Professor Francisco Presuel-Moreno of Florida Atlantic University was interviewed by a local TV station regarding the exploration of alternative building materials in light of the Surfside collapse. He presented samples of his TriDurLE research. You can see the interview here: https://wsvn.com/…/engineers-at-fiu-fau-explore…/
Xijin Zhang, a Case Western Reserve University Ph.D. candidate advised by Dr. Xiong (Bill) Yu, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020-2021 Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship from the Northeast Ohio WTS Chapter.
The WTS Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship was established in 1981 by WTS International in memory of Helene for her dedicated service and a spirit to engage female transportation engineers. The scholarship is awarded to women pursuing career paths in transportation or a related field.
Xijin’s study is on the development of innovative bio-mediated civil engineering materials. More specifically on incorporating advanced microbial-based materials to improve sustainability and environmentally benign transportation infrastructure.
CEE Ph.D. student Xudong Fan of Case Western Reserve University was recently awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Organization Member. He is advised by Dr. Xiong (Bill) Yu, TriDurLE site director for CWRU. Xudong is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the immediate past President of the Civil Engineering Graduate Student Association. In this capacity, he worked with the CEGSA leadership team to organize a variety of activities to build the bond between its membership and with the Department, which served as the basis for the Department nomination. The award was presented by the School of Graduate Studies as part of the Dorothy Pijan Student Leadership Awards.
The WSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering recently selected Jialuo He as the recipient of John Roberson Outstanding Dissertation Award. The title of his PhD dissertation is, “Development, Characterization and Modeling of Self-Healing Cementitious Materials.” Self-healing technology holds great promise in benefiting the durability and resilience of concrete infrastructure. While various external self-healing systems can improve the post-cracking recovery of mechanical properties of cementitious materials, few studies have explored their implications on concrete durability. Dr. He’s research responds to this critical gap by developing and investigating two external self-healing systems.
Dr. He’s dissertation demonstrates the great potential of self-healing technology in enabling concrete infrastructure with extended service life, which serves the interest of this nation. For instance, his study revealed that the self-healing system consisting of urea-formaldehyde microcapsules (containing calcium nitrite as the healant) and PVA microfibers could effectively reduce about 20-25% of the total shrinkage, 15-20% of the chloride migration coefficient, and 40-65% of the gas permeability of cementitious composite. Such a self-healing concrete could survive over 700 rapid freeze-thaw cycles, whereas the regular concrete counterpart could barely survive 60 cycles.
Jialuo He began his PhD program at Washington State University in August 2015. He has published nine academic papers in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals. In addition to his PhD research, Jialuo completed a two-year project that evaluated the performance of discrete sacrificial anodes in protecting steel rebar in salt-contaminated concrete, for which he was awarded the Simpson Strong-Tie Corrosion Research Scholarship. He also received the Richard Perteet Graduate Fellowship in Civil Engineering in 2017 and 2018. Congratulations Dr. He!
Dr. Jenny Liu recently has been appointed a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on Pavement Preservation — AKT20 from 2021-2024. TRB is one of seven program units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which provides independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conducts other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. Dr. Liu has been actively involved in TRB activities. Currently she is also a member of TRB AKM80 Committee on Mineral Aggregates. She has served on other TRB committees including AFK30, AFK50, and AFH50 for years in the past. https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/transportation-research-board
Dr. Jenny Liu from the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Missouri S&T was invited to serve as associate editor of ASCE Journal of Cold Regions Engineering, which is a world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journal in the general area of cold regions engineering published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Established in 1987, the topics of this journal include ice engineering, ice force, construction on permafrost and seasonal frost, cold weather construction, environmental quality and engineering in cold regions, snow and ice control, cold regions materials, and surveying and planning in cold regions. Dr. Liu has been serving as an Associate Editor for another two ASCE journals (Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and Journal of Transportation Engineering Part B: Pavements) for more than10 years. https://ascelibrary.org/journal/jcrgei
Dr. Xianbiao (XB) Hu, assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, and his Ph.D. student Chris Yang Song of Missouri S&T are working with Kansas City planning officials to find the optimal locations for electric vehicle charging stations at streetlights. Their research was featured in two trade publications: Stamping Journal and Renewable Energy Magazine.
A paper by Xianming Shi and Gang Xu titled “Characteristics and applications of fly ash as a sustainable construction material: state-of-the-art review” (published in 2018) was awarded the 2020 Most Cited Paper Award by Resources Conservation & Recycling! Congratulations! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092134491830140X?via%3Dihub=
Professor Issam Harik, a member of the TriDurLe Advisory Committee, won the prestigious ACI Design Award bestowed by the American Concrete Institute: “Improving The Durability Of Impact Damaged Pc Bridge Girders Using CFRP Rod Panel Retrofit”, SP331-06, February 2019, pp. 80-100.
The award recognizes advanced concepts and techniques applied to a specific design project. Awards are given to the author or coauthors of the paper and to the engineer or engineering firm responsible for the design. Congratulations, Professor Harik.
Dr. Chris Pantelides recently made a presentation at the ACI National Convention on Oct. 25 2020, whose theme was Emerging Connections for Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). The presentation was web-based.
His presentation was titled: ABC Bridge Column-Footing Connections with Recessed Grouted Splice Sleeve Connectors. There were 55 attendees.