Dr. Ivan Damnjanovic

Dr. Ivan Damnjanovic, assistant professor of construction engineering and management in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, has been appointed to an ad hoc committee by The National Academies’ Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.

The project, Predicting Outcomes from Investments in the Maintenance and Repair of Federal Facilities, has a committee of experts who will develop methods, strategies, and procedures to predict outcomes anticipated from investments in federal facilities’ maintenance and repair. The project will begin Dec. 1 and run for 18 months.

Damnjanovic received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 and joined the Texas A&M University faculty in August 2006.

The Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M was named in 2005 in honor of the generous and longstanding support of the Zachry Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. The department is one of the largest civil engineering programs in the world and consistently ranks among the top departments in the United States. The undergraduate and graduated programs is ranked eighth and the graduate program eighth among public institutions in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: unranked [?]

Dr. Ralph Wurbs

Two Zachry Department of Civil Engineering faculty members were recently appointed Freese and Nichols Faculty Fellows.

Dr. Scott Socolofsky, associate professor of coastal and ocean engineering, and Dr. Ralph Wurbs, associate director of the Texas Water Resources Institute and professor of water resources engineering, are the first faculty members to hold this appointment.

Dr. Scott Socolofsky

The new fellowship, established by Freese and Nichols Inc. and its president and CEO Robert F. Pence ’72, is intended to bring industry and academia together in the areas of environmental engineering, water resources and fluid mechanics.

Socolofsky and Wurbs were selected for the appointment for their teaching and scholarly achievements.

With the three-year appointment comes a $7,000 per year discretionary fund to support the appointees’ teaching and research activities.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: unranked [?]

Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud

Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, holder of the Spencer J. Buchanan Chair in Civil Engineering and a professor of geotechnical engineering in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, has been elected president of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).

The election took place Oct. 4 in Alexandria, Egypt.

“I look forward to helping many countries and many people from all sorts of backgrounds come together to exchange ideas and knowledge in a friendly atmosphere,” Briaud said.

During his four-year term, Briaud said he hopes to reorganize the society in a more “customer-oriented” fashion. Improving the group’s Web site and increasing membership and innovation are also among Briaud’s goals. To do this Briaud will create three new board level committees: a Technical Oversight Committee, a Membership Committee and an Innovation Committee.

For more information, please visit https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/briaud/.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: unranked [?]

Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) will host the Modeling of Water Distribution Systems using EPANet course on Dec. 9-11 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Urban Solutions Center in Dallas.

Dr. Kelly Brumbelow

The course will focus on fundamental concepts of pressure conduit system modeling and implementation of modeling applications using EPANet and the EPANet Toolkit. Participants will work through several hands-on exercises using the EPANet software and learn basic techniques for using the EPANet Toolkit from the Visual Basic for Applications module of Microsoft Excel.

Participants will learn the following skills:
• Creating new water distribution system models in EPANet,
• Simulating new and existing models for a variety of applications,
• Processing EPANet output in a variety of forms to generate useful tables, graphs, and maps,
• Linking GIS data with EPANet using public-domain utility programs, and
• Creating advanced simulations and output processing using the EPANet Toolkit and Visual Basic for Applications.

Course instructor Dr. Kelly Brumbelow, assistant professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, has more than 14 years experience in water resources engineering, planning and management.

For more information and to register visit http://watereducation.tamu.edu.

About TWRI
The Texas Water Resources Institute, part of Texas AgriLife Research, the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, serves as the focal point, clearinghouse, partner and facilitator for water research and educational outreach efforts throughout Texas and beyond.

Contact Courtney Swyden, 979.862.2299, CMSwyden@ag.tamu.edu

Popularity: unranked [?]

A view of the Roman Acqueduct in Segovia, Spain.

In the heart of Spain is a city that was once surrounded by walls and towers to protect its population. Today, Ciudad Real (the Royal City) is open to all who wish to learn from the city’s rich history and vibrant culture.

This summer 24 students from the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering study abroad program visited the Royal City to see what it had to offer.

After arriving in Spain May 25, the students spent a week in Toledo for an integration week, where they took morning Spanish classes and afternoon engineering classes with their civil engineering professors.

This year, civil engineering students could choose a structural engineering track led by Dr. Luciana Barroso, associate professor of structural engineering, or a water resources track with Dr. Francisco Olivera, Wiley Developmental Professor. Barroso’s course combined concrete design with a capstone experience, while Olivera’s course included instruction on Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

After the integration week, the students and professors traveled to Ciudad Real for the remaining five weeks. There they studied and took classes in the morning with their Texas A&M professors at the University of Castilla La Mancha’s main campus.

After being split up by track in the morning, the students were reunited in the afternoon for a long lunch and a mandatory study session. At night the students had free time to do what they pleased before going home to their host family or hotel.

Civil engineering student Lisa Ding poses next to a marker designating the Roman Acqueduct an ASCE historic landmark.

“I went from basic Spanish to almost intermediate in my time [with my host family],” said James Savage, a student on the structures track. “It was amazing to learn the language as fast as I did, and my host family would write me sentences everyday that I had to learn and be tested at dinner. It was great.”

Each Thursday, the faculty took their students on a three-day trip to other areas of engineering significance throughout the region. Some of the scheduled trips included Segovia, Barcelona, Oporto (in Portugal) and Santiago de Compostella. While in Segovia, the students were able to visit the Roman Aqueduct, a designated ASCE historic landmark.

“[The aqueducts] were truly an amazing sight,” Savage said. “They towered about four arches high, all large stones, and ran for thousands of miles. We learned how they were structurally supported, how they may have constructed them, and what the purpose was.”

In the end, the students left Spain six credit hours closer to graduation, but more importantly they came away with a summer and experience they will never forget.

“I feel my experience makes me a better engineer,” said Coby Gee, a student in the water resources track, “by broadening my scope of what the needs of the rest of the world are and how they are going about facing these challenges.”

Some students who participated in Texas A&M Engineering’s study abroad programs blogged about their experiences. Read their entries and watch their videos at http://thinkbig.tamu.edu/blog/.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: unranked [?]

The Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University will host the 17th annual Buchanan Lecture Nov. 13 at the College Station Hilton.

The afternoon’s activities will begin at 2 p.m. with the Terzaghi Lecture and will be followed by the keynote Buchanan Lecture.

Dr. Jose Roesset

This year’s Buchanan lecturer is Dr. Jose Roesset, the Wofford Cain ‘13 Senior Chair of Engineering in Offshore Technology and associate department head for graduate studies in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering. Roesset will give the talk “Applications of Soil Dynamics.” Roesset has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering since 1993.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Giroud

The Terzaghi Lecture, “Criteria for Geotextile and Granular Filters,” will be given by Dr. Jean-Pierre Giroud who will present a summary of more than 30 years of work. Giroud, a former professor of geotechnical engineering, is Chairman Emeritus and founder of Geosyntec Consultants and was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2009.

The lecture series is organized by Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, holder of the Spencer J. Buchanan Chair in Civil Engineering. The annual lecture was started in 1993 to honor Buchanan, who graduated from Texas A&M in 1926 with a civil engineering degree, then founded the Soil Mechanics Division of the civil engineering department at Texas A&M, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1969.

For more information on the Buchanan Lecture, visit http://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/briaud/buchanan.htm.
Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: unranked [?]

Dr. Joseph Bracci

Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Joseph Bracci acting interim department head of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, effective immediately.

Bracci will serve until Aug. 24, when Dr. John Niedzwecki will take over as interim department head.

Bracci is professor and head of the Construction, Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Division of the department. A registered professional engineer in Texas, Bracci joined the Dwight Look College of Engineering faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: 49% [?]

The Panama Canal stretches over 48 miles of Panamanian land and lakes connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Built in the very early 1900s, the canal cuts the old ship route around South America and Cape Horn almost in half.

12 civil engineering students studied abroad this summer in Panama.

The Panama Canal is an engineering wonder, and this summer 12 Zachry Department of Civil Engineering students got to experience it during their six-week study abroad trip. Accompanying the students on the trip was Dr. Anthony Cahill, associate professor of water resources engineering.

The students spent three weeks in Panama’s Ciudad del Saber — the City of Knowledge — and three weeks in Costa Rica at the new Texas A&M Soltis Center. Ciudad del Saber is located in the heart of the Panama Canal watershed on the site of a former U.S. military base from when the United States owned the Panama Canal.

After morning classes (CVEN 301: Environmental Engineering and CVEN 463: Engineering Hydrology) the students enjoyed free time to do their homework, relax, cook or do the variety of activities that the Cuidad del Saber provided.

“At the City of Knowledge they had a pool, many soccer fields, a weight room, basketball court, racquetball court, and even a ping pong room,” Kyle Vrla, a senior civil engineering student, said. “We could spend our free time doing any of these activities as long as we got our homework and studying done.”

During their trip, the students were able to participate in several special activities for the classes they were taking, such as touring the Panama Canal.

Currently, the Panama Canal Authority is working towards expanding the canal and the students were able to meet with the Authority engineers to learn how they operate and manage the canal.

“It’s incredible to think that one of the most important engineering feats of the 20th century is still running as flawlessly as it did when it was first opened in 1914,” senior Lance Ballard said.

Civil engineering students take measurements for a class activity.

While at the canal, they visited the Miraflores Locks and watched the massive ships passing through.

“It is amazing to see the magnitude of these ships. They are huge,” said senior Ryan Opgenorth. (Ryan blogged for Texas A&M Engineering about his experiences in Panama and Costa Rica. Read and view his video diary at http://thinkbig.tamu.edu/blog/index.php/category/Ryan/.)

Also, while at the locks, the students were able to meet the Administrator of the Panama Canal, Alberto Aleman Zubieta. Zubieta is not only a Panamanian but he is also an Aggie (Class of 1973) and the recipient of Texas A&M University’s 2004 Outstanding International Alumnus Award and civil engineering’s 2009 Distinguished Graduate Award.

The last three weeks of their trip, the students stayed in the new Texas A&M Soltis Center near La Fortuna, Costa Rica. While there, they had the privilege of being involved with the center’s opening ceremonies that were taking place during their stay. The Soltis Center is a brand new 40-acre facility that sits next to 250-acres of Costa Rican rainforest.

“I would take time in the afternoon to explore the rainforest and go up and down rivers,” Opgenorth said. “It was really fun and so relaxing.”

On the weekends in Costa Rica there was always an activity planned for the students to do. The students spent one weekend in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. While there, they got to go deep into the rainforest via zip lines. The zip line tour consisted of 18 long zip lines with one of them over 1 kilometer long.

“I had been [on] a zip line before, but nothing compared to this,” Opgenorth explained. “These zip lines were long and fast and you were flying through the rainforest. It was one of the top five things I have done in my entire life.”

Besides the zip line tour, while in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve the students were able to visit the SelvaTura Adventure Park. The park housed animals, insects and reptiles in its Jewels of the Rainforest Exhibit.

Other trips the students took in while Costa Rica included whitewater rafting, taking a dip in the local hot springs, and a hike to the Volcano Arenal.

“[Arenal] is the third most active volcano in the world,” Vrla said. “We went to…Baldi Hot Springs, which are some natural springs that are heated by the volcano. It is at the eerie base of the volcano so everyone is always hoping it doesn’t erupt!”

According to Ballard, living in Panama and Costa Rica was a great cultural learning experience.

“I believe it’s very easy for us to lose sight of the fact that there is life and culture outside of our day-to-day lives here in the United States,” Ballard said. “It was refreshing to see life from a different point of view and in a different way. It was like having another lens to view life through, another way to weigh my life and the things in it in order to see what to cherish and what to lay aside.”

Dr. Cahill said he was extremely pleased with the efforts the students put into their classes and is already planning for the next study abroad trip.

“I hope that we can replicate and improve the experience next summer, when we return to Panama and Costa Rica to teach study abroad again,” he said.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: 47% [?]

Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) recently funded Mills Scholarships to 10 Texas A&M University graduate students — six of them from the Dwight Look College of Engineering — for the 2009-10 academic year to pursue water-related research.

Engineering students receiving the scholarships are:
• Hannah Childress and Di Long — Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
• Chandana Damodaram, Celso Moller Ferreira, Marcio Hofheinz Giacomoni and Sanjay Tewari — Zachry Department of Civil Engineering

TWRI’s Mills Scholars Program, an endowed fund that supports research in water conservation and management, provided the $1,500 scholarships to the students to use for education-related expenses.

TWRI uses the Mills Scholars program to encourage and assist current and prospective Texas A&M University graduate students addressing priority water resource issues facing Texas.

Some of this year’s Mills Scholars’ research topics include examining the effects of land use, using the hydrologic footprint model to model best management practices and determine downstream effects, investigating the use of green roof technology to mitigate stormwater runoff, and using UV light disinfection to reduce the concentration of tetracycline-resistant genes.

Mills Cox, a former chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, funded the W.G. Mills Endowment, which provides the scholarships.

For more information on the Mill’s Scholarship Program or to learn more about the students’ projects, contact Cecilia Wagner, TWRI project manager, at 979.458.1138 or cawagner@ag.tamu.edu or go to http://twri.tamu.edu/mills.php.

The Texas Water Resources Institute, part of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas AgriLife Research, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, provides leadership to stimulate priority water resources research and educational programs for AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension as well as throughout Texas.

Submitted by Leslie Jordan, LHJordan@ag.tamu.edu

Popularity: 51% [?]

Civil engineering's David Rosowsky has been a PI on an NSF project that set out to design mid-rise wood structures for high seismic regions. The project came to a conclusion in July when the researchers’ seven-story wood-frame building successfully survived a an earthquake.

In states that border the Gulf of Mexico, residents are experts on what to do when a hurricane hits: board up the windows, pack up priceless belongings, head into the hours of endless traffic and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, there is little individuals can do to prepare for natural disasters that strike with little or no warning.

Earthquakes are among the deadliest and most sudden natural disasters, leaving residents reliant upon their homes’ earthquake safety standards. One researcher at Texas A&M University is working to give residents of mid-rise buildings in earthquake prone areas greater peace of mind.

For the past five years Dr. David Rosowsky, department head and A.P. and Florence Wiley Chair in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M, has been one of the principal investigators on the National Science Foundation’s NEESWood Project. Researchers  set out to design mid-rise wood structures for high seismic regions. The project came to a conclusion earlier this summer when the researchers’ seven-story wood-frame building successfully survived a maximum credible event ground motion — an earthquake that may be expected to occur on average only once in 2,500 years.

According to Dr. John van de Lindt, lead project investigator and associate professor of civil engineering at Colorado State University, wood-frame structures are currently limited to four stories “due to the lack of understanding of the dynamic response of taller (mid-rise) wood-frame construction, non-structural limitations such as material fire requirements, and potential damage considerations for non-structural finishes.”

The end goal of the project is to be able to increase the maximum height of wood-frame structures and to lessen the damage to low-rise structures due to earthquakes.

The first full-scale test conducted as a part of the NEESWood project was held at University of Buffalo’s Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Lab in 2006. The team constructed a two-story, 1,800 square-foot townhouse and put it through five mock earthquakes on two interconnected piston-powered shake tables. The mock earthquakes increased in magnitude with each test with the last test equaling the strength of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, which had magnitude ranging from 7.7 to 8.3.

The project then moved to Miki City, Japan, for its second and final phase, where the NEESWood researchers worked with the Japanese government’s National Research Institute for Earth’s Science and Disaster Prevention. Miki City is home to the world’s largest shake table in the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center, E-Defense.

“Both the U.S. and Japan already have derived benefits [from the tests] and will continue to derive benefit in the coming years,” Rosowsky said. “It was truly a collaborative project. While the research was conducted and the structure was designed here in the United States, the entire Capstone structure was built and tested in Japan.”

The building that was constructed for testing in phase two was a six-story wood-frame condominium with a seventh story comprised of concrete and steel representing street-level retail shops. It is 14,000 square-feet with 23 residential one- and two-bedroom units for living space.

“The building was designed using a new approach to designing mid-rise wood story structures… a design procedure called direct displacement design,” Rosowsky explained. “The procedure was developed at Texas A&M University as part of the NEESWood project…And the structure was designed so that under different intensity ground motions, different intensity shakings, the displacement of each story would be kept below specified target levels.”

On June 30, two tests were run on the building. In the first test a mock earthquake was simulated representing the magnitude of an earthquake that takes place only once every 72 years. The second test simulated an earthquake that takes place once every 475 years. On July 6, the building went through the same two tests but with the steel-frame components locked down.

On July 14, the building went through its final test — a maximum credible event based on the 1994 Northridge, Calif., earthquake, scaled to 180 percent intensity. The test is believed to represent an earthquake that would occur, on average, once every 2,500 years.

“The good news is that the test was successful. Not only did the building stay together, but it met all of the performance requirements… it met all of the drift expectations. This confirms that we can design and build mid-rise wood frame structures in high seismic regions and that these structures will perform satisfactorily (as designed).”

Though the final test has been successfully completed, the researchers still have a lot yet to learn from their experiments.

“Now the focus is on taking a look at all the data from the more than 300 sensors on the building, and trying to make sense of all of that information,” Rosowsky said. “The data collected during the test will be used for years to come to validate computer models and further refine seismic design procedures, codes, and standards for engineered wood structures built in seismic regions.”

For more information on the NEESWood Project please visit, http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsmedia/neeswood/index.jsp.

The Zachry Department of Civil Engineering was named in 2005 in honor of the generous and longstanding support of the Zachry Foundation of San Antonio, Texas. The department is one of the largest civil engineering programs in the world and consistently ranks among the top departments in the United States. The undergraduate program is ranked seventh and the graduate program eighth among public institutions in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Written by Cassidy Thomas

Popularity: 32% [?]