November 2017

• Dr. Nowak received an honorary doctoral degree from Warsaw University of Technology.

• Dr. Vasconcelos was invited to speak at the 2018 Gerhard Jirka Summer School of Environmental Fluid Mechanics in Brazil.

• Graduate student Dan Jackson won the graduate student poster contest for Civil Engineering.

• Dr. Clement was honored at an official ceremony on Nov. 28 as a recipient of an Alumni Professorship by the Alumni Professor Selection Committee and President Leath, starting in the 2017-2018 academic year.

• Dr. Clement will start at the University of Alabama on January 1, 2018 – congratulations and best wishes on the new job.

October 2017

• Dr. Marta Miletic was awarded the NSF Networking & Collaboration Fellowship Seed Grant. This seed grant will facilitate her visit to the Center for Sustainable Engineering of Geological and Infrastructure Material at Northwestern University for ten days in October 2017. She will work on strain localization in a variably saturated medium.

• Dr. Lauren Beckingham gave a keynote presentation titled “Use of Multi-Scale Imaging to Enhance Understanding and Simulation of Reactive Porous Media” at the international Goldschmidt Conference in Paris, France August 13-18, 2017.

• CE 1981 graduate Linda Figg was selected to receive the Distinguished Auburn Engineer Award by the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council.

• Dr. Jeff LaMondia was interviewed by the AU Office of Sustainability and the interview is presented in form of an article on the Office of Sustainability website.

• Dr. Jose Vasconcelos is a founder and Chair of the new Task Committee, Two-phase flow in urban water systems, approved by the ExCom of the Environmental & Water Resources Institute (ASCE).

• Harry Rice is a new member of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council – Class of 2023.

• Angela Fanney (CE Advisory Board member) is recognized in ENR Southeast’s 2017 Top Young Professionals in their list of Top 20 Under 40 program http://www.enr.com/articles/41250-enr-southeasts-top-young-professionals

• Thanks and gratitude to the following CE Advisory Board members with terms ending on 2017: Blake Jeffcoat, Charles Machemehl, Jr., Max Mobley, Jeff Ramsey, and Harry Rice.

August 2017

• Drs. Lauren Beckingham, Marta Miletic, and Frances O’Donnell received Samuel Ginn College of Engineering New Female Faculty Undergraduate Research Awards from the 100+ Women Strong. 

• CE Student Meredith Ayers received the Undergraduate Leadership Award from the 100+ Women Strong. 

• ASCE Student Chapter has been awarded a 2017 Letter of Recognition for Community Service for its exemplary community service benefiting others. Auburn Chapter was selected for this award by the Committee on Student Members based on activities recorded in the Chapter’s 2016 annual report. The faculty advisor is Dr. Justin Marshall.

• An investigation at the NCAT Test Track was selected by AASHTO as a “Sweet Sixteen” project for 2017.  The investigation, “Structural Study of Cold Central Plant Recycling Sections at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) Test Track” was sponsored by the Virginia DOT and executed in coordination with the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC).  Dr. Brian Diefenderfer (VTRC), Miguel Diaz (NCAT Ph.D. Graduate Student), Dr. David Timm (AU Civil Engineering) and Dr. Benjamin Bowers (VTRC) authored the report selected for the Sweet Sixteen.  The Sweet Sixteen program is administered by the Value of Research Task Force in AASHTO to identify and promote sixteen projects per year (4 from each AASHTO Region) that are considered to be high-value research.

• Drs. Brian Anderson, Joel Hayworth, and Prabhakar Clement’s research for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management led to a major victory for Alabama.  Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill changing the way new landfills are created in Alabama, requiring more public notifications when a new landfill is proposed and ending a controversial "default approval" process in the old law. 

• Dr. Jeff LaMondia’s research team was selected by FHWA to develop the complete national policy on methods for collecting travel data.  They will be working closely with FHWA as well as panels of experts that represent state DOTs, federal policy makers, and researchers.  The project results and final reports will dictate how the national household travel survey is collected as well as how every state DOT collects their travel data. 

• Two transportation graduate students, Chennan Xue and Dan Xu, won the first place in student poster competition at the 5th Urban Street Symposium (May 21-24,  Raleigh, NC). The title of their poster is "Evaluation of sound and vibration of directional rumble strips for deterring freeway wrong-way entries.” Dr. Hugo Zhou serves as their major advisor.

• Dr. Jose Vasconcelos became the new Chair of the Hydraulics Structures Committee for the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), ASCE.

• Dr. Liping Jiang, Dr. Fang’s Ph.D. graduate and post-doctoral fellow, has become an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Montana Tech

• Dr. Jeff LaMondia has been appointed by the Provost as Coordinator of the AU Connects! Common Book Program.

• From Auburn News (Aug. 11): Auburn University Professors Latif Kalin and Prabhakar Clement were presented as American Society of Civil Engineers 2017 Environmental and Water Resources Institute fellows during the recent World Environmental and Water Resources Congress held in Sacramento, California. The Environmental and Water Resources Institute, or EWRI, is the society’s technical source for environmental and water-related issues. Fellows are selected annually to recognize members who have contributed significantly to the advancement or application of water resources or environmental engineering, science and technology.

• Dr. Prabhakar Clement has been awarded an Alumni Professorship by the Alumni Professor Selection Committee and President Leath, starting in 2017-2018 academic year.  The Alumni Professorship program is designed to reward faculty members who have been recognized by their peers and colleagues as making outstanding and exceptional contributions to the University’s academic programs.

• Jin Wang's paper titled “Evaluating the Effects of Intersection Balance on Wrong-way Movements at Partial Cloverleaf Interchanges Terminals to Improve Highway Safety” won the 2017 Excellence in Highway Safety Data Paper Competition, which was recognized at the Joint ITE/CITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit Awards Lunch, July 31 in Toronto, ON, Canada. Jin is a Ph.D. student in Transportation Engineering. Her Advisor is Dr. Hugo Zhou.

April 2017

• Robbie Barnes received William F. Walker Teaching Award.

• Lauren Beckingham and Meredith Ayers received Mark A. Spencer Creative Mentorship Award.

• Molly Hughes received Outstanding Faculty Award.

• Jesse Burroughs received Outstanding Student Award.

• Meredith Ayers received 100+ Women Strong Graduate Leadership Award.

• Jim Cooper received Outstanding Alumni Award.

• Rod Turochy received 2017 National James M. Robbins Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Council of Chi Epsilon.

• Rod Turochy received 2017 Chi Epsilon – Excellence in Teaching Award for the Southern District of the National Council of Chi Epsilon.

• Meredith Ayers and Anna Quinn were selected for the Stone Leadership Awards. Recipients are to have a record of 1) leadership in student organizations or service activities, 2) activities outside the department of civil engineering, 3) high scholastic achievement, and 4) positive impacts on others. 

• Prabhakar Clement has been elected as the Fellow of ASCE’s Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI). The 2017 EWRI Fellows will be recognized during the Awards Ceremony at the 2017 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress in Sacramento, CA on, May 22, 2017.

• Lauren Beckingham was selected as a 2017 ASCE ExCEEd Fellow to participate in the 2017 ASCE ExcEEd Teaching Workshop at the United States Military Academy on July 23-28, 2017.

• Jack Montgomery was selected as a 2017 ASCE ExCEEd Fellow to participate in the 2017 ASCE ExcEEd Teaching Workshop. He will be attending the workshop at Florida Gulf Coast University on June 18-23, 2017.

• Sarah Gustitus, CE graduate student won the top prize at Auburn Engineering’s first Finish in 5 competition sponsored by the Council of Engineering Graduate Students, and the competition consists of five-minute, rapid-fire research presentations. A panel of faculty judges scores each presenter on clarity, organization and speaking ability.  Gustitus’ presentation was titled “Effects of crude oil weathering on oil-mineral interactions, and implications for the mitigation of oil spills in nearshore environments.”

• Jin Wang won the Best Young Member Technical Paper Award by the Southern District, Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). She was invited to present the paper at the Southern District ITE Annual Meeting in Columbia, South Carolina on March 26-29, 2017. Jin is a Ph.D. student in Transportation Engineering. Her Advisor is Dr. Hugo Zhou.

• Md Atiquzzaman and Jin Wang, Ph.D. students in Transportation Engineering,  won the Lifesavers Conference Traffic Safety Scholarship Award, 2017, which was presented at the 35th  annual Lifesavers Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, March 26-28, in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Zhou serves as their major advisor.

• Xing Fang serves as guest editors in Water (impact factor 1.687) journal for two special issues: (1) "Water Quality Monitoring and Modeling in Lakes" and (2) "Climate Change Effects on Freshwater Organisms and Ecosystems."

• Gang Chen, Dr. Fang’s PhD graduate and post-doctoral fellow, has obtained a faculty position in the College of Hydrology and Water Resources at Hohai University (one of the top universities in China). 

• Prabhakar Clement has been selected by the American Geophysical Union to visit the Capitol Hill to be a part 2017 AGU Congressional Visits Day on May 3^rd 2017.   AGU sponsors this event, providing an opportunity for their members to meet with their legislators in Washington, DC. During the visits, participants discuss the importance of federally funded science research as well as their own research with elected legislators.

March 2017

• Jamieson Matthews won a National Chi Epsilon Fellowship and he will receive a scholarship check for $3500 from the Chi Epsilon National Office. Three fellowships were awarded nationwide this year.

• Sarah Anne Gustitus, Dr. Clement's master student, received an award of Auburn University’s outstanding master’s students for 2016-2017.

• Jackson Ross Ellis has been selected as the Outstanding ASCE Student at Auburn University by the ASCE Alabama Section. 

• The ITE student chapter won the state of Alabama Traffic Bowl competition at the Alabama Section ITE spring meeting in Birmingham, AL. Traffic Bowl is a Transportation Jeopardy-styled student competition. The Auburn team competed against South Alabama, UAB, and Alabama.  The team (Nick Jehn, Jyothirmayi Rani and Veronica Ramirez) advanced to the Southern District level competition which will be held in Columbia, South Carolina on March 26-29.  AU-ITE advisor is Dr. Rod Turochy.

• Jesse Burroughs has been selected as the Civil Engineering Outstanding Student and will be recognized at the Faculty/Student Awards and Alumni Recognition Spring Reception on April 7

• Hugo Zhou and his research team (5 Ph.D. students, 3 MS students and 1 undergraduate student) recently published a booklet for the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA), entitled "ATSSA Member Business Opportunities Related to Connected and Automated Vehicles.” The Auburn University research team was acknowledged at the general opening session of the Annual Convention of ATSSA on February 11, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. The booklet has been distributed to more than 12,000 ATSSA members worldwide. This is the third booklet completed by Dr. Zhou and his team in the last three years

• Rod Turochy has been promoted to Full Professor effective Fall Semester 2017.

• Anton Schindler has been selected to receive the 2017 American Concrete Institute Cedric Wilson Lightweight Aggregate Concrete Award “for fundamental contributions to understanding early- and later-age cracking in lightweight aggregate bridge deck concrete, the effects and benefits of internal curing, and for the subsequent engineering and construction applications.”  The award will be presented during ACI’s Convention in Detroit on March 26, 2017. 

• Jorge Rueda was selected to work on TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 8-112 titled “A Guidebook for Implementing Alternative Technical Concepts into Project Delivery Methods”.  The project award is for $450,000 over a duration of 21 months.  The principal investigator for this project is Dr. Douglas Gransberg (Gransberg and Associates, Inc.). 

• Justin Marshall will be on Professional Improvement Leave at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand in Spring 2018.

• Jose Vasconcelos will be on Professional Improvement Leave in Fall 2017

• David Timm’s paper was awarded the 2016 Jack H. Dillard Best Paper Award.  The paper is coauthored with Miguel Diaz, his PhD student, and two colleagues at the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC), This award is given annually to the best paper published by the VTRC during that calendar year.  The paper features work from the NCAT Test Track and was titled, "Structural Study of Cold Central Plant Recycling Sections at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) Test Track"

• Jorge Rueda made a presentation to SOCY2000 Social Issues class that was very well received by the students.

• AU American Concrete Institute (ACI) Student Chapter was selected to be named an ACI Excellent University for 2016.  The ACI Award for University Student Activities was initiated to recognize universities that have participated in ACI-related activities. Our student chapter will be recognized during the ACI Spring 2017 Concrete Convention and Exposition in Detroit, MI during the Opening Session and Keynote Presentation on Sunday, March 26.  Our chapter will be sending 11 students to attend this convention, and we will have two undergraduate student teams completing in ACI’s student competition during this convention. The faculty advisor is Dr. Anton Schindler. 

• Jose Vasconcelos was invited to participate in the committee “Collaborative Hydraulics: Advancing to the Next Generation of Engineering (CHANGE)” on behalf of FHWA and ALDOT to study the implementation of next-generation hydraulic tools to understand interactions between river/coastal regions and transportation infrastructure.

January 2017

• Larry Crowley retired from active service at the university on Jan. 1, 2017.

• Dale York was inducted into the Alabama Construction Hall of Fame on Jan. 13, 2017.

• Jim Cooper was selected by the civil engineering faculty as the Outstanding Alumnus for 2017, the award ceremony is on April 7.

• Jeff LaMondia was invited by the National Academies to serve on the oversight committee for the 10th University Transportation Center Spotlight Conference on bicycles and pedestrians.

• Aravind Tankasala (civil engineering doctoral student) received the 2017 Best Student Paper award from the Transportation Research Board Committee on Basic Research and Emerging Technologies Related to Concrete.  Aravind received this award for a paper titled “Thermal Cracking Risk of Using Lightweight Aggregate in Mass Concrete," authored by Aravind Tankasala, Anton K. Schindler and Kyle A. Riding.

• Travis Gajkowski (master's student) received the 2017 Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, which is highly competitive and prestigious in the transportation field.  The fellowship includes a stipend as well as travel funds for an award ceremony at the TRB conference. His advisor is Jeff LaMondia.

• Jeff LaMondia’s paper "A GIS-based Bicycle Demand-Suitability Prioritization Tool," presented at the International Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium Sized Communities and received a Best Paper award at the conference. It was presented at TRB in January at the Best Paper session.

• Prabhakar Clement received a travel grant from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health/ National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a Study of Epidemiological, Hydrological, and Social Factors Contributing to Chronic Kidney Disease in Sri Lanka.  He will travel to Sri Lanka at the end of March.

• Prabhakar Clement was invited to serve on the awards committee of the National Ground Water Association.