College of EngineeringDepartment of Civil and Environmental EngineeringNews2016 Civil Engineering Accomplishments

2016 Civil Engineering Accomplishments

November 2016

  • Joel Hayworth has been appointed to the Solid Waste Management Task Force by the Governor of Alabama Robert Bentley.  This is a great honor and this position comes with great responsibility involving important decisions that affect the citizens of Alabama.

  • David Timm’s recent paper, "Key Concepts in Dynamic Signal Processing from Instrumented Pavement Sections," presented at the International Conference on Accelerated Pavement Testing in San Jose, Costa Rica was voted as a Best Paper at the conference. He has been invited to present it again at TRB in January in a Best Paper session sponsored by TRB AFD40 (Committee on Accelerated Pavement Testing).

September 2016

  • Justin Marshall is a new committee chair for the ASCE/SEI Technical Committee on Seismic Effects.

  • Katelyn Hall (civil engineering student) was chosen by the Baldwin County Road Builders Association to be the recipient of their 2016 Baldwin County Road Builders scholarship. The scholarship amount is $3000. They awarded the scholarship on Oct. 11 in Daphne.

  • Jamieson Matthews (civil engineering graduate student) was awarded a Structural Engineers Association of Alabama Scholarship for 2016

  • Travis Gajkowski (civil engineering student) was awarded the FHWA Eisenhower fellowship, which is a very prestigious designation for outstanding work and innovation in the transportation community. It comes with a grant, travel support to TRB and special recognition at a reception at TRB.

  • The American Academy of Environmental Engineers Certification Board has confirmed Mark Barnett’s certification by eminence in the specialty of water supply and wastewater. The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists is the lead professional organization for environmental engineering body of knowledge (as ASCE for civil engineers).

  • A team of four faculty from across the U.S. - David Hurwitz (Oregon State University), Kristen Sanford Bernhardt (Lafayette College), Rod Turochy (Auburn University), and Rhonda Young (Gonzaga University) - received the 2016 Innovation in Education Award from ITE’s Transportation Education Council.  The award recognizes their efforts to improve the quality of transportation engineering education, document and advance the state of the practice in teaching methods, and create a community of practice for transportation engineering educators around the country.

August 2106

  • Jeff LaMondia was selected for the National Academies' Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium held Sept. 25-28, 2016, at the National Academies' Beckman Center in Irvine, California.

  • Prabhakar Clement was selected as the recipient of the prestigious John Hem Award for Excellence in Science & Engineering for 2016 by the National Ground Water Association. The award is given to an individual who has made significant, recent scientific or engineering contributions to the understanding of groundwater. The presentation of awards occurred during NGWA Groundwater Week in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dec. 6-8, 2016.

  • Rebecca Nylen was selected to receive the American Concrete Institute Darrell Elliot Louisiana Fellowship for 2016-2017.

  • Two of David Timm’s graduate students, Nathan Moore (master's student) and Kenneth Tutu (doctoral student), were each awarded Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists graduate scholarships. This is an annual internationally-competitive scholarship program. Nathan and Ken are the only two recipients in 2016. It is highly unusual for two students to be selected from the same program in the same year. Since 2000, it's only been done twice (both times by University of Illinois students).

  • David Timm was an invited speaker at the National Academy of Engineering workshop on Predictive Service Life Modeling Paradigms for Aging Critical Infrastructure.

  • The Auburn ASCE student chapter received a Letter of Honorable Mention for outstanding activities from the ASCE committee on student members.

  • The Auburn ASCE student chapter was awarded a 2016 Letter of Recognition for Community Service for its exemplary community service benefiting others outside of civil engineering ASCE student chapter's by the ASCE committee on student members.