Graduate Program Visitation Day – March 2, 2012
Location:
The CEAE Visitation Day will be held in the Engineering Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder (see the Contact Us link for maps).
Events:
Events on Visitation Day include program and faculty introductions, lab tours, a seminar, CEAE Graduate Program overview, and meetings with faculty and graduate students.
Schedule:
Friday, March 2 – Activities will be in the Engineering Center and the Discovery Learning Center (DLC)
| 8:45 | Central sign-in and bagels and coffee in DLC |
| 9:00-9:45 | General welcome – DLC
Break into program groups (Environmental – ENV, Geotechnical – GT, Water Resources – WR, Building Systems – BS, Construction Engineering and Management – CEM, Structures – STR, Civil Systems – CS) |
| 10:00-11:00 | Program/Faculty Introduction |
| 11:00-12:00 | Program/Faculty Introduction |
| 12:00-1:00 | Lunch (DLC)
|
| 1:00 – 2:00 | Seminar speaker |
| 2:00 – 3:00 | Campus Tour (Paul Chinowsky, Amy Javernick-Will, John McCartney, Matthew Hallowell, and graduate students) |
| 3:00 – 4:00 | Poster Session in ECCE 1B41, 1B47, and 1B52 and Meetings with Individual Faculty and Current Graduate Students |
| 6:00 | TBD |
Saturday, March 3 – Free day to explore Boulder
Registration:
All newly admitted graduate students in civil engineering may participate in the CEAE Visitation Day. Registration is required. Confirm your participation with Pamela Halstead Williamson, the CEAE graduate program coordinator, before February 27, 2012 (pamela.williamson@colorado.edu).
Graduate Committee:
Faculty on the CEAE Graduate Committee are your first point of contact for information and scheduling for Visitation Day. Faculty, and their specialty areas, are listed below.
| Building Systems Engineering | Prof. Moncef Krarti | 303-492-3389 | krarti@colorado.edu |
| Civil Systems | Prof. Paul Chinowsly | 303-735-1063 | paul.chinowsky@colorado.edu |
| Construction Engineering and Management | Prof. Amy Javernick-Will | 303-492-6769 | amy.javernick@colorado.edu |
| Environmental | Prof. R. Scott Summers | 303-492-6644 | summersr@colorado.edu |
| Geotechnical Engineering and Geomechanics, Geoenvironmental | Prof. John McCartney | 303-492-7577 | john.mccartney@colorado.edu |
| Hydrology, Water Resources & Environmental Fluid Mechanics | Prof. John Crimaldi | 303-735-2162 | crimaldi@colorado.edu |
| Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics | Prof. Franck Vernery | 303-492-7165 | franck.vernerey@colorado.edu |
| Graduate Program Coordinator | Pamela Halstead Williamson | 303-492-7316 | pamela.williamson@colorado.edu |
Lodging:
Lodging near the CU Engineering Center is available at the Best Western Boulder Inn and Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites. They are located at the east edge of campus along the 28th Street Frontage Road and are in walking distance to the Engineering Center. There are also other hotels available near the University.
Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites http://www.boulderoutlook.com/
$74 – $104
800 28th Street
Boulder, CO 80303
303-443-3322
Toll Free Reservations: 800-542-0304
Code: Civil Engineering Group
Best Western Boulder Inn CU http://boulderinn.com/
$82 (must make reservations 14 days in advance to guarantee rate)
770 28th Street
Boulder, CO 80303
303-449-3800
Toll Free Reservations: 800-233-8469
Code: Civil Engineering
Complimentary hot breakfast served 6:30 AM to 10:00 AM – Includes: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, juices, 3 cereals, English muffins, bagels, doughnuts, assorted fresh fruit, and coffee.
Millennium Harvest House Boulder CU http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumboulder/index.html
$104
1325 Twenty-Eighth Street
Boulder, CO 80302
303-443-3850
Toll Free Reservations: 800-545-6285
Engineering Center:
The CU Engineering Center is on the east side of campus at the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Regent Drive. Please visit the Contact Us link on the menu above for maps of the campus and engineering center.
On Foot: From Outlook & Best Western, cross under US 36 using the culvert passway at Aurora Avenue. Aurora is just north of the inns. From New West Inn, use the culvert at College Avenue. Or from all three motels follow 28th St. Frontage Road and cross US 36 at Colorado Avenue (left).
By Car: A Visitor Parking lot is located south and east of the Engineering Center.
Air Travel to Boulder:
Air travelers will fly to Denver International Airport (DIA), and use ground transportation to continue to Boulder. DIA information is available at www.flydenver.com. Options for ground transportation from DIA are:
RTD Bus: Use the AB Boulder/DIA route. Fare is $12.00 one way (exact change). Buses leave from the west (first) and east (2nd) side of the DIA terminal. The last bus leaves DIA at 11:25 PM (east side). In Boulder, the bus travels along Broadway. In Boulder, exit the bus at 16th Street/Regent, University of Colorado. Heading east, follow Regent Dr. to reach the Engineering Center and motels. The longer, but more clear route to the motels is to take Regent Dr. to Colorado (turn right), cross over the highway (US 36 and 28th St.) and immediately turn right on 28th St. Frontage Road.
Van Service: The Super Shuttle http://www.supershuttle.com/
(Advance reservation required, $25 each way/$50 round trip)
(303) 444-0808
Car: Take Pena Boulevard south to I-70. Travel west on I-70 to I-270. Take I-270 and follow signs for Boulder via US 36.
To Reach CU Campus: As you arrive in Boulder, the first traffic signal on US 36 is at Colorado Avenue. At this intersection, turn left to enter campus. Go left again at the next light. This is 26th St – Regent Drive. Ahead on the left is the visitor parking lot.
To Reach Boulder Inn & Outlook Hotels: In Boulder, take the exit for Baseline Road. There is a light at the intersection, go straight through. Keep right for the ramp to Frontage Road. At the stop sign, bear left and continue on the Frontage Road for Best Western Boulder Inn and Outlook Inns.
To Reach Millennium Harvest Hotel: In Boulder, stay on Highway 36-28th Street. After the first intersection at Colorado Ave, go straight and turn left after Taft Drive. The hotel is before the next intersection 28th St & Arapahoe Ave.
Rental Car Agencies Located at the Denver International Airport
Advantage www.arac.com
Enterprise www.enterprise.com
Alamo www.alamo.com
Hertz www.hertz.com
Avis www.avis.com
National www.nationalcar.com
Budget www.budget.com
Payless www.paylesscarrental.com
Dollar www.dollar.com
Diane McKnight Elected to National Academy of Engineering
Diane McKnight (photo by the University of Colorado)
Diane McKnight, professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
McKnight is among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates of the academy. She joins 16 other faculty from the campus who have been elected since the academy’s formation in 1962.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice or education” and to the “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”
McKnight was recognized for making clear the interrelationship between natural organic matter and heavy metals in streams and lakes.
Her research expertise is in the interactions between freshwater biota, trace metals, and natural organic material in diverse freshwater environments, including lakes and streams in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.
In the Rocky Mountains, she has focused on the impact of metal contamination in acid mine drainage streams and the influence of climate change and nitrogen deposition on alpine lakes and wetlands. McKnight has interacted with many state and local groups involved in mine drainage and watershed issues in the Rocky Mountains.
“Diane is a worldwide leader in the interactive effect of metals in our water system with natural organic matter,” said Professor Ross Corotis, who was dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science when McKnight joined the faculty and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research in 1996. “In addition to her advanced research for protecting environments from the Antarctic to the Rocky Mountains, she is a leader in developing books for children to help them learn about the water cycle.”
McKnight has been working in Antarctica since 1987, and is a leading investigator studying extreme life at the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research site funded by the National Science Foundation. In the harsh polar environment, stream channels flow only a few weeks out of the year and the only life forms inhabiting the area are microorganisms, mosses, lichens and a few groups of invertebrates.
She wrote and published a children’s book, “The Lost Seal,” in 2006, that tells the true story of a wayward seal discovered near the research camp in 1990 and its eventual rescue. The story gives children an understanding of Antarctica’s extreme environment and the work of scientists there.
She earned three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1975, a master’s degree in civil engineering in 1978 and a doctorate in environmental engineering in 1979.
She was a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Research Program for 17 years before she came to CU-Boulder. She was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009.
She is a former member of the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board and Polar Research Board, and she received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1995.
CEAE PhD Student Awarded EPA STAR Fellowship
- Jessica Kaminsky
Jessica Kaminsky, a doctoral student working with Assistant Professor Amy Javernick-Will, was awarded a three-year fellowship through the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science To Achieve Results (STAR) program. Jessica is a student studying in the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. Her research aims to improve the sustainability of household sanitation infrastructure.
Household sanitation systems, like septic tanks, are one of the most common sources of groundwater contamination in the United States. Both domestically and internationally, they suffer from high failure rates. While some of these failures are due to poor design, many are instead caused by inadequate maintenance and operation. To address this issue, Jessica’s research will quantify the social networks that impact sanitation systems in an effort to understand how knowledge flow impacts maintenance and operation.
CEAE Student Wins Best Student Presentation Award at IUVA North American Conference
Sarah Bounty receiving her award from conference organizer Ron Hofmann (University of Toronto)
Sarah Bounty, an MS candidate working with Professor Karl Linden in environmental engineering, won the Best Student Presentation Award at the International UV Association (IUVA) North American Conference in Toronto, Canada in September 2011 for her paper “Inactivation of Adenovirus using Low Dose UV/H2O2 Advanced Oxidation”. Co-authors on her paper were Luke Martin, a high school student she mentored, Roberto Rodriquez, a post-doc working in the Linden group, and Professor Linden. Sarah received a plaque and a cash prize.
Sarah is currently researching molecular biology techniques to identify inactivation mechanisms of UV light disinfection of viruses in water.
DeCook Scholarship Benefits 20 Architectural Engineering Students Each Year
The annual DeCook Scholarship dinner
A 1971 CU-Boulder graduate and his wife are helping to pay the tuition of as many as 20 undergraduate students in the architectural engineering program each year through the David DeCook Scholarship fund. The fund, which is one of the largest scholarship gifts to students in architectural engineering, awards $1,500 toward each student’s tuition.
Dave DeCook is a 1971 architectural engineering graduate; he also earned a business degree from Colorado State University in 1967. Dave’s career began with several years as an environmental engineer at the City of Colorado Springs. His duties included beautifying existing electrical substations and siting new ones with a goal of less visibility, cleaner appearance, and low-profile or underground power transmission. Changing positions in 1974, Dave began work at United Parcel Service as a project engineer in charge of construction of major facilities throughout the Southwest. He rose to the position of regional plant engineering manager, moving his family to New York, Georgia, California, and back to Georgia, where he managed overall construction and facilities engineers in those UPS regions. He finished his career in the corporate office of UPS and retired following 26 years of service. He and his wife Deborah are dedicated Colorado Buffaloes, providing an athletic scholarship in football as well as providing awards to highly deserving architectural engineering students.
To be considered for the DeCook scholarship, students must be entering their junior or senior year of study and apply online for the college’s merit scholarships. The deadline to apply for 2012-2013 scholarships is March 1, 2012 at 5:00 pm.