ADVOCATING FOR THE WORLD Doctorate student Fatemeh Ganji has taken her education by storm and is working to design a more sustainable world through civil engineering
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Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
A LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Another exciting year has occurred here at Iowa State University’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. It’s been a big year! Amongst many highlights was hosting the ASCE National Civil Engineering Department Heads Conference in June. I enjoyed meeting and collaborating with department heads and chairs from around the country. Our dedication to hands-on undergraduate and graduate education remains steadfast. Impressively, our 2023 placement rates for graduating civil, construction and environmental engineers reporting at graduation are 91%, 95% and 100% respectively, and almost all had a formal internship or coop through the college.
The three programs lead the college in placement at graduation. All three degrees had 100% placement six months after graduation. Over 40% of our faculty identify as women, and nearly a quarter of our student body represents women/minorities. We are reshaping our departmental website, revising policies, and innovating curriculum to foster an environment that increases the number of people around the table whether it be students, faculty or staff. Our department is home to exceptional individuals: 32 tenure/ tenure-eligible faculty, 12 term teaching and research faculty, 15 staff, 2 affiliate faculty, plus 7 adjunct and courtesy faculty. In the past year our research thrived, with faculty securing nearly $15 million in funds for research expenditures. The path ahead brims with transformative changes, and our Cyclone community is abuzz with excitement. As always, it’s a great time to be a Cyclone! - David H. Sanders, Greenwood Department Chair & Professor
FOLLOW US! @isuccee, ISU Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
ccee.iastate.edu
CCEE
by the numbers
STUDENT ENROLLMENT
Kejin Wang Anson Marston Distinguished Professor Jenny Baker ISU Award for Academic Advising Impact Alice Alipour, ENDURE team ISU Interdisciplinary Team Research Award
846
undergraduates
148
2023 DEPARTMENT AWARDS
22% female-identifying
graduates
Behrouz Shafei, ENDURE team ISU Interdisciplinary Team Research Award Alisha Carroll CoE Award for Outstanding New Staff Peter Taylor CoE Award for Excellence in Extension and/or Outreach Cristina Poleacovschi CoE Award for Inclusive Excellence
Our placement rate at 6 months post graduation is
100%
Cork Peterson Anson Marston Medal
88%
of our BS graduates have coop or internship experience.
in all three degree programs!
Hart Wibowo Joseph C & Elizabeth A Anderlik Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
FACULTY & STAFF
12
term faculty
15 staff
Antonio Arenas Joseph C & Elizabeth A Anderlik Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
32
Chris Day Charles W Schafer Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Service
tenure-track
Jonathan Wood Charles W Schafer Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Service
2023 RESEARCH EXPENDITURES
Nicholas Schelle CCEE Staff Exceptional Performance Award
$14.5M RESEARCH
$7.6M
STATE FUNDING
Nancy Qvale CCEE Staff Exceptional Performance Award Travis Hosteng Engineering Student Council Outstanding Faculty of the Year Marlee Walton NCEES Distinguished Service Award
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FA T E M E H G A N J I
“THE JOURNEY FOR ACCESSIBLE WATER FOR ALL ISN’T JUST WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE” Fatemeh Ganji has always felt a deep-rooted aspiration to make the world a better place. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in Iran, with role models of famous builders in her mind, Ganji was using her construction skills to build a better world. But soon, she rerouted her career in construction into a new direction: saving the environment. Ganji began her master’s degree at Tehran University in Iran, focusing her research on climate change. Now she pursues a doctorate degree here at
Iowa State University in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, working with assistant professor Lu Liu. “My main goal in civil engineering was to work in construction, to build bridges and buildings,” Ganji said. “But then, I realized that in this century, our main problem now is climate change. So I changed my focus from structural engineering to water resources engineering and working on climate change.” Now, Ganji is studying the effects
of climate change, specifically how to make water more accessible for communities. Whatever path she goes down, Ganji says that through it all, she wants to protect our world and the people in it. “My goals are constantly changing as the world that we live in keeps changing,” Ganji said. “But what I do know is that in the future I want my research to result in making a difference in the world and making an impact.”
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HOLOGRAPHIC HARDHATS AHEAD Liam Lenahan (junior in civil engineering) and assistant professor Roy Sturgill are breaking into the next dimension of structural design through a very construction-style medium: hard hats. Once you put the hard hats on, you see an entirely different 3D universe.
THE THIRD DIMENSION OF STRUCTURAL DESIGN Sturgill and Lenahan’s project currently consists of six hard hats, that aren’t just for the purpose of protection. Each Trimble hardhat is outfitted with a HoloLens. When wearing the hat, anyone can see project designs, blueprints and almost anything in 3D. Lenahan is researching how to have the best effectiveness of the hats, how to operate them and how they can best be used for education in the classroom. After months of trial and error and with guidance from Sturgill, Lenahan has brought the hard hat to life, and can now upload almost anything to the software and view it through the hat. Lenahan and Sturgill prepared six hats for classes in CCEE to help advance education and experience in the department. “Right now, we teach everything in 2D,” Sturgill said. “Even though it is on a computer screen, we are still very much living in a paper world in how we teach our classes. But in construction, the industry is moving into this 3D environment, so we need to start getting our students prepared to see that in the field.”
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“
WE AREN’T IN THE CIVIL ENGINEERING WORLD AS WE KNOW IT ANYMORE
”
- Liam Lenahan CCEE integrates visualization beyond hard hats. Since last fall, assistant professor Yunjeong “Leah” Mo has been utilizing virtual reality in multidisciplinary research for the department. The Surprenant Interactive Visualization Lab features both VR goggles for individuals, and a projector-based environment to immerse participants in a virtual world — together. In the lab, Mo and her student team use real-world simulations to analyze building energy and occupant behavior through interaction with the virtual environment and user-perspective tracking. “I know the industry needs a lot more people that have experience with these visualization technologies,” Mo said. “So, if Cyclone Engineering students are exposed to this new technology, it’s really great for their learning and future careers.”
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SEEING YOUR WORK, WORK
JENNY HERRERA Civil Engineering ‘16 “There’s nothing like the feeling of seeing your work, work,” Jenny Herrera says. Herrera’s first project out of college was no small feat. Starting as a project engineer at The Weitz Company and now as a project manager, Herrera has been turning ideas into impacts for over seven years. And her favorite part? Seeing it all come together and work. “It takes a while to get to the point where everything lines up and we hit that stride, but we get there,” Herrera says. “And getting there is probably one of the best moments for each project, seeing it all fall into place.”
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BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
TROY ASCHE Civil Engineering ‘17
“
I’ve always been interested in creating and building things. Civil engineering and the knowledge I gained from Iowa State gave me the ability to do so.
”
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ACCELERATING ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY Associate professor Kaoru Ikuma is leading a project to normalize and accelerate water reuse for rural communities. Water reuse is already implemented in small ways across the nation, especially in urban areas, but society still tends to turn their noses up at the thought of drinking what used to be “unusable” water. Ikuma and her team received a $3.246 million grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency for this project, called “Accelerating Technical and Community Readiness for Water Reuse in Small Systems” and spanning four years. Iowa State is the lead institution, with Ikuma as the principal investigator on the project. The team is also working with the University of Rhode Island and the University of California Berkeley. “What we are going to do is focus on small, rural communities across the United States that tend to be really left behind from a lot of water policies and funding,” Ikuma said. “So how can we help accelerate their readiness to adopt water reuse if it looks feasible?” The goal is to develop community-scale tools that consider water availability, projection with climate change, and the holistic cost of water use, including human and environmental factors. The team will focus on providing plausible, low-input technologies that are both cost-effective and socially acceptable. By approaching the issue from technical, social and economic angles, the aim is to lower barriers for small, rural communities, promoting water reuse even in regions not traditionally associated with water scarcity, like Iowa, where water quality challenges persist. “A lot of the decisions that these communities can make right now are expensive, and there’s not a lot of flexibility built in for rural communities that are struggling but still need to provide clean, safe water and sanitation services,” Ikuma said. “Overall, our work will hopefully lower barriers for more rural communities, to consider what we’re broadly calling water reuse, and we will create a game plan for them to do so.”
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CYCLONE ENGINEERS TRAVEL TO PRECAST CONCRETE PLANT TO WATCH CLASS CONCEPTS COME TO LIFE
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE IN THE STRUCTURAL WORLD The process behind ensuring safe and reliable bridges is complex. In the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, students are given a full-scope, hands-on experience in class so that when they grow careers in bridge design and consulting, they can fully understand the process from beginning to end. Taught by assistant teaching professor Hartanto Wibowo, the civil engineering 535 (Prestressed Concrete Structures) class travels to a precast concrete plant and goes on a tour of the site as part of the course. In the beginning of the semester, students review prestressing hardware and process, then complete several prestress loss calculations. And then about halfway through the semester, they go on-site to a real-time prestressed concrete fabrication process to observe everything in action. This is one example of how we focus on experiential learning.
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ASCE NATIONAL CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT HEADS CONFERENCE
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In June 2023, Civil Engineering Department Heads and Chairs from around the country gathered at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa to discuss the critical issues facing higher education today and specifically in civil, construction and environmental engineering. We had a great time hosting along with the Department Heads Coordinating Council and the
American Society of Civil Engineers. The gathering was full of learning and networking with leaders from around the country. We enjoyed having you here. Come join us next time at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on June 3-5, 2024! - David H. Sanders, Greenwood Department Chair & Professor
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KEJIN WANG
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ELEVATING THE WORLD OF ENGINEERING AND INSPIRING THE FUTURE Kejin Wang, professor in geotechnical and materials engineering, says doing what you love is the key to success. Her unwavering passion for her field has earned her the title of distinguished professor, the first woman to ever receive this honor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE). Wang’s journey towards this accomplishment is rooted in her profound love for her work. Throughout her career, she has consistently pursued her passion for construction materials, dedicating herself to extensive research and cutting-edge projects. Wang’s journey as a Cyclone began in 2000, joining CCEE because of the department’s established relationship with the Iowa DOT, and reputation of innovative work in concrete pavement. Her exceptional contributions have solidified her reputation on a national and international scale, making her a distinguished figure in her field. Over the years, Wang has led more than 70 research projects, securing a total of approximately $20 million in funding, and over 200 journal publications since 2000. Her expertise encompasses a broad
range of areas, including cementitious formulation, heat of cement hydration, concrete mix design, microstructure characterization and performance and durability evaluation. She has conducted significant research on advanced concrete technologies, including 3D printing concrete, selfhealing concrete, self-consolidating concrete, ultra-high performance concrete and use of nanoparticles in concrete. She has also worked extensively on concrete sustainability, including the use of low carbon cement, bio-cement and waste materials in concrete and use of carbon dioxide to treat concrete materials and to cure concrete products. “When I’ve had the opportunity to guide people beginning their engineering careers, I tell them to be persistent and always do what you love,” Wang said. “I believe it is important to engage in work that genuinely interests you if you want to make a meaningful impact.” “Whatever you do, just be persistent,” Wang said. “You want to work hard and collaborate with others along the way. Through helping others, you will discover who you are.”
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Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
394 Town Engineering 813 Bissell Rd. Ames, IA 50011-1066
TOWN ENGINEERING RENOVATION AND EXPANSION The ideal facility for the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering must reflect its collaborative, student-centered nature and meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s learning environment. The Town Engineering Building project will expand the department’s footprint – combining the construction of a two-story addition on the south side of the building with the renovation of existing areas. The plan features open instructional spaces and large collaboration areas that will allow students and faculty to engage in active learning and discussion. The overall design that is inviting and inclusive, and will surround students in a dynamic living-learning environment and community.
ADVISING SUITE RENDERING
CREATE FLEXIBLE INSTRUCTIONAL SPACES Create instructional spaces that are right-sized and flexible to facilitate project learning as well as remote learning
PROVIDE INSPIRATION Provide innovative facilities that inspire, recruit and retain outstanding and diverse students, faculty and staff
DEVELOP MODERN LABORATORIES GEODETICS/SURVEYING INSTRUCTIONAL LAB RENDERING
Develop modern and flexible research laboratories and support spaces that impact how work is done today and tomorrow
INCREASE COLLABORATION Increase and improve collaboration spaces for students and faculty Images are representational only and subject to change. For more information, visit: https://www.ccee.iastate.edu/building-for-the-future-town-engineering-renovations
EXPANSION RENDERING
Publication produced by: Sarah Hays, Anna Keplinger and Maddie Willits Copyright © 2023, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved. Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. Veteran. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies may be directed to Office of Equal Opportunity, 3410 Beardshear Hall, 515 Morrill Road, Ames, Iowa 50011, Tel. 515 294-7612, Hotline 515-294-1222, email eooffice@iastate.edu.
