University of Alabama at Birmingham



CCEE NEWSLETTERVolume 2, Fall 2017?UAB CIVIL, CONSTRUCTION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER?right000Message from the Chair?Dear alumni, students, colleagues, and friends,Welcome to the UAB Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Newsletter! I hope that you?have all enjoyed a?safe and joyous summer and?I hope your fall is equally pleasant.?In this newsletter we bring you an update on the activities that have taken place in the past year and we highlight the accomplishments and research of students, alumni, donors and faculty who are the key to the success of the Civil Engineering Department as a whole.Civil engineering incorporates technology and problem solving for the planning, designing, and constructing of our communities, and that focus is reflected in our recent projects.It is an absolute?pleasure leading?a department that undertakes such fascinating and meaningful work. Thank you to all--our faculty and students, alumni and friends, industry experts, collaborators, donors, and partners--for your dedication and support. Visit us in person or check out our website at uab.edu/ccee if you want to learn more or get involved. Finally, please share this newsletter (see link to subscribe at bottom) with any friends or colleagues interested in staying connected.All the very best,Fouad H. Fouad, PhDProfessor and ChairDepartment of Civil, Construction, and Environmental EngineeringLEARN MOREIn This IssueNSF Sustainable Smart Cities International Workshop NSF International Research ExperienceOnline Master's Solar Decathlon Before the Flood Solid Waste AuthorityVisit of the President of Alexandria UniversityResearch ProjectsAwards to Advisory Board, Faculty and StudentsSustainable Smart Cities SymposiumNSF Sustainable Smart Cities International Workshop?Alexandria, Egypt - May 9-11?The?Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center held the?NSF Sustainable Smart Cities International Workshop in Alexandria during May 9 - 11; this workshop was made possible through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and it was hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center in partnership with Alexandria University and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime.??right000The objective of the Workshop was to?facilitate open discussions and exchange of knowledge and technology related to the challenges and successes of advancing sustainable urbanization and smart cities. Among the 16 main entities that participated in the workshop, there were two universities from the United Kingdom, one university from Colombia, three from Egypt and, among the universities from the US the following were represented: Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech and Stanford University.ALDOT-UAB Research Partnership LuncheonThe ALDOT-UAB Research Partnership Luncheon took place during November 2nd of 2016 in order to recognize the ongoing success of the ALDOT-UAB research partnership and express UAB's appreciation for ALDOT's continued support of UAB research centers.??The luncheon provided an informal forum to discuss the current research program and share ideas on the future of our partnership. Attendees included ALDOT Director Mr. John Cooper, senior ALDOT staff, members of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC), and FHWA representatives.left000NSF International Research Experience for Students??Egypt and Germany - May 2017??left000The NSF International Research Experiences for Students (IRES)program was administered in summer 2017 when eight undergraduate students traveled to?Egypt and Germany for a total of four weeks for a global learning research experience in the area ofSustainable Green Building Design and Construction. The students spent the first two weeks in Egypt with the main international host of the program, the Housing and Building Research Center (HBRC). During the following two weeks, the students stayed in Germany, hosted by OTH Institute.Read More Online Master's?MEng Structures: The Online master's degree in Structural Engineering continues to increase enrollment with 13 students currently taking classes. Several on-campus graduate students have also taken online structures courses. The program? graduated its first two students in Spring 2017.?Read More?MEng Sustainable Smart Cities:? The Sustainable Smart Cities Master's Program, a joint program with Staffordshire University in the UK, entered its second year with consistent student enrollment. This program was recognized by US News and World Report for excellence in online engineering education.Read More The Online CEM Program has had another excellent year. The program has enrolled 405 alumni as of Spring 2017. During the Spring of 2017, CECM had one of the largest active student enrollments in the program's nine year history. In Spring 2017, CECM had 156 enrolled students. Students enrolled in the online Civil Engineering Construction Management Master Program are served in the areas including 39 US states and 16 foreign countries.? Among the foreign countries there are Germany, Liberia, New Zealand, Philippines,?Qatar, and United Arab Emirates.Read More CCEE and ME students collaborated on Solar Decathlon competition??Our?Senior Design capstone course focuses on high visibility projects that expose our students to real world projects. During the Fall of 2016, two groups of three students worked on interdisciplinary projects with students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.??right000Their Senior Design projects were part of the Solar Decathlon competition. The Solar Decathlon is an international collegiate competition that requires students to design and build a full-size, solar-powered house. The teams are judged on 10 sets of criteria. The winner of?the competition is the team that best blends design?excellence and smart energy production with innovation, market potential, and energy and water efficiency.Read More Before the FloodScreening of "Before the Flood" for engineering students?left000The UAB Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center was selected as one of the 50 campuses in the US to host a free screening of National Geographic's documentary about climate change "Before the Flood." The screening took place on November 9th of 2016 with more than 40 students in attendance. "Before the Flood" presents an engaging account of how society can prevent the demise of endangered species, ecosystems and native communities across the globeSolid Waste Authority Strategic?Planningright000We worked with the City of Birmingham in developing a plan for the Solid Waste?Authority. The Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center hosted a strategic planning session on November 14th with the Solid Waste Authority of the City of Birmingham.??The SSCRC and the City of Birmingham established the vision and the mission of the Solid Waste Authority as well as the goals for the upcoming year.Visit of the President of Alexandria UniversityThe President of Alexandria University, Dr. ElKordi, spent the first week of August 2017 at UAB?meeting with faculty and staff from several departments to discuss potential collaborations. Some of the initiatives discussed to follow up with our department are the following:a)??Explore UAB-AU collaboration on Master of Science-degree program in SSC that would be offered by AU with assistance from UAB (guest lectures/courses, co-taught courses, technical assistance, etc.)b)??Explore UAB-AU collaboration on dual-degree Bachelor of Science program in BME with assistance from UAB (guest lectures/courses, co-taught courses, technical assistance, etc.).?c)???UAB undergrad engineering students studying in Alexandria in the summer.Read MoreRESEARCHDr. Thomas Attard received the NCHRP's IDEA award programWhat Lies Beneath? Diagnosis and Aging InfrastructureCivil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Thomas Attard, Ph.D., submitted a proposal for the NCHRP's IDEA award program. The award, which stands for "Innovation Deserving Exploratory Analysis" is given annually for projects "with potential to advance the construction, safety, maintenance and management of highway systems." His submission was chosen from among nearly 50 proposals NCHRP received.left000?Millions of miles of interstate bridges were constructed over the previous?century. To the untrained eye of the passing motorist, those concrete structures may look as solid now as the day they were built. In these aging bridges, however, current inspection methods can only detect discrete sub-surface defects up to two centimeters of depth.right000In an effort to see beyond those limitations, the NCHRP awarded Attard's team $240,500 to develop an innovative non-destructive evaluation method for damaged reinforced concrete or prestressed bridge components. The research will examine bridge damage analogously to a medical diagnosis provided by an MRI (or X-Ray), followed by an appropriate treatment.?Read MoreMobile Automated Rovers Fly-By (MARS-FLY) for Bridge Network ResiliencyDr. Uddin is the PI?Mobile Automated Rovers Fly-By (MARS-FLY) for Bridge Network Resiliency, under NSF, $498,771. Bridges are often in remote locations and the cost of installing electricity and a data acquisition system in hundreds of thousands of bridges is prohibitive.?The MARS-FLY project will develop a cyber-physical system (CPS) designed to monitor the health of highway bridges, control the loads imposed on bridges by heavy trucks, and provide visual inspectors with quantitative information for data-driven bridge health assessment requiring no electricity and a minimum of data acquisition electronics on site.?University Transportation Center Grant "STRIDE"right000Dr. Sisiopiku is the PI for UAB under a subcontract from the University of Florida for the?University Transportation Center Grant "STRIDE."? A variety of transportation related projects. $233,643 with an equal match from Alabama DOT.AWARDS?Advisory Board AwardsOur Advisory Board met two times during the year.? The Board is fully engaged and is providing constant input and advice in support of the Department's programs, faculty, students, and overall stability.Three of our Advisory Board members were recognized with very prestigious awards during the year:Lowell Christy was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Fame 2017 and also was awarded the UAB Higher Education 2017 Outstanding Woman in the CommunityPaula Marino was inducted in the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame (AEHOF)James Rein was inducted into the Alabama Construction Hall of Fame during the Alabama AGC BuildSouth Awards Banquet on January 13th? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?1)?2) ?3) right000Faculty Awards?Dr. Uddin received the Graduate School Dean's Excellence in Mentorship Award in May 2017Read MoreUndergraduate and Graduate Student of the Year Award?Several of our undergraduate and graduate students received distinguished Honors and Awards, examples include:a) Yasmeen Arafeh - CCEE & School of Engineering Undergraduate Student of the Year?b)Ahmed El Hattab - CCEE & School of Engineering Graduate Student of the Yearc)Emily Black -? Outstanding Student of the Year from the USDOT UTC - Nominated by NCTSPMd)John Romano - CCEE Advisory Board Scholarshipe)Don Biessan - CCEE Department Scholarshipf)Michael Harbison - CCEE ALDOT Scholarship? ??UPCOMING EVENTS?Sustainable Smart Cities SymposiumSpring 2018right000In order to present the results from the International Workshop held in Alexandria, and to continue with the work that has been done in the past Symposiums, we have decided to host anAnnual Sustainable Smart Cities Symposium in Birmingham in collaboration with the City of Birmingham, Alabama Power, and ALDOT.?The UAB Sustainable Smart Cities Symposium is an annual forum designed to keep the Birmingham community stakeholders, scientists at UAB and other academic institutions across the South, at the forefront of urban sustainability and development of technologies and solutions to make cities smarter. The symposium works hand in hand with other programs at UAB and partner institutions and organizations to encourage investigators to Advance the Science of Cities.Read MoreForward this emailSTAY CONNECTED? ? ? ................
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