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Volume 17, Number 1 |
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"Civil and Environmental Engineering at
MIT" |
Comings & goings
Awards Krysztof Kolodziej, a current MEng student, has won the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association Horwood Critique Prize in October 2002 for the best overall project/paper for the Boston Industrial Mapping Project. "This project, which is a collaboration between MIT and the Boston Public Health Commission, developed a methodology to superimpose historical and present-day industrial land use datalayers with demographic information and health data. A customized spatial filtering function was developed in the GIS to highlight 'hot spots' areas of significant industrial activity and the accumulated risk potential over a period of time. The result is an 'archeology' of risk," he says. Along with fellow students Russel Spieler, Chin-Huei Tsou, Neeraj Agarwal, Eric Lau and Kevin Richards, and ENVIT student group officers Richard Camilli and Enrique Vivoni, Kolodziej also received the Horwood Critique Student Prize for best student project/paper for the Real-Time Field Data Streaming project. He describes it as "a mobile computing application for field data streaming system developed by the ENVIT student group at MIT for an environmental monitoring application. It includes a Web browser-based GIS mapping that provides the users with composite map information accessed from different map services (.NET Web Service and ESRI ArcIMS Map Service) to provide field workers with multiple access points to GIS data." These prizes are given annually for papers/projects that represent the best critical analysis of an urban or regional information system design, implementation or application; or technology, policy, or issue.
The University Transportation Centers' (UTC) Outstanding Student of the Year 2003 award goes to Nathaniel Grier, a PhD student in Transportation. He will receive a cash award plus airfare to the Transportation Research Board 2003 meeting, where he will be honored at a special Dept. of Transportation ceremony held for all of the national awardees. According to Prof. Ismail Chabini, "Nat has been my advisee since his sophomore year at MIT, six years ago. He completed his MST (MS in Transportation) thesis last May, and passed the generals last January. He is now the third of my students who have received this award over the last four years, so we have a hat trick in this competition."
The first winner of the newly established Prof. Jerome J. Connor, Jr. Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Studies is Todd Radford, a third-year grad student. He explains, "I am working on the application of sensing and monitoring systems for physical infrastructure. My current project involves the development of a monitoring system for damage assessment of buildings after extreme events." In addition, he is the president and an active member of the MIT Musical Theater Guild (he recently starred in Cole Porter's High Society), and an active member of the MIT Community Players. Further interdisciplinary activities include playing with the MIT graduate soccer team, and competing in ice hockey with the Math Dept. intermural team.
Emilio Silva, the first recipient of the Senturia Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies, has been at MIT for two years after having received his SB and SM in Brazil. "Our group has been working with material degradation, specifically calcium leaching in concrete. My advisor, Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm, wanted to extend the modeling approach to bone, in the context of osteoporosis, where biological material is degraded. "I started from a purely mechanical point of view, but we soon realized that we needed to take into account the biology of the phenomenon. My work was to translate the biological influence of cells into quantities that we can use in mechanical modeling. In addition, I am trying to incorporate models for cell proliferation based on clinical studies of different drugs and diseases. We are currently starting to build a simulator to study the evolution of mechanical properties of bone. The final objective is to be able to assess the future risk of fracture for a patient, given her current state and planned treatment. "One interesting result of modeling mechanics and biology together was to find out that the presence of microcracks can help bone cells to remove damaged bone and replace it with new bone. The phenomenon is well known but there is no clear explanation. We propose one quantitative explanation based on our approach. "As a civil engineer, I didn't have a solid background in biology, but I learned very much from working with people in Parsons Lab. I think there are several opportunities for collaboration between Structures and Environmental Engineering, but biocorrosion and biodeterioration of structures are the first to come into my mind."
NASA has selected an MIT student team as one of nine finalists in the NASA Means Business (NMB) Student Competition 2003, a yearly contest to encourage students to develop business, outreach, and customer engagement plans to support future NASA missions. Each of the finalist teams will receive cash prizes and travel grants to present their final report at Johnson Space Center in Houston on May 6 to 8, 2003. Starting in January, the MIT team will work closely with NASA engineers and researchers to implement the themes submitted in MIT's program plan proposal. One theme is to develop public service announcements and multimedia products focused on the exploration of Mars. Other projects include compiling current space mission information and distributing these to local area secondary schools. CEE grad student Madhusudhan Nikku leads the MIT NMB team, which also has Aero/Astro Dept. grad students Mirna Daouk and Julien Lamamy, and undergrads Arthur Mak and Kaia Dekker. The faculty advisor is Peter Young, Col, USAF (ret.), senior lecturer in Aero-Astro.
In December, NASA presented its Public Service Medal to Prof. Rafael Bras "for his outstanding work shaping the future of earth science from space as Chair of NASA's Earth System Science and Applications Advisory Committee."
Among his many responsibilities, Prof. Fred Moavenzadeh has added a three-year term on the Endicott House Board of Governors.
Departmental activities Awards dinner Paraphrasing an old union song which touches on vital elements for CEE: "drops of water turn the mill" and "many stones can build an arch, singly none," the Departmental awards dinner on Sept. 26, 2002, s acknowledged multiple contributions to CEE's strength. Prof. Ole Madsen received the Effective Teaching Award (for 1.060 Fluid Mechanics), and Karim Karam won the Effective Teaching Assistant Award (for 1.010 Uncertainty in Engineering). The 2002 Tucker Voss Award (named for Ross Tucker and Walter Voss, department heads of old Course 17, Building Engineering and Construction, and awarded on the basis of scholastic standing, leadership and promise in the field of building) went to grad student Satish Lion. For his year of departmental stewardship, former Acting Dept. head Chiang Mei received a gift of luggage. Sheila Frankel was honored for managing Bldg 48 during difficult times (old building and new construction problems), and Yo-Ming Hsieh was lauded for his exceptional work managing CEE-net. As thanks for introducing pre-freshmen to the joys of CEE, DCEE (Discover CEE) and especially Linda Liang '03 were lauded. Paula Deardon '03 presented Linda with a bouquet of flowers on behalf of all the DCEE mentors: Jazlyn Carvajal, Paula Deardon, Chrissy Dobson, Raquel Escatel, Arthur Fitzmaurice, Linda Liang, Trisha McAndrew, Jessie Pawlowski, Felix Rivera, Warren Ruder and Sal Scaturro. In turn, all the mentors received books from Dept. head Patrick Jaillet. Continuing their early affiliation with Course 1, 13 DCEE freshmen attended the dinner. In recognition of the revitalized CEE Student Association, the ASCE gave an award to faculty advisor Franz Ulm for having the most improved student chapter. The awards from the senior dinner in June were announced again, and this time Sandi Lin '03 received her Russel Award and Steinberg Prize certificate. All the Presidential and Schoettler Fellowship recipients (grad students) stood to be recognized. Presidential Scholars are Alex Apotsos, Sakda Chaiworawitkul, Janet Chuang, Diana Dorinson, Francois Ganneau, Anne Lightbody, Sandi Lin, Hesson Park, Alison Sleath, Brian Tan, and Ngai Yuen Wong. The Schoettler Fellowship recipients are Vijay Singh Choudhary, Maureen Coleman, Diana Dorinson, Thomas Eckles, Arthur Fitzmaurice III, Francois Ganneau, Julie Herrmann, George Kokossalakis, Anne Lightbody, Isaac Moses, Brian Tan, and Matthew Van Horne. Prof. Rafael Bras introduced Emilio Silva, the first recipient of the Senturia Fellowship. to Prof. Stephen Senturia (Course 6, Electrical Engineering/Computer Science). The fellowship is a gift from an anonymous alumnus. Emilio's work on material degredation is described in the awards subhead on p. 6.
Phonathon Coordinated by Administrative Officer Pat Dixon, this annual fund-raising project through the Alumni Associ- ation brings welcome and needed funds to CEE. Participants in this year's volunteer calling program on Oct. 21 included grad students Frederic Chagnon, Georgios Constantinides, Susan Dunne, Song Gao, Madhusudhan Nikku, Molly Palmer, and Emily Slaby; undergrad Jessica Pawlowski; research scientist Jinfeng Wang, staff members Pat Dixon and Sheila Frankel; and Profs. Jerry Connor, Harry Hemond, Patrick Jaillet and Tina Voelker. "Everyone was engaged, committed and displayed high energy throughout the evening," recalls Jaillet. Hemond's and Chagnon's outstanding persuasive techniques made them the top money raisers of the evening. We thank everyone who participated and contributed.
ASCE meeting As the American Society of Civil Engineers celebrated its 150th anniversary at their meeting in Washington, DC on Nov. 3, the CEE Dept. set up a table to meet and greet alumni. Profs. Patrick Jaillet, Chuck Ladd, Andrew Whittle, Dr. Eric Adams, and CEE students Aurora Kagawa, Jessie Pawlowski and Linda Liang represented MIT for this reception.
Publications Authors of three recently published books were honored at a party at
Parsons Lab on Nov. 7. Ecohydrology: Darwinian Expression of
Vegetation Form and
Function (Cambridge University Press, 1st edition 2002), by Prof. Peter
Eagleson, was described on the Amazon.com web page:
"Ecohydrology bridges the fields
of hydrology and ecology and proposes new unifying principles derived from the
concept of natural selection. It is devoted to the derivation and
application of
simplified bioclimatic boundary conditions at vegetated land surfaces
using natural
selection of vegetation characteristics driven As summarized by the publisher, Prof. Phil Gschwend's textbook, Environmental Organic Chemistry (second edition, Wiley-Interscience), "demonstrates how the chemical structure of organic compounds influences the molecular interactions which control transfer and reaction processes in the natural environment. [The book] thoroughly explains how to quantify these processes using the principles of chemistry, physics and biology in a macroscopic environmental system. [It] focuses on the behavior of major synthetic organic chemicals introduced in large quantities into the environment. [It could] serve as a text for introductory courses in environmental organic chemistry as well as a source of information for the professional concerned with risk and hazard assessment of organic chemical pollutants in the environment." Prof. Harry Hemond and Elizabeth J. Fechner-Levy '91 (SM) wrote Chemical Fate and Transport in the Environment (second edition, Academic Press). The publisher describes it as covering "the fundamental principles of mass transport, chemical partitioning, and chemical/biological transformation in surface waters, in soil and groundwater, and in air... Each of these three major environmental media is introduced by descriptive overviews, followed by presentation of the controlling physical, chemical, and biological processes. Emphasis is placed on intuitively based mathematical models for chemical transport and transformations. Although developed for a one-semester graduate course, [the book] is also an essential reference for environmental practitioners in industry, consulting, and government agencies."
The first three books in the MIT CEE/Prentice Hall Series on Civil, Environmental, and Systems Engineering have been published in matching handsome covers. Prof. Jerry Connor wrote Introduction to Structural Motion Control, as described by the publisher's web page: "In keeping with recent shifts in the structural design field, this text employs an emphasis on serviceability and motion rather than safety. Motion based structural design is an alternate design paradigm that takes as its primary objective the satisfaction of motion related design requirements such as restrictions on displacement and acceleration. This text seeks the optimal deployment of material stiffness and motion control devices to achieve these design targets as well as satisfy the constraints on strength. Introduction to Construction Dispute Resolution is by Prof. Feniosky Peña-Mora, Carlos Sosa '99 (SM), and D. Sean McCone '02 (SM). "This text addresses new and innovative ways to promote collaborative environments and resolve disputes in construction by emphasizing the different steps in the Dispute Resolution Ladder and spelling out the main features of a conflict management plan. It also includes some practical applications of Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques in the construction industry throughout different cultures." Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm and Olivier Coussy, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussés (France) have completed Mechanics and Durability of Solids, Vol. 1: Solid Mechanics. "This book focuses on a unified mechanistic approach that uses energy concepts for modeling a large range of engineering material behavior. In the presentation, 1D-Think models lead to the development of various fundamentals of continuum mechanics, such as deformation and strain, momentum balance, stress and stress states, thermoelasticity and elasticity bounds, plasticity and yield design. The bases for a common language among core disciplines in engineering sciences are developed in a mathematical manner."
Future Cities: Dynamics and Sustainability (Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002), edited by Profs. Fred Moavenzadeh, Keisuke Hanaki (Univ. of Tokyo) and Peter Baccini (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) is the first volume in the Alliance for Global Sustainability book series, Science and Technology: Tools for Sustainable Development. By the year 2050, the number of cities with populations over 3 million will more than double from 70 today to over 150. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the authors claim that cities do far more than drain natural resources, consume energy and hinder sustainable development. Properly managed, cities can be developed to support people decently and make whole regions sustainable. "The volume provides new ideas for managing the mega-cities of the future. The editors' goal is to shape a new way of thinking about mega-citiesone that promotes their function in modern societies as engines of the ideas, technologies, and loci of political will needed to build a new regime of global sustainability," according to the publisher. The global sustainability book series editor is Joanne Kauffman of the MIT Lab for Energy and the Environment (part of which was formerly included in CEE), and Prof. David Marks is on the series advisory board.
Presentations Prof. Joe Sussman gave the keynote speech,"Transitions in the World of Transportation," on Nov. 12 at the Univ. of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies' 15th anniversary celebration and luncheon. The MIT Engineering Systems Division website summarizes his talk as focusing "on the many changes that will occur in the field of transportation as we begin the 21st centurychanges that occur on the dimensions of technology, systems, and institutions, and characterize the field in its broadest sense. He discussed these transitions and related them to what the 'new transportation professional' will need to know to practice effectively and grow."
Also on November 12 but back at MIT, Prof. Rafael Bras lectured on "Wonders of Planet Water: Complexity and Order in Earth Systems," sponsored by the Society of Presidential Fellows through the Provost's office.
As a much-honored graduate of Pennsylvania State Univ. ('43), Prof. Donald Harleman has been further commemorated by that university's CEE Dept. establishing the annual D.R.F. Harleman Honorary Lecture in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. The yearly lecture is intended to enrich the faculty and students in the CEE hydro-systems division by providing contact with outstanding researchers and practitioners in the field from outside the university. Delivering the inaugural lecture on Nov. 14, Prof. Harleman described his long-term work to keep Venice from being irrevocably flooded by a combination of rising tides due to global warming, and slow subsidence of the city due to pumping out groundwater. He drew from his extensive experience as a member of an international panel overseeing the development of an environmental impact statement for a promising engineering proposal to build floodgates which are vertically moveable at three tidal inlets to the lagoon.
CEE and the Dept. of Architecture jointly presented two talks at MIT. On Nov. 26, Jurg Conzett spoke on "Landscape, Space, and Structure." A graduate of the Swiss Federal Polytechnical Univ. in Zurich, he leads an engineering firm in Chur, Switzerland, which designs bridges and building structures. He also teaches engineers and architects at the interdisciplinary Dept. of Construction at the Univ. of Economy and Technology in Chur. Leslie Robertson, engineer of record of the World Trade Center, discussed "Tall Buildings: the World Trade Center and Beyond" on Dec. 3. As the world's leading engineer of high-rise buildings, he has been responsible for the structural design of hundreds of notable structures, such as the World Trade Center, the US Steel headquarters in Pittsburgh, and the Bank of China tower in Hong Kong. In his 50-year career, his work has influenced the engineering and construction of tall buildings around the world.
Marriages Grad student Carlos Regalado and Maria del Pilar Rodriguez '02 (SM, Transportation), who had turned in her thesis a day before the wedding, were married Nov. 9 in Cali, Colombia. About 10 current or former MIT classmates traveled south to join the festivities. Carlos comented, "People were concerned about traveling to Columbia but everything came out really nicely."
The Nov. 24 Boston Globe printed a wedding announcement for Michelle Fox and Robert Ziemian '01 (Environmental), who is now attending Suffolk Law School in Boston.
Births Ying-Jai Chen, a grad student in Information Technology, and Hui-wen Chen announce the birth of a daughter, Megan, on Oct. 31. The proud father says, "Her mother is the greatest!"
Deaths Ralph Webster Jr. '37 died in July 2002. As reported in Technology Review, during World War II he worked on the dry docks repairing ships in Nova Scotia. Afterwards, he worked for many years for a steel erection firm in Cambridge, became a partner, and retired as treasurer in 1974. He was an avid golfer, and loved skiing and sail fishing. After the death of his wife, he had moved from the Boston area to Seattle to be with his two daughters.
A. Scheffer Lang, a nationally known transportation engineer and researcher, and former faculty member here, died on Jan. 14, 2003 in St. Paul, MN. A full obituary and tributes from some of his former students will be printed in the next newsletter.
No further details were available about these people: Willliam Wallace Orrison '36 (SM) died on March 20, 2001. He owned William Orrison Engineers and Assoc. in San Antonio, TX. Igor Paul Popov '34 (SM), a retired professor emeritus of civil engineering at the Univ. of California/Berkeley, died on April 19, 2001. He is survived by his wife, Irene, and a daughter. Harry Nels Wallin '37 (SM) died on May 27, 2001. Marshall (Mickey) Alper '51 (SB) & '52 (ScD) died on Oct. 11, 2001. After his 50th reunion, he mailed several dozen excellent color slides to the Newsletter from his years at MIT and a summer at Camp Tech, including a record of the notorious stuffed snake party. Raymund V. McGrath '36 (SM) of Palos Hts., IL died on March 6, 2002 at age 89. J.A.P. Laurie '54 in South Africa died in the summer of 2002. He had worked for many years at the CSIR until retirement. Survivors include his wife, Vivienne. Nicholas Kuehn Jr. '36 (SM) died on July 25, 2002. Asaf Ali Qazilbash '65 (SM) & '67 (CE), president of Asaf A Qazilbash Associates in Boston, died on Aug. 20, 2002. He had been a member of the Geotech-nical Advisory committee of the Mass. State Board of Building Regulations and Standards. G. Gerald Kubo '39 died on Sept. 30, 2002. Louis R. Nucci '79 (SM), age 49, of Merrimacport, MA, died on Nov. 2, 2002. He is survived by his wife, Constance (Miller) Nucci, two sons, a brother, three sisters, and many nieces and nephews.
Publicity Defending the proposed Venice flood gates, Prof. Chiang C. Mei recently appeared on the Nova TV science program, "Sinking City of Venice." He explains, "The design of the mobile gate system is very innovative. When it's in use, the elements of the barrier are allowed to swing back and forth with the waves. In this way, much of the wave force is transmitted back to the water on both sides, and very little force is transmitted to the foundation and to the supporting structure. So in this aspect, I think this is very, very clever." With a variety of opposing views, other people suggest that raised walkways or other ways of building up the city would be more effective. Some skeptics question the wisdom of fencing off the lagoon for any period of time. Since Venice has 70,000 people and no water treatment facilities, everything flushes, washes, and drains into the lagoon, to be swept away by tides twice a day. Mei responds, "For this kind of sea level rise, it is probably necessary to close the gate approximately 12 times a year or 45 hours per year. The length of closure is very, very small compared to the time when tidal flushing can be effective." Tech Talk summarized the main problems and opportunities regarding Venice and flooding, with commentary by Profs. Rafael Bras and Donald Harleman, among others. The full article with color pictures is online at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/2002/nov06/venice.html.
Both a feature story and a formal research paper about arsenic tainting the water supply in Bangladesh were published in the Nov. 22 Science. Coauthors include Christopher Swartz, Nicole Keon-Blute, Khandaker Ashfaque, Jenny Jay, Volker Niedan (whose excellent photos have documented the project), Daniel Brabander, Peter Oates and Prof. Harry Hemond, all at MIT at the time research was carried out; Winston Yu of Harvard; A.B.M. Badruzzaman, M. Ashraf Ali and M. Feroze Ahmed of the Bangladesh Univ. of Engineering and Technology; and Roger Beckie of the Univ. of British Columbia. Illustrated by Prof. Charles Harvey hefting a box of molasses on his shoulder for field experiments, the MIT home page Spotlight summarized the article and discussed MIT's long involvement in studying the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh's water supply. The whole article is on http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/bangladesh.html
Another view of the project described in the last newsletter, "Microwaves measure soil moisture from space satellites," appears in the Dec. 4 Tech Talk. As principal investigator of the project to measure soil moisture for predicting global climate change, assessing global warming and supporting the Kyoto Protocol, Prof. Dara Entekhabi describes the satellite and mission in detail. "Soil moisture tells us the state of the surface land. In the same way that temperature tells the state of the surface oceans, soil moisture controls the rate of the water cycle, which affects weather and climate and how much evaporation takes place," says Entekhabi. A colorful, futuristic artist's conception of how the satellite maps congruent circles of the earth, along with the full text of the story, is online at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/hydros.html Civil Engineering education occupies much of the ENR 10/21/02 issue, particularly the worrisome inclination of students (especially Americans) to major in just about everything else. A sidebar in the main article describes what the Engineering Education Coalition program has done to try to attract and retain more students. While programs vary at each of the 54 participating institutions, most try to include more design and hands-on work before students wilt under the barrage of freshman science and math classes. Among the featured people in the article is Prof. Herbert Einstein, who explains how MIT students get experience working in teams on real-world problems with multiple possible solutions. |
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