UF ESSIE Insights Magazine, Fall 2021

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

INSIGHTS

TOP PUBLIC UNIVERSITY 2022 U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

INTO SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING, 2021

ESSIE FACULTY ON THE FRONTLINES COMBATING COVID-19 PAGE 8

STEEL BRIDGE AND CONCRETE CANOE MAKE HISTORY PAGE 16

NOW INTRODUCING THE

CENTER FOR COASTAL SOLUTIONS

IN COLLABORATION WITH FACULTY ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY, THE CENTER FOR COASTAL SOLUTIONS WILL IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND ECONOMIC HEALTH OF COASTAL RESIDENTS IN OUR STATE AND NATION. PAGE 12 CHRISTINE ANGELINI, PH.D., CENTER FOR COASTAL SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR

DI RECTOR’S M ESSAGE Dear Alumni and Colleagues, As we move past the year and a half mark since the pandemic began, I wish you all continued health and resilience as the world continues to adapt.

We have colleagues in both the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering and the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences who have directed their research at combatting COVID. Chang-Yu Wu, Ph.D., a professor in environmental engineering, teamed with UF epidemiologists and found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in aerosols can be cultured, which sparked the need to reevaluate safety protocols to reduce transmission in indoor spaces. Eric Jing Du, Ph.D., an associate professor in civil and coastal engineering, secured NSF funding to investigate how people are acclimating to the new normal as America continues to reopen. His research will provide insight and guidance on behavioral patterns for the policy and emergency management agencies.

We are excited to announce the formation of the Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS). Led by Christine Angelini, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, in collaboration with faculty across the university, the CCS is poised to improve the quality of life and economic health of coastal residents in our state and nation.

Through strategic partnerships, CCS has the technology and computational resources to address the root causes of environmental, public health and economic issues. You can learn more about that on page 8.

As a School, ESSIE has strived to move forward with our education, research and outreach missions over the last academic year. For the third consecutive year, our departments have ranked among the best public graduate programs. According to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools, the Civil and Environmental Engineering programs are now ranked No. 17 and No. 18, among public institutions respectively.

Denise R. Simmons, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, received a third editor’s choice award, making her award rate 20% since 2017.

This is a tremendous feat; I have not seen more than a handful of individuals whose frequency of distinguished paper awards come close to this accomplishment. Also, we are proud that Elliot P. Douglas, Ph.D., a professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, was inducted as a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He is one of six members to come from the University of Florida since the award’s inception.

We commend Michael McVay, Ph.D., a University Term Professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, for his dedication of four decades to the university. He has been named professor emeritus. We celebrate his 40-year tenure

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of committed teaching, distinguished service, and impactful research.

Our students are making history. The Eckhoff Steel Bridge team and the Concrete Canoe design team have won their respective national competitions. This is the second time in UF’s history that both teams have won their national competitions in the same year, the first time was in 2015. No other civil program has achieved this accomplishment.

We are proud of our students for paving the way for others.

Aldrin Gaffud, a sixth-year senior double-majoring in civil and architecture, received the college’s Service to the Global Community Award for reestablishing the Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM) student organization. oSTEM provides all LGBTQIA+ scholars academic and professional resources along with specific resources that can cater to niches and intersections in the LGBTQA+ community.

Our Celebrating Black Excellence spotlights were created to amplify Black voices, especially from our alumni. Brandon Hunter, who is pursuing his doctoral degree at Duke University, and Devin Harris, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Virginia, recount the experiences that shaped them in their fields in engineering. Darina Castillo, Ph.D., a site manager in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management, gives a brief overview of her journey to her position as site manager and what she is doing to inspire those who come after her. Elliott White, Ph.D., discusses the importance of leadership and how he plans to make an impact as an assistant professor at Stanford University.

Artificial Intelligence has been a major focal point in our research. Dr. Du has been awarded a $1 million grant by NSF to develop a mixed reality-enabled training system to bring the latest robot technologies to emergency response. Brian Phillips, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, received an NSF grant to provide innovative solutions to optimize buildings, which will pioneer a new framework that will benefit all aspects of building design and construction. Our NHERI Experimental Facility received a renewal grant of $4.5 million from NSF. The facility not only supports engineers as they work to advance wind hazard research, they are also establishing a K-12 STEM teacher training program to be implemented in Florida.

Thank you for your continued support of ESSIE! I wish you continued health and happiness.

Best wishes,

Kirk Hatfield, Ph.D. DIRECTOR, ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFR ASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

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INSIDE

INSIGHTS

2021 D I R E C T O R ’S M E S S AG E ....... 2 FAC T S & F I G U R E S ............. 3 FAC U LT Y ..................... 4 - 6 S C H O O L U P DAT E .............. 7 COV I D R E S E A R C H ......... 8 -11 F E AT U R E ................... 1 2 -1 5

4

FACULTY

S T U D E N T S ................ 16 -2 0

16

STUDENTS

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RESEARCH

A LU M N I ..................... 2 1-2 2 R E S E A R C H ................ 2 3 -2 7

Cammy Abernathy, Ph.D. DEAN, HERBERT WERTHEIM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Kirk Hatfield, Ph.D.

DIRECTOR, ENGINEERING SCHOOL O F S U S TA I N A B L E I N F R A S T R U C T U R E & ENGINEERING

Michael Annable, Ph.D.

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ALUMNI

DEPARTMENT HEAD, E N V I R O N M E N TA L E N G I N E E R I N G

Robert Thieke, Ph.D. DEPARTMENT HEAD, CIVIL & COA S TA L E N G I N E E R I N G

Reba Liddy M A R K E T I N G & C O M M U N I C AT I O N S S P E C I A L I S T & MAGAZINE EDITOR

Contributing Writers Diane Choate

BY THE NUMBERS $16.5 MILLION

Barbara Lindstrom

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Cynthia Roldán Hernández Ines Aviles-Spadoni

10 19

$18.2

IN RESEARCH EXPENDITURES

MILLION

FACULTY MEMBERS IN AI

IN UNDERGRADUATE ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS AMONG PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN UNDERGRADUATE CIVIL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

18 17

ALLOCATED TO NEW AWARDS

63

TOTAL FACULTY MEMBERS

IN GRADUATE ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN GRADUATE CIVIL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS AMONG PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

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FA C U LT Y A W A R D S

Simmons Receives ASCE’s Editor’s Choice from a Third Journal

by Reba Liddy

Denise R. Simmons, Ph.D., a civil engineering associate professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment (ESSIE), recently had a manuscript featured as the Editor’s Choice in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Civil Engineering Education. Dr. Simmons also received the Editor’s Choice in the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management in 2018 and the ASEC Journal of Management in Engineering in 2017.

Since 2017, nearly 20% of Dr. Simmons’ papers in these three journals have received the editor’s choice award.

“After 28 years of reviewing the performance of faculty at all ranks, I

have seen no more than four individuals whose frequency of distinguished paper awards exceed that of Dr. Simmons’.

This is a great accomplishment,” said Kirk Hatfield, Ph.D., the director and professor in ESSIE. This recent paper, Connecting Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Professional Competencies and Their Leadership Development, collected quantitative and qualitative data from students to explore whether there was a correlation between the rating of professional competencies that enable leadership and the leadership development process. From the study, she found that students who place greater emphasis on leadership and professional competencies are in

the more advanced stages in their leadership identity development.

“I am honored to have had my work selected as Editor’s Choice in each of these three peer-reviewed ASCE journals. Contributing to the knowledge of scholars in civil engineering research and education is a prime motivator for me,” Dr. Simmons said.

Dr. Simmons has nearly 15 years of experience in academia. Her groundbreaking research focuses on workforce development in construction engineering and leadership in engineering education​. In 2014, she received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for her research in engineering education.

2020-21 Awards

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Elliot P. Douglas

Lily Elefteriadou

American Society for Engineering Education Fellow

American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s S.S. Steinberg Award

Scott Powell

Timothy Townsend

UF Superior Accomplishment Award (Division III)

Air & Waste Management Association’s Richard I. Stessel Waste Management Award

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

FA C U LT Y A W A R D S

Douglas Inducted as an ASEE Fellow

by Diane Choate

experience in engineering or engineering technology education or an allied field, and with exemplary ASEE contributions.

“ASEE has been an important community to me,” Dr. Douglas said.

“Early in my career it was a place where I received tremendous support and encouragement. Later I felt it was important to give back to that community and pay it forward to others.

Being named an ASEE Fellow alongside the engineering educators I have looked up to is a highlight of my career.”

Since its inception, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has inducted 430 of its members as Fellows of the organization, including six members who have served as faculty of the University of Florida (UF).

In 2021, Elliot P. Douglas, professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences within ESSIE, and affiliate professor in the Department of Engineering Education, will join this august body of engineering educators.

The classification of Fellow is one of prestigious professional distinction and is conferred by the Board of Directors upon an ASEE member with outstanding and extraordinary qualifications, and

After gaining a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering and a B.S. in Engineering (Materials) and Humanities (Music) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dr. Douglas worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory before taking a position in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at UF in 1996.

After serving as associate chair of MSE (2010-12), he became the Dean’s Fellow for Engineering Education (2012-15).

From June 2015 until December 2017, he served as the program director for Engineering Education at the National Science Foundation, before returning to

UF to join ESSIE. Dr. Douglas’s current research interests follow two major threads in engineering education. He uses critical approaches to question issues of power and privilege related to engineering practice. He is investigating cultures of inclusion in the engineering workplace and ethics of community engagement by engineers.

This thread includes an investigation of the experiences of Black engineers in the workplace and work to incorporate social justice into engineering ethics education.

His second research field considers cognitive aspects of engineering learning, particularly problem solving and critical thinking. Dr. Douglas’s current work is focused on understanding ambiguity in engineering problem-solving in order to better prepare students for open-ended workplace problems. He also conducts work on qualitative methodologies in engineering education research.

Dr. Douglas has been active in the Educational and Research Methods Division of the ASEE, acting as chair from 2013-2015. He also served as associate editor (2011-2013) and deputy editor (2013-2015) of the Journal of Engineering Education.

Tenure and Promotions

JING (ERIC) DU

DAVID PREVATT

RECEIVED TENURE IN CIVIL & COASTAL ENGINEERING

PROMOTED TO PROFESSOR IN CIVIL & COASTAL ENGINEERING

XIAOYU SONG

PROMOTED TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR WITH TENURE IN CIVIL & COASTAL ENGINEERING ← TABLE OF CONTENTS | ESSIE.UFL.EDU

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FA C U LT Y

MCVAY NAMED PROFESSOR EMERITUS

by Reba Liddy

of Massachusetts.

After four decades of conducting research in geosystems engineering, Michael McVay, Ph.D., a University Term Professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal, retired and has been named professor emeritus.

Dr. McVay joined the department in December of 1981 as an assistant professor, he was promoted to associate professor in August of 1987. Dr. McVay was promoted to professor in December of 1996.

“We celebrate Dr. McVay’s 40-year career of dedicated teaching, impactful research and distinguished service.

Students and colleagues describe him as an honest and devoted mentor who looks for solutions beyond the obvious. He thrives on the frontiers of research, pursuing the most demanding and emergent areas of geosystems engineering. His consistent commitment to seek new ways to mentor and embrace fresh challenges is inspiring, and his positive impacts on science and teaching are indelible. We are grateful he chose to spend his career at UF,” said Kirk Hatfield, a professor and director in ESSIE. Prior to his tenure at UF, Dr. McVay earned his bachelor’s and master’s from the State University of New York Buffalo and his doctorate in civil engineering in 1982 from the University

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His research began by focusing on flow through porous media, specifically phosphatic waste clay pond reclamation and gas flow through concrete. Then his studies shifted to soil-structure interaction, wave propagation, monitoring while drilling and geostatistics related to foundation design.

Dr. McVay has written multiple papers on instrumentation use and testing of soil and rock on a site for assessing properties and reducing uncertainty for improved designs and construction. In Sept. 1990, Dr. McVay was recognized by the American Society for Engineering Education as the South Eastern Best Engineering Paper for his research on the “Role of Geotechnical Engineer.” He received a letter of accommodation from the U.S. Air Force in June 1991 on his paper on “Identify Damage Mechanism to Airfield Aprons Due Synthetic Oils, Water and Heat.” Most recently, Dr. McVay was awarded in 2018 from the Florida Engineering Society GMEC “In Recognition of Outstanding Service to the Geotechnical and Materials Engineering Profession.”

“I most enjoyed teaching students as

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

well as collaborating with students and colleagues on research that improves infrastructure design, construction and maintenance,” Dr. McVay said.

Throughout his career, he has mentored over 100 students. He has been a faculty advisor to more than 15 doctoral students, 10 post-doctoral students and 50 master’s students.

“Besides the teaching, research and publications, the interactions with my colleagues, and students from all over the world were very special. Likewise, receiving Christmas cards, phone calls, and emails from current and past students on their life, family and work are very special,” Dr. McVay said.

During retirement, Dr. McVay plans to visit all the national parks and the Bureau of Land Management from New Mexico to the Canadian border.

He is interested in hiking and seeing wildlife in native habitats. After approximately a year of traveling, he plans to work on research with colleagues.

When asked about what he will miss most about UF after leaving the university, Dr. McVay responded, “I don’t think you can ever leave. I am a Gator for life.”

S C H O O L U P D AT E

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL GRAD PROGRAMS PLACED IN TOP 20 FOR THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR

by Reba Liddy

For the third year in a row, the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment’s (ESSIE) Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering and Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences are ranked among the top 20 public universities, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools. The Civil Engineering graduate program jumped two spots, landing at No. 17.

“We view such rankings as one indicator of the impact of ESSIE’s focus on continual development of educational and research capacity,” said ESSIE Director Kirk Hatfield, Ph.D. “Our educational experiences have been enhanced by a growing population of research-active faculty who bring their latest discoveries and unique hands-on experience into the classroom and laboratory.”

The Environmental Engineering Sciences graduate program was ranked at No. 18 among public universities, for a second consecutive year. ESSIE Associate Director Kurtis Gurley, Ph.D., credits the rankings as a result of a joint endeavor from School personnel.

“While we are encouraged by the national rankings that validate our sustained efforts, we reserve our pride for the collective efforts of our faculty, staff and students, and the culture of excellence, diversity and mutual respect they carry forward every day,” Dr. Gurley added.

ESSIE is a part of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering is ranked among the Top 25 public graduate engineering schools in the U.S. and the No. 1 engineering school in the State of Florida.

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WHILE WE ARE ENCOURAGED BY THE N AT I O N A L R A N K I N G S T H AT VA L I D AT E O U R S U S TA I N E D E F F O R T S , WE RESERVE OUR PRIDE FOR THE COLLECTIVE EFFORTS O F O U R FA C U LT Y, S TA F F A N D S T U D E N T S , A N D T H E C U LT U R E O F EXCELLENCE, DIVERSITY A ND M U T UA L R ESPECT T H E Y C A R R Y F O R WA R D E V E R Y D AY.

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- K U R T I S G U R L E Y, PH.D.

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COVI D R E SE A R C H

COMBATTING COVID-19 Written by Reba Liddy

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ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

COVI D R E SE A R C H

UF RESEARCHERS FIND VIABLE VIRUSES IN AEROSOLS THAT CAUSE COVID-19 In April of 2020, research from the University of Florida provided strong evidence that aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may be possible.

Prior to these findings, the virus had been detected in aerosols, but there was a lack of direct evidence that the particles were actually viable (“culturable”)1, so at the time of discovery, the World Health Organization and other public health agencies have not emphasized aerosol transmission in their public health protection and mitigation guidance.

A team of UF researchers, led by John Lednicky, Ph.D., and ChangYu Wu, Ph.D., found that SARSCoV-2 in aerosols can be cultured, sparking the need to reevaluate safety protocols to reduce transmission in indoor spaces.

The researchers collected air samples that contained culturable SARS-CoV-2 from the air of a hospital room with COVID-19 patients.

The team used a unique virus aerosol sampler, codeveloped with Aerosol Dynamics Inc., that gently collects airborne viruses and preserves their viability.

The sampler uses water vapor condensation-based technology to efficiently collect virus aerosols, accomplishing a task not possible using other devices. They were able to obtain viable viruses more than 15 feet away from the patient, contained within the room, and they matched the virus in the air to that in a nasal swab from that patient. Once the samples were collected, Lednicky, an expert virologist and aerobiologist, was able to isolate the virus in cell cultures, resolving the long-standing question of whether SARS-CoV-2 can remain viable in aerosols.

“The air we breathe is full of microorganisms. A pathogen that you breathe poses no harm if it is not alive. For example, non-viable, or ‘dead,’ viruses cannot cause COVID-19, just like a dead tiger can’t eat you. By showing that viable viruses are in the air, we show there is an inhalation risk. We are the first group to show this conclusively,” Lednicky said.

Importantly, virus was not located in hospital hallways or other areas, including the emergency room waiting room, showing the effectiveness of infection control practices.

The findings stimulated fervent discussion. Virginia Tech’s Linsey Marr, Ph.D., a leading expert on airborne virus transmission, calls it the “smoking gun.”

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COVI D R E SE A R C H

“Our research opens a new door for analyzing outbreaks due to respiratory viruses. It is especially valuable for those involving asymptomatic individuals or those who have mild symptoms, who are often missed by current epidemiology and surveillance practices during assessments of outbreaks caused by respiratory viruses. That is because those people are typically not tested, yet may be seeding the air with infectious virus particles that pose a risk to others.

Instead of relying on human specimens, aerosol sampling is a noninvasive and Viable: In virology, the term ‘viable’ is used instead of ‘live’. To determine if virus is viable, it must be isolated (“cultured”) in a susceptible animal or in laboratory cell cultures.

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effective technique for collecting airborne respiratory viruses, and thus has many important and practical uses,” Wu said.

The key researchers of the multidisciplinary team include: Chang-Yu Wu, Ph.D., a professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at UF; John Lednicky, Ph.D., a professor in the department of environmental and global health at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and a member of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute; Michael Lauzardo, M.D., deputy director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute and

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J. Glenn Morris, M.D., director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute, both of whom are faculty members in the UF College of Medicine; and Thomas B. Waltzek, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of infectious diseases & immunology at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the Emerging Pathogens Institute.

For further information on the study, visit https://www.medrxiv.org/ content/10.1101/2020.08.03.20167395v1.

MEASURING THE NEW NORMAL POST COVID-19 The coronavirus pandemic forced the world to shut down, now, as America continues to reopen, people are adjusting to a new normal.

Eric Jing Du, Ph.D., an associate professor, plans to examine and predict changes to people’s mobility behavior with a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) Award from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Du is collaborating with Ryan Qi Wang, Ph.D., at Northeastern University. The ultimate goal is to enable improved citizens’ preparation and public agencies’ responses to future public health crises.

“A person’s daily trip decisions can be affected by a variety of motivational, decisional and sentimental factors, such as the sense of urgency for going out, concerns about the coronavirus spread, news coverage and social influence,” Dr. Du said.

A smartphone app developed by Dr. Du and his students, Tianyu Zhou, Qi Zhu and Paul Wei. The app captured Twitter geographical data to detect where people went on a daily basis.

A smartphone app developed by Dr. Du and his

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

COVI D R E SE A R C H

students, Tianyu Zhou, Qi Zhu and Paul Wei. Dr. Du worked with his students–Tianyu Zhou, Qi Zhu and Paul Wei–to develop a smartphone mobile app to send daily high-frequency surveys to users and obtain location data through the built-in GPS tracker. He plans to cross-reference the app’s results with the individual’s geolocation data captured from Twitter to gather information.

Based on the results of the attitudinal data with people’s daily GPS results, Dr. Du will build machine learning models. The mathematical model will be used to display a trajectory of the public’s mobility pattern changes during the pandemic as changing conditions influence attitudes correlated to travel decisions.

“This is important because the general public can be better informed of safer travel behaviors, such as avoiding certain areas at certain times in the day and the use of personal protective equipment when using public transport. Public agencies can use our data and model to help predict the development of the pandemic and investigate strategies to encourage safer behaviors related to daily travels,” Dr. Du said.

The project gathered data from roughly 500 individuals over a 12-month period.

Participants consented to releasing their geolocation information for research purposes. Participation in this research is voluntary and adheres to UF Institutional Review Board compliance guidelines.

Americans traveled much more that spring than any other time period.

He also found that trust in the government’s information and political positions are the most significant indicators in daily travel decision-making.

“Travel was significantly affected by the political position, with republicans traveling 23% farther than the democrats in 2020. And in 2021, the republicans traveled 110% more than democrats,” Dr. Du said. Other notable factors in determining someone’s willingness to travel include gender, education status, stress levels, demographic groups, perception of COVID-related information and socioeconomic status.

The findings of this research will help build more accurate mobility prediction models when there is another prevalent widespread event. Dr. Du added, “It will help affected communities make easier and informed decisions such as avoiding the at-risk locations and at risk timepoints of travels. Also, our research will inform better mitigation strategies, which will assist with improved response plans for local and federal government.”

Since this project’s conclusion, Dr. Du will work with Ryan Wang, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University, on the next phase of this study. They are using the app to collect big data on travel behaviors to see if they derive from biases and uncertainties.

When his study concluded in April 2021, Dr. Du found that the mobility pattern showed a vast increase from the previous year. Since the pandemic ensued, ← TABLE OF CONTENTS | ESSIE.UFL.EDU

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F E AT U R E

INTRODUCING THE CENTER FOR COASTAL SOLUTIONS

by Diane Choate and Reba Liddy

CCS LEADERSHIP Christine Angelini, Ph.D. CCS Director and ESSIE Associate Professor

Thomas Ankersen, J.D. Law Professor, UF Levin College of Law

Paul Gader Ph.D. Computer & Information Science & Engineering and ESSIE Professor

David Kaplan, Ph.D. CCS Associate Director and ESSIE Associate Professor

Maitane Olabarrieta, Ph.D. CCS Associate Director and ESSIE Associate Professor

Capitalizing on emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, diverse expertise, and multi-sector collaboration to understand, predict and prevent environmental, health, and economic threats to coastal communities. It will improve the quality of life and economic health of coastal residents in Florida and the United States by innovating the smart sensor networks, AI technologies and Earth Systems modeling.

CCS COLLABORATES WITH OCEAN CONSERVANCY TO RESEARCH DISCHARGE IN TAMPA BAY Scientists in the University of Florida’s newly established Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS) and collaborators from the Ocean Conservancy are researching and tracking the ecological effects of the Piney Point reservoir leak into Tampa Bay. Over the course of a week, millions of gallons of wastewater were discharged into Tampa Bay, which could cause algal blooms among other effects, leading to the depletion of marine life.

The collaborative effort will identify where critical research gaps exist in current plans. Since the formation of the partnership Elise Morrison, Ph.D., an environmental

engineering sciences assistant professor, has collected samples to analyze per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) substances and any other emerging contaminants. Andrew Altieri, Ph.D., an environmental engineering sciences assistant professor, plans to support the Sarasota Bay and Tampa Bay Estuary programs with their assessment of the changes in macroalgae and seagrass abundance in the water.

Personnel at Florida Sea Grant, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, and Sarasota Bay Estuary Program were instrumental in obtaining initial samples. Coordination is ongoing for future sample collection with these critical partners.

CCS PARTNERS WITH SAS TO EXPAND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EFFORTS IN COASTAL COMMUNITIES The CCS and SAS Institute (SAS) entered a strategic partnership to develop tools, training programs, curriculum and research that will continue to trailblaze around the UF AI initiative and the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

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The partnership began in January to integrate the center’s cutting-edge research and SAS’ industry leading data analytics to develop practical solutions to issues surrounding coastal communities.

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

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“Through our collaboration, the CCS is in a unique position to leverage large amounts of environmental data that have been collected by state government and others to better understand why harmful algal blooms and other coastal water quality hazards form when and where they do,” said Christine Angelini, Ph.D., CCS Director and associate professor in Environmental Engineering Sciences.

“SAS brings tremendous experience working with government and private sector clients in Florida and is an excellent partner in designing a process and program for how to deliver useful information to these stakeholders.”

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public health, policy and other fields, disciplines that are all being drawn upon to understand and draw actionable information from the data analysis that SAS is providing.

The partnership will give SAS an opportunity to expand in the environmental data analytics space and hire the brightest students from the University of Florida with these highly sought-after skills. With over 40 years of analytics innovation, the SAS’ comprehensive data platform will enhance UF’s AI and data analytics research and provide immediate support for faculty and student research.

“The work that CCS is According to doing to protect our Dr. Angelini, OUR OVERARCHING coastal communities will researchers in GOAL IS TO WORK be critical to protecting CCS will use S I D E B YS I D E W I T H Florida’s future. SAS SAS Viya, a S A S T O D E V E L O P T H E understands how comprehensive A N A LY T I C A L T O O L S important this work is data platform, to future generations N E E D E D T O B E M O R E to aggregate, of Floridians and P R O A C T I V E . analyze and believes that data visualize - - C H R I S T I N E A N G E L I N I , P H . D . analytics is a key piece environmental to finding solutions data from in collaboration with different time periods and locations CCS,” said Brian Logan, a SAS account that are critical to solving coastal executive.

“The work that CCS is doing problems. is extremely important but can often “Our overarching goal is to work be laborious and time consuming side-by-side with SAS to develop before any insights are found, the analytical tools needed to be especially when it comes to data. SAS’ more proactive,” Dr. Angelini added. goal with this partnership has always “There are currently vast amounts of been to help the CCS team use data environmental data available, but it is analytics and artificial intelligence underutilized. Together with SAS, the to speed up their research for better CCS is drawing new knowledge and results faster.” predictive intelligence from this data to provide Florida the solutions needed Ultimately, this establishment of newly applied data analytics and to measurably improve the health of visualization training programs will coastal waterways, ecosystems and combat environmental hazard impacts communities,” she added. to coastal communities throughout the CCS was created in 2020 to predict state. and mitigate the effects of poor “The combination of our capabilities water quality and climate change on and an international leader in data coastal communities and ecosystems. analytics certainly sets our program It brings to this partnership worldapart from others working in this class expertise in AI, oceanography, space,” Dr. Angelini said. hydrology, ecology, economics,

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SOLVING GRAND CHALLENGES The CCS is applying an ‘open source model’ to understand and solve the challenges posed by coastal hazards. We will integrate the exceptional expertise and resources available across UF, as well through our network of public and private sector partners to innovate vital, new technologies and develop proactive solutions.

The CCS will play a central role in coordinating the network to:

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Employ the most promising new technologies to better monitoring the health of our coastal waters, air, ecosystems and economies Build synthetic Earth Systems Models to resolve how hazards develop in and move through the coastal zone Communicate near real-time information about hazards to decision-makers and the public Train the next generation workforce to design and implement data-driven, effective solutions

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F E AT U R E

CCS JOINS FORCES WITH SANIBEL-CAPTIVA FOUNDATION ON COASTAL SOLUTIONS CUTTING-EDGE DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS COMBINE TO SUSTAIN FLORIDA’S COASTAL COMMUNITIES Florida coastal communities need clean water to preserve residential lifestyles, tourism, fishing, and a host of other activities in the Sunshine State.

Recognizing the importance of water quality as a significant component of South Florida’s current and future economy and quality of life for its citizens, the CCS and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) have entered into a strategic collaboration to address coastal water quality hazards in order to strengthen the resiliency and sustainability of this unique coastal area in Florida.

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SCCF DELIVERS 50+ YEARS OF FORWARD-THINKING CONSERVATION STRATEGIES Founded in 1967, SCCF’s mission is to protect and care for southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems through focusing on water quality research, policy and advocacy, sea turtles and shorebirds, native landscaping, habitat and wildlife management, and environmental education. The foundation’s marine laboratory conducts long-and short-term research in the waters and watersheds of Charlotte Harbor, the Caloosahatchee, and the Gulf of Mexico. The lab is an active member in the National Association of Marine Laboratories, and the Organization of Biological Field Stations. It is also a data provider to the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System.

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

The lab’s research uses an instrument array composed of eight near realtime sensors deployed throughout the Caloosahatchee Estuary and Pine Island Sound. Known as RECON, which stands for River Estuary Coastal Observing Network, its unique set of sensors captures data with enormous depth that allows scientists and water managers to better study water quality issues and identify solutions. “Nowhere else in the state is such high-resolution, high-quality, real-time data on coastal water quality available,” said Christine Angelini, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the UF Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment and director of the University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions (UF-CCS).

RECON’s data collection capabilities paired with UF data analytics capacity are a perfect fit for a collaboration between SCCF and CCS.

F E AT U R E

climate change and human hazards that are advancing at an alarming speed.

DATA ANALYTICS WILL HELP COASTAL COMMUNITIES WITHSTAND ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE HAZARDS

UF CCS BRINGS ADVANCED RESEARCH AND AI ANALYTICS TO THE ALLIANCE CCS is an interdisciplinary center at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, where its mission is to predict and prevent negative environmental, health and economic impacts to coastal communities through collaboration with local agencies and organizations, using cutting-edge technology to mitigate water quality hazards and enhance coastal resiliency.

With leadership and subject experts from over 14 colleges across the University of Florida, CCS is the latest center of excellence aiming to bolster the preservation and restoration of coastal communities in Florida and beyond. With government, industry and community partners, the CCS is rapidly gaining foothold in helping these agencies and organizations in combating the effects of

Leading a new multi-sector flagship initiative, the CCS has formed a Comprehensive Coastal Observing Network (CompCON) in close coordination with SCCF to monitor, model, and deliver data products immediately useful for informing decisions related to addressing coastal hazards. The network also works with other local stakeholders, including Lee County, the City of Cape Coral, the Coastal Heartland National Estuary Partnership (supported by the Environmental Protection Agency), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and others. CompCON meets quarterly as a team and biweekly in seven focused working groups, involving over 40 members from multiple sectors comprised of businesses, conservation organizations and universities. These working groups are actively identifying critical research needs and sharing data, analytical techniques, modeling capabilities and policy platforms.

This summer, SCCF’s RECON will serve as the base for this UF-CCS pilot project that will put the Southwest Florida regional estuary in the forefront of international research into advanced monitoring of the health of coastal waters, lands, and air. “Our team of more than 25 faculty looked into estuaries across the state of Florida to serve as test beds to pilot our Comprehensive Coastal Observing Network (CompCON) and very soon honed into the Caloosahatchee River-Charlotte Harbor Estuary system because of the unique technical capabilities offered by RECON,” said Angelini. During this pilot phase, CompCON and RECON will be specifically focused on water quality challenges that are impacting the economy and coastal environment in Charlotte Harbor in southwest Florida.

Over the next few years, CompCON will be refined and expanded in scale to produce cost-effective, technologically advanced approaches for: (1) real-time, AI-assisted, high resolution monitoring of coastal waters, lands, air and people; (2) forecasting near-term and multidecade changes to the coastal zone in this region, and (3) enabling decisionmakers to explore various management scenarios.

Proactive hazard forecasting, which will appear similar to today’s weather forecasts available on smartphones, will be powered by UF’s AI supercomputer, the fastest in higher education thanks to the university’s $70-million partnership with NVIDIA, along with comprehensive expertise in applied AI, computer science and environmental engineering.

“Ultimately, CompCON seeks to envision, build and continually advance the coastal monitoring and modeling systems of the future, technologies that will deliver information to decision makers, stakeholders and the public at the scales, in the formats, and with the level of certainty required to achieve proactive solutions to addressing water quality and other hazards at the coast,” Angelini said.

“Collaborating with UF-CSS is a great opportunity for us to increase the awareness and value of RECON and the water quality research our Marine Lab is doing,” said SCCF CEO Ryan Orgera. “And, our entire region’s coastal ecosystems will benefit from our pilot participation in CompCON by advancing ways in which science can inform critical policy, which in turn will boost our tourism-based economy and the quality of life of residents and visitors alike.”

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STUDENTS

STEEL BRIDGE AND CONCRETE CANOE MAKE HISTORY:

ONLY CIVIL PROGRAM TO WIN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS TWICE

by Reba Liddy

BRIDGING THE GAP TO PLACE FIRST IN NATIONALS: STEEL BRIDGE TEAM RISES TO THE TOP

Top to bottom, left to right: Brock Sullivan, Alfonso Madrazo, Daniel Solano, Laura Gonsoulin, Rachel Hart, Huzaifa Lukmanji, Dr. Taylor Rawlinson (Faculty Advisor), Brian Roche, Fletcher D’Arcy. Not Pictured: Justin Robbins and Alex Blaudow.

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ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

STUDENTS

on the design and fabrication of the truss bridge, but as they were packing up to leave for the competition, regional and national competitions were cancelled because of the pandemic. The team was undeterred. Daniel Solano, last year’s project manager, worked tirelessly throughout the summer and fall to advance the team’s design process and provide strong mentorship to the incoming team.

“There were questions whether we would be able to make a bridge at all due to the pandemic. Compared to other years, we had less time to work and fewer people able to help due to lab restraints,” said Brian Roche, the team’s deputy project manager. “We had to work a lot harder to get everything done with COVID precautions and it would not have been possible without our other THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA’S ECKHOFF STEEL BRIDGE TEAM AND CONCRETE CANOE DESIGN team members and advisors, TEAM HAVE WON THEIR RESPECTIVE NATIONAL especially our faculty advisor Dr. COMPETITIONS. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME Rawlinson.”

IN UF’S HISTORY THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED, THE FIRST TIME WAS IN 2015. NO OTHER CIVIL PROGRAM HAS ACCOMPLISHED THIS FEAT.

he University of Florida’s Eckhoff Steel Bridge team rose to the unique challenges of 2020 and placed first in the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Student Steel Bridge National Competition. The national competition had over 100 teams around the country compete at regionals to win one of the 25 spots for nationals with results announced on June 3.

This year’s competition had a different setup than previous years. Teams had the opportunity to compete from campus, which allowed students to participate in a safe environment that adheres to the university’s COVID protocols with trained judges visiting campus for the competition.

This year’s win comes in stark contrast to last year’s disappointment.

Last year, the team worked eight months

The Steel Bridge team had logistical challenges, such as rigorous occupational restrictions in the lab, limited operation hours, and physical distancing in order to keep team members and lab staff safe. Additionally, a competition rule clarification required a complete redesign of the bridge in order to contend at nationals.

“This win is one of the greatest accomplishments in my life thus far.

I was not only able to lead a team with the help of the other leadership and advisors by my side but was able to do it differently than has been done in the past. We worked on restructuring leadership roles to get more people involved and share responsibilities. When

I look back on this accomplishment, I can also say that it was all done during a pandemic, which adds even more value to this win because of all of the changes, sacrifices, and difficulties that were encountered on this journey to be No. 1 in the nation,” added Huzaifa Lukmanji, the team Project Manager.

They placed first Overall and first in Construction Speed and Economy competitions, with top 20 finishes in the Lightness and Efficiency categories. In a year that emphasized construction speed, the assembly team of Huzaifa Lukmanji, Brian Roche and Fletcher D’Arcy put together the bridge in 1:49, 11 seconds faster than reigning back-toback champion Lafayette College.

“They put in long hours between regionals and nationals, they worked in the heat at the Coastal Engineering Laboratory, which is a large warehouse without air conditioning. They were able to reduce their time from four builders at over 4 minutes to three builders at 1:49,” said Taylor Rawlinson, Ph.D., the faculty advisor.

This is the Steel Bridge team’s third national championship win, the previous ones were in 1997 and 2015, with a recent second place finish in 2019.

“This team has shown tremendous resilience in a year that was very difficult to recruit without the opportunity to travel to competition and with operational constraints due to COVID. I look forward to next year and continuing to build a strong team culture that produces quality engineers that can design, fabricate and manage a project from start to finish,” Dr. Rawlinson said.

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STUDENTS

BUZZING AT THE TOP: CONCRETE CANOE WINS BACK-TO-BACK NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS the best and proved that we are the best.”

In this year’s competition, Polligator nested in the top three in all the competition categories. No other team competing was placed in the top three more than once. They placed second in the technical proposal and technical presentation categories, and third in the enhanced focus areas competition.

Top to bottom, left to right: Abigail Smith, Alexa McWilliams, Zaid Aldwikat, Suzanna Barna, Erik Huang, Collin Cole, Mauricio Medina, Madeleine Murphree, Lauren Chambers, Grace Kim, and Donny Spillane.

The University of Florida’s Concrete Canoe design team has done it again: they have won the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) National Concrete Canoe Competition for the second consecutive year. This year, the team faced a different challenge, which was to compete at the ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition virtually.

The competition was held from June 25 to 27 at University of Wisconsin– Platteville. UF’s team chose to center their design theme around a topic that focused on a vital matter by naming themselves Polligator.

“Polligator came from our team’s desire to choose a topic that brought attention to an important world issue. Also, UF has one of the few honeybee research labs in the country and it felt appropriate to pay tribute to the work that our university

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accomplishes,” said Suzanna Barna, a project manager and senior in civil engineering. “And our team fell in love with the honeybee, honeycomb and floral visual design theme it would create for this year’s canoe design.”

The team won in 2019 and last year’s competition was cancelled just hours before the team was supposed to travel to the competition. The sting of last year’s cancellation makes this win even greater, according to Mauricio Medina, a project manager and recent civil engineering alum.

“This year has been one large attempt at picking ourselves back up. I think we succeeded,” Medina added.

“After our 2019 national championship, I vowed to win another one. After two years of hard work here we are. Back-to-back means that it’s not a fluke we set out to be

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

“We have an outstanding group of students whose dedication and perseverance are simply unsurpassed. They have once again not only performed in exemplary fashion at the highest level of competition but have also managed to pass that tradition along to each subsequent generation of students in the program in a way that is truly remarkable,” said Robert J. Thieke, Ph.D., department head for civil and coastal engineering and concrete canoe team faculty advisor. “Our project managers, or co-captains, Suzanna Barna and Mauricio Medina rose to meet every challenge of this difficult year and provided inspirational leadership throughout the year-long process.”

The team has successfully foraged for top national placements for over half a decade.

The team has won first place in 2015, 2019 and 2021, and placed second in 2017 and 2018.

This comes on the heels of the UF Eckhoff Steel Bridge’s win, which makes it the second time in UF’s history that both teams have won their respective national competitions. The last time this happened was in 2015.

“Now that UF Civil Engineering has once again claimed the Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe national titles in the same year, we can now lay claim to be the only civil program to have done this twice,” Dr. Thieke said.

STUDENTS

IDENTIFYING AND FILLING THE GAPS: CIVIL STUDENT BRINGS STUDENT CHAPTER BACK TO LIFE

by Reba Liddy

Aldrin James B. Gaffud, a sixthyear senior, seeking dual degrees in civil engineering and architecture, received the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering’s Service to the Global Community Award for their global awareness and dedication in humanitarianism. Gaffud reestablished the Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM) student organization with a friend, Brandon Grandison, because they saw a dire need for diversity in STEM and a lack of support given to LGBTQIA+ students in these spaces.

The UF student chapter was originally created in 2013 and dissolved in 2016.

After it was reactivated in 2018, Gaffud

you deserve a seat at the table, and you are allowed to take up space,” Gaffud said.

“I want their experiences and navigation of STEM spaces, which are extremely heteronormative and male-dominated, to be easier than my own. That is why I wanted oSTEM to exist—to be a space for queer students to find that support.”

Gaffud said that their involvement is a piece of a larger progressive movement for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Revitalizing oSTEM inspired them by meeting and connecting with people who made them more passionate about their impending career. After graduation and taking a gap year, they plan to pursue a master’s in architecture and eventually,

led the organization as president for two years. Since its reinstatement, the group held professional networking events with tech companies, paid for students to attend the annual oSTEM National Conference and created sub-organizations in the chapter that are specific to different colleges and departments. During the spring semester, oSTEM hosted queer graduate students and faculty where they presented their research areas.

“College is overwhelming, especially coming from a marginalized community, and things like sexuality and gender identity should not be inhibitors to learning. At the end of the day, I hope the impact for LGBTQIA+ people in STEM is:

a doctoral degree to fulfill their dream of being a professor.

“I learned that there are no openly queer Nobel laureates in STEM, and I considered that a challenge. Because of my own experiences in academia and the minimal amount of openly queer professors, my ultimate professional aspiration is to become a professor,” they added.

Gaffud is the first student in more than a decade to pursue dual degrees in architecture and civil engineering at UF. They pursued engineering because of their tactile skills and interest in science and mathematics. They credit their experience with student organizations helping them become the person they are today.

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M Y H O P E D I M PA C T F O R L G B T Q I A+ P E O P L E IN STEM IS A SIMPLE REMINDER: YOU DESERVE A S E AT AT T H E TA B L E , AND YOU ARE ALLOWED T O TA K E U P S PA C E .

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“Through oSTEM and other organizations I have been involved in, I found friends that have been crucial to my success in college because they laughed with me when I needed joy and cried with me when I needed empathy in this very difficult academic environment. One of the most important things you can do to survive as a student is finding your community and support network,” Gaffud said.

oSTEM provides all LGBTQIA+ scholars academic and professional resources as well as queer-specific resources that can cater to specific niches and intersections in the LGBTQA+ community. For more information, visit https://www.instagram.com/ostemflorida. ← TABLE OF CONTENTS | ESSIE.UFL.EDU

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STUDENTS

CIVIL STUDENT RECEIVES AWARD

by Reba Liddy

DOCTORAL STUDENT IS A RECIPIENT FOR AAWE THESIS AWARD

by Reba Liddy

Suzanna Barna, a civil engineering student, was one of two recipients selected

by The American Society of Civil Engineers to receive the 2021 Y.C. Yang Civil Engineering Scholarship.

“Suzanna has from her freshman year combined outstanding academic performance with an absolutely unsurpassed record of service in ASCE,” said Robert J. Thieke, Ph.D., civil engineering department head and undergraduate coordinator.

“This is an extremely well-deserved honor, and we are proud to have her as a member of our department and a leader in our ASCE student chapter.”

Ryan Catarelli, Ph.D., the Wind Engineering Technical Manager in the Powell Lab and research assistant scientist, received the American Association for Wind Engineering’s (AAWE) Richard Marshall Award for his doctoral thesis on “Enhancing the Modalities of Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Modeling and Experimental Flow Simulation over Complex Topography.”

His thesis focused on the development of new instruments, such as the Terraformer and Flow Field Modulator, for experimental flow simulation in the boundary layer wind tunnel.

“This award is a great honor as it recognizes what the AAWE considers the best doctoral thesis for experimental methods in wind engineering for the past four years in the ‘Americas Region’ of the International Association for Wind Engineering,” Dr. Catarelli said.

ALGORITHM CREATED TO IDENTIFY TRAVELER COORDINATION GROUPS & IMPROVE EFFICIENCY IN ROUTE DECISIONS

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni

Several apps such as Waze and Google Map provide ways for travelers to share routing decisions with each other. These apps aggregate the data to provide information on the best routes to take and the time it takes to arrive at their destinations.

Apps do this via coordinated routing schemes (CRMs). But exactly who are the travelers that others should be coordinating with? CRMs have yet to determine this question. This was the goal of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project led

by Dr. Lili Du, an Associate Professor in the UF Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering. The project is titled “Forming Coordination Group for Coordinated Traffic Congestion Management”.

Wang Peng, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering was tasked with addressing this question and in developing a methodology. He worked on this project along with Dr. Du, his doctoral dissertation adviser. The main

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“An adaptive centroid-based clustering algorithm was designed to form coordination groups/clusters and was able to locate a ‘good’ number of clusters,” he said. “Also, properly forming coordination groups greatly improved the computation efficiency for the implementation of CRM with only minor compromises in system performance such as total system travel time.”

goals of the project were to identify the coordination potential between travelers and to group them. The new coordination groups were implemented independently into clusters, which were effective at providing routing solutions for travelers without over compromising system performance.

Part of Peng’s work included developing an algorithm, which was eventually successful at identifying clusters of travelers and their chosen routes.

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

A forthcoming paper on this topic by Wang and his adviser will be published in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. The paper is titled “Forming Coordination Group for Coordinated Traffic Congestion Management”.

The results of the NSF study have provided an approach for use in ridesharing, parking, and evacuation apps routinely accessed by many users competing for routes over a road network.

AU LU ST DM E NNTI S

CELEBRATING BLACK EXCELLENCE This campaign was created to amplify Black voices and celebrate Black excellence in our Gator Engineering community and beyond.

BRANDON HUNTER I started off in a bachelor’s program at the University of Florida in 2010, in civil engineering. I did so because that kind of the only engineering that I knew. I had barely known what engineering was before I applied to UF because I thought that engineers drove trains. I didn’t know anybody that were engineers—parents, uncles, none of that.

I had a math teacher and at the beginning of 12th grade she told she told me that I that I should do civil engineering and I said, “OK.” I got into UF with the intention to “help.” Each one of my parents are from low resource areas, weather in rural South Georgia or in the Philippines—I’m half Black, half Filipino. Different sides of my family came up pretty rough. I said, “OK maybe I can do civil engineering. It’s pretty much big legos, right?” And I can learn science, math and engineering to develop sustainable housing for those who do not have it.

I realized throughout my journey of being at the University of Florida that what people need more than sustainable housing was safe and affordable clean water and sanitation.

“

I decided to continue my studies at Duke for a Ph.D. in environmental engineering Dr. David Mazyck was key to me pursuing a Ph.D. He pretty much told me I was going, but he didn’t just tell me—he helped me every step of the way.

Brandon Hunter earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in civil engineering at the University of Florida. He is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Duke University.

DEVIN HARRIS

There’s been these people that have been steering me without me really knowing it in any way—guiding me in some way. I think I can collectively think about how many different people have impacted my trajectory.

I was part of a program called, “STEPUP.” Dr. [Johnathan F.K] Earl was the director of the STEPUP program at the time and he was a silent leader. He was just there and you got to see excellence, so I thought he was a big inspiration for my success. I thank a lot of my STEPUP cohort and then along the way, there has been faculty that I would describe it as they helped the path. As I was graduating, Dr. [Kirk] Hatfield who, was a chair, planted the seed of grad school—what is that all about? I still tell the story; I had the chance to meet with him a couple years ago to tell him.

In my senior exit interview we used to have to sit down with one of the faculty members in the department, I was assigned to Dr. Hatfield. I had class with him, but that was the gist of the interaction. It was really fascinating, he asked a bunch of questions like, “What are you doing after you graduate?” I said “I had a job,” and he was looking at my records and said, “You know your grades are really good.” I was like, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

He goes, “Have you considered grad school?” My response was, “What’s grad school?” He proceeded to tell me a little bit more about it. Undergrads don’t know always know these nuances. He gave me an overview of what it was and there was a big impact.

Devin Harris received a bachelor’s in civil engineering. Dr. Harris is currently a Professor in the Engineering Systems and Environment Department at the University of Virginia.

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ALUMNI

MAKING A CHANGE

FROM COAST TO COAST

by Reba Liddy

Elliott White Jr., Ph.D., (Ph.D., EES ‘19) knows firsthand the powerful effects mentoring can have on student success, and he is determined to repeat it. Dr. White credits his mentor for being his biggest motivator, advocate and critic. Now, Dr. White has accepted a position as a tenure-track assistant professor at Stanford University and he plans to model the same type of mentorship to guide underrepresented students.

realized that I was afraid to ask for help,” he said. “David reassured me that he took me on as a student because he believed in my ability to get a Ph.D. That conversation gave me a confidence boost that made this journey possible. To this day, I still sometimes struggle to ask for help because I have a very strong desire to do things on my own. However, I always reflect on how not asking for help has hurt me in the past and how reaching out helps me now.”

Dr. White was raised in a low-income neighborhood in New Orleans and forced to relocate due to Hurricane Katrina.

Throughout his time in New Orleans, his parents put a strong emphasis on education as a means to success.

Dr. White credits Dr. David Kaplan, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, for giving him full autonomy to grow in his research interests, providing a gentle hand of guidance when he felt unbounded, and being his biggest motivator, advocate and critic. Dr. White has modeled after Dr. Kaplan’s leadership style in his current position as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virgina.

After he received his bachelor’s from Iowa State University, Dr. White came to the University of Florida (UF) to pursue a doctoral degree in environmental engineering sciences. He wanted to restore Louisiana coastal wetlands.

“I knew that UF had a storied history in advancing the field of wetland sciences. I felt that starting my career here would be a great benefit to my overall career trajectory,” Dr. White said. “I reached out to David Kaplan for an opportunity to do my doctoral research with him. Through phone calls and email exchanges, we realized our common interest and fit. Solidifying that relationship made my journey to UF possible.”

“With mentoring, I feel I’m best when I act more as a cheerleader rather than a coach. My goal is to always help people find their career passions and then discuss ways to get on that path.

I give them the room to explore while dropping in to give guidance when they might be lost or pass along opportunities that might interest them. Additionally, I think it is important to plug them into my professional network to increase their exposure and help them build a network for collaborations and career opportunities,” Dr. White added.

Dr. White recalls that the transition to his doctoral degree forced him to use his voice to seek guidance.

But trying to balance classes, research and adulthood in his first semester put him on academic probation.

“I spent winter break distraught because I was sure David would fire me. We had an honest and reflective conversation at the start of the next semester. Over the course of talking, I

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ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

He uses ecology, hydrology, biogeochemistry and remote sensing to study the effects climate change induced sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion have on coastal wetland vegetation.

This move to the Pacific Coast will expand his previous experience in the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts.

Dr. White sees this new faculty appointment as an opportunity to mentor underrepresented students.

“I recognize that there are not many Black professors and that the numbers for other underrepresented groups are not great either.

A strong body of evidence points to the lack of mentors who are conscious to the challenges of being from an underrepresented group in STEM, exposure to explicit racial discrimination, and a lack of other underrepresented group role models to serve as inspiration. Overall, there needs to be a shift in how we recruit, train, and create spaces for these students, but it will take a long time to see systemic change. Taking on this hidden burden may have some impact on my scientific output, but I think it is more than worthwhile to ensure that we start creating ecosystems of diversity instead of pipelines,” Dr. White said.

ALUMNI

HISTORY IN THE MAKING: DARINA CASTILLO

by Reba Liddy

Darina Castillo, Ph.D., earned her doctorate in environmental engineering sciences in 2013.

After graduating, she accepted a position at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management. She gives a brief overview of her journey to her position as site manager and what she is doing to inspire those who come after her.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by people and opportunities to overcome challenges. I am inspired by finding opportunities to create solutions to problems and opening doors for others when they may not see the path ahead of them.

Who helped you get where you are today?

I have had many people support me along the journey. These include my immediate and extended family, mentors, advisors and friends from programs and organizations that I have been involved with. These include Dr. Anne Donnelly, who is currently with the UF Center for Undergraduate Research.

Previously, she was the program director for the SEAGEP Program and that was instrumental in providing funding for the first few years at University of Florida. My co-advisors Dr. David Kaplan and Dr. JoAnn Mossa who ensured that I developed the skills necessary to complete my dissertation and become the multifaceted environmental engineer that I am today. As my dissertation advisor, Dr. Kaplan was able to get me through that last year of my graduate studies. Dr. Mossa is in the Geography department, and she was co-chair for my dissertation. She was pivotal to the success of my work because she helped me develop my dissertation topic and provided me opportunities even though the Geography department wasn’t my home department. I spent more than half my time in the Geography department under her tutelage, so she was a very important

component, and she continues to find opportunities to either enhance my work or utilize the work that we did together.

How do you hope to inspire the next generation?

I hope to inspire the next generation by continuing to model that hard work and attitude can open doors that they never knew existed. Additionally, I hope to inspire the next generation by modeling, seeking out opportunities, and not putting boundaries on myself—and this is something I have to tell myself that sometimes because it’s tough.

Also, continuing to be a resource to those that come behind me so that they can either follow my path or create new paths for themselves.

How does being a Black woman in the field help you mentor the next generation?

What advice would you give to students preparing for the workplace?

My strongest piece of advice would be to encourage students to seek out opportunities and organizations to provide service within the university or the community. That was pivotal for me because it created many opportunities to excel academically, give back to the community, hone technical and professional skills and for me to travel internationally. Additionally, I would not have heard about the Presidential Management Fellowship without being involved with NSF Innovation Through Institutional Integration (I3) Graduate Student Advisory Council. So, seek out the organizations, because those organizations provide great opportunities for you to expand beyond what you’re familiar with.

I’m probably one of the only African American people in the technical arena of the office and that provides opportunities for me to provide a different perspective and mentor others including students that we bring into the department. We bring in interns each year and I haven’t worked directly with interns, but I usually get an opportunity to have one-onone conversations with them. I have been able to leverage my past experiences such as being a past regional leader of the National Society of Black Engineers; that experience has allowed me to connect the Department of Energy to the universities across the West Coast, where they may not be aware of the expertise within the various universities. It’s been a little bit of both ways where people can come to me and I can explain what the department does and how they fit in, or the department can come to me with their recruiting needs and I can say, ‘you know go look at Cal Poly,’ or ‘Go look at Sacramento State,’ which is my alma mater.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR APPOINTS ALUMNUS MEMBER OF BROWARD HEALTH BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

by Diane Choate

Christopher Pernicano (BSME ’89), an esteemed alumnus of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, was recently appointed to the North Florida Hospital District (Broward Health) Board of Commissioners.

Pernicano currently serves as the chief technology officer at Tellus LLC, a leading provider of mobile care delivery, Electronic Visit Verification and claims processing technology designed especially for the home health and long-term care markets.

His business experience includes more than 20 years of working in the finance technology (FinTech) space across all aspects of small and medium company operations. Through Pernicano’s experience in finance technology, he will lend strong skills and expertise to advising the Broward Health Board of Commissioners.

care, transplant center, orthopedics, cardiovascular services, comprehensive stroke care, maternity and neonatal care, a network of community healthcare centers and more.

As one of the 10 largest public healthcare systems in the nation, Broward Health is comprised of more than 30 locations throughout Broward County and offers a variety of healthcare services, including a Level I trauma center, an award-winning children’s hospital, comprehensive cancer

Broward Health is governed by the sevenmember Board of Commissioners. The Board exercises budgetary authority, selects the senior executive management, participates in the fiscal management, provides taxing authority and determines the scope of services to be provided to the community. The President/CEO of Broward Health reports to the Board.

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RESEARCH

VIRTUALLY IMPROVING EMERGENCY RESPONSE TRAINING WITH NSF AWARD

by Reba Liddy and Cynthia Roldán Hernández

ric Jing Du, Ph.D., associate professor of civil engineering in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment (ESSIE), along with colleagues from Texas A&M University and Virginia Tech, has been awarded a $6.5 million grant by the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator (C-Accel) effort to develop a mixed reality-enabled training system to bring the latest robot technologies to emergency response.

Throughout the years, emergency response training has been challenged by the lack of technology adoption and funding. This multi-university project will focus on training first responders to work with future augmentation technologies, such as robots, exoskeletons and augmented reality.

Dr. Du will be leading the development of the virtual reality platform, since it coincides with his other projects that focus on virtual reality.

“We will be simulating a large scale, multi-hazard disaster, where different units of emergency responders will have to work together to tackle complex and dangerous situations,” Dr. Du said. “To overcome cognitive and physical limitations of first responders, the simulated tasks require a seamless collaboration between humans and robots, as well as intuitive information visualization tech.”

By the end of the project, Dr. Du and colleagues hope to gain a better understanding in solving technology 24

requirements and training needs for emergency response professionals.

They plan to formulate a training protocol for professionals to master these technologies.

The NSF Convergence Accelerator effort is awarded to create partnerships between academic and non-academic entities to solve problems throughout the nation.

HOW A ROBOT DEVELOPED AT UF COULD HELP FIRST RESPONDERS SEE THROUGH WALLS DURING RESCUES Dr. Du is leading a University of Florida research team that is working on a robot dog that has the ability to enter an enclosed space, scan it, and provide humans with a visual of what’s inside, an application that could lessen dangerous situations for first responders.

Dr. Du said the inspiration behind the robotic dog was learning that firefighters often get trapped in dangerous places because of the unfamiliarity of the environments during rescues.

The dogs have the ability to scan a room in three seconds and quickly build a 3D model, which is sent to

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augmented reality goggles and allows the user to see inside a room before walking into it.

Du said he spent a lot of time thinking about what the renderings would look like once they got the dog working.

Still, when it actually worked, he said it surprised him.

“The moment you see through the wall, you feel like you’re Superman,” Dr. Du said. “ It was very impressive.”

The team is working with a facility in Texas that trains hundreds of firefighters annually, with the goal of collecting their opinions to improve the system, Dr. Du added.

But the applications can extend beyond firefighters.

Robotic dogs could be deployed during post-disaster inspections of structures.

“We are often putting civil engineers in jeopardy,” he added. “We believe this tech will totally increase the productivity of structural inspection and also mitigate the risk that we are posing to the civil engineers.”

RESEARCH

NHERI RECEIVES A FIVE-YEAR, $4.5 MILLION NSF GRANT

TO CONTINUE WIND HAZARD RESEARCH AND EXPAND K-12 TRAINING PROGRAMS

by Reba Liddy

esearchers in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment (ESSIE) in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida received a $4.5 million cooperative agreement from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This funding is a renewal of an existing Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Experimental Facility, which supports a highly skilled staff of engineers and technicians to facilitate studies for NSF-funded researchers from across the country to advance experimental wind hazard research. The funding will also support a K-12 STEM teacher training program to be implemented throughout Florida.

“The research conducted in our facility enhances the understanding of wind hazards and the impacts they have on civil infrastructure,” said Jennifer Bridge, Ph.D., the principal investigator and director in the NHERI Experimental Facility. “This new knowledge leads to safer, more efficient and more resilient infrastructure.”

The wind hazard experimental facility at UF is one of seven NHERI facilities throughout the United States that support research on natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornados, along with structural damage mitigation and societal impacts.

The UF facility is located in the Powell Family Structures & Materials Laboratory on the University of Florida’s East Campus. The central apparatus is a rapidly reconfigurable boundary layer wind tunnel coupled with a 319-fan flow field modulator. Each fan can be individually controlled to replicate transient extreme wind phenomena. This advanced flow

control was developed in-house and allows researchers to recreate a wide variety of wind hazard scenarios from downbursts to hurricanes. Infrastructure test subject models are created using a suite of 3D printers, a large format 3D router and machine shop.

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THE RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN OUR FA C I L I T Y E N H A N C E S T H E U N D E R S TA N D I N G OF WIND HAZARDS A N D T H E I M PA C T S T H E Y H AV E O N C I V I L INFRASTRUCTURE. THIS NEW KNOWLEDGE LEADS TO SAFER, MORE EFFICIENT AND MORE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE.

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- JENNIFER BRIDGE, PH.D.

Concurrent with the research, this NHERI facility pursues a STEM education mission by providing tours and handson projects for K-12 students, and curriculum co-development with K-12 teachers. Jeremy A. Magruder Waisome, Ph.D., the education specialist in NHERI and a lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education, says that support will be allocated to the development and implementation of a unique teacher training program. “I’m a proponent of the learner-centered approach to teaching.

We will invite teacher participants in the program to help develop what they feel is necessary to enhance their K-12

curriculum,” Dr. Waisome said. The K-12 Teacher Training Program will be focused on underrepresented groups and Title I schools.

“In the first year, we’re going to look at design standards that are relevant to wind hazards, and we want to encourage a deeper understanding in design thinking, inquiry and engineering in general,” Dr. Waisome added. This program will provide networking opportunities and methods to improve the self-efficacy of teachers while exposing students to a diverse work environment in engineering.

Dr. Waisome explains that this program can have a long-lasting impact on future generations, similar to her experience with a STEM program she attended in middle school. “In seventh grade, I went to a summer camp at a college in Georgia and I learned about different fields in STEM. I got to experiment, design things and get exposure to engineering. We went to a big fancy laboratory and I got to tour a nuclear reactor facility. The person operating the reactor was a Black woman with a Ph.D.—I saw her, and I knew that is who I wanted to be. I came back home, and I told my mom that I want to be an engineer, I want to have a Ph.D. in engineering,” Dr. Waisome said.

Including the initial funding in 2015, the NHERI facility at UF will have received a cumulative $8 million by 2025 to support natural hazards research.

“Securing another five years of support for UF NHERI places ESSIE and the University of Florida at the center of a small number of distinguished institutions conducting state-of-the-art wind hazards research in the laboratory,” said Kirk Hatfield, Ph.D., ESSIE Director.

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RESEARCH

PREDICTING DAMAGE FROM HURRICANES BEFORE THEY MAKE LANDFALL

by Diane Choate

eather forecasting systems today predict ever more accurately where hurricanes will make landfall, but tomorrow they may also predict how much damage the hurricanes will do. Maitane Olabarrieta, Ph.D., associate professor, and Arthriya Subgranon, Ph.D., assistant professor, in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering within the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, are the principal investigators of a multi-organizational project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

Coastal hazards will be forecast using the open-source, community-developed Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Waves Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system. The result of the modeling will be a series of static and dynamic grids that will enable prediction of gross coastal hazards at the regional scale and detailed morphological change at the local scale, where the highest impacts are predicted.

COAWST will be used to forecast wave, sediment, surge, and structure response (WSSSR). This COAWST-WSSSR forecasting system will be applied to directly predict the coastal response to landfall hurricanes.

This four-year, $1M project aims to improve capabilities to forecast coastal impacts from land-fall hurricanes, including waves, total water levels, flooding extent and duration, maximum current speeds, sediment transport, damage and losses to structures. The ability to accurately predict the impacts of extreme storms is key for coastal hazard mitigation.

Under the guidance of Dr. Olabarrieta and Dr. Subgranon, UF will take the lead on developing the computational architecture throughout 2021. Once the architecture is complete, the forecasting system and developed grids will be operated at each of the four institutions that are part of the overall team - the Gulf Mexico sub-team located at Louisiana State University, the FL sub-team located at UF, the East Coast sub-team located at Fathom Science in Raleigh, NC, and the Northeast sub-team located at USGS Woods Hole in Woods Hole, MA.

Dr. Olabarrieta will manage four sub-teams to develop a computational framework that will predict the types of damage that will be caused by the imminent landfall of hurricanes along the eastern U.S. seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The project will involve: 1) developing the computational architecture needed to run the coastal impact models in forecast mode, 2) running the models in real-time forecast mode, 3) verifying the results of the models, and 4) analyzing the most efficient ways of disseminating the results (and the uncertainty associated with the results) to the public.

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“The framework will be constructed to run autonomously. When a hurricane is within five days of predicted landfall, we will begin providing a daily forecast and continue until landfall occurs,” Dr. Olabarrieta said.

Data for storm damage predictions will be collected during hurricane seasons in years 2022-2024. In off-season periods during those years, selected storms will be hind-casted. That is, actual storm damage

ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE & ENVIRONMENT

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THE FRAMEWORK WILL BE CONSTRUCTED TO RUN A U T O N O M O U S LY. W H E N A HURRICANE IS WITHIN F I V E D AY S O F P R E D I C T E D L A N D FA L L , W E W I L L B E G I N P R O V I D I N G A D A I LY FORECAST AND CONTINUE U N T I L L A N D FA L L O C C U R S .

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measurements to coastal topography, infrastructure (roads and bridges) and structures (commercial and residential) will be compared to the predictions made by the forecasting models. These comparisons will be used to determine the effectiveness and sensitivity of the forecasts.

Results from this exemplary National Oceanographic Partnership Program project, such as the development and verification of coastal flooding, erosion and infrastructure damage forecasting systems, will be highly beneficial to other government research and coastal management programs focused on coastal hazards and risk. The results of the forecasting system will be made available via a Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services data server, and they will be displayed through a portal.

Lessons learned within this project will be disseminated in conferences and will be incorporated in the graduate classes of the principal investigators.

RESEARCH

PHILLIPS RECEIVES NSF GRANT TO OPTIMIZE BUILDINGS

by Reba Liddy

building’s shape is one of the earliest design decisions that has an impact on its structural system, performance, life-cycle costs and architectural appeal. The current design of buildings is based on blueprints that have historically provided good performance for structural loads, performance under extreme loads and life-cycle costs. Brian Phillips, Ph.D., a civil engineering associate professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, received a National Science Foundation grant to provide innovative solutions to optimize buildings and improve current practices.

With support from this $530,000 grant, Dr. Phillips will pioneer a new framework that will benefit all aspects of building design and construction — including architects, engineers and building owners. He states that his research will also explore how changes in building shape will impact items such as structural loads, occupant comfort, aesthetics and

cost. His studies move beyond current practices of trial-and-error approaches by incorporating wind tunnel testing and machine learning. Current practices do not explore significant portions of the design space and reinforces conventional shapes over modern solutions.

Typical design considers a few candidate building shapes. Wind tunnel testing is conducted to determine the structural loads, but little to no design iteration is performed,” Dr. Phillips said. “This research will bring together numerical search algorithms, advanced manufacturing, experimental wind tunnel testing and machine learning for a systematic and intelligent search of building design alternatives.”

This current grant builds on research Dr. Phillips conducted in 2016 by combining cyber-physical systems with engineering design. With that NSF-funded project, he developed the first mechatronic building models for wind tunnel testing to explore the impact of changes in building dynamics

and aerodynamics on structural loads.

Dr. Phillips will conduct research at the wind hazard experimental facility located in the Powell Family Structures & Materials Laboratory at the University of Florida.

Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Experimental Facility houses a one-of-its-kind rapidly reconfigurable boundary layer wind tunnel coupled with a 319-fan flow field modulator. Dr. Phillips and graduate student, Wei-Ting Lu, will use the facility to replicate extreme wind phenomena and model structural loads. Wei-Ting Lu will assist Dr. Phillips in building model design and fabrication, conducting experiments and computational wind engineering simulations.

“This research will enable the intelligent exploration of candidate designs, which has the potential to discover new and innovative solutions to deliver taller, lighter, and more sustainable buildings. As coastal populations expand, shelter in place strategies will become more common for natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes. We need to ensure that these buildings can safely shelter occupants while continuing to make architectural statements that improve community well-being,” Dr. Phillips added.

Dr. Phillips’ research group uses a KUKA robotic arm to fabricate a building model for wind tunnel testing in the Powell Family Structures & Materials Laboratory on UF’s East Campus. Wei-Ting Lu, a civil engineering graduate student, administered a KUKA robotic arm to fabricate a building model for wind tunnel testing in the Powell Lab.

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INSIGHTS

INTO SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING

THE GATOR100 Alumni from the University of Florida have created and guided some of the most innovative and profitable businesses in the nation and the world. Each year, the UF Alumni Association, in partnership with the UF Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center recognizes these amazing entrepreneurs with the Gator100 Awards.

Congratulations to our talented Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering alumni who made the 2021 list for leading one of the world’s Fastest Growing Gator Companies!

10

Carbonxt, Inc.

31

JK2 Scenic

45

Tellus

29

J2 Solutions, Inc.

33

Gulf Coast Underground, LLC

78

Planate Management Group

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