer Survey Camp was a time for work (and play)

Above and at left: CEE students learn how to use surveying instruments at Parkland College.

“A lot of us who are land surveyors, we really like boundary survey because it’s like we’re solving this great big puzzle.

It’s not just a geometric puzzle, but also a puzzle of history and laws and people,” he said.

In addition to the class for CEE students, Horton also teaches a weekend land surveying program that allows working professionals to take the entire sequence of 24 credit hours required for someone to become professionally licensed. The course content is delivered with pre-recorded videos and labs take place one weekend a month for 24 months.

There is a great advantage to any engineer in becoming a professional land surveyor, Horton said. During the recession of the last several years, he knew many engineers, architects and land surveyors who were out of work. But every licensed engineer he knew who was also a licensed land surveyor worked steadily because of their ability to wear multiple hats. Horton also referenced studies which found that engineers who add professional land surveying to their license greatly increase their earning potential.

There is also the possibility of fame to go with the fortune. After all, surveying got George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln a spot on i Mount Rushmore.

To reach Todd Horton, email thorton@ parkland.edu.

Special thanks to Dennis Cummins (BS 94) for contributing to this story.

When stories about a summer survey camp start with a mention of mosquitos and continue on to include garter snakes, hornets, machetes, lake dunkings and pretty girls, you know it was an experience to remember.

As a freshman in 1950, Bob Fosnaugh (BS 54) attended Summer Survey Camp and had just such an experience. Half of the seven-week survey camp was spent on campus doing classroom work, while the second half was spent doing fieldwork at Camp Rabideau near Blackduck, Minn.

The camp’s location near three lakes meant that one of Fosnaugh’s early memories was of the many, many mosquitos.

He also remembers that although they were there during the summer, at times the nights got cold enough that they fired up the barracks’ potbelly stoves to stay warm. Fosnaugh noted that bed selection was very important as a result: too near the stove and you would be hot, too far from the stove and you would be cold.

The beds in the middle were the most desirable, and he often thought how uncomfortable it must have been for those who stayed at camp during the winter.

Students at the camp spent a lot of time on fieldwork, including measuring the flow of the river into Lake Rabideau, surveying the route for a hypothetical county road, reestablishing old section corners and mapping the lake. These activities sometimes had unintended results, such as when setting stakes in an overgrown forested area they set a stake right through a hornets nest. Or when opening the door to an abandoned barn led to the discovery of a floor covered with garter snakes. Or when an older student who had been in the Army and had experience doing survey work while stationed in the Philippines was using a machete to clear branches. The machete hit a rotten branch, bounced off and sliced his arm very badly.

“He was muttering for days after that, that he’d spent two years serving and chopping line in the Philippines and never got a cut and here he is in the Univer-

Bob Fosnaugh with his wife, Fran. sity of Illinois survey camp in Minnesota and really damaged that arm,” Fosnaugh recalled.

Their time at camp wasn’t all work and no play, he said. The students made trips to the nearby towns of Blackduck and Bemidji (where the pretty young women lived), and played pranks on unsuspecting students (in the middle of the night they would carefully lift a mattress off the bed – unsuspecting youth still sound asleep on it – and carry it to the lake and throw him in). Their instructor, assistant professor Eugene Daily, would also spend the weekends taking students in groups of two or three on car trips to explore nearby locations.

“It was the most generous thing to spend all of his weekends taking different students out to see some of the local area, and I was very appreciative of what he did for us beyond just teaching us surveying.”

Overall, Fosnaugh’s experience at camp was a good one.

“It was fun, and it was useful information,” he said. “And it helped me along the rest of my career.” i Camp Rabideau was a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp established in 1935 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program to provide work to those who were unemployed as a result of the Great Depression. For the next few years, hundreds of men stayed at Camp Rabideau while working in the Chippewa National Forest on projects like building roads, surveying and wildlife protection. Like most CCC camps, Rabideau fell into disuse when the United States entered World War II. In 1946, the University of Illinois began using the camp for its engineering and forestry schools, and continued to do so until 1973. Camp Rabideau is now a National Historic Landmark.

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More survey camp memories Professors emeritus Marshall Thompson (BS 60, MS 62, PhD 64) and Barry Dempsey (BS 60, MS 66, PhD 69) helped identify members of this photo, taken at surveying camp sometime in the 1950s. Those who have been identified are circled. They are: (front row circled, left to right) Louis Shaffer, Milton O. Schmidt, “Wyn” Eldridge, Gordon Gracie, Sam Karara, Rolf Demoll; (second row circled, left to right) Henry Atkinson, Robert Anderson, Robert Marks, Harry Abramowski, Jack Lane, Fred Stone; (third row circled, left to right) Gerald Hoft, Barry Dempsey, Harry Wendel, Paul Biggars, Bijan Mohraz; (back row, circled) Roy Fonda, Larry Salz, George Hanson, Marshall Thompson, Mike Terstriep, Tom Mulcahey, Rex Livingston.

“Now you all have to take the final!”

One of the happiest moto take the final!” to collective ments in college is not having groans. After a little humorto take a final. In CE surveying ous fanfare, he answered the class in 1981, John Frauenhoffer, question. Plunge the scope! a visiting professor, informed Thirty-five years later I the class that if we passed the was 18 stories up on a Dallas field survey test with 100 perhigh-rise and posed the same Rick Cavenaugh cent correct answers (10 out question to the field engiof 10), we could skip the final neer. He wanted to trianguexam. late off a nearby building. “Plunge the We were 9 for 9 when the last ques- scope!” I said. He reluctantly agreed that tion was posed: “How do you confirm that they hadn’t taught him that at Texas A&M. your transit is level?” After some nervous — Rick Cavenaugh (BS 83) discussion, the class came up with some President fancy geometric equation as the solution.

Stoneleigh Companies LLC John boldly declared “Now you all have Barrington, Ill.

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I answered Department Head Bill Hall's call to teach the surveying class just two days before class commenced due to an untimely John Frauenhoffer medical emergency incapacitating the professor. It was an uncommon opportunity, and I thoroughly enjoyed my interaction with Rick and his fellow students, all remarkably bright and engaged. I had worked for a land surveyor and professional engineer in the summers during college, affording

SAVE THE DATE FOR THESE UPCOMING

CEE ALUMNI EVENTS cee.illinois.edu/events MARCH 2020 Alumni Awards Dinner March 12, 2020 Chicago

JUNE 2020 Beer Tasting June 10, 2020 Chicago

JULY 2020 Golf Outing July 23, 2020 Lemont, Ilinois

Do you recognize yourself in this photo? Do you have a fond memory of your days learning surveying at Illinois? Write us at: celeste@illinois.edu.

SEPTEMBER 2020 Faculty Research Reception Date TBA Chicago OCTOBER 2020 Tailgate Date TBA Champaign

the mixing of course content theory with field practice. My mission was to see that all of the students completed the class with a strong basic understanding of surveying, since it is an integral part of almost all civil engineering projects.

I have always been grateful for the chance to give back to the department that prepared me so well!

— John Frauenhoffer (BS 75, MS 79) Engineering Resource Associates Inc. Champaign

Civil Civiland andEnvironmental EnvironmentalEngineering EngineeringAlumni AlumniAssociation—Fall Association—Fall2019 2019 27 27

Membranotable *

What are you working on?

CEE alumni are working on fascinating projects all over the world

If you’d like to write about one of your projects for a future issue of the CEE magazine, please contact Celeste Bock, celeste@illinois.edu, for details.

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By Brian Hackman, P.E., P.H., BCEE (BS 96, MS 98) Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi

G

reg Koch (BSCEE ’96 and MSCEE ’98) and I would sit in the recently renovated 4th floor Newmark environmental engineering labs talking about how we could use our membraneologist status to do many things while conducting permeability studies on a bench scale flat sheet membrane apparatus. It’s been more than 22 years since the group of graduate students I hung out with at the time dreamed about owning our own consulting firms, planned a movie about structures and beams, built concrete canoes for which our picture hung in the halls of Newmark for years, created a powerpoint late at night about Galloping Gertie, and/or recovered from the slight overuse of our hepatic systems in those days. Twenty years after leaving UIUC to follow a career as an engineering consultant for Strand Associates Inc. in Madison, Wis., where am I now? Still here.

But with being here, comes a great sense of awe and responsibility over the things experienced with my family, coworkers and clients because of my Christian faith, my UIUC education, and the choices I have made over the years.

Membrane filtration has been my

thing, my gift, my knowledge for use with public water supply and wastewater projects. This type of technology has the capability to change and improve the lives of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people by what it can remove from rivers, streams, and wastewater when used appropriately.

The technology is a proven invasive barrier to pathogens in drinking water supplies, incorporated to address the events of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Cryptosprodium) and Russellville, Kentucky (Nematodes), among others.

We now have the capability to remove up to more than 99.99 percent (4-log) of bacteria from our drinking water supplies reliably with membranes. I am the first in line to drink the first cup or two of membrane filtrate from the drinking water systems I have designed or visited.

The membrane filtration industry has struggled in the past, I believe, with learning about how to properly apply the technology. I look at the membrane facilities in our backyard, so to speak, that could at one time produce only half of the expected design capacity because of a failure to effectively understand the relationship of

Brian Hackman (BS 96, MS 98) with his wife, Beth Hackman, hiking in the mountains around White Sands, New Mexico, in January 2016.

viscosity over a range of water temperatures and membrane area for the operating conditions. Some may never know their stories like I do, but, even with a cutting edge engineering education, safety factors, conservatism, and redundancy are still a necessity to allow water system operators the ability to use the technology without crisis events or failures. In West Virginia, my education and training gave me the ability to write legislation sponsored by the City of Fairmont to protect water systems in the state from a future design crisis after a successful American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) project, the largest such effort in the state. This project effectively restored the city’s membrane treatment system capacity and confidence. The journey of failure can sharpen us and strengthen our resolve to do better.

As I look back, it’s time again to start inspiring the dreams of families, students, fellow engineers, and the public at large again toward something better than what we have now. I look at the picture of a 16 mgd submerged membrane treatment facility I had the honor to lead our

design team toward (picture at head of the article). I am thankful I could recommend to owners my UIUC school colors for the complex piping arrangement, which they have so graciously incorporated. I dreamed that, fostered it and saw it happen.

As I continue to mentor civil and environmental engineering (CEE) students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (growing up in a mixed UIUC/UW household in Rockford, Illinois I learned forgiveness early on in life), I encourage students to get real world, hands-on experience that can be used to help others achieve these types of projects. We need more people willing to do engineering and generate the designs that create jobs, keep our infrastructure in good condition, protect public health, and leave what we have better behind us for future generations.

So, in writing this article, I will coin a new word: membranotable. I don’t know if it will ever catch on or do anything, but, I said it, it’s my design. Maybe saying it sparks something that tomorrow will help others, too. ΧΔΧ i

* We need more

people willing to do engineering and ... leave what we have better behind us for future generations.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 29

Distinguished Faculty awards: Cording, Hendron, Fenves, Lopez and Herrin Five professors emeritus were honored with CEE Alumni Association (CEEAA) Distinguished Faculty awards in 2018 and 2019. The award was established in 2016 as a way to honor accomplished faculty in the department in recognition of their contributions to the department, to the education of students and to the pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of society through research. The awards are presented each fall at a luncheon in the Newmark Lab crane bay. Award winners for 2018 and 2019 are:

2019

Steven J. Fenves For technical contributions in pioneering the development of civil engineering applications of computers and in problem-oriented programming languages; for his role in the development and advancement of a significant University program and research in the area of Civil Engineering Systems; for being the co-developer STRESS, of one of the earliest computer-aided structural analysis systems; for research that dealt with design standards, databases, knowledge-

based systems, machine learning, and comprehensive design environments.

After earning all three degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois – B.S. 1957, M.S. 1958 and Ph.D. 1961– Fenves joined the faculty as an assistant professor. One of the early pioneers in the use of computers for structural engineering applications, Fenves taught courses in the design of engineering information systems and computer methods in civil engineering. He remained at Illinois until 1972, when he accepted a position as Professor and Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU). He retired from active teaching in 1998 and is professor emeritus of CMU. Fenves is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

In 1969, Nathan Newmark wrote of Fenves: “Dr. Fenves is one of the ablest young men in the country in the field of computer aided instruction and engineering design.”

Moreland Herrin (poshumously) For technical contributions to transpor-

Members of the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors pose with 2019 award winner Leonard Lopez (center, with boutonniere) and Stanley Herrin (next to Lopez, with boutonniere), who accepted the award on behalf of his father, Moreland Herrin. Steven Fenves could not attend.

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tation and pavement engineering; his nationally-recognized research in asphalt and asphalt-aggregate materials, asphaltsoil stabilization and related environmental measures for highways and airfields; for initiating the Illinois Bituminous Paving conference; for his role as Director of the Illinois Cooperative Transportation Program between the Illinois Department of Transportation and University of Illinois; as Chairman of the Bituminous Division of the Transportation Research Board; and his nearly 30 years of teaching and mentoring CEE students.

Herrin earned a B.S. in 1947 and an M.S. in 1949 in civil engineering from Oklahoma State University (OSU) and a Ph.D. in 1954 from Purdue University. He taught first at OSU, then in 1958 joined the University of Illinois, where he served on the faculty for more than 30 years.

Herrin taught transportation courses and researched asphalt and asphalt-aggregate materials, asphalt-soil stabilization and related environmental measures for highways and airfields. His research drew national attention. For many years he was director of Illinois’ cooperative transportation program between IDOT and the University of Illinois. He began the Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference.

He died July 6, 2015, in Urbana. He was 92. Herrin’s son, Stanley M. Herrin (BS 74, MS 78), accepted the award on his behalf.

Leonard A. Lopez For his role in the development and advancement of a significant University program and research in the area of Civil Engineering Systems (computer-aided design and software for engineering applications); for development of the POLO system and subsequently the FINITE system which was the result of early unsponsored research and then became a system used worldwide and revolutionized computer-aided structural analysis and design; for developing

DEPARTMENT NEWS

a prototype knowledge-based system for processing specifications; and for pioneering courses that integrated computer applications in engineering design that included structured programming, network processing, language design, disc file management and engineering applications. His courses at the University of Illinois became the model for similar courses taught at many other universities in the United States.

Lopez earned his B.S. (1962) and M.S. (1963) in civil engineering from Tufts University and his Ph.D. (1966) from the University of Illinois. After a year of teaching at Lehigh University, he spent his career in CEE at Illinois, retiring in 1998.

Lopez was an early leader in the use of computers for structural engineering applications. Keeping abreast of a rapidly changing field, Lopez taught, conducted research, published, consulted and guest lectured on computer-related topics for more than 30 years. Software systems that resulted from his research include SCAN, POLO, FINITE and SICAD. Sponsors of his research included the National Bureau of Standards, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Army.

He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society.

Lopez also advanced the department’s capacity in the area of computer use in engineering education; he was responsible for obtaining grants for approximately $600,000 in computing equipment from Harris Corp. and Apollo Corp. in the 1980s.

2018

Edward J. Cording For outstanding professional contributions and an academic career in the geotechnical area of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; for

Members of the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors pose with 2018 award winners Edward J. Cording (front row, fourth from left) and Alfred J. “Skip” Hendron Jr. (front row, fifth from left).

his work as a professor who believed that there was a strong synergy among teaching theory, university research and professional practice, leading to an essential background and perspective for the students; for improvements in theories for rock stability, as well as efficient means of calculating, measuring and monitoring earth and rock movement, during and after excavation with attention to safety in unfavorable environments.

Cording received his B.S. in geology from Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1960 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963 and 1967 respectively. After working for a time in industry and serving in Vietnam, Cording began his teaching career at Illinois. He retired in 2002.

Cording’s many honors included membership in the National Academy of Engineering (1987) and election to the MOLES organization (2003).

Alfred J. “Skip” Hendron Jr. For outstanding professional leadership and teaching innovation in the geotechnical area of the Department of Civil and Envi-

ronmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; for visionary leadership and management in technical committees of the American Society of Civil Engineers, including soil dynamics and rock mechanics committees; for excellence in the teaching of geotechnical engineering during a lifelong academic career.

Hendron entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1954 in civil engineering and received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1959, 1960 and 1963 respectively. He joined the faculty of the department of Civil Engineering in 1961.

Hendron taught a variety of courses, in geotechnical engineering. Among his many research topics over the years was study of high pressure compressibility of sands, stress wave propagation in soils, time-dependent stress distribution around tunnels, effect of pore pressure on the strength of rock, and earth dam design.

Hendron was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1983. He retired in 1994 as Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering and continued to work as a consultant on major geotechnical projects around the world. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 31

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Liu wins grand prize for microbial ecology, water treatment research

Professor Ximing Cai has been named a 2019 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Honorees are recognized Ximing Cai for their scientific eminence – and that their “breadth of interests and the scope of their contributions are remarkable and often groundbreaking.”

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rofessor Wen-Tso Liu has been awarded an ISME-IWA Bio Cluster Award Grand Prize. The prize rewards interdisciplinary research of outstanding merit at the interface of microbial ecology and water/wastewater treatment.

Liu’s research focuses on the water microbiome, specifically the ecological roles of microbes in different water systems, including watersheds, drinking water systems and wastewater treatment

and reclamation systems. His work seeks to illuminate microbial diversity and the different metabolic functions they perform with the Wen-Tso Liu goals of influencing or controlling them to improve water cycling within natural and engineered systems and protecting public health.

Espinosa-Marzal wins Dean’s research award

Symposium honors Masud as medal winner

Associate Professor Rosa Espinosa-Marzal received a 2019 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. Her research focuses on understanding the fundaRosa Espinosa-Marzal mentals of soft matter interfaces required to design novel materials and interfaces for a wide range of applications.

The G.I. Taylor Medal Symposium, honoring Professor Arif Masud, was held during the Society of Engineering Science’s 56th Annual Meeting on October 13-15, 2019, on the campus of Washington University in St. Arif Masud Louis, Mo. The symposium topic was Variational Multiscale Methods in Mechanics and

Konar, Stillwell and Verma win CAREER Awards Three CEE assistant professors – Megan Konar, Ashlynn Stillwell and Vishal Verma – have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards. Administered under the Faculty Early Career Development Vishal Verma Program, CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious form of support and recognition for junior faculty.

Assistant Professor Megan Konar’s grant is to understand the infrastructure that supports our national food system and assess its vulnerability to water

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Cai named AGU Fellow

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featured a number of distinguished speakers, including fellow CEE at Illinois faculty member Assistant Professor Jinhui Yan. Masud was awarded the 2019 G. I. Taylor Medal by the Society of Engineering Science in recognition of “sustained and outstanding research contributions to the area of fluid mechanics.”

Konar wins Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award

stress, water hazards Assistant Professor Meand degraded infragan Konar has received structure. the Hydrologic Sciences Assistant ProfesEarly Career Award from sor Ashlynn Stillwell’s the American Geophysiaward is to study the cal Union. This prestigious energy and water award is given annually in sustainability in the Megan Konar recognition of outstandbuilt environment at ing contributions to the the city scale and at the residential house- Science of Hydrology, education or hold scale. societal impacts by a scientist still in Assistant Professor Vishal Verma’s the early stage of his or her career.

CAREER award is to develop a method to The award acknowledges early career measure the capability of small air pollu- prominence and the promise of contion particles, called PM2.5, to generate tinued contributions to hydrologic scioxidants. ence.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Ouyang appointed Rail Center director The Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering program has changed its name to Water Resources Engineering and Science to better reflect areas of study within the program outside of traditional hydrology and hydraulic engineering, including water policy and water resources management, hydrology and hydraulic engineering.

Negin Alemazkoor, a PhD student of Assistant Professor Hadi Meidani, participated in the 2019 Rising Start in Computational and Data Sciences April 9-10 at the University of Texas at Austin. Rising Stars is an intensive workshop for women graduate students and postdocs who are interested in pursuing academic and research careers.

Assistant professor Ahmed Elbanna participated in the seventh Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine symposium, held in partnership with the National Academy of Sciences, the Library of Alexandria and the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, and hosted in Cairo, Egypt, on November 17-19, 2019. The symposium brings together scientists, engineers and medical professionals from the United States and the countries of the Arab League to explore research advances in a variety of fields.

Professor Paolo Gardoni received the Telford Premium Prize by ICE Publishing, London, UK. The award recognizes authors who have produced work judged by their peers to be of exceptional quality and benefit to the civil engineering, construction and materials science community.

Professor Praveen Kumar has been named a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Professor David Lange delivered two distinguished speeches in Spring 2019. Lange gave the Zachry Distinguished Lecture at the new Center for Infrastructure Renewal at Texas A&M University, and a CivMin Distinguished Lecture at the University of Toronto.

Chi-Ying Lin, a PhD student of Assistant Professor Eun Jeong Cha won a 2019 CERRA Student Recognition Award at the International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP 13) for his paper “Impact of Climate Change to Hurricane Loss to the Gulf Coast of the U.S.”

Professor Yanfeng Ouyworld-class faculty and ang has been appointed researchers at Illinois and Director of the Chinesestate-of-the-art techAmerican Railway Transnologies and practice at portation Joint Research CRRC. The center has a Center. specific focus on engiEstablished in 2016 as neering technologies for a long-term partnership high-speed rail, intercity Yanfeng Ouyang between the University of and urban rail transporIllinois at Urbana-Chamtation, and freight rail paign and the CRRC Corporation Lim- transportation in China and the United ited, China, the center’s mission is to States. promote research and development For more information about the cenin railway transportation by engaging ter, visit crrc.engr.illinois.edu/.

Andrawes to lead Structural Engineering Lab Professor Bassem Andrawes has been named Director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory (NSEL).

Completed in 1967 and extended in 1971, NSEL has been home to largescale experimental structural research for more than 50 years. The lab features a central, three-story crane bay with a

strong floor and a 28foot, L-shaped reaction wall. The structural testing area is used to carry out a range of tests of building materials, components, structural assemblies Bassem Andrawes and models.

Stillwell, Guest win prestigious teaching award Two CEE assistant professors have won a prestigious teaching award.

Ashlynn Stillwell and Jeremy Guest both received the Award for Outstanding Teaching in Environmental Engineering and Science from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, Stillwell in 2018 and Guest in 2019.

The award recognizes environmental engineering or science professors who are making outstanding contributions to the teaching of environmental engineering.

Guest joined the CEE at Illinois faculty in 2011. His research centers on

the development of technologies for sustainable water and sanitation, with a focus on resource recovery from wastewater.

Stillwell has been a member of the faculty since 2013. Her research interests include the water impacts of thermoelectric power generation, urban water and energy sustainability and environmental policy.

Ashlynn Stillwell

Jeremy Guest

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 33

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Alumni Advocate and Ambassador awards honor Chaiseri, Hamada Clinical Professor Yu-Feng Forrest Lin was named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

CEE Assistant Professor Franklin T. Lombardo has been awarded the Junior Award by the International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE). The award is given annually to one engineer under the age of 40 who has established a record of outstanding achievements and significant and original contributions to wind engineering research and practice.

Professor and Head Benito J. Mariñas was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in October.

Associate Professor Scott M. Olson chaired the 2019 annual conference for the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Professional Engineers.

Alumni gathered in Bangkok to see Arun Chaiseri, center front, receive the inaugural CEE at Illinois Alumni Ambassador Award, presented by Professor and Head Benito Mariñas, to the right of Chaiseri.

Harold Hamada receives the inaugural CEE at Illinois Alumni Advocate Award from CEE Head Benito Mariñas in Honolulu.

Two new department awards were conferred this fall to alumni who have represented the department well throughout their distinguished careers.

Arun Chaiseri (MS 60) was awarded the inaugural CEE at Illinois Distinguished Alumni Ambassador Award In Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 20. Chaiseri has been called Thailand’s most famous engineer. His designs include the Elephant Tower.

The award recognizes a distinguished alumnus or alumna who is an ambassador and leader among alumni internationally and has promoted CEE at Illinois within 34

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his or her home country.

Chaiseri was honored for his distinguished career in academia, industry and government; his representation within Thailand of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through his excellence and accomplishments; and in appreciation for his promotion of the University of Illinois to prospective students in Thailand.

Harold S. Hamada (MS 58, PhD 62) was awarded the inaugural CEE at Illinois Distinguished Alumni Advocate Award in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Nov. 3. Hamada is professor emeritus in civil engineering at the Unversity of Hawai.

The award honors a distinguished alumnus or alumna within the U.S. who serves as an advocate for the department and a leader among alumni.

Hamada was honored for his distinguished career in academia and consulting; his exemplary representation of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through his excellence and accomplishments; and his leadership among his fellow alumni. i

Professor B.F. Spencer, Jr. was appointed as the International Director of the International Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE) at Tongji University.

Established in 2015 under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education, the ILEE has brought top researchers together to address challenging problems in earthquake engineering that require broader efforts from researchers from a single laboratory.

Professor Timothy Stark and PhD student Ahmed Baghdady have received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2019 Norman Medal for the paper, “Oso, Washington, Landslide of March 22, 2014: Dynamic Analysis,” Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, September 2017.

Professor Erol Tutumluer has received the Section Best Paper Award from the Transportation Research Board Geological and Geoenvironmental Engineering Section.

The paper, co-written with Haohang Huang, Jiayi Luo, Maziar Moaveni, John M. Hart, Sheila Beshears and Andrew J. Stolba, is titled “Field Imaging and Volumetric Reconstruction of Riprap Rock and Large-sized Aggregates: Algorithms and Application.”

Assistant Professor X. Shelly Zhang has been named Faculty Fellow by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 2019-2020, joining six other faculty members from across campus. The NCSA Faculty Fellowship is a competitive program for faculty and researchers at Illinois which provides side funding for new collaborations that include NCSA staff as integral contributors to the project.

ALUMNI NEWS Fellowships The following students were awarded graduate fellowships, thanks to the generosity of the alumni and friends listed here. Graduate fellowships allow the department to attract the best students, a critical ingredient of a top-tier research program. For information on giving to support a fellowship, please contact the CEE advancement office, cee.illinois.edu/give.

2019-2020 academic year Alfredo H-S. and Myrtle Mae Ang Fellowship Karl Eid Ben Chie Yen Memorial Fellowship Charlotte Cherry Ari Feldman Burton and Erma Lewis Graduate Fellowship Shitao Shi Weichen Li Chen Loh Kwan Fellowship Zhonghua Zheng Ruichuan Zhang Zehui Zhu John W Page Scholarship/Fellowship Eddalee Hochwalt Marcel Naumann Abigail Beck M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Graduate Research Fellowship Isaias Columbani Maidment Fellowship in Hydrosystems Engineering Charlotte Cherry Nick Pokrajac Graduate Fellowship Fund Qiyang Chen Ravindar K. and Kavita Kinra Fellowship Somashekar Viswanath Rini Gladstone Anisha Datta Richard S. and Mary E. Engelbrecht Environmental Engineering Fellowship Yujie Diao Ran Mei Terracon Foundation Fellowship Nick Avila Loreta and Silvio Corsetti Memorial Scholarship Jose Ranijifo Ciocca John O. and William D. Fooks Fellowship Yang Lu Hojung You Zhi Zhao Glenn E. and Helen L. Stout Fellowship Hojung You Jacob Karol Estate Fellowship Bryce Mazurowski Shoaib Goraya Gerber Fellowship Marcel Briguglio Shedd-Vawter Fellowship Marcel Briguglio Mete A. Sozen Fellowship Ze Zhao Hanson Rodriguez International Fellowship Isaias Columbani Susan Douds Goertz and Jack L. Goertz Fellowship Abigail Beck

Abbott Laboratories Fellowship Nick Avila Yuqing Mao Gabriella Morales Bowen Fang (endowment) Joyce Yang (endowment)

2018-2019 academic year Alfredo H-S. and Myrtle Mae Ang Fellowship Zige Zhang Ben Chie Yen Memorial Fellowship Donghui Li Burton and Erma Lewis Graduate Fellowship Karl Eid Chen Loh Kwan Fellowship Ruifeng She Damon S. Williams Associates Scholarship Mekhakhem Kheperu Gerald R. and Audrey G. Olson Fellowship Jiarui Chen Kiseok Kim Ivan Racheff Fund Chamteut Oh Tzu-Yu Lin John Carollo Award Indran Kamalanathan Samuel Aguiar John W Page Scholarship/Fellowship Amber Volmer Carrie Leibensperger Michelle Helsel M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Graduate Research Fellowship Xiyu Wang Maidment Fellowship in Hydrosystems Engineering Carrie Leibensperger Nick Pokrajac Graduate Fellowship Fund Nidia Bucarelli Ravindar K. and Kavita Kinra Fellowship Som Viswanath Aditya Pandey Aravind Ramakrishnan Sundar Niroula Utkarsh Kode Richa Bhardwaj Shaik Veluthedath Shajihan Richard S. and Mary E. Engelbrecht Environmental Engineering Fellowship John Trimmer Terracon Foundation Fellowship Alvin Bayudanto Rebecca Andrus Gabriel Mishaan Xiyu Wang Zachary Boucias Walter E. Deuchler Environmental Engineering Fellowship Courtney Ackerman

2010s

Corey A. Dowd, P.E. (BS 13), a civil engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Springfield, Ill. headquarters, has earned his professional engineer license in Illinois. Dowd, who joined the firm in 2013, provides roadway, railway, and hydrological design; construction inspections; and topographic surveys.

Matthew Eatherton (PhD 10), associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Raymond G. and Madelyn Ann Curry Structural Engineering Faculty Fellow by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Allison E. Goodwell (MS 13, PhD 17) has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Lorenz G. Straub Award for her dissertation, Temporal Information Partitioning Networks to Infer Ecohydrologic Behaviors, completed under the supervision of Professor Praveen Kumar. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus.

Mark R. Keller, P.E. (BS 14, MS 15), a railroad engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Chicago regional office, has earned his professional engineer license in Illinois. Keller, who joined the firm in 2015, has designed various bridge and retaining wall components for rail projects.

Ashly G. Morales-Cartage, P.E., M.ASCE (MS 15) has been chosen as one of ten 2019 New Faces of Civil Engineering in the Professional category. Morales-Cartage now serves as the Department Head of the School of Civil Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). ASCE’s New Faces of Civil Engineering program recognizes young civil engineers for their achievements and contributions to society.

Masaru K. Nobu (MS 13, PhD 17) has been selected to receive the 2018 Paul V. Roberts and Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Jared G. Thoele, P.E., S.E. (BS 10, MS 11) a structural engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Springfield headquarters, was recognized by the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers with the Young Engineer of the Year Award. The honor is based on educational and engineering achievements, professional and technical society work, civic and humanitarian activities, and professional competence.

Xiaojia Zhang (BS 12, MS 14) received the 2018 Best PhD Thesis Award from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.

2000s

John W. Barry (MS 05) has been named to the Engineering News Record (ENR) Top 20 Under 40. He is Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti.

Ioannis Brilakis (MS 02, PhD 05), Laing O’Rourke Reader in Construction Engineering at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded a Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship in of his contributions to the area of “Digital Twins for the Built Environment.”

Mark S. Cochran (BS 01) has been named to the Engineering News Record (ENR) Top 20 Under 40. He is Chief Operating Officer at S.M. Wilson & Co. Continued on page 36

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 35

ALUMNI NEWS

Continued from page 35 Jason C. Fuehne, P.E. (BS 02, MS 03) was selected one of the 2018 Airport Business Top 40 Under 40. He is an associate and section manager for the aviation group at Burns & McDonnell.

Jared M. Green (MS 02) was selected as a 2019 Innovators & Disruptors Awardee in the category of Engineering.

Kevin P. Huberty (BS 02) has been appointed a vice president of Sargent & Lundy. He is a project director for nuclear power business at the firm’s Chicago headquarters.

Matthew A. Johnson (BS 04, MS 08) has been added to the Fehr Graham ownership team.

Qilin Li (MS 99, PhD 02) is a member of a Rice University-led team that has been awarded $1.7 million by the Department of Energy for further development and field testing of an innovative desalination technology that uses nanoparticles and sunlight to treat water.

Elizabeth R. McCleary (MS 07) has been named vice president for CBRE in its Chicago occupier advisory and transition services group.

Sergio “Satch” Pecori (BS 73, MS 74), president and CEO of Hanson Professional Services Inc., in Springfield, Ill., was elected by the National Academy of Construction (NAC) as a member of its class of 2018. The NAC cited Pecori as a recognized global leader for his work in designing and managing complex projects and as a principal advocate for advancing the engineering and construction industry. He is shown here with Tom Sorely (left), 2019 president of the NAC, and Hugh Rice (right) 2018 NAC president during the formal induction of the academy’s class of 2018 in San Diego, Calif.

Michael N. Mendenhall, PE, SE (BS 02) has been named a 2019 Rising Star in Structural Engineering by Zweig Group’s Civil + Structural Engineer magazine.

Kevin M. Spitz, P.E. (BS 08) a civil engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Chicago regional office, recently celebrated 10 years of service with the company.

1990s

Robert W. Bailey, PE, LEED AP BD+C (BS 94, MS 95) has been named a principal at DGL Consulting Engineers LLC, in Maumee and Wauseon, Ohio.

Patrick A. Cassity (MS 91) has been selected as the next president of Patrick Engineering Inc. (PEI). He comes to PEI after 28 years of experience serving in roles at all levels for major national and international engineering and construction companies.

Matthew A. Fletcher, PE, SE (BS 94), vice president and project manager at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Peoria, Ill., office, recently celebrated 20 years of service with the company.

Kevin C. Fuhr (BS 96) has a new role as Midwest Region Aviation Lead for Hanson Professional Services Inc. in Lisle, Ill. He will lead design, business development, project management and client relationship efforts for Hanson’s Midwest aviation group.

Gary L. Panozzo, P.E. (BS 82) was selected to umpire in the 2018 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. A person is only permitted to umpire once in the Little League World Series, so it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime chance. He umpired 12 games in the 11-day tournament, including at home plate for the U.S. semi-final game between New York and Georgia, and at first base for the World Series championship game between Hawaii and South Korea. Panozzo is a Senior Program Manager for Jacobs, and has been umpiring baseball for 10 years.

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Kevin M. Gurgel, P.E. (BS 97, MS 99) has been elevated to Principal at the SmithGroup Detroit, Mich., office. Gurgel’s recent work includes the new Henry Ford Health System Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion, expected to open in early 2020, and a new, 81,000 square-foot facility in Lyon Township, Mich., for Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology LLC. Howard N. Gotschall II, P.E., S.E. (BS 99), an assistant vice president and bridge disciplines manager, recently celebrated 20 years of service at Hanson Professional Services Inc.

ALUMNI NEWS

Repping the Illini... ...in Poland

John Kos (BS 77), far left, president of the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors, and his brother, Walter S. Kos (BS 71), a former member of the board, traveled to Poland in 2018 with family members. The trip included a rafting excursion on the Dunajec river in Southern Poland. The pair displayed their Illini spirit while posing with their guide.

John L. Humphrey (BS 92) has joined Westmount Realty Capital LLC, a commercial real estate development and investment management company as a senior property manager in the Chicago, Ill., office.

Brian A. Perkovich (BS 93) has been selected to serve as Executive Director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

Robert M. Powers (BS 92, MS 94) has been appointed as the 10th general manager of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). In his seven-year career at BART, Powers oversaw the implementation of Measure RR, a $3.5 billion infrastructure bond, and was responsible for expanding BART service into Antioch and South Fremont, Calif.; planning efforts to modernize stations; and the effort to develop land near stations.

Robert A. Waller, P.E., LEED AP® (BS 99), assistant vice president and senior project manager, recently celebrated 20 years of service at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Springfield, Ill. headquarters.

1980s

Thomas E. Bartolomucci, P.E., S.E. (BS82, MS 83), government market principal and a senior vice president, recently celebrated 35 years of service at Hanson Professional Services Inc.’s Springfield office.

David P. Boeing, PE, ENV SP (BS 89) has been promoted to senior associate at Dewberry & Davis LLC. Boeing is a senior civil engineer and project manager in Leesburg, Va. Jesus M. de la Garza (MS 84, PhD 88) has been chosen as the new chair of the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University. He was formerly the Vecellio Endowed Professor in Construction Engineering and Management at Virginia Tech.

...and in Alaska Christopher J. King (BS 81) was named Civil Engineer of the Year for 2018 by the Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has been active in ASCE throughout his career, and has served on the Illinois Section from 2005-2011 and was the Illinois ASCE president in 2010. He was on the committee that published the first Illinois ASCE Report Card.

He has served as president of Robinson Engineering since 2000.

1970s

Armen Der Kiureghian (PhD 76) recently retired from being President of the American University of Armenia (AUA).

Sergio “Satch” Pecori, PE (BS 73, MS 74), chairman and CEO of Hanson Professional Services Inc., has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Since 1986, the Ellis Island Honors Society has annually recognized U.S. citizens, both nativeborn and naturalized, for their accomplishments in their field and inspired service to the United States. Pecori and 90 other Americans received medals during a May 11 ceremony on Ellis Island. Pecori was the youngest son of blue-collar, nonEnglish-speaking Italian immigrants. He was 14 months old when he emigrated from Trieste, Italy, to Springfield, Ill., in 1951 with his parents and older brother. He celebrated his 45th service anniversary at Hanson Professional Services Inc. earlier this year.

Andrew W. Richardson (BS 78) received the 2019 Abel Wolman Award of Excellence from the American Water Works Association. This award of excellence recognizes those whose careers in the water works industry exemplify vision, creativity and excellent professional performance characteristic of Abel Wolman’s long and productive career.

While on a small boat cruise in Alaska in summer 2018, Dennis J. Benoit (BS 76, MS 78), left, met another CEE alumni, Earl E. Dague (MS 74). This is the second time that Benoit has encountered another CEE alumni when visiting far from home.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 37

DINNER SPONSORS

2019 Alumni Dinner On March 14, 2019, CEE alumni, faculty, students and friends of the department gathered at the Union League Club in Chicago for the annual CEE at Illinois Alumni Awards Dinner.

After a cocktail reception hosted by the CEE Alumni Association (CEEAA) Board of Directors and dinner, Department Head Benito J. Mariñas gave a department update and CEEAA President John P. Kos (BS 77) presented the CEE Alumni Association awards.

2019 CEE Alumni Award Winners DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS Pedro J. Cevallos-Candau (MS 77, PhD 80) Founder (retired), Primera Engineers Ltd.

For entrepreneurship in establishing, leading and growing a nationally recognized engineering firm; for outstanding leadership in the Latino community; and for dedication to the role of volunteer, supporter and advocate for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Debra F. Laefer (MS 97, PhD 01) Professor, New York University

For pioneering research and development of the collection, processing and storage of remote sensing data that has radically advanced the civil engineering community’s ability to do city-scale computational modeling above and below ground; for excellence in educational instruction in civil engineering in the United States and abroad; and for globally recognized expertise in the acquisition and management of remote sensing data in dense urban environments.

Lutgarde Raskin (PhD 93)

Professor, University of Michigan For pioneering research at the forefront of the use of microbial ecology to advance biological processes, wastewater treatment and hygiene in water distribution systems; for establishment of strategic industrial partnerships between academic researchers and practitioners to ensure implementation of the new technologies; and for devotion to developing, implementing and leading many scientific outreach projects for grammar, middle and high school students.

YOUNG ALUMNUS ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Guillermo E. Díaz Fañas (MS 14) Senior Technical Principal, WSP USA

For creative yet practical application of geotechnical, structural, earthquake and instrumentation engineering to the evaluation of risks from earthquakes to New York City’s essential infrastructure and for finding common-sense solutions to mitigate those risks; for outstanding leadership in mentoring young engineers through the New York City Architecture, Construction and Engineering (ACE) program; and for strong advocacy for diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups in civil engineering.

Biographies of the award winners can be found at cee.illinois.edu/award-winners.

Additional photos are available at www.facebook.com/ceeatillinois.

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GOLD AECOM Alfred Benesch & Company Ardmore-Roderick Blinderman Construction Carollo Engineers Christopher B. Burke Engineering Clark Dietz Inc. Fullerton Engineering Geo Services Geopier Foundation Company Greeley and Hansen Hayward Baker Inc. HNTB Corporation H.W. Lochner Mott MacDonald Pepper Construction Company Primera Engineers Shannon & Wilson Inc. Talman Consultants LLC Trotter & Associates Inc. Turner Construction SILVER BLA Inc. Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Donohue & Associates Inc. Epstein Global Fermilab Feroz & Akhtar Nathani Gannett Fleming GEI Constultants Hanson Professional Services James McHugh Construction Co. Kenrich Group, The Robinson Engineering STV Incorporated W. E. O’Neil Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. BRONZE Aldridge Electric Arcadis U.S. Inc. Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering Ciorba Group Duane Morris EXP F.H. Paschen Construction Fehr Graham Forge Projects Haley & Aldrich Inc. Healy Construction Services Inc. Ingenii LLC Juneau Associates Inc. Norcon Inc. Ricondo Murugesu Sivapalan Stalworth Underground T.Y. Lin International Vedder Price Wight and Company COCKTAIL RECEPTION SPONSOR CEEAA Board of Directors

Above, left to right: Alumni Award winners Debra F. Laefer, Pedro J. Cevallos-Candau, Lutgarde Raskin and Guillermo E. Díaz Fañas. Clockwise from right: CEEAA President John P. Kos makes remarks. Union League Club dining room. New faculty member Assistant Professor Tugce Baser stands for introduction. Left to right, E. Paul Papazisi (BS 14, MS 15), Adam R. Blumstein (BS 13), Hanting Wang (BS 13, MS 15) and CEE student Pooyan Kabir. CEE students Ryan Schiffer, left, and Karolina Urban with Nishant Makhijani (BS 14). Left to right, Rachel M. Marshall (BS 14, MS 15), Julia R. Chang (BS 17, MS 18), Srishti Gupta (MS 17) and Amrita Meher (MS 16).

Civiland andEnvironmental EnvironmentalEngineering EngineeringAlumni AlumniAssociation—Fall Association—Fall2019 2019 39 39 Civil

2019 CEE Student Awards A. Epstein Award in Civil Engineering Geordie Roscoe

American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Instructor Award EJ Igancio

Anna Lee and James T.P. Yao Scholarship Zichao Sun

Bates and Rogers Scholarship

Euginio Kurniawan, Ryan Moeller, Robert Wiggons

Benesch Engineering Scholarship Jonathan Kothe

Bernard Delbert Murphy Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Eamon Homedi, Sam Swislow

Bowman, Barrett and Associates Outstanding Scholar Award Jackson Poythress

C. S. and Ruth Monnier Scholarship

Brandon Kim, Theodore Mossman, Justin Schmit, Karolina Urban

Carroll C. Wiley Traveling Award Alex Kendzior

CEE Excellence Award on Undergraduate Advising and Mentoring Larry Fahnestock

CEEAA Undergraduate Service Leadership Scholarship Heather Gatham, Ethan Heidrich

Kent Eng

CN Railway Transportation Scholarship Leonal Evans

Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute Education and Research Foundation Scholarship Nathan Tomerlin

Crawford, Murphy, & Tilly Inc. Scholarship Javier Montano, Nathaniel Zipperich

Dan and Mary Guill Scholarship Amber DeCarlo

Delores Wade Huber Scholarship Michael Thon

DFI Educational Trust Charles J. Berkel Memorial Scholarship

David Kierpiec, Kayla O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Tarpey

Donohue & Associates Scholarship Alexa Yeo

Duane Edward and Phyllis Ann Erickson Memorial Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Maggie Bono, Isaac Man, Nora Snyder, Elliott Wittmeyer

Earle J. Wheeler Scholarship

Gabrielle Choo-Kang, Hui Yi Koh

Charles E. DeLeuw Travel Award

Eli W. Cohen – Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship

Chester P. Siess Award

Engineering Visionary Scholarship (EVS)

Jacob Mathew, Jesus Osorio Sami Pant

Chicago Outer Belt Contractors Association Scholarship Kyle Bathgate

Civil Engineering Class of 1943 Undergraduate Leadership Award Melissa Bayer, Lauren Excell

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Clement C. Lee Outstanding Scholar Award in Honor of Houssam Mahmoud Karara

cee.illinois.edu

Timothy Rassi

Luke Ahern, Mary Margarette Alecks De Guzman, Robin Christian De Lara, David Kim, Eric Leanos, Jacky Lin, Marcello Mata, Ryan Moeller, Kweku Osei, Kobe Povlick, Kellyn Powers, Julia Qian, Dale Robbennolt, Juliana Roznowski, Malaak Saadah, Lauren Schissler, Michelle Skibicki, Kaitlin Solak, Luke Somerville, Robert Wiggins

In addition to general contributions to the CEE Visionary Scholarship fund, endowments for the following named EVS funds have been established in CEE: • Vernon E. Dotson Civil and Environmental EVS Fund • Charlie and Sarah Greer Civil and Environmental EVS Fund • Joshua L. Merritt CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund • Richard H. Pao CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund • Linda J. and Richard Sieracki Civil and Environmental EVS Fund • Larry M. and Rose Marie Sur Civil and Environmental EVS Endowment Fund • Wilson H. Tang CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund • Wilson H. Tang Family CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund • Thomas Thornburn Civil and Environmental Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund • William H. Walker Memorial Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund

Eric J. Kerestes Memorial Scholarship Christopher Meilinger Foster Research Scholarship Michael Rivkin

George L. Farnsworth Jr. Scholarship

Yicong Dong, Henry Doyle, Bugra Sahin, Mingruo Shen

Geotechnical Scholarship Gift Alex Chinn

Grant W. Shaw Memorial Scholarship

Zachary Cinq-Mars, Nicholas Reynolds

Harry K. and Carol A. Windland Endowed Scholarship in Memory of David A. Windland Emily Ford, Jack Knapp

Henry T. Heald Award Luke Hoppenworth

Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association Scholarship Izak Said, Zehui Zhu

Illinois Association of County Engineers

Gabriel Braboy, Sylvia Kierpiec, Jack Miller, Cathie Seebauer

Industry Advancement Foundation of Central Illinois Builders of the AGC Scholarship Nathan Smilak

Ira O. Baker Prize

Geordie Roscoe, Alexandra Kawar

Jack and Kay Briscoe Scholarship Ryan Lake, Lauren Schissler

Jacobs Engineering Transportation Endowed Scholarship William Kickert

John B. Felmley Engineering Scholarship Dale Robbennolt

Joseph C. and Marianne J. Geagea Civil and Environmental Engineering Scholarship Mark Cerabona, Ryan Cook

Julian Rueda Geotechnical Engineering Scholarship Javier Montano

Klein and Hoffman Inc. Scholarship In honor of Frank Klein Moe Thant

Michael William Bartos Ed. D. Memorial Scholarship Chang Chen

Moreland Herrin Scholarship Katherine Biggs

Norman Carlson Scholarship Geordie Roscoe

Ralph C. Hahn Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Nicholas Kerska

RJN Foundation Civil Engineering Scholarship Jeeho Lee

Road Builders Charities Scholarship Steven Li Chen, Adam Stepping

Shelby K. Willis Engineering Education Scholarship Luke Ahern

Walter E. Hanson Graduate Study Award Sean Kirwan

Wayne C. Teng Scholarship

Liam Benson, Haowen Deng, Brett Myskowski, Shosuke Naokawa, Pieter Svenson, Xuhuan Zhao

Wiley Innovation Scholarship Brandon Yates

Koch Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering

William A. Oliver Endowed Scholarship

Langan/Dennis J. Leary Memorial Scholarship Fund

William C. Ackermann Sr. Civil Engineering Scholarship

Leigh F. Zerbee Scholarship

William E. O’Neil Award

Loreta and Silvio Corsetti Memorial Scholarship and Fellowship Fund

William E. Stallman Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Maren Somers Memorial Engineering Scholarship

William John Mackay Award

Maude E. Eide Scholarship

Wilson H. Tang CEE International Scholarship

Erika Jaszka

Lewis Monaxios John Kane

Daniel Gentile

Abigail Iuorio

Lillian Lau, Jack Neal, Julia Schultz

Max Whitman APWA Memorial Scholarship Abigail Cohen

Melih T. Dural Undergraduate Research Prize Yilan Cheng

Sammy Park

Andrew Conwell

Ahmed Adel Hassan

Alexander Keil

Sherif ElMasry, Alexandra Kawar, Jennifer Nugent, Xulai Xu

Jonathan Kang

Wilson H. Tang CEE Risk, Reliability and Decision Analysis Scholarship

Above: Alexandra Kawar and Geordie Roscoe received the Ira O. Baker Prize, which is awarded annually to the two top-ranking seniors in civil engineering.

Below (left to right): Harry Windland, center, presented the Harry K. and Carol A. Windland Endowed Scholarship in Memory of David A. Windland to Jack Knapp and Emily Ford.

Lauren Excell, left, received the Civil Engineering Class of 1943 Undergraduate Leadership Award from Karen Witter.

CEEAA President John P. Kos, center, presented the CEEAA Undergraduate Service Leadership Scholarship to Heather Gatham and Ethan Heidrich.

Pat and Kevin Murphy presented the Bernard Delbert Murphy Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering to Sam Swislow, center.

Brett Myskowski, Pieter Svenson and Xuhuan Zhao received the Wayne C. Teng Scholarship from Matt Newman, second from right.

EVS recipients with Tze-John Tang and Joyce W. Tang, at left, and Bernadette Tang and Shirley Walker, center, representing the Wilson H. Tang Family CEE Visionary Scholarship, the Wilson H. Tang CEE Visionary Scholarship and the William H. Walker Memorial Engineering Visionary Scholarship, respectively.

Yijun Wu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 41

IN MEMORIAM

Joshua L. Merritt (MS 55, PhD 58) 1931-2018

Joshua L. "Jay" Merritt (MS 55, PhD 58), a former structures faculty member in the department, died December 31, 2018. He was 87.

Born on July 28, 1931, Merritt grew up on a small farm near Baltimore, Md., and was the first in his family to attend college. He graduated with highest honors from Lehigh University in 1952 with a degree in civil engineering. While at Lehigh, he met Eleanor Williams; they were married on June 26, 1954.

Merritt attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning both a master’s degree and doctorate in structural engineering with a minor in theoretical and applied mechanics.

He went on to join the faculty, teaching classes in civil and structural engineering.

He served on the faculty from 1958-1968, leaving a strong legacy with his students.

One of his former students established a scholarship in his name, and another made a gift to establish a named instructional laboratory, the E.W. and J.L. Merritt Structural Engineering Design Studio, in a new building addition scheduled to open in summer 2020.

In 1968, Merritt left academia and took a job with TRW, an aerospace firm, moving his young family from Illinois to Redlands, Calif. He served as general manager of the silo development program for the Minuteman missile, working with a top-secret government clearance at Norton Air Force Base. Merritt was leading a large team and the job was far more managerial than expected, so in 1971 he decided to return to his true passion: solving complex engineering problems.

He opened his own business, Merritt Consulting and Special Engineering Services (CASES). His wife, Ele, worked with him, acting as vice-president and secretary for what was then a two-person firm working out of their home. The business grew and prospered in the ‘70s and ‘80s, eventually employing a staff in Redlands of approximately 15 people and providing engineering services to a diverse range of clients. In the ‘90s, Merritt sold the business, but he continued working on important technical challenges, including earthquake-resistant tunnel designs for the Los Angeles metro subway system and failure-prevention analyses for the

International Space Station. Merritt never really retired; he was solving engineering problems well into his eighties. As his accountant pointed out, he even had an engineer's precision in the timing of his death, passing away peacefully on the final day of the year.

Merritt is survived by his children Nancy (Yucaipa, Calif.), Debbie (Maui, Hawaii) and Steve (Wimberley, Texas), along with five grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be made to the Joshua L. Merritt Civil and Environmental Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund 11774760, Department of Civil Engineering, through http://cee.illinois.edu/give. i

Raymond J. Ackerman (BS 43) 1918-2019

Raymond J. Ackerman (BS 43) died Jan. 6, 2019, one day before his 101st birthday.

Ackerman was a highly engaged alumni leader and a career employee of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Born Jan. 7, 1918, in Morton, Ill., Ackerman grew up on a farm and attended a one-room schoolhouse. After graduating from Morton Township High School, he attended the University of Illinois to Ackerman at a Springfield alumni event in 2018 42

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study civil engineering, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1943. He was a member of Triangle Fraternity and Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society.

Ackerman served in the Merchant Marines in the Pacific and Atlantic war zones during World War II. He participated in an Honor Flight in 2012.

Ackerman’s career with IDOT began in 1950 and culminated after 30 years with his retirement in 1980. He worked first in the Peoria office and from 1963 on in the

IN MEMORIAM

Springfield office. He was credited with innovative transportation design features when the interstate system was created.

He conducted the original survey for the Murray Baker Bridge in Peoria. He was a register Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor. He was active in many professional organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Illinois; the Illinois Association of Highway Engineers and the Retired State Employees Association. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers in 2015.

Ackerman’s involvement with the University of Illinois was extensive and spirited. He served on the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors and attended numerous alumni events over the years.

He was a leader among his peers in the civil engineering class of 1943, a group that kept in touch with annual newsletters for more than 65 years. He received the Loyalty Award from the University of Illinois Alumni Association in 1996. His involvement with his fellow CEE alumni in Springfield was so longstanding and enthusiastic that in 2018 the annual CEE alumni event in Springfield included a 100th birthday celebration for Ackerman, complete with an Illinois-themed birthday cake.

Ackerman’s interests included the Cubs and the Illini. He was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed hunting, fishing, trapping, water and snow skiing and family vacations. He was a multiple gold medal award winner in the Senior Olympics.

Surviving are his wife, Margaret; their children Cinda (Kim) Klickna, Karen (Randy) Witter and Randall (Jenny Poyer); seven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

The family has requested that memorial contributions be made to the University of Illinois Foundation, Class of 1943 Civil Engineer Award Fund 11775815 (http://cee.illinois.edu/give); the Land of Lincoln Honor Flight; or Laurel United i Methodist Church in Springfield.

William H. Walker (MS 58, PhD 63) 1934-2018

Professor Emeritus William H. Walker died July 13, 2018. He was 83.

Walker was born in Brookline, Mass., on December 28, 1934, and grew up in Cape Cod. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts (1956), then came to Illinois, where he earned his M.S. (1958) and his Ph.D. (1963) in civil engineering.

Upon earning his doctorate, Walker joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the structures area. He was the department’s chief academic adviser from 1983 through his retirement in 1999.

Walker also served as adviser to the graduate students who came to Illinois from the U.S. Coast Guard. He served as Assis-

tant Head from 1973-1976 and as Associate Head from 1985-1999. He also served as adviser to the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Walker was active in his church, First Presbyterian Church in Urbana, and served for many years as a ruling elder, trustee, lay worship leader and teacher in adult education.

He is survived by his wife, Shirley; sons Bill and John; and two granddaughters.

Walker’s family has established the William H. Walker Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honor. For information on contributing to the scholarship fund, please contact Katya Trubitsyna, (217) 300-0194, katia@illinois.edu. i

Timothy D. Herzog (BS 17) 1994-2018

Timothy D. Herzog died September 15, 2018. He was 23.

Herzog traveled to Uganda in spring 2017 with his CEE449 Environmental Engineering Laboratory class, where the group worked on an a project to make safe drinking water and sanitation recommendations for the Oruchinga Refugee Settlement.

“Tim was the best of our 2017 graduating class – smart, funny and incredibly caring until the end,” wrote Claire Dodinval (BS 18), a friend and classmate. “He was an incredible student. He understood water and engineering concepts so easily and was able and willing to help his friends learn as well.”

He is survived by his parents, Elizabeth Person and Jeff (Connie) Herzog, and his siblings Steve Herzog, Nora Waters, Michelle (Mark) Zimanek and Michael Maneechote. i

Herzog with a fellow student during a class trip to Uganda in 2017

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 43

IN MEMORIAM

Anestis S. Veletsos (MS 50, PhD 53) 1970s Edwin H. King (BS 70) died December 28, 2018. He was 1927-2018

Former CEE at Illinois dynamics, earthquake engifaculty member Anestis neering and the dynamics of (“Andy”) S. Veletsos died on offshore platforms. He was October 25, 2018. He was 91. the author of more than 140 Born in Istanbul, Turkey, publications.

Veletsos received his bachVeletsos’ awards includelor’s degree with highest ed being named a Distinhonors from Robert Colguished Alumnus of CEE at lege in Istanbul in 1948.

Illinois in 1979. The American He earned his master’s and Society of Civil Engineers Anestis S. Veletsos Ph.D. degrees from the Uniawarded him the Norman versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Medal twice, the Huber Research Prize, 1950 and 1953, respectively. the Newmark Medal, the Howard Award, Veletsos served on the CEE at Illinois the Reese Research Prize and the Theofaculty from 1953-1964, when he left Illi- dore von Karman Medal. He received the nois to become Chair of the Department George W. Housner Medal of the Earthof Civil and Environmental Engineering quake Engineering Research Institute, and the Brown & Root Professor at Rice the organization’s highest honor, given in University. He left Rice in 2009. Veletsos recognition of sustained leadership and was most recently a Distinguished Ad- contributions to earthquake engineering junct Professor at the University of Hous- and earthquake risk mitigation. He was a ton Cullen College of Engineering (2010- member of the National Academy of En2013). gineering.

Veletsos’ work was in structural enHe is survived by his wife, Katherine; gineering and mechanics, with primary two daughters, Ann Marie and Melinda; emphasis on structural and foundation a son-in-law; and four grandchildren. i

Richard H. F. Pao (MS 51, PhD 53) 1926-2018

Richard H. F. Pao died America from China in 1949, September 18, 2018. He was traveling with just one suit92. case.

Over his almost 40-year Pao is survived by his long teaching and research sister, FuMei Bao, and three career, he was a respected brothers, XianHong Bao, name in the field of fluid Charles Pao and XianCheng mechanics. The highly recBao. ommended textbooks he He was a long-time supauthored shaped classroom Richard H.F. Pao, as a porter of the department graduate student discussions and the educaand in 2016 established the tions of countless students who shared Richard H. Pao CEE Visionary Scholarship his same curiosity and interest.

Fund. In lieu of flowers, the family sugHe was forever grateful to the Univer- gested that gifts be made to this fund. sity of Illinois for providing him the op- For information on contributing to the portunity to pursue his graduate studies scholarship fund, please contact Katya in civil engineering when he first came to Trubitsyna, katia@illinois.edu. i 44

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71. He owned his own engineering and surveying companies in the states of Florida and Illinois.

James E. Monsees (PhD 70) died August 5, 2019. He was 82. An accomplished geotechnical engineer for more than 40 years, Monsees was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1991. Other awards included the Golden Beaver Engineering Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Tunnels & Tunnelling International magazine.

Owen L. White (PhD 70) died June 23. He was 92.

1960s

Rodney J. Fetterolf (BS 64) died December 18, 2018.

He was 78. A civil engineer for more than 35 years, he worked for the Illinois Department of Transportation and Willet Hoffmann before retirement.

Wayne T. Gruen (BS 63, MS 64) died November 21, 2018. He was 79. He retired from the Washington State Department of Transportation in 1998.

Stephen R. Kannaka (BS 68) died March 28. He was 72. He was the General Manager for SITE Maintenance Inc. Louis W. Lefke (BS 58, MS 63) died April 26, 2019.

He was 85. He served with the U.S. Army in Japan. He worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

1950s

Bernard Aronson (BS 59) died December 8, 2017. He was 81.

William M. Cazier (BS 59) died June 19, 2019. He was 87. He served in the U.S. Army in Japan. He spent his career with Homer Chastain Engineering, retiring as a managing partner.

John W. Flanders (BS 54) died October 5, 2019. He was 89. He served in the U.S. Army in the 432nd Engineer Construction Battalion, helping to rebuild Europe after WWII. He was a Senior Director of Computer Science at McAuto, a division of McDonnell Douglas.

Jean M. Keneipp (BS 49, MS 50) died February 16, 2019.

He was 86. He was a WWII veteran.

1940s

James E. Roantree (BS 49) died July 10. He was 91.

“I’ve really had a great experience. Having my classes online gives me the flexibility to attend class when it works with my schedule. The live component and group work keep me from falling behind.”

– CEE Online student

CEE Online program upgrades, expands

By Meg Griffin, Assistant Director for Graduate Programs The CEE Online program continues to grow, both in number of students and classes and in areas offered. Degrees in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering are offered, and students can choose classes and programs from all specialization areas.

Yeh Center classrooms in Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory were recently upgraded with new projectors, lecterns with touchpanel controls, as well as in-room microphones and cameras for recording and remote access.

Admissions and enrollments for Fall 2019 set new records for the program, with 50 degree students and more than 100 enrollments.

Online classes are also attracting non-degree students, students from other universities, and students in on-campus programs with class or work conflicts. The CEE department continues to market graduate programs at various national conferences, recruiting new students and connecting with alumni.

For more information about the CEE Online program, please visit cee.illinois.edu/academics/graduate-programs/cee-online or contact Meg Griffin, Assistant Director for Graduate Programs, at (217) 333-3921, mgriffn@illinois.edu.

Online degrees offered: MSCE - Construction Management

- Infrastructure

- Structures

- Transportation

- Societal Risk Management

- Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems MSEE - Environmental Engineering and Science

Online classes available in all areas of C EE: •C

onstruction Man agement • Energy-WaterEnvironment Sustainability • Geotechnical • Transportation • Societal Risk an d Hazard Mitigation • Structures • Water Resourc es Engineering and Science • Railroad Engin eering

• 30-40 classes online each semester • 200 enrollments annually • Domestic and international students Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Fall 2019 45

Giving Thanks To everyone who has given to the department, in whatever way that occurred, we say THANK YOU.

Every year, the generosity of alumni and friends of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering allows us to continue our tradition of excellence. From small gifts to large, from fellowships to scholarships, from project support to infrastructure improvement, your giving makes a difference.

In recent years, a department priority has been Phase II of the CEE Modernization Plan. While there is still more funding needed, gifts have allowed the project to progress and construction is now underway. Engineering Visionary Scholarships have also been a priority for the department, and The Grainger College of Engineering as a whole, due to The Grainger Foundation matching program which runs through December 2019. Named scholarships, faculty fellowships, and support for student and faculty projects are just some of the other ways in which gifts have supported the work of the department.

Endowed fund supports faculty For years, Dennis and Sally Wermcrantz have been regular supporters of the department of civil and environmental engineering and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, making regular gifts in relatively small amounts to support various initiatives. Although few gifts exceeded $50, the checks came steadily and frequently and were a reflection of their continued interest in the University.

An alumnus of CEE, Dennis began his undergraduate work at Purdue University but came to Illinois to study architecture and structural engineering. Dennis earned a bachelor’s degree in Architecture (1972), a master’s in Architectural Engineering (1973), and later returned to earn a master’s degree in civil engineering (1982). As a student, Dennis came to appreciate the University of Illinois in ways that went beyond its convenient proximity to his childhood home in Valparaiso, Ind. “I realized what a great school it was and began to benefit from the international connections and cutting edge knowledge,” he wrote. “In addition, the diversity of the school was a new experience and it broadened my outlook, and 46

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that, combined with the excellent faculty, inspired my commitment to public universities that could offer such quality.”

Sally did her undergraduate work at Washington State University, but came to Illinois to earn graduate degrees in Art History and Library Science. She was surrounded by academic excellence and innovation, Dennis and Sally Wermcrantz and found the University to be a place where horizons expanded. to aid in keeping CEE at its high rank“Like Dennis, I am a strong believer in ing,” Dennis wrote. “We believe that the public universities,” Sally wrote. “We want U.S. university system is an important to see the University of Illinois remain on strength of the United States economy a par with top graduate schools in the and international stability and well-being. country and remain strong for genera- We also wish to give back some of what tions in the future.” was given to us.”

Dennis and Sally decided to change Now retired, Dennis spent his profesthe focus of their charitable giving in re- sional career working for CH2M Hill and sponse to concern that states were pro- Snohomish County Public Utility District. viding inadequate funding to universities Sally worked for various business research and that tenured faculty positions were libraries before joining the Seattle Public in decline. To maximize their impact, they Library in 1986, where she worked until made a sizable gift to establish the Sally retirement. They have two sons, Kevin S. and J. Dennis Wermcrantz Faculty Sup- and Brian, and in addition to traveling port Fund to provide salary support for they enjoy spending time gardening, tenured and tenure-track faculty. entertaining, attending local events and “We hope our contribution will help musical performances, and golfing.

Alumnus, professor, emeritus and donor Barry Dempsey (BS 60, MS 66, PhD 69) is not just an alumnus or professor emeritus with years of teaching and research behind him. He is also a generous supporter of the department and projects.

Dempsey and his wife Pauline recently completed their commitment for the Barry J. and Pauline G. Dempsey ATREL Endowment fund, which was established to support the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory (ATREL).

“Pauline and Barry Dempsey have been instrumental in their support of ATREL,” said Imad Al-Qadi, director of the Illinois Center for Transportation and ATREL. “Over the years, their generous endowment has accumulated to a half million dollars that have allowed us to advance research in the pavement area and maintain ATREL’s status as one of the top and pioneering facilities worldwide. Their support will provide opportunities for numerous students to further their education through graduate research and contribute to cutting-edge discoveries in the field of transportation at Illinois.”

Dempsey also established a program he calls Skunk Works a little over 10 years ago and has funded three projects since then.

“Professor Bill Buttlar was the first recipient,” Dempsey said. “I am pleased to say that he was able to develop a new and innovative procedure for evaluating Asphaltic materials. Professor Jeff Roesler [BS 92, MS 94, PhD 98] was the second recipient and he too was able to develop

Barry and Pauline Dempsey

a new idea in relation to curing of PCC pavements. Angie Wolters is the third recipient.”

Wolters (BS 99, MS 00) received funding from Dempsey’s program to pursue her idea of a book highlighting the accomplishments of outstanding women in Engineering (see Summer 2018 issue). “Women and Ideas in Engineering,” co-authored

by Wolters and Laura Hahn, was recently published by the University of Illinois Press.

“The Angie Wolters book is kind of a culmination of the 10 years we’ve been in operation so far and I think she’s done a really good job,” Dempsey said. “Everything we did – Bill Buttlar, Jeff Roesler then Angie – all three of them are very, very successful.”

There is no application process to go through for funding, Dempsey said.

“I just pick somebody I know is very good and give them some money,” he said. “No t’s to cross or i’s to dot. From a standpoint of giving, it makes me feel good.”

“I don’t need to be recognized for what I do,” Dempsey added. “Gifting is something you do out of your heart.”

Michael Donsbach (BS 74) Michael Donsbach made his first gift to CEE at Illinois last year, to support the Modernization project. What inspired him to give now?

“I gave because I wanted to give back to the University that gave so much to me,” Donsbach wrote. “I am always proud to tell people that I graduated from Civil Engineering, U of I.”

Scholarship inspires habit of giving As a student at the University of Illinois, Carolyn Eberhard (BS 83) learned just how much difference a scholarship could make in a student’s life. When tuition skyrocketed before the start of her senior year, Eberhard – who worked a variety of jobs and took out loans to pay her own way through school – found herself in the position of not being able to afford her final year.

In desperation, Eberhard turned to Professor William Hall for help, who in turn set up an appointment for her with the Dean of Engineering.

“I was so nervous. But while I’m in there, Professor Hall walks in and pleaded my case. Somehow they found me the Wheeler scholarship.

School was just starting and I knew all the scholarships were gone, I was kind of just hoping for an on-campus job. But they got me this scholarship.

Nobody had ever done anything for me before. I was dumbstruck.”

This impactful moment led to a lifetime of giving back.

“When I got out, the first thing I did – I joined the Alumni Association as a lifetime member. And every year, I gave something back.

Even when I had no money, I gave back $25 or $100. I gave Carolyn Eberhard back in gratitude.

When Martin [Eberhard (BS 82 CompE and MS 84 ElecE)] and I married and we were talking about how to manage money and what our philosophies were, I told him, ‘I have two passions: animals – I give a lot of money to animals, I’m warning you now – and the University of Illinois.’”

In 2011, the Eberhards established the Eberhard Engineering Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to undergraduate students in Civil and Environmental Engineering or Electrical and Computer Engineering with demonstrated financial need and good grades.

“I just had to give back,” she said. “It’s important to me. We don’t want recognition. We do it because we know that someday there will be a kid that it makes a difference to. I give back because of that Wheeler scholarship. Because of Bill Hall.”

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Endowed Engineering Visionary Scholarships The Engineering Visionary Scholarship (EVS) Initiative helps bring the best young engineers to Illinois by providing large, renewable and unrestricted scholarships to incoming freshman and transfer students. While contributions to the general CEE Visionary Scholarship fund can be made in any amount, generous gifts have led to endowments for the following named EVS funds: Vernon E. Dotson CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Charlie and Sarah Greer CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Joshua L. Merritt CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Richard H. Pao CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Linda J. and Richard Sieracki CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Larry M. and Rose Marie Sur CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Wilson H. Tang CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Wilson H. Tang Family CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Thomas Thornburn CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund William H. Walker Memorial CEE Visionary Scholarship Fund Sarah and Charlie Greer “The endowment was a way to give back a lasting gift to help others,” wrote Charlie Greer, who established an endowment last year. “The CEE department had a great positive impact on my life and career – much more than I am able to return. Thus, the gift is a small token of thanks. Hopefully, those who receive benefit will see fit to give back when their careers reach the point that they are able to do so.”

If you are interested in establishing an EVS endowment fund, please contact Katya Trubitsyna, Strategic Data Manager, katia@illinois.edu, (217) 300-0194.

“When I was a student, receiving the Engineering Visionary Scholarship helped ease my, and my family’s, anxiety about how I was going to fund my education. Scholarship donations from generous alumni allowed me to focus my attention on my studies, instead of how to make ends meet financially. I’m grateful for the scholarships that gave me the chance to be challenged and succeed as a CEE student at Illinois.“— Jessica Wiegand (BS 18)

Illinois connection inspires gift Larry Sur (BS 64, MS 65) and his wife Rosalie live in Wisconsin and escape the bitter winters to Florida. Although they do not live in the state, they hold the Illinois campus in their hearts. “I spent so much time while I was on campus working in the department. When you spend so much time with a community, especially when you’re young, you develop a deep connection,” Larry shared.

The deep connection the couple feels to Engineering at Illinois inspired them to make a gift to the Engineering Visionary Scholarship Initiative.

“We decided to direct our scholarship to civil engineering because that is the department I graduated from and I feel so much a part of,” said Larry.

Read more about Larry and Rosalie Sur’s gift at https://grainger.illinois.edu/giving/ donor-stories

The Grainger Matching Challenge To date, The Grainger Foundation has added $2.5M to scholarship endowments at CEE at Illinois. Through December 2019, The Grainger Foundation will match any gift to the CEE EVS fund, dollar-for-dollar up to $25M. To make a gift, visit cee.illinois. edu/give and select the CEE Engineering Visionary Scholarship Fund option.

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QUADRUPLE YOUR IMPACT

Does your company offer a charitable giving matching program? With a match from your company and the dollarfor-dollar Grainger Foundation match, your contribution to the CEE EVS fund can be quadrupled.

Gifts move Modernization Plan forward $15 smallest gift

$3M largest gift

396 gifts/pledges received

15,000+ number of CEE alumni

27 number of corporate matches

29 named spaces Our thanks to everyone who has contributed!

For more information about giving to the Modernization Plan, visit the CEE Modernization website at modernize.cee.illinois.edu or contact: Benito Mariñas, Professor and Head marinas@illinois.edu, (217) 333-6961 or Katya Trubitsyna, Strategic Data Manager (217) 300-0194, katia@illinois.edu

Student space to promote diversity The Robert & Glenda Johnson collaboration space, funded by generous gifts from alumnus Rashod R. Johnson (BS 00, MS 05) and his company, Ardmore Roderick, will provide a relaxed place to study and socialize for CEE students in the new Hydrosystems Laboratory addition.

“Looking at the layout, I thought, ‘This Rashod R. Johnson would be an awesome space to comfortably study, and stay around the civil engineering campus,’” Johnson said. “Often times, while I was a student, I needed to kill an hour or two between classes and didn’t want to go far. Now there will be a dedicated space to study for a couple of hours between classes.”

Diversity and inclusion are at the front of Johnson’s mind when he talks about his vision for the space. The design of the space is not final, but the intention is to create an inviting space for people of all backgrounds to gather and will include African-American inspired artwork highlighting Chicago’s South Side on display – where Johnson grew up. There were very few African-American faculty and students in the civil engineering department when he was a student, he said, and few places to study where he felt comfortable.

“I would love to be able to showcase the South Side of Chicago, where students from that area could look at pictures or paintings or 3D renderings of things that are familiar,” Johnson said.

Most of the “greats” associated with civil engineering at Illinois fit the same demographic, Johnson noted, but he believes that his space, along with the classroom established by his colleague and fellow alumnus Wilbur C. Milhouse (BS 94, MS 95), will exemplify a more diverse civil engineering department. He hopes that named spaces in the building established by African-American civil engineers will foster pride in students of all ethnicities and backgrounds, ultimately creating a more diverse population of civil engineers at the University of Illinois.

Johnson has found great success in his career, and currently serves as President and CEO of Ardmore Roderick, of one of the largest African-American-owned engineering firms in the nation. He believes he has a responsibility to give back and help people who are less fortunate. In addition to giving and service, Johnson provides a full-ride scholarship for an African-American male each year to St. Ignatius College Prep, a private high school in Chicago where Johnson graduated.

“I’ve been ridiculously blessed in my life,” Johnson said. “As a young man growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I never envisioned operating an international engineering firm.”

Johnson’s goal is to inspire people who are from all parts of Chicago.

“To say ‘Hey, you know what? I did it, you can do it too’,” Johnson said. “Giving back is an opportunity to share some of the things I’ve been blessed with. I think we have a responsibility to do that.”

“I’ve been ridiculously blessed in my life.”

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PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

LEGACY PARTNERS

CORPORATE PARTNERS PROGRAM The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering gratefully acknowledges the following companies who contribute to CEE at Illinois as Corporate Partners.

For information about the program, visit cee.illinois.edu/cpp.

Many thanks to the following companies for sponsoring student programming and department activities with a gift in excess of their job fair registration fees:

Crawford, Murphy & Tilly F.H. Paschen Hayward Baker Healy Construction Services Inc. Stallworth Shannon & Wilson Inc. Talman Consultants The Walsh Group

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Excellence.

Flexibility.

Illinois.

New online courses are always being added!

Find out what’s new at cee.illinois.edu/ceeonline.

BONEYARD FLOWS ORANGE The Boneyard Creek showed Illini spirit on October 16, thanks to a project led by CEE professor Art Schmidt, pictured at right on the bank in a maroon sweatshirt explaining the project to students. More than 150 students from his classes CEE195 “About Civil Engineering” and CEE495 “Field Methods in Water Resources” took part in a field exercise to dye the creek orange to study methods of measuring pollutants in streams. They introduced a known quantity of a water-soluble fluorescent dye into the stream and then measured the concentration downstream to evaluate flow rates and concentration, a useful process for understanding how water-borne pollutants disperse in bodies of water.

Photo: Fred Zwicky

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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory MC-250 205 North Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801

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