CEIE Annual Report 2021

2021

CEIE +CEI

SID AND REVA DEWBERRY DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING + CIVIL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT

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George Mason University’s American Society of Civil Engineers chapter gives students a chance outside of the classroom to learn and test new skills.

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Table of Contents

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Letter From the Chair of the Civil Engineering Institute.............................................2 Letter From the Chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering.............................................3 RESEARCH OF CONSEQUENCE ..................................................................................4

AI Aids Those with ADD in Construction....................................................................7 From Invention to Impact: I-Corps at Mason.............................................................8 Mason DEVA Project Addresses State-wide Air Pollution.......................................11

Shoring Up Maryland’s Coastline Against Sea-level Rise.......................................12 New Lab Closes the Loop on Water Sustainability..................................................15 STUDENT LEARNING ..................................................................................................16

Civil Engineering Student Draws Inspiration From Her Birthplace..........................18 Student’s Internship Leads to Job in the Heart of the Capitol.................................21 Student Notable Achievements...............................................................................22

FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND MEMBERS .......................................................24

Faculty Notable Achievements................................................................................26 Sam Salem Wins Educator of the Year Award.........................................................26 Full-time Faculty.......................................................................................................28 Adjunct Faculty........................................................................................................29 Civil Engineering Institute’s Current Members.........................................................30 Peter Jackson Rigby, Jr. Farewell............................................................................31 Luncheon History and Previous Luncheon Awardees.............................................32 Engineering Excellence Leadership Award.............................................................33

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Letter From the Chair of the Civil Engineering Institute Dear members and friends

We continued our activities and even gained new members who are alumni and are passionate about advancing the department.

Being in a virtual world did not dampen the CEI Board of Directors’ support for the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering in 2021. We continued our activities and even gained new members who are alumni and are passionate about advancing the department.

One of the missions of the board has been to guide the department for ways to improve its educational programs. The program’s educational objectives and the student outcomes are evaluated periodically and help the university maintain a high level of education for the students.

From this review, the department is creating a construction management program. Board members who are current practitioners or retired professionals have been offering valuable feedback, which allows the university

to embrace some of the values and practices successfully used in the field for decades and the latest technologies.

Another accomplishment we are working on is developing a new senior design project course that will be two semesters long. The increased length will permit the students to learn the techniques and standards, as well as review the projects provided to them in the first semester.

In the second semester, the students will be ready to dive into design.

Once again, we held our annual meeting in virtual format. We honored Paul Wiedefeld, the 2020 Engineering Excellence and Leadership Award recipient. Paul’s achievements at the helm of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, his leadership roles at BWI Airport, Maryland Transit Administration, and in the private sectors, and his contributions to the field of engineering guided the board in our selection.

I wish the board and the university many years of successful collaboration towards future successes. g Sincerely, Cerasela M. Cristei, PhD, PE Chair, Civil Engineering Institute

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Letter From the Chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering Dear alumni and friends, It’s my pleasure to present our 2021 annual report. I am pleased to share that the CEIE Department continues to grow strongly and smartly, despite the challenges we face because of the pandemic. We ended the year with a record high incoming undergraduate class enrollment of more than 60 first-year students. The number of PhD students enrolled continued to grow steadily to 56 students, still the highest among all PhD programs in the Volgenau School of Engineering.

This year our research expenditures reached an all-time high of $3.1 million, a 25 percent gain from the previous year. Our researchers use the latest technologies, including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, remote sensing, and building information modeling to find new and innovative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.

In this issue, you can read about some of our outstanding projects that ensure our water is clean, transportation systems are efficient, and buildings, bridges, and other structures are safe.

In 2021, our students and faculty earned national and international recognition. Student teams competed against other engineering schools and received numerous awards and prizes. Most notably, they placed second in the Water Environment Foundation 2021 International Student Design Competition, held in Chicago, Illinois. This rigorous competition included 23 elite student engineering teams from five countries. This is only the second time a Virginia engineering school has reached the podium in the 20-year history of the competition.

Our faculty also received several notable awards and recognitions. Elise Miller-Hooks was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at the University of Texas, Austin, Celso Ferreira was nominated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program to serve as an author for the Fifth National Climate Assessment Coastal Effects publication, and I was honored myself with receiving the National 2021 Educator of the Year Award from the Construction Management Association of America.

These achievements and successes wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work of our faculty, staff, and students, and the support of our alumni and CEI and Advisory Board members, whom I want to thank and wish them all another healthy, successful, and happy year! g Best, Sam Salem, PhD, PE, CPC, LEED AP Department Chair and Dewberry Professor

We ended the year with a record high incoming undergraduate class enrollment of more than 60 first-year students.

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Students explore the flora and fauna of Happy Creek as part of a week-long course at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation Campus.

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ECNEUQESNOC FO

HCRAES R Our department tackles big-picture problems using the latest technologies, such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and remote sensing, to improve construction safety, identify structural deficiencies, and predict changing weather patterns

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Artificial intelligence (AI) helps construction workers level out their variable attention span on the job.

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AI Aids Those with ADD in Construction Using virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI), a team of researchers at George Mason University is taking a wrecking ball to barriers faced by neurodiverse individuals in construction.

The Mason team partnered with researchers at Purdue University on a $2 million National Science Foundation project. The project will explore the future of construction and identify ways to use human-robot teaming to open the field of construction to neurodiverse individuals, specifically those with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

People with ADD or ADHD have more variable attention than those without it, which includes great strengths and weaknesses. Their strengths include incredible problem-solving skills and creativity. Their tendency to be disorganized, have a wandering mind, and take part in more highrisk behaviors can limit their ability to succeed in specific fields, like construction.

“As the future of construction is moving toward technological coupling, workers and machines have to team up to accomplish project goals. Using AI, robots can learn to understand, react, and predict human behaviors. This collaboration could make it possible for us to bring neurodiverse people into construction,” says Behzad Esmaeili, assistant professor in CEIE. Robots, or cobots, could learn to spot inattention, riskier behaviors, and mistakes while their human partners can be trained to work with these robots to improve their collaboration.

At least 5 percent of the population has been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. Still, many are undiagnosed, says Brenda Bannan, professor of learning design and technology in the College of Education and Human Development and co-PI on the grant.

For AI robots to learn human behavior, they have to gather data, which has limitations on construction sites.

Craig Yu, assistant professor of computer science and co-PI, uses VR and works with the research team to develop a virtual environment to simulate different scenarios on

construction sites, including risky and accidental situations. “We can run various simulations and collect plenty of data that AI robots and systems can learn from, without posing any risks,” says Yu. The team can also use the virtual environment to train people and construction teams to work with these robots. “Using VR lowers costs and risks, and it can be used to further improve efficiency and productivity on construction sites,” says Yu. Yu, Esmaeili, Bannan, and their co-PI Maurice Kugler, professor of public policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government, will employ the observations and data from numerous variable sensors, like eye trackers, cognitive brain monitoring, and other psychophysiological and biomechanical metrics to better understand the behavior of people with ADD and ADHD on construction sites and teach robots about how this population uniquely works. g

People with ADD or ADHD have more variable attention than those without it, which includes great strengths and weaknesses.

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From Invention to Impact: I-Corps at Mason

The creation of an NSF I-Corps site at Mason has added a new dimension to the university’s already robust entrepreneurship and innovation infrastructure.

George Mason University researchers are constantly working to tackle serious real-world problems. For these academic discoveries to have the greatest possible impact in the shortest span of time, they would have to be brought out of the lab and into society at scale. A highly efficient vehicle for this is commercialization.

However, the start-up ecosystem and academia can be very different worlds. Good entrepreneurs may have difficulty translating scientific insights to the marketplace. Academics are often motivated by the pure love of science and may struggle to identify viable commercial opportunities.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)’s I-Corps program is an accelerator that helps entrepreneurs and researchers work together “to bring invention to impact.”

The program consists of both financial support and experiential education designed to fast-track the commercialization of scientific discoveries.

Mason serves as an official I-Corps site, supporting local grantees through the exploratory stages of venturebuilding, as well as preparing them to apply for the national-level program.

The current site grantees are David J. Miller, director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, and Ali Andalibi, senior associate dean of the College of Science.

I-Corps teams comprise an entrepreneurial lead, typically a student or post-doc; an academic lead, usually a staff or faculty member; and a mentor, who can be a nonMason affiliate.

Mason civil engineering professor David Lattanzi and Mason alum Ali Khaloo made up one I-Corps team. They said the I-Corps curriculum helped them develop their initial idea—a centralized data management platform for civil engineers and inspectors—into a start-up with clear and feasible plans for growth.

For Khaloo, who graduated from Mason with a PhD in civil and infrastructure engineering, I-Corps was “life-changing,” setting him on a path to becoming the entrepreneur and graduate of Cornell Tech Runway Startups he is today.

“The creation of an NSF I-Corps site at Mason has added a new dimension to the university’s already robust entrepreneurship and innovation infrastructure,” said Hina Mehta, director of Mason’s Office of Technology Transfer. “It helps tie together our research faculty and graduate and undergraduate communities with the broader business and entrepreneurial communities in Northern Virginia and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.” g

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I-Corps program is an accelerator that helps entrepreneurs and researchers work together “to bring invention to impact.”

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Former graduate student Nada Adibah and senior Gabriella Cuevas demonstrate the installation of air pollution monitors in a vehicle.

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Mason DEVA Project Addresses State-wide Air Pollution Taking a deep breath of fresh, clean air is a necessity many take for granted.

This basic yet vital physical function is essential for health and well-being.

Mason is doing its part to protect clean air through the “Detailed Emissions in Virginia: Novel Approaches to Estimate Air Pollution Sources for Environmental Justice” (DEVA) research project funded by the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research.

A dedicated team of Mason professors and undergrads will apply their research skills in 2021-2022 while exploring the sources of air pollution in Virginia and how it directly affects the surrounding communities.

“DEVA will examine the major sources of air pollution in Virginia,” says Jenna Krall, an assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health and DEVA project co-lead at Mason.

According to Lucas Henneman, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Mason and DEVA project

lead, some populations can be more exposed to air pollution than others.

He says in the state of Virginia, there is a gap in research that explores the link between air pollution sources and vulnerable populations. One goal of DEVA is to try to fill this gap, and the research findings could play an important role in shaping clean air policies.

“We will study emission sources in Virginia—like power plants, cars, and factories—and see what the surrounding community around these sources is like in terms of income, race, and proximity to air pollution sources,” says Henneman.

An important aspect of the funded work is providing undergraduates an opportunity to perform academic research under faculty mentorship.

Students benefit from learning effective research practices that can apply to their careers.

According to junior Gabriella Armada, she sees working on DEVA as a way to help her become a better data scientist.

“I wanted to apply my data science skills outside my courses, and I wanted a real-world application like DEVA where I could apply those skills,” says Armada, who is majoring in computational and data science at Mason.

Air pollution is a major concern for Mason junior Sara Alhassani, a statistics major, and she says working on research that can help to change clean air policies is important to her.

We will study emission

“Looking at how air pollution affects people of lower income and minority groups is a big issue,” says Alhassani.

“Being able to identify the root causes and how to minimize air pollution can have a domino effect on everything else, like health.”

what the surrounding

The Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust was founded in 1981 with the mission of benefiting the people of Virginia. The Jeffress Trust Program provides seed funding to support one-year pilot studies, like DEVA. g

sources in Virginia— like power plants, cars, and factories—and see community around these sources is like in terms of income, race, and proximity to air pollution sources.

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Shoring Up Maryland’s Coastline Against Sea-level Rise This work will give us a window into the future, to see what kind of protection we can expect and that’s going to offer the state information so that they can proactively prioritize adaptation strategies.

According to scientists, the Chesapeake Bay region has one of the highest rates of water level rise in the U.S., due to sea-level rise and sinking land. In the next 30 years, scientists predict that Maryland may see as much as an additional two feet of sea-level rise. Maryland’s coastline, however, has an abundance of habitats that can help mitigate the effects of sea-level rise.

Associate Professor Celso Ferreira has teamed up with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources and the Nature Conservancy to predict the effects of sea-level rise and consider strategies to address the situation as part of a three-year $738,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The project will measure the water levels and the wave energy during extreme events in various locations along Maryland’s extensive shoreline.

The team uses sensors, placing the instruments in the water so they can measure the storms of today and collect information about the protection the natural areas provide. After the researchers download the data, they use computer modeling to extend that data into a future time. As they do this, they run a variety of climate change scenarios.

Ferreira says the biggest limitation is that they can’t physically and financially put sensors across the entire state. That’s where the other stakeholders come in. “We rely on stakeholders to help us decide the most representative and strategic locations that we should be monitoring,” he says, “So, there are six and there is a lot of generalization that we do. That’s where the computer modeling comes in.”

The team will be measuring living shorelines, different types of vegetation, freshwater marsh, saltwater marsh, and the coastal bays.

To do this they rotate the sensors around to collect data that provides the information they need. Due to underwater conditions during extreme events, and because they do not have telemetry equipment, the team must travel to the marshes to place the sensors, retrieve them, download their data, and then replace them.

The results from the project will help Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources assess the various scenarios and develop strategies to effectively cope with the situation. g

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Associate professor Celso Ferreira measures storm surge and sea-level rise on Maryland’s coastline.

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Graduate student, Meghana Kuppa in the Water Systems Chemistry Lab at Mason’s Potomac Science Center.

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New Lab Closes Loop on Water Sustainability The water that pours out from your kitchen faucet goes through a lot to make it to your home. Assistant Professor Kirin Emlet Furst wants to use her new high-tech Water Systems Chemistry Lab at the Potomac Science Center to close the loop on water and increase the efficiency of those processes by taking a systems approach.

Furst, a faculty member in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, believes a systems approach is the best way to solve the world’s safe water problems. “Our research lab is primarily focused on removing organic contaminants in drinking water systems and portable reuse systems,” says Furst.

The water treatment process has many steps: source water protection, water treatment, the distribution of the water, and what people are actually exposed to in their homes. “A lot of researchers and research labs focus on one of these processes, but we have projects that touch each part of the water system,” Furst says.

Furst’s main research interest is in reducing disinfection byproducts caused by reactions between dissolved organic materials and water disinfectants. The disinfectants used in water are essential to preventing water-borne pathogens, but when they react with materials that remain in the water, they can create toxins that have numerous health effects.

“To solve the disinfection byproducts problem, we have to look at the bigger picture. It’s hard to test their effects, and there are dozens of opportunities for these toxins to be introduced, so we can’t look at one stage in the process,” she says.

Furst and the graduate and undergraduate students in her lab are also working on ways to increase affordable water treatment methods for low-income areas and increase the treatment and reuse of wastewater.

In addition, some of her graduate students are looking into creating new types of filters, others at reducing phthalates.

The advanced equipment in her lab gives her and her students the ability to tackle numerous parts of the water treatment systems, says Furst. And she is looking forward to the new and innovative projects her undergraduate and graduate students will take on. g

The disinfectants used in water are essential to preventing water-borne pathogens, but when they react with materials that remain in the water, they can create toxins that have numerous health effects.

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Nicholas Farmer (BS ‘20) during his summer internship with Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. Farmer is standing in front of the George Mason University Core Campus construction project.

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TNEDUTS

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Our students develop skills and discover new technologies while establishing a foundation for life-long learning.

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Civil Engineering Student Draws Inspiration From Her Birthplace Civil engineering major Karla Pineda’s undergraduate career is about to end.

Yet, as she prepares to embark on her accelerated master’s program, she reflects on what inspired her to study civil engineering

When I traveled home [El Salvador], it was hard to see the harsh difference in infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, and that made me more interested in the transportation side of civil engineering.

Karla Pineda is also a member of Mason’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Born in El Salvador, Pineda and her family moved to Northern Virginia when she was 4 years old. She always had an interest in STEM and loved working on tangible projects, so she quickly realized civil engineering was her path.

But visits back to El Salvador led her to concentrate on transportation engineering. “When I traveled home, it was hard to see the harsh difference in infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, and that made me more interested in the transportation side of civil engineering,” she says.

Pineda is specifically interested in the intersection between transportation and sustainability. “In El Salvador, and many other places, you can clearly see how pollution has affected the lands and the communities. I know we can do better, we have one earth, and we have to make changes.”

She sees transportation as an accessible path to pursue sustainable efforts because almost everyone uses some form of transportation regularly.

“There are little modifications we can make in transportation engineering that will have a huge impact,” says Pineda.

Changes like recycling asphalt, using more sustainable materials, and adjusting one’s lifestyle can make a difference.

Mason’s student club, Engineers for International Development (EfID), fascinated Pineda because of their mission to tackle these grand challenges, one small change at a time. Currently, she serves as the vice president and works with the president and the executive board to coordinate events centered around sustainability.

“Typically, we take a trip down to Ecuador in the winter and summer to help a village build a sustainable water supply, but with COVID-19, we haven’t been able to do that,” she says. “We have gotten creative to help the village from a distance and creating other socially distanced events.”

As part of her accelerated master’s program in transportation engineering, Pineda has already started taking graduate courses during her undergraduate education. She says she chose the accelerated master’s option because it made sense for her long-term career goals and allows her to learn more about transportation engineering. “Getting a master’s in one year instead of two is a great opportunity. I get to take graduate courses in my undergraduate career, and in five years, I come out with a solid foundation of knowledge in civil and transportation engineering,” she says.

“I love school, I love to learn, and the bachelor’s program gives a strong foundation in civil engineering, but I want to be prepared for a career in transportation engineering,” says Pineda g

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Students (from left to right) Nikolas Hawley, Mauricio Ramos, Karla Pineda, Beverly Duran, and Rayan Elmisurati work together on building a concrete canoe team.

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At the beginning of 2022 there were 792 internship opportunities available to civil engineering students.

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Student’s Internship Leads to Job in the Heart of the Capitol When Lindsey Davis attended Mason’s student chapter American Society of Civil Engineers career fair in fall 2018, she was hunting for an internship with The Christman Company. Armed with a list of company names, she had done her research and found that Christman had ties to her hometown, Richmond, Virginia.

“Christman did quite a few projects that I was very familiar with. I thought it was so cool how this company changed these landmarks in my hometown,” says Davis, who loves history. “The one that’s closest to my heart is the beautifully restored Richmond Centerstage because every year, my grandmother would take me there to see The Nutcracker.”

The career fair led to an internship with The Christman Company’s project with the Architect of the Capitol, the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex. The nearly $1 billion

project aims to renovate the Cannon House Office Building, built in 1908 in the Beaux-Arts style. The structure, last renovated in the 1960s, needed a serious upgrade and modernization.

After her first internship in 2020, Davis returned for a second summer, and in August 2020, was offered a job. In June 2021, she began full-time work and now spends 40-plus hours a week as a project engineer while completing her studies at Mason.

Davis enjoys being connected to the history and immersed in the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C. “I pass by representatives who I see on TV and think I know who you are, or I know what you said on Twitter last night,” she says. “Most people in our country will probably never meet their representative and I’ve met a dozen.”

Davis says the representatives will ask questions about the renovation.

“They’re interested in what we’re doing too because it’s their building, they want to know that history.”

The [American Society of

The project team has found old cigarette wraps, numerous soda bottles, and even a bowler hat that was hidden behind a wall.

with The Christman

Civil Engineers] career fair led to an internship Company’s project with the Architect of

She says the biggest challenge has been the steep learning curve.

The renovation started almost eight years ago; there’s a lot of historical information to piece together.

Scheduling work can be a daunting task as they navigate special events and security issues.

the Capitol, the federal

“I am so thankful that the career fair led me to this terrific internship,” Davis says. “The job that it led to is everything I thought it would be and more.” g

Capitol Complex.

agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States

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FIRST PLACE Wastewater Design Competition – Roanoke WWTP Digester and Biogas Production

Student Notable Achievements Civil engineering students participate successfully in numerous competitions throughout the year gaining valuable extra curricular experiences.

George Mason University’s Dewberry Department of Civil Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering Engineers for International Development (EfID) STUDENTS WON a 2021 National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) Engineering Education $10,000 award for their water supply, distribution, and storage project in San Pablo de Amali, Ecuador.

NCEES is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing professional licensure for engineers and surveyors. The award submissions are evaluated on:

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Successful collaboration of faculty, students, and licensed professional engineers

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Protection of public health, safety, and/or welfare of the public

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Multidiscipline and/or allied profession participation

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Knowledge or skills gained Effectiveness of display board, abstract, and project description

STUDENT PROJECT AWARDEES:

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Jonathan Parker

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Caleb Hanneman – Co Project Manager

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Katharine Simpson – Co Project Manager

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Martin Henke – Technical Lead

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Chris Mata – Technical Lead (non-presenter)

Anna Close Giorgio Barchitta Grace Morrissey Moises Herrera Nick Tenorio Hannah Thompson Karla Pineda Katharine Simpson Caleb Hanneman Ben Tieu Mubeen Farukh Sylvia McLain Paul Cipparone Stephanie Thomson

GMU CEIE/EFID students competed and earn first place in both the competitions noted below for the 18th Annual, State of Virginia, Virginia Water Environment Association Student Design Competition.

Nicolas Tenorio – Technical Lead

Ivan Gonzales-Maguina – Technical Lead (non-presenter)

FIRST PLACE Environmental Design Competition – Piney Run Tributary Stream Restoration

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Jonathan Parker – Project Manager Romelia Belteton – Technical Lead Grace Morrissey – Technical Lead Camille Fulton – Technical Lead Nasima Sadr – Technical Lead

For the wastewater team, this is the fourth consecutive year that the students earned first place.

GMU CEIE/EFID students competed and earned second place in the Water Environment Foundation (WEFTEC) 2021 International Student Design Competition which was held in Chicago, Illinois. This rigorous competition included 23 elite student engineering teams from five different countries. This is only the second time a Virginia engineering school has

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reached the podium in the 20-year history of the competition.

SECOND PLACE Environmental Design Competition – Piney Run Tributary Stream Restoration

• • •

Grace Morrissey – Project Manager Jonathan Small – Technical Lead Crystal Bowers – Technical Lead

GMU CEIE/American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) students Beverly Duran, Rayan Elmisurati, and Caleb Hanneman won 2021 ASCE National Capital Section Scholarships. All applicants must demonstrate their dedication to ASCE, academic excellence, and submit an essay outlining their participation in the ASCE student chapter. All three of the recipients are part of the Mason concrete canoe team.

Sid Rayaprolu won the department’s 2021 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant award. Sid is a doctoral student in transportation engineering, with his primary research emphasis in spatiotemporal userbehavior and policy design practices of shared micromobility services.

He has been a graduate teaching assistant for multiple undergraduate and graduate courses in the civil engineering department. After his graduation, Sid is looking forward to pursuing his passion for teaching while working as a transportation consultant.

Before joining Mason, Sid worked as an independent consultant with the International Association of Public Transport (India) and Bengaluru Metro Transportation Corporation. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah, with more than four years of experience in engineering and infrastructure development projects. Sid is an outdoor enthusiast and is interested in hiking, cycling, and camping. g

December 2021 graduates in front of the Nguyen Engineering Building. Front row L to R: Jocasta Criscila Palacio De Oliveira, Jessica Pauline Sykioco, Grace Ellen Morrissey, Daniel Evan Nee, Anh K Nguyen, Shimaa Abdel Monem Awwad, Mahdy M. Hassan, Maryam Zavareh. Middle row L to R: Burhanuddin Behzad, Marisa Migliore, Cristian Marrero, Katharine Teresa Simpson, Jordan Tran, Navdeep Singh Bhogal. Back row L to R: Abrar Samimi-Darzi, Behrouz Sabah, Eric J Reca, Fidelle Tchamba Wangue, Naren Hamar Raju, Shir Khan Qudusi Slimankhel.

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Burak Tanyu, associate professor, Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, works with students in the SGI Lab.

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YT LUCA F SREBME DNA

The civil and infrastructure engineering faculty are more than professors—they are award winning innovators of industry preparing the next generation of students for a successful start to their professional careers.

Achievements & Awards

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FACULTY NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS Associate professor Celso Ferreira was recently nominated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program to serve as an author for the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) Coastal Effects chapter. The National Climate Assessment is the U.S. government’s premier report on climate change impacts, risks, and adaptation across the nation. It is a congressionally mandated, interagency effort that brings together hundreds of experts from federal, state, and local governments, as well as the academic, non-profit, and private sectors.

Assistant professor Doaa Bondok was awarded the “RSO Advisor of the Year” Distinguished Quill Award by George Mason University for her leadership of the student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers.

Awards are given to leaders that

have demonstrated exceptional development and impact to the Mason community. This is the highest honor a registered student organization faculty advisor can receive for this service and includes recognition from top administrators at the university.

Professor Elise Miller-Hooks was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas. The Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni was established to recognize the professional achievements and contributions of their graduates. The members of the academy also serve as leaders and role models among alumni and students. g

SAM SALEM WINS EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR Sam Salem, chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, received the National 2021 Educator of the Year Award from the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA).

This award is one of several awards the association announced.

CMAA’s Award Program recognizes excellence in construction management practice and honors companies and individuals each year based on merit. A panel of judges reviews each nomination carefully and chooses the best candidate in each category.

The Educator of the Year Award emphasizes excellence in teaching and recognizes a full-time educator for outstanding professional accomplishments and a commitment to construction management education. Professor Salem was honored with his colleagues during the association’s in-person conference September 12-14, 2021, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. g

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Civil and infrastructure engineering is one of the selected fields of study available to students in the Mason-NOVA ADVANCE partnership.

$3.1m >25%

CEIE’s research expenditures reached a record high of more than $3.1 million, up by more than 25 percent compared to the previous year.

93%

retention rate of FEMALE civil engineering students.

67%

increase in MS PROGRAM GRADUATES over the previous five years.

230% increase in PHD PROGRAM ENROLLMENT over the previous five years.

CEIE faculty members actively participate in the Students as Scholars program through the Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR).

100% of MS+PhD alumni surveyed were successfully EMPLOYED FULL-TIME IN 2021.

Full-time Faculty

28 Our faculty members—who combine practical experience with in-depth scholarly studies—instruct students, guide them, and make them partners in advanced research projects.

David Binning, PE, Instructor/Director, Assessment and Accreditation. MS, University of Delaware. Expertise: water resources engineering.

Wenying Ji, Assistant Professor.

PhD, University of Alberta. Expertise: construction engineering; construction simulation.

Laura Kosoglu, Associate Department Chair and Associate Professor. PhD, Virginia Tech. Expertise: geotechnical engineering.

Doaa Bondok, Assistant Professor.

PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia.

Expertise: structural engineering.

David Lattanzi, PE, Associate Professor.

PhD, University of Washington. Expertise: structural engineering; structural health monitoring; computer vision.

Behzad Esmaeili, Assistant Professor.

PhD, University of Colorado-Boulder.

Expertise: construction engineering; construction safety.

Viviana Maggioni, Associate Professor.

PhD, University of Connecticut. Expertise: environmental engineering; remote sensing; hydrometeorology.

Celso Ferreira, PE, Associate Professor.

PhD, Texas A&M University. Expertise: water resources and coastal engineering; storm surge inundation prediction; geographic information systems.

Elise Miller-Hooks, Professor, Bill and Eleanor Hazel Chair in Infrastructure Engineering. PhD, University of TexasAustin. Expertise: transportation engineering; civil infrastructure systems; stochastic and dynamic network algorithms.

Kirin Furst, Assistant Professor.

PhD, Stanford University. Expertise: environmental chemistry; water quality engineering; human exposure analysis.

Lucas Henneman, Assistant Professor.

PhD, Georgia Tech. Expertise: air pollution modeling; health effects of air quality interventions; environmental policy.

Sam Salem, PE, Department Chair and Professor, CPC, LEED AP, PhD, University of Alberta. Expertise: construction engineering; lean and green construction; life cycle analysis.

Burak Tanyu, Associate Professor.

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Expertise: geotechnical engineering; engineering geology; geo-environmental engineering.

Kuo Tian, Assistant Professor. PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Expertise: geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering.

Girum Urgessa, PE, Associate Professor.

PhD, University of New Mexico. Expertise: structural engineering; computational mechanics; composite materials.

Mohan Venigalla, PE, F.ASCE., Professor.

PhD, University of Tennessee. Expertise: transportation engineering; transportation planning; transportation air quality.

Ken Walsh, Vice President and Chief of Staff. PhD, Arizona State University.

Expertise: construction engineering and management.

Shanjiang Zhu, Associate Professor.

PhD, University of Minnesota. Expertise: transportation engineering; transportation economics; route choice and optimization.

Adjunct Faculty

29 We recognize and thank the following professionals for their assistance to the department as practitioner adjunct faculty.

Sean Kennedy, PE, Kennedy Structural Engineers, PLLC

Aiyoub Abbaspour, PhD, George Mason University

Michael Loulakis, Esq., Capital Project Strategies

Rich Benton, PE, SR Benton & Associates, LLC

Joe D. Manous, PhD, PE, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Barbara Chastel de Boinville

Christopher Reseigh, PE, Consultant (Ret Parsons Brinckerhoff)

Cerasela Cristei, PhD, PE, EXP U.S. Services Matthew Doyle, PE, Fairfax County Dept. of Public Works & Environmental Services

Richard Lindenberg, PE, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

Harold Rodriguez, PE, William H. Gordon & Associates Joseph Schroedel, PhD, PE, Society of American Military Engineers

Rafic El-Helou, PhD, FHWA, TurnerFairbank Highway Research Center

Velmurugan (Vel) Subramanian, PhD, PE, Atkins

Amr El-Sayed, PhD, EIT, Lane Construction

Tuonglinh (Linh) Warren, PE, Federal Highway Administration

Alex Faghri, PhD, Virginia Department of Transportation Erol Guler, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Bogazici University Zach Haber, PhD, FHWA TurnerFairbank Highway Research Center Matthew Hardy, PhD, AASHTO Joseph Hartmann, PhD, PE, Federal Highway Administration

Civil Engineering Institute’s Current Members

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The Civil Engineering Institute (CEI) Board of Directors meets regularly to conduct its business, interact with the department, and report on committee activity. Directors are elected by the CEI membership and serve three-year staggered terms. The board elects its officers from among its ranks.

BOARD OFFICERS 2021-2022 Chairperson: Terry Suehr, PE, PMP, DBIA Vice Chairperson: Jamie Hedges, PE Treasurer: Brian Chromey, PE Past Chairperson: Cerasela Cristei, PhD, PE Executive Director: Sam Salem, PhD, PE TERM EXPIRING DECEMBER 2024 S. Richard Benton, PE, F.ASCE, DBIA – SR Benton & Associates LLC Helman Castro, PE – Fairfax County Jamie Bain Hedges, PE – Fairfax Water Michael E. Post – Shirley Contracting Company LLC Christopher Reseigh, PE Doug Kennedy – Pennoni Carmen Bere, PE – Dewberry

TERM EXPIRING DECEMBER 2023 Brian Chromey, PE – Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. Lieutenant General Henry Hatch, PE, USA, Ret. Bill Haight, PhD, PE Joe Manous, PE Howell Simmons, PE, PS Kelsey Ryan, PE Gilberto Rosado, PE, ENV SP TERM EXPIRING DECEMBER 2022 Cerasela Cristei, PhD, PE – EXP U.S. Services George Guszcza, CCM – Michael Baker International Hardeep Rana, PE Terry Suehr, PE – City of Alexandria Cathy Trent, PE – Washington Gas EMERITUS MEMBERS Michael S. Bronzini, PE Charlie C. Crowder Jr. Sidney O. Dewberry, PE, LS William Fry, PE H.S. Hulme Jr., PE CEI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sam Salem, PhD, PE – Chairman of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department

CEIE FACULTY EX OFFICIO David Binning, PE Doaa Bondok Behzad Esmaeili Celso Ferreira, PE Kirin Furst Lucas Henneman Wenying Ji Laura Kosoglu David Lattanzi, PE Viviana Maggioni Elise Miller-Hooks Burak Tanyu Kuo Tian Girum Urgessa, PE Mohan Venigalla, PE Shanjiang Zhu MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS AND REPRESENTATIVES Alpha Corporation – Gilberto Rosado, PE, ENV SP Balfour Beatty Construction – TBA BL Halbert International – Daniel Hogan Bowman – Brad Glatfelter City of Alexandria – Terry Suehr Dewberry – Carmen Bere, PE EXP U.S. Services – Cerasela Cristei Fairfax County – Helman Castro Fairfax Water – Jamie Bain Hedges

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The Lane Construction Corporation – Lauralee Heckman Michael Baker International – George Guszcza Pennoni – Douglas Kennedy Shirley Contracting Company LLC – Michael E. Post Washington Gas – Cathy Trent Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. – Brian Chromey William A. Hazel Inc. – John Roddy INDIVIDUALS Richard Benton, PE, F.ASCE, DBIA William Fry, PE Bill Haight, PE Hank Hatch, PE Hardeep Rana, PE Kelsey Ryan, PE Joe Manous, PE Christopher Reseigh, PE Joseph Schroedel, BG, PE, F.SAME, USA (Ret) Howell Simmons, PE, LS Joseph Vilseck, PE

PETER JACKSON RIGBY, JR. FAREWELL Peter J. Rigby, Jr., of Clifton, Virginia, beloved husband, father, grandfather, son, and brother, died June 30, 2021. He was 63 years old.

Rigby graduated from the University of Delaware with a BS in civil engineering and Drexel University with an MS in engineering management. He had a successful engineering and managerial career, including 27 years at Paciulli, Simmons and Associates, most recently as partner and vice president, where his responsibilities included business development, marketing, engineering, planning, and administration. He managed departments, projects, and clients and provided strategic planning, training, and contract management.

He also served as assistant engineering bureau chief for Arlington County since 2001. Rigby’s willingness to mentor co-workers and broaden his knowledge earned him much respect throughout his career.

Among several professional organizations, Peter was a long-time member of the CEI board. His vast areas of technical expertise ranged from design-build, mixed-use, residential, commercial, educational, state and local government, federal and military, parks and recreation, redevelopment and urban planning, and sustainable and green design facilities. He brought fresh points of view to CEI

discussions, highlighting the leadership roles that civil engineers could play in creating an infrastructure for the future.

A gentle man of character and integrity, humble and caring, Peter loved his family unconditionally and always put others first.

He enjoyed watching sports, playing tennis and golf, biking, kayaking, hiking, and cooking with his wife Susan ad their three daughters.

A devoted father, Peter spent many years as a coach for his daughters’ sports teams and supported their academic and musical endeavors. He cherished spending time at the Outer Banks with friends and family, skiing with his father, and learning art from his mother.

Peter was an avid reader and a life-long learner. A self-taught guitar player and a recent interest in watercolor painting and pottery reflect his desire to keep learning and to give the world his best.

Peter is survived by his wife Susan (neé Gietter), and their three daughters, Lauren, Emily, and Meredith (Steven), and grandson, Connor. He is also survived by his parents Peter and Shirley, sisters Elizabeth, Suzanne and Deborah, and many relatives and close friends. g

Luncheon History and Previous Luncheon Awardees

32 Engineers, developers, construction professionals and policy makers who shape the region’s civil infrastructure gathered virtually on March 25, 2021 for the Civil Engineering Institute (CEI) Engineering Excellence and Leadership Award meeting. The event serves as the annual meeting for the CEI board, an award showcase, and a chance to exhibit student research work for the 200–300 guests, many of whom are Mason alumni.

The CEI is a nonprofit organization chartered in 1989, with the purpose of assisting the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering program of George Mason University. The objectives of the CEI include:

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Advising on curricula changes to keep the program on the leading edge of the professional practice;

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Providing a liaison with the business community for teaching and advising;

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Assisting in internship and co–op placement for students;

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Assisting in securing nationally recognized faculty by raising private eminent scholars’ endowments;

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Fundraising for scholarships, student activity support, and academic program assistance to supplement that which is provided by the university.

By participating in a variety of CEI activities—academic, leadership, educational, and social—companies and individuals become integrated into the most quickly advancing civil engineering program in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: In recognition of Exceptional Leadership, Outstanding Lifetime Achievement, and Significant Contribution to the Profession of Civil Engineering

2012 – Milton V. Peterson, founder and chairman, The Peterson Companies 2013 – Sean T. Connaughton, Secretary of Transportation, Commonwealth of Virginia 2014 – John T. (Til) Hazel, Jr., Reed, Smith, Hazel, and Thomas (ret.)

2015 – Bob Chase, Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance

2006 – Carl Strock, Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. US Army (ret.)

2016 – Wayne Clough, PhD, PE, Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Academy of Engineering, secretary emeritus, The Smithsonian Institution

2007 – Patricia D. Galloway, PhD, president, American Society of Civil Engineers (ret.)

2017 – Stephen T. Ayers, AFIA, certified construction manager, LEED AP, the architect of the Capitol

2008 – The Hon. Thomas Rust, Virginia delegate and chairman of Patton, Harris, Rust, and Associates

2018 – Gerald E. Galloway, PhD, PE, Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland and faculty fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Texas A&M University

2009 – Sidney O. Dewberry, founder and chairman of the Dewberry Companies 2010 – Henry J. Hatch, chief of engineers, Lt. Gen. US Army (ret.)

2011 – Joseph Hartman, PhD, bridge and tunnel team leader, Federal Highway Administration

2019 – James Patteson, PE, manager, countywide strategic planning, Fairfax County government 2020 – Paul Wiedefeld, PE, general manager and chief executive officer, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority g

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ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE LEADERSHIP AWARD The CEI board formally recognized Paul J Wiedefeld as the recipient of the 2020 Engineering Excellence and Leadership Award. Paul’s achievements at the helm of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, his leadership roles at Baltimore Washington International Airport, Maryland Transit Administration and in the private sectors, and his contributions to the field of engineering guided the board in the selection.

After 35 years in the transportation industry, Paul accepted the challenging assignment of leading the Metro in 2015 as general manager/CEO. Under his direction, Metro has turned the corner on safety, service reliability and financial management; rail ridership has begun to increase after a lengthy decline; and, for the first time in the authority’s history, Metro secured dedicated capital funding from local, state, and federal governments.

This progress was made possible through a series of hard choices to put safety first. In 2016, Paul launched SafeTrack, an aggressive maintenance program that achieved three years of critical track work in just over a year. Following SafeTrack, Metro

transitioned to its first-ever preventive maintenance program with longer work hours to improve safety and service reliability for customers. And in 2019, with dedicated revenue bolstering the capital program, Metro started the multi-year Platform Improvement Project to repair crumbling platforms and modernize 20 of Metro’s oldest outdoor stations.

Through his Back2Good program, Metrorail is delivering nine out of every 10 customers to their destinations on time. Customer satisfaction has reached the highest levels in recent years, and the Metro has received a clean, on-time financial audit for four

consecutive years. Paul has focused on improving the customer experience, introducing new customer amenities, such as the Rush Hour Promise—the first service guarantee of its kind in the transit industry. As Paul continues working to make Metro the transit provider of choice in the Washington, D.C., he is also focused on becoming an employer of choice in the region. g

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SID AND REVA DEWBERRY DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING + CIVIL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE

George Mason University Nguyen Engineering Building, Suite 1300 4400 University Drive, MS 6C1 Fairfax, Virginia 22030 703-993-1675 ceie@gmu.edu civil.gmu.edu

2021

IE C E + IE C