CE News & Spotlights

Cheryl Cunningham (BSCE '80) was recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana for her significant contributions to the practice of engineering. Cheryl recently founded and serves as president for “I Can Be An Engineer,” a 501(c)3 not for profit founded to inspire young minds to learn about engineering.

The 58th Annual CE Open was held on Friday, June 8, 2018 at Coyote Crossing Golf Club in West Lafayette, where we saw more than 70 golfers hit the links. Many thanks to our sponsors, and to everyone who joined us. We hope to see even more of you at next year’s event!

Matt Lovell (MSCE '08, PhD '10), associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rose-Hulman University, has received the American Concrete Institute’s Walter P. Moore Jr. Faculty Achievement Award. The honor recognizes professors with demonstrated technical competence, high character and integrity who have less than seven years of faculty service in teaching concrete design, materials or construction.

An in-depth review of environmental protections for a common storm water culvert repair practice — cured-in-place pipe repair, or CIPP — has revealed differing installation practices across states, water contamination incidents in 10 states and Canada, and lack of safety data for existing installation practices.

A team of Purdue engineers including CE student Alex Krivitsky won NASA’s University Student Design Challenge by designing the infrastructure necessary for a futuristic city to accommodate flying cars.

Sikai Chen, a doctoral student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, has been awarded the 2018 Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship Award by the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs (OIGP). The Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship is a highly competitive award recognizing outstanding Ph.D. candidates for their superior interdisciplinary academic abilities and scholarly achievements. The title of Sikai's dissertation is "Crash Factors and Roadway Design Implications: New Evidence in the Traditional Environment and Insights into Emerging Operating Environments."

A series of seminars will be held at Purdue's Lyles School of Civil Engineering in 2017/18 on the art of teaching engineering. The speakers are renowned teachers and mentors whose effectiveness as teachers has been proven by the success of their students. This series is inspired by and a celebration of Dr. Mete Sözen's career in teaching, and the final seminar will be delivered October 11th by Dr. Polat Gülkan. All are invited to attend and share memories of Dr. Sözen.

Civil Engineering Ph.D. student Tianren Wu was recently named recipient of the prestigious ASHRAE Grant-in-Aid Award for 2018-2019. This $10,000 award is given to the most outstanding graduate students performing research in the High Performance Buildings or HVAC fields. The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers considers applications from all over the world.

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) announced Dr. Edward M. Mikhail, professor emeritus of civil engineering at Purdue University, as the 2018 recipient of the Foundation's Arthur C. Lundahl-Thomas C. Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award. Mikhail is the 14th individual to receive this prestigious award and was recognized on stage during USGIF's GEOINT 2018 Symposium general session.

Congratulations to the Purdue Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Traffic Bowl Team on winning the Great Lakes District competition! This annual competition among ITE student chapter teams uses transportation planning and engineering topics for the clues, questions and answers.

CE sophomore Dominique Oden is growing into one of the most outstanding scorers in Purdue women's basketball history. Through two seasons at Purdue, Oden has scored the third-most points of any player in program history after their sophomore season.

Professor Eduardo Alonso of the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain will deliver the 16th Leonards Lecture, "Protecting Sensitive Structures from Tunneling in Urban Environments," on Friday, April 27th. The PGS Workshop, with a theme of "Urban Geotechnics," will be held in conjunction with the lecture.

Mete A. Sözen, Karl H. Kettelhut Distinguished Professor, Emeritus of Civil Engineering, Purdue University died unexpectedly on April 5, 2018, just a few weeks before what would have been his 88th birthday. Mete was in London, England, with his wife Joan visiting their daughter Ayshe and two grandsons when he fell peacefully to sleep. For all of us who knew Mete, this marked the end of an era. Few people have guided and nurtured a field the way Mete led earthquake and structural engineering related to reinforced concrete systems over a period spanning six decades. He had a profound effect on many people and will long be remembered fondly by those who came into contact with him during his career. A celebration of Dr. Sözen's career in teaching will take place on October 11th as the last seminar in The Art of Teaching | Engineering Art series. Dr. Polat Gülkan will deliver the seminar, to which all family, alumni, friends and colleagues are invited to attend and share memories of Dr. Sözen.

President Mitch Daniels on Monday (April 9) surprised Larry Nies, professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering, with a One Brick Higher Award to thank him for his heroic work in helping save the life of a colleague earlier this year.

Purdue University's Lyles School of Civil Engineering will recognize six passionate, influential and visionary graduates during the 25th annual Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Awards banquet on April 12, 2018.

Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Ron Klemencic (BSCE '85), Chairman & CEO of Magnusson Klemencic Associates and Director of the Charles Pankow Foundation, has received the 2018 Award of Excellence from Engineering News-Record.

Ph.D. student Alana Lund has been selected as one of just 100 women across the nation to receive the prestigious P.E.O. Scholar Award for the 2018-2019 academic year. The P.E.O. Scholar Award recognizes scholarly excellence and academic achievement, coupled with aggressive career goals.

Current Civil Engineering PhD student Miguel A. Montoya was selected by the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) to receive the 2018 AAPT scholarship. The scholarship is funded by the association with the purpose of increasing the number of scientists and engineers available for careers in the general area of asphalt binder and mixture technologies.

Civil Engineering student Harshit Kapoor and Multidisciplinary Engineering student Terry Babb earned awards in the 2017-18 Purdue University Student Soybean Innovation Competition.

Dong Yoon Song, a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering, received the 2018 ITS Michigan Scholar Award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of Michigan for the best student poster at the 2018 Global Symposium on Connected and Automated Transportation and Infrastructure, held in Ann Arbor, Michigan.