CME Alumni Newsletter Fall 2017

Civil and Materials

ENGINEERING

Alumni Newsletter - Fall 2017

IN THIS ISSUE • Student Wins 2nd Place in Image of Research Contest (cover photo) • Professor Ansari Named Inaugural Recipient of the Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professorship • Professor Reddy Researching Zero Emissions from Landfills • Alumnus Giving Back by Building a Footbridge in Panama • CEPAC Dishes Out Scholarships at Reception and Awards Dinner • UIC Hosting 2018 Great Lakes Student Competition

Chicago’s Research University

Message from the DEPARTMENT HEAD

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hank you for taking a moment to read our Fall 2017 newsletter. This is always an exciting time of year as new students and new faculty and staff bring new energy, perspectives and expertise to the CME community.

I am delighted to introduce two new outstanding faculty members - Professor Santanu Chaudhuri and Clinical Assistant Professor Hossein Ataei.

While I’m talking about faculty, Research Assistant Professor Sean Vitousek has been making waves with his research about the potential decimation of Southern California’s beaches, while Professor Sybil Derrible, who was recently received tenure, took part in a UIC hosted event where he was part of a panel discussing climate change.

Associate Professor Didem Ozevin and Clinical Associate Professor Mahamid hosted the Structural Design and Inspectability of Highway Bridges workshop, which included CME faculty and industry leaders.

Professor Krishna Reddy is one of the many faculty members pushing the boundaries of research.

You will read more about him in this issue.

Engineering is about doing, and we’ve been doing a lot since the last newsletter. Our students have been busy and continue impressing us more and more.

A Materials Engineering student won second place in UIC’s ‘Image of Research’ Competition (see cover photo), while several more students captured awards from outside the university.

Apart from winning awards, we recently awarded 64 scholarships to outstanding students during the CEPAC Scholarship Reception and Awards Dinner.

Some of our busiest students are the members of ASCE who are hosting the annual ASCE Great Lakes Student Conference in April. Save the date and support the team and department.

Finally, an alumnus gives back to a community in Panama by helping build a much needed footbridge.

Department Head and Professor Abolfazl Mohammadian awards scholarships to two students during CME’s recent CEPAC Scholarship Reception and Awards Dinner. See more on pages 8 and 9.

“It’s a huge deal to have the support of professionals and it is really important for me and everyone here. Receiving the scholarship is definitely relieving the financial stress that comes with applying to

Regards,

college.”

Marvin C. Ambrocio, schoalrship recipient

Abolfazl (Kouros) Mohammadian, Professor and Department Head

Connect with alumni and students on 2

CME Faculty HIGHLIGHTS “If you’re hoping technology is going to solve everything, it’s not.”

Sybil Derrible, CME associate professor said during a conference on Climate change at UIC. Read more at Campus Conversation Tackles Complexity of Climate Change.

“Although it is commonly understood that sea level rise will increase the frequency of coastal flooding, most of that previous scientific work has focused on analyzing tide gauges which capture extreme tides and storm surge, but not wave-driven water levels. Tide gauge data exist only for a limited number of locations around the world. Using models rather than individual tide

Two New Faculty Members

gauges provides a comprehensive picture of the widespread

Professor Santanu Chaudhuri and Clinical Assistant Professor Hossein Ataei have recently joined the CME faculty.

vulnerability rather than at sparse points where observed data exist.”

Chaudhuri is the director of the Accelerated Materials Research laboratory at UIC and the director of Manufacturing Science and Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory. More information about his research can be found at AMR lab.

Sean Vitousek, CME Research Assistant Professor said in a report. Read the full story at USGS.

Industry Partners and Faculty Collaborate at UIC Workshop

Ataei recently released a book titled Finite Element Analysis. More information about hiss work can be found at Ataei Profile.

Associate Professor Didem Ozevin and Clinical Associate Professor Mahamid hosted the Structural Design and Inspectability of Highway Bridges workshop, which included CME faculty and industry leaders.

New Grant for Professor Zou

The workshop goals were to discuss and identify the next generation of highway bridge design details to make the inspectability easier from the points of views of academic, industry (design, construction and inspection firms) and bridge owners. They also want to increase the collaborations of academia, industry and state agencies in order to develop applied research topics with high impact and high technology transfer level.

Assistant Professor Bo Zou was awarded a $349,339 grant by the National Science Foundation for the project titled “Multi-scale Modeling of Crowdshippingas a New Form of Urban Delivery.

Zou is the sole PI for the three year grant.

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Professor Ansari Named Inaugural Recipient of the Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professorship

By Joel Super

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onor, volunteer, mentor, advisor, instructor, and friend Christopher Burke has for more than a decade shared his time, resources, and business acumen with UIC’s College of Engineering. Recently, the College celebrated the investiture of Farhad Ansari, PhD, as the inaugural recipient of The Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professorship, the first endowed professorship in the UIC Department of Civil and Materials Engineering.

Dr. Ansari (PhD ’83), UIC Distinguished Professor, currently serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and as a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering. Acknowledged as the pioneer in applying optical fiber sensors for structural health monitoring, he has consulted on and designed structural monitoring systems for bridges around the world, including New York’s Brooklyn Bridge; Italy’s Lingotto Bridge; one of the cable-stayed Twin River bridges in China; and numerous other bridges in the United States.

Peter Nelson, dean of the College, said of the Burkes’ gift, “We’re profoundly grateful for this latest example of Chris’s generosity. His leadership

and support have advanced the department’s educational and research impact over the years, and this gift will strengthen it far into the future.”

Burke holds his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Purdue University.

He is the founder of Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd., a full-service civil engineering design and construction firm based in Rosemont, Illinois that includes three additional offices in the state and employs some 400 people.

Burke, who considered a university career, teaches three water-related courses at UIC and foregoes his teaching salary, which is used for scholarships in his mother Rosemary’s name. With feet in both the classroom and the boardroom, he seems to exemplify the adage “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”— his mother was a math teacher and his father was a civil engineer. “There’s not a day I don’t like being a civil engineer,” he said, noting that solving problems and providing services that improve lives is deeply satisfying.

His teaching also provides him enormous satisfaction and he values 4

the chance to emphasize critical connections between civil engineering and contemporary issues. “At the start of every class, for example, I write on the board as many water-related news items as I can,” he said, and I ask students “How can you as an engineer benefit society 100 years from now?”

His answer: well-considered solutions. “I tell them not to attend what I call UTW—the University of Wishful Thinking.”

The professorship is the latest in Burke’s support of the College. Over the years, he has funded lab upgrades, student organizations, graduate student awards, and scholarships for undergraduate students. He also mentors students; provides funding and equipment for the American Society of Civil Engineers UIC student chapter; and serves on both UIC’s Civil Engineering Professional Advisory Council and its College of Engineering Advisory Board.

Speaking of the endowed professorship, Burke said, “I think this gift is a way to raise the department’s profile and emphasize the significant impact UIC-trained civil engineers have in the state—and especially in Chicago.”

Research NEWS Professor Reddy Researching Zero Emissions from Landfills

By David Staudacher, UIC

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t steel mills, slag is a by-product that is generated after steel has been cooked up using iron and other materials in a furnace at high temperatures. For the owners of steel mills, steel slag is just a material that they want to clear out to make space for the fresh slag they would produce.

But, for Professor Krishna Reddy of UIC’s Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, steel slag is an asset that has the potential to lower gaseous emissions being released from landfills.

Based on preliminary testing in his laboratory, he is planning to use the steel slag as a cover layer in landfills to prevent carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. Apart from capturing the “fugitive gas emissions,” the use of steel slag will solve a growing problem for another local company.

Reddy is working with industry partner Phoenix Services, a contractor that manages the steel slag generated at the steel mills.

“They have to get rid of the slag and, right now, they have to dump it in a landfill if there are no markets for it,” said Reddy. “The coarser slag, which is like gravel, has a lot of markets. It can be used in roadways as an aggregate. At the same time, they create a finer slag and that does not have markets and it’s piling up.”

“From a sustainability point of view, you are conserving a natural resource and eliminating the waste”, he said.

The idea for this research grew from Reddy’s previous research, which used biochar. Biochar is organic matter that is derived out of burning biomass under low oxygen conditions and it looks similar to charcoal. It’s used extensively in farming, and mixed with the soil, and crops are grown in it. The farmers get a high yield, because the material has a high water holding capacity and it retains a lot of nutrients in the soil.

“I got the idea to use this material in my application, because no one is using it” he said. “This was several years ago.

I did some research and discovered that the material can be used for landfill applications. I used it as a cover material. It creates nice biological conditions to put the bugs to work.”

Landfills generate a lot of methane gas, which is released into the atmosphere. A cover will prevent it from coming out. There are often gas extraction wells, but they are not 100 percent efficient at capturing everything and there are fugitive emissions

calcium carbonate and becomes part of the soil matrix.”

Solving the problem of gas emissions is one of the goals of his research.

In the U.S., small landfills and older landfills don’t have gas extraction systems. Using these as cover materials will create a passive system that prevents gases from being released. He also sees this as a potential problem solver for large landfills and landfills in developing countries.

Professor Krishna Reddy is researching the use of steel slag as an asset that has the potential to lower gaseous emissions being released from landfills. Photo courtsey of Krishna Reddy.

released into atmosphere.

“I was thinking about putting a low-cost, but efficient, cover to mitigate these emissions,” said Reddy. “I put down biochar and as the methane comes out it gets converted into carbon dioxide. We got really good results.

However, I was concerned and not totally happy with the outcome of this research.”

The professor was thinking of the best way to contain the carbon dioxide when he realized slag is a material he can use.

“Through carbonation, it can convert carbon dioxide into carbonates.

And let it stay in the soil itself as a solid.

This will prevent gases from coming out,” he said. “Basically it converts to 5

“Biochar and slag are unused byproducts of some processes and using them in such applications is a way of finding markets for those materials,” said Reddy. “We’re basically solving two problems at the same time - getting rid of the waste and solving the environmental problem by making the landfills more effective and safer.”

Professor Reddy’s research was made possible by a $343,395 NSF grant entitled GOALI: Innovative Biochar-Slag-Soil Cover System for Zero Emissions at Landfills: Quantifying and Optimizing Coupled Biogeochemical Processes.

Learn more about Professor’s Reddy’s research at http://gagel.lab.uic.edu.

ALUMNI SNAPSHOT

Giving Back by Building a Footbridge in Panama

By David Staudacher, UIC

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mbracing and partnering with the community is one of the key elements of UIC’s strategic priorities. And CME alumnus Robert Ryndak (BS ’81, MS ’82) is proving this to be true.

Recently, he was part of a team that built a footbridge for a community in Rio Grande, Panama. In partnership with Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), Ryndak, who is a senior construction manager for California-based Parsons, was one of 11 employees to visit the small community of 200 people outside of Panama City — to build a 155-foot suspension footbridge over the Rio Grande River.

“The logistics of working at a remote site was a challenge for our team.

Because we were more than an hour drive to the nearest large town, we had to ensure that we had all the tools and supplies that we needed to perform the work,” said Ryndak. “The river level was a challenge because some days we could not cross with our vehicles to work on the other side so we had to wade across on foot. There were two days where the locals had to carry floor beams and decking across the river by horseback.”

Apart from the logistics, the volunteers took on challenges that deviated from their usual roles as managers.

“My day-to-day work is on the management side of bridge design and construction, which typically involves correspondence and coordination in an office or construction inspection and oversight,” said Ryndak. “For the Panama B2P Bridge assignment our team did the manual labor required to erect the bridge superstructure. With help from the local community, we assembled the scaffolding, erected the towers, pulled the main cables, fabricated and erected the floor beams and suspenders, bolted the decking, and tied the fencing.”

Before going to Panama, he was the project manager for construction of the Lusail City bridges in Qatar, and construction manager for the new Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Ohio River in

CME alumnus Robert Ryndak was part of a team that built a footbridge for a community in Rio Grande, Panama. Ryndak, who is a senior construction manager for California-based Parsons, was one of 11 employees to visit the small community of 200 people to build a 155-foot suspension footbridge over the Rio Grande River. Photo courtesy of Robert Ryndak.

Prospect, Kentucky. While these projects are much larger than the panama project, the foot bridge challenged him to in a different way.

“The physical labor was intense particularly given the heat and humidity,” he said. “It gave me a whole new appreciation of how great an accomplishment it was to complete the Panama Canal.”

The team, which included project managers, engineers, and safety specialists, worked for two weeks constructing the bridge. With the project completed, the community has access to schools, government and medical services, and markets all year. Before the bridge, access was nearly impossible when the river was swollen.

“No words can describe the fulfillment I felt being able to work on a project of such significance for the local community and seeing the smiles on their faces at the opening celebration,” he said. “This bridge will save lives and improve the quality of life for generations to come.”

According to Ryndak, CME provided 6

a solid foundation for him to build a career. At UIC, he developed a clear understanding of structural and mechanical engineering fundamentals that still serve him today. And through Parsons Gives Back Program, he has the opportunity to contribute his skills and expertise to make a real difference in communities worldwide.

“Even though I have been with the same firm for 30 years, my career path has constantly evolved,” said Ryndak. “I have been fortunate to work on some of the most significant bridge projects in the world. Success comes from noticing opportunities and stepping up to challenges as they come. In a few days, I will be in Mexico City helping assess damage resulting from the recent earthquake.”

Parsons is a technology-driven engineering services firm with more than 70 years of experience in the engineering, construction, technical, and professional services industries. A video documenting the footbridge project in Panama is available at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pSU2r-vGbUY.

CME STUDENT SNAPSHOT ME Student Wins 2nd Place in ‘Image of Research’ Competition

By David Staudacher, UIC

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ongratulations to Materials Engineering student Alexandra Del Carmen Basantes Defaz, of Ecuador, on winning second place in the Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Science category with her “Intelligent Welding” photograph in UIC’s Image of Research contest.

CME student Alexandra prepares for research in the lab. Her image will be on exhibit at UIC’s Daley Library, the Library of Health Sciences, and featured on light pole banners around campus. She was honored and received a cash prize during an awards reception featuring the winners and the finalists for this year’s 10th Anniversary exhibition at UIC’s Gallery 400 on Oct. 24th, 2017.

The description accompanying the “Intelligent Welding” picture provides a deeper look into the research it portrays and the student involved.

Materials Engineering student Alexandra Del Carmen Basantes Defaz won second place in the Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Science category with her “Intelligent Welding” photograph (below) in UIC’s Image of Research contest. Photos by David Staudacher, UIC

“I am not your stereotypical welder. I am an M.S. student in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering conducting research in UIC’s Welding Laboratory under the direction of Professors Ernesto Indacochea and Didem Ozevin. I am researching traditional welding techniques and autonomous welding in “real-time” to avoid defects. It addresses weld quality assurance by developing a combined real-time diagnosis, decision, and control system based on multi-sensor fusion and machine learning methodology. The major technology innovation of the research is that a welding machine will be able to make intelligent decisions in response to process variables, disturbances, and tool deteriorations. The picture was taken on February 28, 2017, in the lab. It represents the professionalism of understanding fundamentals and the power of simplicity. Having some expertise in welding has allowed me to excel in my research. It also shows the stark contrast of perception and reality. In the picture, I am focused to detail while commanding a metal-melting welder held inches away from my face as sparks fly. What you can’t see in the picture is that I am a 5’1” tall woman.

Like the bright arc in the picture.”

the image relates to the student’s overall research. A multi-disciplinary jury reviews the submissions and awards prizes to first-, second- and third-place winners and three honorable mentions for still-image submissions, and first-, second- and third-place winners for moving-image submissions. Criteria for judging include: the originality of the image and the research it represents; the relationship between the image and the research; and overall aesthetic appeal of the image.

Learn more about CME’s Graduate Studies program at www.CME.UIC.EDU/GraduateStudies. See all of the contest winners at Image of Research.

The Image of Research is an annual interdisciplinary exhibit competition organized by the Graduate College and University Library to showcase the breadth and diversity of research at UIC. Each year, students enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program at UIC are invited to submit an image they created along with a brief précis of how 7

CEPAC Scholarship RECEPTION AND AWARDS DINNER

Donors, Students Meet for Scholarships Dinner

By David Staudacher, UIC

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onday, Nov. 13, 2017, was a momentous evening for UIC’s Department of Civiland Materials Engineering. The Civil Engineering Professional Advisory Council (CEPAC) joined donors students, and faculty for the annual Scholarship Reception and Awards Dinner at UIC. Through the generosity of donors and partners, CME awarded 64 scholarships to students. The support helps UIC in its mission to continue to provide access to excellence and success for our students.

Board members, many of whom are UIC alumnus, added personal stories to the ceremony as they detailed the scholarship requirements and the interests and accomplishments of the donors.

During the event, students received a certificate, and, in many cases, they were able to meet the donor of their scholarship or a corporate representative as they networked during dinner and after the scholarships were awarded.

More pictures from the event are at www.cme.uic.edu.

Scholarship Donors and Recipients ACCESS ILLINOIS JOHN BURNETT SCHOLARSHIP Christian J. Fouche, Mateusz Truchan

DEAN’S MERIT SCHOLARSHIP Kristine M. Hernandez, Stephanie Padilla

ALFRED BENESCH SCHOLARSHIP Jessica M. Taskila

COLONEL WILLIAM J. HAWES SCHOLARSHIP Cody Cetnarowski

DAVID E. BOYCE GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP Mohammadhossein Noruzoliaee, Ramin Shabanpour

NANCY ANDERSON HOLMES SCHOLARSHIP Oksana Zurawel

PROFESSOR ROBERT H. BRYANT SCHOLARSHIP Yousef M. Dana CHRISTOPHER B. AND SUSAN S. BURKE GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD Mohammadhossein Noruzoliaee, Ramin Shabanpour, Lisha Wu ROSEMARY BURKE SCHOLARSHIP Bryanna N. Bourelle, Kennedy E. Szatkowski CEPAC SCHOLARSHIP Marvin C. Ambrocio, Andrew K. Boysen, Adrian Brudz, Yousef M. Dana, Christopher T. Heipp CLARK DIETZ SCHOLARSHIP Carlos E. Cerezo PROFESSOR EDWARD H. COE SCHOLARSHIP Andrew K. Boysen, Cody Cetnarowski DEAN’S SCHOLARSHIP Hibah A. Rehman

ILLINOIS ASPHALT PAVEMENT ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIP Yousef Dana, Ramin Shabanpour ILLINOIS ROAD & TRANSPORTATION BUILDERS ASSOCIATION (IRTBA) SCHOLARSHIP Margaret G. Allen, Tanja Rakovic MUTHIAH KASI AWARD Yun Guo, Natalia Kuvakina, Eric Rosero KASI FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP Austin I. Bernat KNOWLES, INC. SCHOLARSHIP FOR WOMEN ENGINEERS Laurel K. Haynes, Kristine M. Hernandez, Anya E. Robertson, Lauryn C. Stewart PROFESSOR DUSAN KRAJCINOVIC SCHOLARSHIP Bogdan Dykyy OLIVE CHACEY KUEHN AND ALFRED L. KUEHN SCHOLARSHIP Diego F. Alvarado, Zachary R. 8

Einert, Herbert M. Nuwagaba, Oscar Rodriguez WILFRED F. AND RUTH DAVISON LANGELIER SCHOLARSHIP Qudus A. Lawal, Maryam F. Yaso KENNETH E. NELSON SCHOLARSHIP Margaret G. Allen SAMARTANO & COMPANY/HENRY MAREK SCHOLARSHIP Herbert M. Nuwagaba SARGENT AND LUNDY SCHOLARSHIP Sania Ali, Joshua Benitez, Michael D. Dritlein, Sinan A. Elias, Christian J. Fouche, Michael C. Gonzalez, Preston I. Hansen, Angeline F. Kampert, Ryan M. Kern, Jessica M. Taskila, Andre G. Yonadam THOMAS AND ROMANA TING SCHOLARSHIP Bogdan Dykyy, Jessica M. Taskila TURNER CONSTRUCTION SCHOLARSHIP Bogdan Dykyy, Sebastian S. Kolpak T.Y. LIN ENGINEERING MERIT SCHOLARSHIP Carlos E. Cerezo, Sebastian S. Kolpak WILLIAM D. UNGER SCHOLARSHIP Diana Arreola ROSE L. VEDRAL SCHOLARSHIP Oscar Rodriguez

Above, CEPAC member and scholarship donor Ken Nelson (second from left) congratulates CEPAC Scholarship recipients during the ceremony. Photos by David Staudacher, UIC.

Above, COE Dean Peter Nelson awards the Dean’s Merit Scholarship to Hibah Rehman.

Below, Herbert Nuwagaba proudly shows his two scholarship cerificates. Nuwagaba was one of several students to be awarded more than one scholarship.

Above left, Jessica Taskila receives the receives the Alfred Benesch Scholarship. At right, Heather Gaffney (from left) awards scholarships to T.Y. Lin Engineering Merit Scholarships to Carlos Cerezo and Sebastian Kolpak.

Below, Professor of Practice and scholarship donor Christopher B. Burke awards scholarships to Ramin Shabanpour, Mohammadhossein Noruzoliaee, and Lisha Wu.

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STUDENT NEWS

CME Students Awarded Scholarships from UIC

By David Staudacher, UIC

CME students have been winning scholarships throughout the school year and the accolades continue to flood the department.

Lisha Wu was awarded the Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award for her research on the Removal of Chromium from water using Sustainable Manganese Oxide Based Sorbents and received a $5,000 prize. She is working under the direction of Associate Professor Amid Khodadoust in the Environmental Separations Lab. Since its inception in 2009, the Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award has supported multidisciplinary scholarship in an attempt to expose graduate students to varied research and creative fields. The award mechanism has naturally evolved into a way for students early in their studies to develop new research directions for their PhD dissertations or terminal degree thesis/capstone project and has been used by graduate programs as a way for students to practice writing research proposals.

Lisha Wu (above) was awarded the Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award, and Negar Kamali Zonouzi (below0 received an Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award. Photos by David Staudacher, UIC

Mentoring Award Last month, Negar Kamali Zonouzi received an Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award during the 45th Annual Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Awards Reception and Recognition Ceremony hosted at UIC. She was recognized for outstanding leadership and service contributions made to UIC and the surrounding community and received a $750 prize.

“I’d like to thank you for your great recommendations and I’m really grateful for your support,” said Zonouzi, who is a graduate student working under the direction of Professor Sheng-Wei in the Computational Mechanics Laboratory.

Earlier in the school year, Zonouzi received the Chicago Consular Corps scholarship and awarded $1,000.

She was one of only 15 students to receive the award.

“Negar is a disciplined, mature, and intelligent graduate student. She excelled in classes and has substantial research accomplishments. Additional to classroom work and research, Negar Kamali has been actively mentoring undergraduate research,” said Chi. “She has wellrounded personality and kindness to help others. She is passionate to engage with women’s engineering society despite her already over-loaded duties and research activities. She is always eager to share her own experiences without reservation to women students in STEP in regards to classroom study and research.”

This scholarship is earmarked for University of Illinois undergraduate students “majoring in and/or whose main field of study is Sanitary/Environmental Engineering, principally concerned with the area of water and waste water treatment and environmental water quality management and control.”

Yaso was selected to receive the scholarship by the members of the Langelier Selection Committee. The committee extend their very best wishes for her continued, active participation in the field of Sanitary/ Environmental Engineering, and hope that the award assists her in that endeavor.

Wilfred F. and Ruth Davison Langelier Scholarship Maryam Yaso was selected as a recipient of the Wilfred F. and Ruth Davison Langelier Scholarship for 2017-18, and she will receive $2,000 for the 2017-2018 academic year.

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Student NEWS

UIC ITE Wins Second Place at Traffic Bowl Debut

By David Staudacher, UIC

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IC’s student chapter of Institution of Transportation Engineers (ITE) captured second place at the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl (Midwestern District) during the ITE Midwestern District Conference 2017 at Madison, Wisconsin, from June 18 to 20.

The UIC ITE team, which consists of Civil and Materials Engineering department students Diana Briones, Burbank, Illinois, and Austin Bernat, of Bartlett, Illinois, and alumnus Natalia Kuvakina, of San Jose, California, competed hard as they narrowly missed securing the top spot during their first time participating in the competition.

The Midwestern District comprises of schools from Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“Lacking any previous experience, the team’s performance was commendable in the face of stiff competition from other schools,” said Sudheer Ballare, Secretary of UIC ITE, of Mumbai, India.

During the competition, the schools competed in preliminary and final rounds, which consisted of 25 questions/clues in five categories. UIC secured first place in the preliminary round, while settling for the second place in the final round. Unfortunately, UIC was edged out by the University of Minnesota.

Since 2009, the ITE has been conducting a student competition program known as the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl. The objectives of the competition are to encourage students to become more active members in the Institute, to enhance their knowledge of the traffic/ transportation engineering and planning profession and of the Institute itself, to strengthen the programs of the ITE student chapters, and to foster a collegial spirit amongst the students and professionals.

The UIC ITE Student Chapter meets monthly throughout the semester.

Learn more about the organization and becoming a member at https://ite.org. uic.edu.

Above, UIC ITE members Diana (from left) Natalia Kuvakina and Austin Bernat show off their second place award. Photos courtesy of UIC ITE. Below, the team participates in the competition.

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Save the Date Great Lakes Student Conference April 19-21, 2018 Hosted by ASCE UIC Presented by the Burke Group

UIC Hosting Student Conference

By David Staudacher, UIC

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reparing for the annual ASCE Great Lakes Student Conference (GLSC)takes a lot of time and dedication from the students.

This year, UIC’s student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will have the added pressure of hosting the threeday event. The conference is slated for April 19 to 21 in Chicago.

The GLSC is comprised of 18 regional universities, which is made up of schools from northern and central Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and Indiana, and it is one of the largest regions based on number of schools.

“This will be a huge undertaking; we are expecting to host about 550 participants,” said Diana Briones, president of ASCE UIC. The schools will compete in a series of Civil Engineering-based competitions and network with other students and professionals.

In 2017, the UIC team won two the eight competitions and made significant advances in the highly-competitive Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge competitions in 2017.

The ASCE is an engineering society devoted to advancing technologies, encouraging lifelong learning, promoting professionalism and the civil engineering profession, developing civil engineering leaders, and advocating infrastructure and environmental stewardship.

More information about the 2018 conference presented by The Burke Group can be found at http://asceglsc.org.

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