CE News & Spotlights

Professor Steven Kramer of the University of Washington will deliver the 17th Leonards Lecture, "Performance-Based Geotechnical Seismic Design," on April 26th. The PGS Workshop, with a theme of "Geotechnics of Natural Hazards," will be held in conjunction with the lecture.

The Purdue Lyles School of Civil Engineering has been recognized – once again – as a top 10 graduate program in the country. U.S. News & World Report has released its national rankings of graduate programs for 2020 with Purdue Civil Engineering's Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Graduate Program ranked #6 in the nation. The graduate rankings are computed from the responses to a survey sent to deans, heads, and selected senior faculty.

After leaving her home in Greece to study at Purdue, Vicky Keramida studied environmental engineering and took a giant leap to start her own international environmental engineering firm that is based in Indianapolis and 100 employees strong. "I think Purdue gave us the confidence that we could do anything we wanted," Keramida says.

Congratulations to Tariq U. Saeed, recipient of the 2019 College of Engineering Outstanding Research Award. The award recognizes excellence in graduate student research from across the College of Engineering. Tariq will be recognized at the Spring Graduate Student Awards luncheon through a certificate and a $2000 award.

Brandon Boor, Assistant Professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research into the formation, growth, and phase state of organic nanoaerosols in indoor environments.

The Neil Armstrong Distinguished Visiting Fellows program begins in March, bringing highly accomplished and recognized scholars and practitioners to collaborate on work with engineering faculty and students. These professionals visit for several weeks a year over the course of three years. Among them are CE alumnus Dr. Andrea Rinaldo of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Dr. Randall Poston of Pivot Engineers consulting firm in Austin, Texas.

Professor Jie Shan and cohort Charles Toth, Research Professor at Ohio State University, received the 2019 LiDAR Leader Award (2nd Place) from the International LiDAR Mapping Forum. They were recognized for their edited publication, Topographic Laser Ranging and Scanning.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has announced Lyles School of Civil Engineering undergraduate student Trevor Moore as one of ten 2019 New Faces of Civil Engineering in the College category. The 2019 honorees are rising stars, inspired and inspiring, many of them drawn to the profession by a desire to help others and protect the planet.

Anne Bigane Wilson (BSCEM '79, MSCE '81), President of Bigane Paving Co., has been named recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award by the College of Engineering.

A Purdue University team, led by Civil Engineering Associate Professor Joe Sinfield, has developed a new method to detect the presence of certain hazardous solvents in water and soil.

Lisa L. Losada Rojas, PhD student at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, has been awarded a $3,000 scholarship from the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) Greater Chicago Area chapter for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Area students will test their bridge design capabilities when they come to Purdue University for the annual Bridge Bust Competition. The event, now entering its 40th year, will include a total of 161 teams composed of 289 students from 18 schools in Indiana and Illinois participating in the event Friday (Feb. 22). It is hosted by Purdue's American Society of Civil Engineers.

The American Concrete Institute has named Purdue University with the ACI Award for University Student Activities.

A recently published paper co-written by a group of researchers including Shirley Dyke, Santiago Pujol, and Julio Ramirez, has been selected by ASCE as the Editor's Choice.

Richard Lewis was one of the signers of a petition to allow "colored" children to attend public school in Greensburg, Indiana. Could he possibly have envisioned that he would have a son who would someday become Purdue University's first African American graduate?

William Baker, Structural Engineering Partner at SOM, will present this seminar in the 150 Years of Giant Leaps in Engineering series, on February 19th at 4:30 p.m. in Fowler Hall. Students are invited to a meet & greet with Mr. Baker earlier that day from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in Hampton Hall's Wood Commons.

The 105th Purdue Road School will be held March 4-7 on the Purdue University campus. This is a great Indiana tradition that brings together federal, state and local agencies, industry, consulting and academia to collaborate and reflect on diverse transportation topics. Over 3,000 attendees will have the opportunity to hear Opening Session and Luncheon keynote addresses from leaders in the transportation field, choose from nearly 200 hours of technical sessions, visit a variety of exhibitors, and network with their peers.

Kumares C. Sinha, Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, has been recognized by Jadavpur University, India, at the commemoration of its 60th anniversary, as a Distinguished University Alumnus.

Shuai Li (PhD '17), Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, has been named the recipient of the ASCE Collingwood Prize for his paper entitled, "Integrating Natural Language Processing and Spatial Reasoning for Utility Compliance Checking," published in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.