how a ce-led initiative could keep us saferspring 2010 5 pankow lab dedication richard, stephen, and...

DisastersDisastersMitigating

Multi-Generational GradsA gathering of legacy alumni

SPRING 2010

PURDUE CIVILPURDUE CIVIL

Not Your Ordinary Named Professor The multi-faceted Fred Mannering

How a CE-led initiative could keep us safer

Purdue Civil Engineering Impact

It has been said that Mother Nature always has the bigger hammer. Another cruel reminder of that came in January with the earthquake in Haiti. In a matter of moments roads twist and cave in, buildings collapse, and thousands of lives are forever changed. The damage from the 7.3 magnitude quake that tore through the capital city of Port-Au-Prince is still being assessed. And while humanity may never be fully protected from the natural disasters of earthquakes and tsunamis, engineers are discovering better ways to withstand them. Here at Purdue, researchers in the new George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Operations Center are at the epicenter of an interna-tional collaborative that could minimize the effects of such disasters. Please read more about it in our cover story on page 6.

On My Mind

The cover story in this issue of Civil Engineering Impact focuses on the new George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Operations Center in Purdue’s Discovery Park, led by CE Professor Julio Ramirez. This multi-institutional center is funded by a $105 million grant from the National Science Foundation — the largest grant in Purdue’s history. The collaborative work of the center faculty and staff will contribute to our under-standing of the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis on critical infrastructure. Other articles about our students, faculty, staff, and alumni highlight the diverse talent and experiences of those who are responsible for making the School of Civil Engineering a special place for all of us. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading about the exciting events in CE this year.

M. Katherine Banks Professor and Bowen Engineering Head of Civil Engineering

About the Cover

up front

Spring 2010

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6

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cOMiNG uP

Spring Semester 2010 2

arOuNd ce

Awards, dedications, and new faculty 3

cOVer STOrY

Earthquake center arrives at Purdue 6

uP clOSe: STudeNTS

A student abroad 11

uP clOSe: FaculTY

Fred Mannering’s many faces 12

caMPaiGN iMPacT

The American Structurepoint Conference Room 13

uP clOSe: aluMNi

The Miller tradition of CE graduates 14

aluMNi NewS

Class Notes and weekend gatherings 16

ce reSearcH

Purdue’s Superpave Center 18

cHecK iT OuT

December 2009 BSCEs 19

contents

TM

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Spring 2010 April

15 Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Awards Purdue

17-18 Springfest/Gala Weekend Purdue

May

14 CE Golf Open Purdue

15 Spring Graduation Ceremony Purdue

28 National Student Steel Bridge Competition Purdue

School of civil engineering

AdministrAtion

Professor and Head ............................M. Katherine Banks

Associate Head ..............................................Garrett Jeong

Director of External Relations ...........................cindy lawley

Director of Development .................................Nathan wight

Production & mediA

Director of Publications .........................................Julie rosa

Editor ..........................................................william Meiners

Production Coordinator ......................................eric Nelson

Graphic Designer .............................................. dawn Minns

Contributing Writers ........... Patrick Kelly, Gina Vozenilek

Photographers............... andrew Hancock, Julie Hendon

richard Myers-walls, Vincent walter

Copy Editor .......................................................... dan Howell

Civil Engineering Impact is published by the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering for 11,800 alumni, faculty, students, corporate partners, and friends. We welcome your comments. In doing so, you grant us permission to publish your letter, in part or whole, in an upcoming issue. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Please send them to the following address:

Civil Engineering Impact Office of Marketing and MediaPurdue University507 Harrison St.West Lafayette IN 47907-2025E-mail: [email protected]

Articles herein may be reprinted by nonprofit organizations without permission. Appropriate credit would be appreciated.

To make a gift to the School of Civil Engineering or to learn more about renovation plans for the CE Building, please contact:

cindy lawleyDirector of External Relations (765) 494-7089 [email protected]

Nathan wightDirector of Development (765) 494-2236 [email protected] Purdue is an equal access/equal opportunity university. Produced by the Office of Marketing and Media 2405509.

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Alumni Achievers: In addition to tax day, you can also mark your calendar for the Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Awards (CEAAA) on April 15, 2010. The 2008 CEAAA winners were (left to right) Jim Rowings, William N. Dudley Jr., RosalieF. Morgan, Charles Dulic, and Samuel Ebow Coleman.

coming up

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Hubo Cai received his bachelor’s degree from Tongji University, China, and his MS and PhD from North Carolina State University. He has worked as an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. Cai studies infrastructure modeling, spatial data acquisition and management, and data quality; construction methods, sustainable construction, and sustainable infrastructure; application of information technology and decision support systems in construction and infrastructure management; health monitoring and performance assessment of civil infrastructure; and infrastructure interdependency and interaction with disasters.

Faculty HiresEight new faces

in civil engineering

The School of Civil Engineering welcomed eight new faculty members in fall. Considered some of the “best and brightest new talent in the field today,” says Kathy Banks, the Bowen Engineering Head and Professor of Civil Engineering, “these new faculty members bring a rich background of academic and professional experience.”

Shirley Dyke joined Purdue in mid-September as a professor of mechanical and civil engineering. Dyke earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and her PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She comes from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was the Edward C. Dicke Professor of Engineering and director of the Structural Control and Earthquake Engineering Laboratory. Dyke investigates ways to reduce losses and property damage from earthquakes. She also studies the use of structural control and monitoring systems for improving the behavior and lifetime of structural systems.

Ghadir Haikal received her bachelor’s degree from Tishreen University in Syria and her master’s degree and PhD from the University of Illinois. She has worked as a graduate research assistant at the University of Illinois. Haikal focuses on modeling of complex structural elements as characterized by the interaction of different mechanical components and/or physical media; stabilized finite element formulation of non-smooth contact; and finite element formation of contact based on intersecting volumes for quadrilateral and hexahedral elements.

Spring 2010

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around ce


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Chip Blatchley, professor of civil engineering, gave a lecture as part of a Gordon Research Conference on the topic of drinking-water disinfection byproducts at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

R. S. Govindaraju, the Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering, is the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2009 Arid Lands Hydraulic Engineering Award. This award recognizes contributions in hydraulics, hydrology, planning, irrigation drainage, hydroelectric power development, or navigation especially applicable to arid and semi-arid climates. Govindaraju also

Faculty Accolades

Amr Kandil received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from American University in Cairo, Egypt, and his PhD from the University of Illinois. Before joining the Purdue faculty, he served as an assistant professor at Iowa State University. Kandil is striving to develop robust IT-based decision support systems for sustainable development and maintenance of civil and building infrastructures, focusing on administration of construction contracts and the management of infrastructure planning decisions.

Panagiota Karava received her bachelor’s degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and her MS and PhD from Concordia University in Montreal. She comes to Purdue from the University of Western Ontario, where she served as an assistant professor. Karava studies sustainable building construction, focusing on roof-mounted photovoltaic-thermal systems, low-energy cooling techniques, high-performance green buildings, indoor air quality, building aerodynamics, and wind-induced building internal pressures and their codification.

Arun Prakash earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and his MS and PhD from the University of Illinois. He comes to Purdue from UCLA, where he had been a postdoctoral research scholar. Prakash investigates computational and analytical methods for coupled multi-scale problems, design of structures subject to extreme events for risk management and hazard mitigation, and multi-scale modeling of heterogeneous and cellular materials at high strain rates.

co-authored a paper with Shivam Tripathi, a PhD student in the hydraulics and hydrology group, which was recognized with a Best Challenge Paper Award at the Third International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery from Sensor Data (SensorKDD-2009) in June in Paris.

Mike Kreger, professor of civil engineering and director of Bowen Laboratory, is the recipient of the ASCE 2009 T. Y. Lin Award for the paper “Effects of Duct Types and Emulsifiable Oils on Bond and Friction Losses in Post-Tensioned Concrete,” published in the January/February 2008 issue of the Journal of Bridge Engineering.

Fred Mannering, the Charles Pankow Professor of Civil Engineering, received the James Laurie prize from the ASCE “for his outstanding contribution to the

around ce continued

Spring 2010

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Pankow Lab Dedication Richard, Stephen, and Charles Pankow, the sons of Charles Pankow, were on hand during the October 2, 2009, dedication of the Charles Pankow Concrete Materials Laboratory at Purdue. The new civil engineering lab was created to help the nation deal with aging infrastructure by developing more durable and environmentally friendly concrete. (Purdue University photo/Vince Walter)

Satish Ukkusuri earned a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and a PhD from the University of Texas. Before joining the faculty at Purdue, he was an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Ukkusuri is working to consolidate methodologies from a diverse array of domains including optimization theory, stochastic modeling, communication theory, and social sciences in order to solve high-impact transportation problems.

Pablo Zavattieri received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina, and his PhD from Purdue in aerospace engineering. He most recently served as a staff researcher for General Motors Corporation. Zavattieri focuses on the mechanics of materials and computational solid/structural mechanics applied to the multiscale analysis and design of advanced and novel materials (metals, composite materials, hierarchical, multifunctional, lightweight, micro-, nano-, and biomemetic composite materials), interfaces, and complex structures.

advancement of transportation engineering through his influential research and publication in the area of highway safety.” Mannering, along with Darcy Bullock, professor of civil engineering and director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, and Sarah Hubbard (PhD ’07), received a best paper award from ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering for a paper titled “Right-Turns on Green and Pedestrian Level of Service: A Statistical Assessment.”

Jie Shan, associate professor of civil engineering, received the 2009 ESRI Award for Best Scientific Paper in GIS issued by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing for an outstanding paper of scientific merit that advances

the knowledge of GIS technology. He also received the 2009 Excellence in GIS Award from the Indiana Geographic Information Council because of his service during the summer 2008 floods in Indiana.

Kumares Sinha, the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and the director of the JTRP, received the Roy W. Crum Award from the Transportation Research Board (TRB). This award recognizes outstanding achievement in transportation research and research management and is TRB’s highest honor.

Cary Troy, assistant professor of civil engineering, was named an ASCE ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Fellow for 2009-10.

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Safety in Numbers

By Patrick Kelly

Researchers, professionals, and

educators collaborate to reduce earthquake

and tsunami risk

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Spring 2010

January once again underscored the pervasiveness of earthquakes and tsunamis worldwide, the death and de-struction they cause, and the global need to mitigate their effects. The Haitian earthquake — just a dozen days into the new decade — tore along a fault line in Port-Au-Prince, doing untold damage. The 7.3 magnitude quake was the worst to hit the island nation in a bicentennial. The grue-some statistics, still being calculated as of this writing, could tally death tolls in the thousands.

Calling to mind the horrific December 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed nearly a quarter-million lives across the Indian Ocean region, the tragedy in Haiti put the ever-present threat of natural disasters back in our collective conscious-ness. Even with recent initiatives — like the bolstering of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center — engineers, scientists, and educators still tirelessly seek ways in which to mitigate the loss of life and destruction of infrastructure these events continue to cause.

The newest reason for hope: A $105 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, or NEES, Operations Center at Purdue’s Discovery Park. And Julio Ramirez, professor of civil engineering, heads up the multi-institutional, globally focused research and education center.

Many of us have seen firsthand

how devastating an earthquake

can be not only to the

infrastructure of a society

but also to families, the

community, and people’s

sense of security.


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This brings Ramirez to the second component: the cyberinfrastructure. Using HUB technology, the NEES network provides a common platform by which people can collaborate. “The cyber platform provides an avenue for the community to collaborate in research by sharing information, participating in remote experiments, perform-ing hybrid simulations, and exchanging data,” he says.

As an example, he cites the largest shake table in the world, located in Japan. “Through a memorandum of understanding between our organization and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention,” Ramirez says, “NEES researchers can use it and carry out collaborative works with Japanese researchers.”

And NEES isn’t operating in an ivory tower. The third component comprises educational and outreach aspects, working with communities the world over to help form an engaged global population interested in mitigating earth-quake and tsunami risk. “We seek to provide education and outreach opportunities at every level, from professional to graduate and undergraduate programs to K-12 intro-ductions to earthquakes and awareness efforts,” Ramirez explains.

One such application is the Research Experience for Undergraduates, a 10-week summer program that pairs engineering students interested in fields related to earth-quake and tsunami risk mitigation testing with faculty members and a research team to conduct independent research on the topic of their choosing. The program also includes a $5,500 stipend along with enrichment activities like invitations to the NEES Annual Meeting and the Young Researchers’ Symposium.

Ramirez ties the education component into the overall theme of collaboration. “The collaboration component is not only crucial to connect the work of our research teams, but also to spread what we learn into the world so it’s useful and applicable and understood by as many people as possible,” he says.

Landmark grant

The $105 million grant — the largest in Purdue history — joins the university and the NSF in a five-year cooperative agreement. Purdue’s specific charge, according to its Web site, is to “manage operations of the NEES experimental infrastructure, a network of 14 earthquake engineering and tsunami research facility sites located at universities across the United States.”

Ramirez breaks that broad responsibility down into three major components. “Our primary role is to oversee operation of the 14 equipment sites around the country,” he says. “We’ve allocated a full two-thirds of our budget toward that end.”

The sites are located coast to coast, from shake table labs at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Buffalo, SUNY to a tsunami wave basin at Oregon State University and centrifuge labs at University of California at Davis and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Ramirez emphasizes that the research conducted at the equipment sites, overseen by some of the top minds in earthquake engineering, is the definite focus of the five-year partnership.

“The work we perform at the sites will be crucial in deepening our understanding of how structures respond to different types of earthquakes in different parts of the world,” Ramirez says. “Simultaneous shared research and educational efforts are the keys.”

$105million

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safety in numbers continued

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Spring 2010

Call to collaborate

It used to be that high-level research, in engineering and countless other fields, pitted university against university in a race to see who could win the grant, publish the find-ings, gain notoriety, or attract the big-name professor. This is now changing, with multi-university partnerships like NEES leading the way.

“In the past, competition had been the name of the game,” Ramirez relates. “But collaboration is the trend of things to come. When you collaborate to solve a single problem or issue instead of working insularly, you become exponentially better, achieve results much faster, and make many more breakthroughs.


5 yearsJulio Ramirez, director of the

newly minted George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Operations Center in Discovery Park at Purdue, emphasizes that the goal of the center is to provide researchers with a collaborative environment.

“When you collaborate to solve a single problem or issue instead of working insularly, you become exponentially better, achieve results much faster, and make many more breakthroughs. ”JuliO RamiREz

10


safety in numbers continued

“Many of us have seen firsthand how devastating an earthquake can be not only to the infrastructure of a society but also to families, the community, and people’s sense of security. For such an important cause, working in silos or in competition with one another, rather than joining our resources and becoming the most influential collaboration of earthquake engineers in the world, is pure folly and it doesn’t serve our mission as engineers. Earthquakes already present a grave risk. Not working together to mitigate their effects only multiplies that risk.”

communications), the umbrella organizations for all NEES operations activities, is hiring 22 new full-time employees at Purdue to perform tasks as varied as deploying cyberinfra-structure, communications, and management of network-wide equipment site operations.

“In terms of collaboration, we also need to keep the NEES community informed and participatory,” Ramirez says. “That means developing an interface with the governance board of our organization and the NEES community at large, sharing our mission, our vision, our goals, our strategic plan, and our progress to date. Once again we’re back to the importance of collaboration in all of this.”

Hope going forward

So just what does the establishment of NEEScomm at Purdue mean? Ramirez reflects: “My highest hope for this network is for not only the sites but the cyberinfrastructure and the education efforts to become the place to go — in the world — for anything and everything that has to do with research and education in earthquake engineering and a place for practitioners to get new information to mitigate earthquake and tsunami risk to the built environment and society as a whole.”

A $105 million grant from the NSF. A network of 14 research sites around the country working in concert. An international reach. A commitment to education. It seems clear that NEES can revolutionize earthquake engineering research and education. And in time, that means applying new findings to building and bridge design codes, fine- tuning early warning systems, and preparing communities to act quickly and calmly during seismic events. Entering into this cooperative agreement with the NSF constitutes an historic and proud achievement for Purdue. But perhaps even more important is the sea change the NEES collabora-tion may cause in not only reducing the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis worldwide, but also serving as a model for collaboration in other fields of science and engineering. ■

1goal

In his role as director, Ramirez emphasizes the importance of team effort, and the fact that, although led by Purdue, this is a team effort that includes our own administrative partners — University of Texas, University of Washington in Seattle, University of Kansas, University of Michigan, San Jose State University, University of Florida, and the Fermi National Laboratory — as well as the 14 universities housing equipment sites. As Purdue assumes the leadership of NEES operations, the NEEScomm team (for NEES community and

2003, Bingol Turkey-

School Dormitory Collapse

Spring 2010

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it’s not often that a female teenager from Bedford, Indiana, gets to spend a summer in Kuwait, working alongside civil engineers in a country that’s very much on the rise. Such was the case, however, when Sara Greer, a sopho-more in civil engineering, worked a co-op in Kuwait City last summer. Greer is the first engineering un-dergraduate to participate in an in-ternational co-op in Kuwait through Purdue’s Professional Practice Office. A little apprehensive of how she might be treated as both a female and an American in the Middle Eastern coun-try, Greer says her fears were eased after talking to her cousin, a sergeant first class infantry soldier in the U.S. Army who had spent time there. He assured her that Kuwait was both modern and friendly to Americans. “My parents know that I’m a level-headed kid,” Greer says, “so they thought I wouldn’t get into any trouble.” In her internship at Alghanim Industries, a construction branch of a larger company, Greer was able to do things that any civil engineer under-grad would do right out of school. “I worked on bar bending schedules, the charts that record the sizes, shapes, quantity, and weight of steel reinforcement of concrete needed for structures,” she says. Given the country’s wealth and expansive building needs, Greer also worked with top-of-the-line materials all the way across the board. She wit-nessed firsthand modern architecture

Global Co-opCivil engineering intern discovers the best of Kuwait

with buildings that twisted up artisti-cally into the sky. She also threw herself as much as she could into the Arabic culture. Kuwait City offers some of the fast-food conveniences of home, such as Burger King and KFC, however slightly altered in taste. But she also enjoyed a cultural mix that included many foreigners from India, Egypt, and the Philippines, all working in the fast-paced metropolitan area. “I didn’t learn just engineering be-cause it was such a cultural shock,” Greer says. “It was probably more to do that I was so young, rather than being a woman. For the first week, I think people thought, ‘My gosh, she’s so young and over here by herself.’” She says, however, that if someone chooses to be a career woman in

up close: students

Sara Greer, a sophomore in civil engineering, worked a co-op internship at alghanim industries in Kuwait last summer.

Kuwait, she has the freedom to do so. Once she proved her ability to handle the responsibilities of her job, Greer was welcomed in as part of the team. Greer plans to spend two more summers in Kuwait at the same com-pany. Given the opportunity, she may even consider working over there full time after graduation. With the good experience of one international trail-blazer, the College of Engineering is looking to expand into global markets for education and engagement oppor-tunities as some U.S. employers pull back because of the economy, says Yating Chang, assistant director of the global engineering program. Chang says she would like to see up to 300 students participating in inter-national co-op programs in the next five years. And with Greer as a primary spokesperson for her own experiences, those students could be lining up for passports soon. ■ William Meiners

up close: faculty

Why the newly named Charles Pankow Professor of Civil

Engineering isn’t what you’d expect from an engineering professor


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in the mid-1990s, Professor Fred Mannering put together a 12-song heavy metal album with his bandmates, distributed it to record companies, and

waited. That he never heard back has proved fortunate for Purdue, along with the thousands of students he’s instructed over the years that followed.

“If a record company showed serious interest back then, I would have dropped the whole professor gig mid-career to pursue the rock

star dream,” says Mannering, now the Charles Pankow Professor of Civil Engineering. “Just think of the prob-ability of making it as a rock star versus becoming a professor. Almost anybody can become a professor — the rock star thing, that defies all the odds.”

It seems appropriate that Mannering, who studied mathematical economics at MIT on his way to earning his PhD in civil engineering, would frame his aspira-tions in terms of numbers, statistics, and probability. He is still an engineer, after all. But his interests, both in the realm of engineering and beyond, run the gamut, from vintage car restoration to motor-cycle racing.

“It’s very important for me to keep a balance between career and both family and personal time,” Mannering relates. “The key to getting up in the morning, aside from an alarm clock, is having something different to keep my per-spective fresh and avoid falling into a monotonous routine.”

Mannering brings a similar tack to his research, more often than not breaking down false dichotomies and exploring seemingly paradoxical relationships. In one recent hypothesis, he posited that building cars with more advanced safety features can actually lead to more accidents, because feeling safer causes people to drive faster and in-creases the probability of driver error.

“There’s the purely engineering element to it,” Mannering explains, “which includes things like higher-per-formance brakes, side airbags, traction control. But then there’s the human element — the idea that the driver gets it in his head that the car is so well made that it can correct any errors he might make. And sadly, that’s just not the case.”

The complexity of human psychol-ogy and user decision making piqued Mannering’s interest in transportation research in the first place. And his out-of-the-classroom hobbies often inspire him to pursue research topics.

The Many Faces of Fred“The ‘safer the car, the more

dangerous the driver’ idea came out of a couple of my personal experienc-es. Riding high-performance motorcy-cles, you can feel the difference when you get on a bike with newer or better brakes, and you start to think ‘Wow, I could have taken the turn a lot faster.’ I also participated in something called the Mercedes AMG Experience, where they put you on a course with these incredibly engineered cars, and by the end of it you’re thinking you can drive much faster than you ever imagined.”

On a controlled track, that may cer-tainly be the case. But on congested roads, in adverse conditions, and surrounded by other unpredictable drivers — who may also be feeling overly confident — the tables turn quickly.

As for his strangest study? “I was commissioned by the Office of Technology Assessment — which used to be a Congressional office — to pre-dict what the loss to society would be if copying audio tapes and CDs were free. So I did this extensive economic analysis, and ended up with a blurb on the cover of Variety magazine — next to Michael Jackson. That was pretty surreal.”

Surreal indeed. And yet, the more you come to know about Fred Mannering, the more even that story seems par for the course. ■ Patrick Kelly

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Introducing Nathan Wight (and family)

Last fall, nathan Wight took over director of development duties for the school of civil engineering. moving over from the school of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Wight says he embraces the challenge of working for a bigger school. What’s his giving philosophy? “my role is to build relationships with our alumni and keep them connected with civil engineering,” Wight says. “through this work, i try to match their philanthropic interests to the needs of the school. many of our alumni were positively impacted by their education, which helped them create a solid foundation for a successful career. it’s important for our alumni to give back and invest in the school as we continue educating the best civil engineers in the world.” A runner for exercise and a big supporter of Purdue football and basketball, Wight and his wife monica welcomed their first child, a girl named mela, into the world on december 7, 2009.

Spring 2010

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The Many Faces of Fredrick Conner started working for American Structurepoint when he was a junior in high school. Then, in 1971, little did he know that his summer employer where he wanted to learn about engineering would be the same company he is president of today. “It’s only the second job I’ve ever had in my life,” says Conner (BSCE ’76), who has seen the company grow from around a dozen people during his summer job to some 275 people today. A full-service civil engineering firm, American Structurepoint is headquartered in Indianapolis and has eight offices throughout the state and another in Columbus, Ohio. And for the trained engineer who took a decidedly business turn to run his company, Conner knows the importance of being a good communicator. “Civil engineering, unlike any other engineering discipline, is a people business,” says Conner. “All the projects we design are basically infrastructure that serves the public. Our employees are in position to present at town meetings, to talk to a group of residents or a mayor, or to corporate America. They need to express what the issues are in regards to a certain project.”

Communication PreparationAmerican Structurepoint

Conference Room to come to CE

Conner, along with the members of the Civil Engineering Advisory Council (which he currently chairs), believes students need to understand that communication skills are part of the job, as important as their technical training, and something they need to practice. With the practice part in mind, Conner’s company has donated both funds and expertise to create a boardroom-type conference room, where students can gain real-world communication and presentation experiences. Fully designed and technically stocked by American Structurepoint architects and engineers, the conference room — complete with video display monitors and loads of connectivity — will allow students, faculty, and staff to commu-nicate with any other institution in the world. Construction began this semester, and the room should be completed in April. “It’s been very rewarding to give back to the school,” Conner says. “We need students who are outgoing and innova-tive. You can be the smartest engineer in the world, but if you can’t articu-late your thoughts, and you can’t get people to understand what it is you’re doing, it doesn’t make any difference.” The American Structurepoint Conference Room promises to be unique to Purdue and the School of Civil Engineering. And for the students hoping to get a leg up on their graduat-ing competition throughout the nation, the chance to make presentations and communicate in a corporate setting will prove to be a real boost. ■ W. M.

“We need students who are outgoing and innovative. You can be the smartest engineer in the world, but if you can’t articulate your thoughts, and you can’t get people to understand what it is you’re doing, it doesn’t make any difference.”

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campaign impact

up close: alumni

when he returned from summer camp one day, a young Nick Miller (BSCE ’08, MSCE ’09) opened his bedroom door to a big surprise. In his absence, his parents, Joan and Gregory Miller (BSCE ’80), had covered the space in Purdue Boilermaker Special wallpaper. “It was great,” the youngest Miller recalls. “It went very well with other Purdue decorations I already had in there.” When the time came for him to start college, the hand-writing, so to speak, was on the wall. “I didn’t apply any-where else,” he says. “My heart was always set on Purdue.” And his mind was always on civil engineering, like his father and grandfather, Charles Miller (BSCE ’57), before him.

A legacy begins

Charles was the first Miller man to attend Purdue. He was also the only one who did not dream of going there. A native of Elvaston, Illinois, he was planning to attend the University of Illinois with the rest of his buddies from high school when tragedy changed his course. Injured in an automobile accident that killed his father, he enrolled instead in a small college near home to recuperate. Six months later, while visiting family friends in Indiana, he was taken on a tour of Purdue’s campus. “That’s when I thought, ‘This is something different here.’ So I enrolled, and spent my last seven semesters at Purdue,” he says. “I just fell in love with it.” Miller used his degree in civil engineering to take over the business his late father had started in 1946. Diamond Construction is a highway paving contractor in Quincy, spe-cializing in hot-mix asphalt. “I worked all my life. From the time I was 10 or 11, I started running the rollers and unload-ing railroad cars,” says Miller, who values his father’s les-sons of responsibility and honesty. “I had a great father. He brought me up right.”

The hands-on appeal of civil engineering was evident to Miller from the beginning, whose fondest memories of his CE degree are based in Ross Camp, the now-defunct sum-mer camp for teaching freshmen and sophomores how to survey. “It was my most enjoyable college experience,” he reports. “We lived in Army-style barracks and had a mess hall where we would do our paperwork at night — everything from computing and recording the day’s work to drawing topography maps and new road alignment coordinates.

“I was sorry to see the camp discontinued. It taught working with a crew, each of them depending on and trusting each others’ work.” The “crew concept” became concrete for Charles and his wife Anna Mae. All three of their children became Boilermakers. Ann Marie majored in audiology and speech science; Scott majored in restaurant, hotel, and institutional management; and Gregory followed in his father’s foot-steps. “We’re a Purdue family,” the eldest Miller says.’57

’80

TimesMillers’

Three generations of one family share perspectives on Purdue civil engineering


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Civil engineering students studied in “army-style barracks” in summers at Ross Camp, which closed its sessions in 1960.

Middle Miller

Gregory Miller inherited his father’s work ethic, as well as his company. He’s now president of Diamond Construction, his position since his father’s 2001 retirment. The second-generation Boilermaker applauds the civil engineering education he received in the late 1970s for its diverse subspecialty opportunities. “I liked the business concept that came with construction,” says Miller, who would go on to earn a master’s in construction manage-ment from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Although Miller missed out on the learning-by-doing that Ross Camp afforded the generations above him, he did experience a different team-based, hands-on element of the civil engineering curriculum that is still a standard: the senior project. Miller recalls some of the project details his team de-signed. “It was an Ivy Tech campus in Lafayette. I re-member getting grilled during the oral presentation by a professor sitting in the rear of the darkened conference room,” he recalls. “At the time, I thought, ‘Oh my, a hostile client. All I want to do is graduate in a couple of weeks.’” Miller contends that the basic approach to problem solving that engineers are taught remains a constant. “Times haven’t really changed,” he says. “Engineers have always been good critical thinkers.”

Grandson makes three

Nick Miller, who graduated with his master’s in CE in December 2009, was introduced to civil engineering at an early age. Like his grandfather, he favored the hands-on nature of the discipline, preferring beams and columns to protons and neutrons. With his hands on a shovel and a hard hat on his head, the youngest Miller started out in the field, working summers at Diamond Construction.

Eventually he found himself in the front office, compil-ing bids and overseeing the aggregate composition in the quality control laboratory. “I liked the lab the best,” he says. “When I eventually took CE 331, the class where you learn all the ASTM and standard tests, I had a leg up on the other students. I had already done it at Diamond.” His interests are leading him in a direction away from the family business. “My focus is structures,” says Miller, who wants to pursue a career in structural design. “I feel like that would be best utilizing what I have learned.” As far as the changing times at Purdue, the youngest of the trio echoes a comment made by his grandfather, both of whom marvel at the display of Neil Armstrong’s slide rule in the Civil Engineering Building. “It just magnifies the accomplishments of those who went before us that much more,” he says. One major shift in the education of a civil engineer is the increasing importance placed on environmentally sustainable practice. For his 2008 senior project, Miller and his team designed a Purdue Crew boathouse. “It was interesting to dive into a new code,” he says, referring to the professor’s emphasis on United States Green Building Council recommendations and requirements. The team incorporated recyclable materials, designed special parking spaces to accommodate carpool users, and added plenty of bike racks. Miller also tells how engineers are actively recruited into the different schools after their freshman year, a trend intensified since the days his father was on campus. He estimates that the class size in civil engineering has roughly tripled in the classes coming up behind him. “Infrastructure development is being used as a way to jumpstart the economy,” he notes. “It’s a good time to be a civil engineer.” ■ Gina Vozenilek

’80’09

“Infrastructure development is being used as a way to jumpstart the economy .... It’s a good time to be a civil engineer.”

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miller Trio: Charles (BSCE ‘57), Nick (BSCE ‘08, mSCE ‘09), and Gregory (BSCE ‘80)at the multigenerational celebration in the fall.


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Patricia Galloway (BSCE ’78), Cle Elum, Washington, was elected a member of the American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) Board of Directors in May. The AAA is the world’s leading provider of conflict man-agement and dispute resolution services.

Joseph Shaffer (MSCE ’86) is now direc-tor of engineering and project development for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

Robert Hosmon (BSCE ’34), Miami, Florida, served as a unit commander in the Army Field Artillery during the Battle of the Bulge. Now 97 years old, Hosmon enjoys talking to his son about his days at Purdue during the Great Depression.

Eugene Russell (PhD ’74), Manhattan, Kansas, is a professor in civil engineering at Kansas State University and received the 2008 Council of University Transportation Center’s Award for distinguished contribu-tions to university transportation education and research.

From Homecoming in fall to golf outings in May, civil engineering events that bring alumni back to campus help showcase our changing programs, while keeping those alumni involved with the school. The multi-generational gathering (see related story on page 14) during President’s Council weekend in October was a testament to the strong traditions and connections to the School of Civil Engineering. William M. Lyles III (BSCE ’55) served as a co-chair organizer for the event. He’s also one of three people named William Lyles — his father (BSCE ’35) before him and his son (BSCE ’81) who followed — to earn a Purdue civil engineering degree. Raised and ultimately returned to California after college, Lyles and his son both chose Purdue because it was more flexible than the west coast civil engineering programs. “By taking a lot of business courses as electives, I was able to create a program in construction management before such programs existed,” he says. The flexibility of Purdue’s civil engineering school allowed both Lyles’ men to learn the basics of civil engineering while gaining a greater understanding of the business world. “My son was able to graduate in four years with a degree in eco-nomics and a degree in civil engineering,” Lyles says. “If he had gone to Stanford or Cal, he would have had to take a bunch of courses that he didn’t need in civil engineering, unless you’re going to be a design engineer. We were going to be businessmen in construction.” For three generations of Lyles’ men and one generation before them (H.G. Venemann, the middle Lyles’ maternal grandfather, was an early-century me-chanical engineering graduate and later a Purdue professor) the pull to Purdue has been strong enough to keep a good thing going. ■ W. M.

Matthew Travis (BSCE ’88), San Clemente, California, was deployed to Iraq from August 2008 to March 2009. He was recently selected for colonel (USMC) and will move with his family to Norfolk, Virginia.

Bruce Benson (BSCE ’90), Lumberton, Texas, has been promoted to manager of quality assurance for Motiva Enterprises refinery in Port Arthur. He will be responsible for ensuring quality of the outgoing construction, which will transform the facility into the largest refinery in North America.

Class Notes

alumni news

Coming Home

Fall and spring events bring alums back to a

changing campus

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We are always interested in featuring recent news about our alumni. To have your accomplishments included in this magazine and share them with fellow alumni, please e-mail information on awards/honors/recognition, promotions, and related matters to Cindy Lawley ([email protected]). Please be sure to include the year(s) and Purdue degree(s) you have received.

Ted Treesh (BSCE ’90) recently started TR Transportation Consultants, a transporta-tion planning and traffic engineering firm, in Fort Myers, Florida.

Jeffrey Meredith (BSCE ’92), was promoted to vice president of global marketing and product management for Imation Corporation. Meredith leads brand management, product management, and marketing services for Imation’s commercial and consumer businesses worldwide.

Steven Latoski (MSCE ’97), Kingman, Arizona, was appointed director of Mohave County Public Works.

Constance Lynne (Danner) Solina (BSCE ’00), Oxnard, California, married Anthony Alan Solina in May. She is on active duty in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander in the Civil Engineer Corps.

Multi-Gen Weekend:Boilermaker families — some with CE degrees as long as threegenerations deep — gathered over President’s Council Weekend in October.

Spring Links:This year’s Purdue CE Open, set for may 14th, marks the 50th anniversary of the annual golf gathering.

ce research

it’s a 2 million mile long giant that dominates the American highways. In the heat, it can warp and deform its surface into dangerous, undulating ruts. In cold weather, its surface can crack open, allowing water to slip inside and compro-mising its longevity. This is not an untamable monster. It’s the country’s system of asphalt pavements, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the highways in the United States. With expenditures on those pavements topping $10 billion annually, the transportation industry realized the need for well-planned research to address the growing concerns regarding the unreliable performance of asphalt pavements. That need was fulfilled in 1995 with initiation of the Strategic Highway Research Program and its principal product, the Superpave system, which stands for SUperior PERforming Asphalt PAVEments. To facilitate the train-ing and implementation of the Superpave system, five Superpave centers have been established around the country. Engineers and researchers at these centers have been responding to the challenges of creating long-lasting asphalt pavements: evaluating their performance, develop-ing tests and specifications for materials that will outperform and outlast pavements constructed in the past, and working with highway agencies and industry to apply new technologies. Jan Olek, professor of civil engineering, is the director of the North Central Superpave Center, located near the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette. While directing the Superpave Center, Olek has been involved in research on new procedures for selecting binders and aggregates for particular pavement applica-tions using performance-driven models for evaluating pavements’ responses to environmental stressors. “Through innovative testing and simulations we can better account for the impact of low and high temperatures on long-term performance of the binder, for example,” explains Olek. “Now we can push materials to do more.” Superpave has enabled engineers to select paving materials more precisely. “One of the best outcomes of Superpave research has been

Superpave

to the Rescue

Building better roads

requires linking technology

and communication

the ability to select binders that can be more closely tied to pavement location and local environmental conditions,” Olek says. Materials that are better matched to their local environment mean more durable pavements and fewer roadway distresses such as ruts and potholes. North Central Superpave Center has been successfully operating for the last 15 years, and Olek attributes this suc-cess to strong regional support. “Initially, each of the five centers adopted a different model of financial support,” says Olek. “We operate on a multi-state model, serving eight states and two Canadian provinces.” Other centers adopted a single-state model. The broader support base is not only more fiscally sound but also more fruitful with respect to sharing information among different states and entities. Often these agencies find that a local challenge in one state has already been addressed in another state. Olek and his team have traveled to all of the supporting states and have created a strategic plan for the operation of the center using the information compiled from across the region. The current big focus for Olek and the Superpave Center is to find ways to mitigate noise generated by the tire-

pavement interaction. Again, collaboration and information sharing will be a key strategy for problem solving. Noise reduction has already been well studied in Europe, where smaller, more congested urban centers have forced the issue. Olek and his team will learn from their European colleagues, but they also will have much to offer while pursuing another objec-tive: How to responsibly recycle old pave-ment in “mill and fill” operations. When old pavements are peeled away, how much of that material can be reincorporated into the new surface? “We’re working to determine what percentage of recycled asphalt pave-ment is allowable,” says Olek. In addition to publishing papers, coor-dinating an annual meeting of the North Central User-Producer Group, publish-ing a newsletter, and broadcasting salient information on its Web site, the North Central Superpave Center is also host to several international students. They come to Indiana from China, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Israel, and even Olek’s native Poland, to learn how to build the best roads back home. ■ G. V.


18Jan Olek, professor of civil engineering

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Life After BSCE … for now

The next steps for two recent grads

Two December civil engineering graduates personify the idea of global engineering — both coming and going. For Eka Linwood (BSCE ’09), Purdue was a long way from his Indonesian home. But after two years at an international high school in Malaysia and two more years of college in there, Linwood transferred to Purdue in 2007 for its academic reputation and economic value. His next step? Pursuing a master’s degree here in the School of Civil Engineering. On the other side of the coin is Katelyn Zollos (BSCE ’09), who hails from Rocky River, Ohio. After graduation, she’s spending the first six months of the new year volunteer-ing with a Nicaragua-based non-governmental organization called AsoFenix, a group that focuses on rural sustainable development. “While I’m there, I’ll be working on their micro-hydropower systems and building new turbines,” Zollos says. “In July, I’m coming back to work with CH2M Hill’s Water Business Group in Indianapolis.” Both young grads feel prepared for their careers. After graduate school, Linwood wants his own business. “I’ll start as a small-scale consulting firm and build credibility and capital before moving on to being a real estate developer,” he says. “Then, as it gains momentum, the firm could start building commercial buildings.” Zollos sees a master’s degree in her future as well, but stays open to the possibilities that life will present her. “I feel very well prepared for whatever challenges I will be facing both in Nicaragua and in the real working world,” she says. Still, the memories made in West Lafayette promise to linger for a long while. For Zollos, sledding down Slaytor Hill, service trips with the Purdue Christian Campus House, and football games were just a part of her overall college experi-ence. For Linwood, the academic success earned far from his native land and a host of new friends made in a new country made Purdue and the School of Civil Engineering feel like home. ■ W. M.

Katelyn zollos (BSCE ’09)

Eka linwood (BSCE ’09)

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check it out

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how a ce-led initiative could keep us saferspring 2010 5 pankow lab dedication richard, stephen, and...

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