PURDUE CIVIL · 2009-10-07 · Purdue Civil Engineering Impact On My Mind In this issue of Civil...

View from an NAE MemberTransportation engineer on the economy

Second City LaughsAn alum’s greeting-card success

FALL 2009

PURDUE CIVIL

Investments in transportation

Economic

Jumpstart

PURDUE CIVIL

Purdue Civil Engineering Impact

On My Mind

In this issue of Civil Engineering Impact, we are focusing on our school’s outstanding transportation research programs. Our transportation area faculty and students are developing innovative approaches to address complex national infrastructure challenges. A number of current research projects are highlighted in the following articles. Also in this issue, we have included articles highlighting recent experiences of our faculty and students, including information about our new study abroad program in China. I am confident that you will be impressed when reading about the successes of our school’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

M. Katherine BanksProfessor and Bowen Engineering Head of Civil EngineeringJo

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Send your e-mails to [email protected]

One alumnus, after reading the cover story in our Winter 2009 issue, was “prompted to write us.” As a Shortridge High School student in the late 1930s, R. Stanly Bair had leanings toward a career in architectural engineering. He writes, “At that time, Notre Dame was the only school in Indiana that had an architecture program. But Purdue had an ‘architectural option’ in its School of Civil Engineering. I don’t recall the teacher, but we were able to take a course in ‘Shades, Shadows and Perspectives.’ I believe I avoided a class in ‘railroads’ to take this artsy course.”

Bair detailed the course of his academic graduate work at MIT and his subsequent career in commercial architecture. In conclusion, he writes, “I was inspired by reading the re-introduction of an acknowledgement of architecture in the civil engineering curriculum. Keep up the good work.”

R. Stanley Bair (BSCE ’47)Houston, Texas

Civil Correspondence

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up front

Fall 2009

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CoMINg up

What’s happening in fall 2009 2

ArouNd CE

Compliment Guys gain national exposure 3Faculty and student accomplishments 4

IN My VIEw

A distinguished professor’s perspective 5

CoVEr STory

How transportation engineering can help revive the economy 6

up CLoSE: STudENTS

An American in China 11

up CLoSE: FACuLTy

Geotechnical research focus 12

CAMpAIgN IMpACT

Pankow gift should lead to concrete breakthroughs 14

up CLoSE: ALuMNI

CE’s greeting card mogul 15

ALuMNI NEwS

CEAAAs and class notes 16

BEhINd ThE SCENES

A staffer’s 35 years of support 18

ChECk IT ouT

Concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions 19

contents

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Calendar 2009August

24 Purdue Classes Start Purdue

September

5 Purdue vs. Toledo Purdue

19 Purdue vs. N. Illinois (Family Day) Purdue23 CESAC Career Fair Purdue

25 CE Golf Outing Purdue President’s Council Dinner Purdue

26 Purdue vs. Notre Dame Purdue

October

1 CE Scholarship Banquet Purdue

3 CE Homecoming Breakfast Purdue Homecoming Game vs. Northwestern

17 Purdue vs. Ohio State Purdue

24 Purdue vs. Illinois Purdue

November

14 Purdue vs. Michigan State Purdue

December

20 Commencement Reception Purdue

School of Civil Engineering

Professor and Head ............................M. katherine Banks

Director of External Relations ...........................Cindy Lawley

Director of Engineering Marketingand Communications ............................................ rwitti roy

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

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

Contributing Writer ........................................ gina Vozenilek

Copy Editor .......................................................... dan howell

CE Impact is published by the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering for 11,800 alumni, faculty, students, corporate partners, and friends. We welcome your com-ments. In doing so, you grant us permission to publish your letter in part or in 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 Purdue University 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd., Suite B120 West Lafayette, IN 47906-4153 E-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]

Purdue is an equal access/equal opportunity university. Produced by the Office of Marketing and Media 2405509.

Dessert Oasis: In April, after the school’s CEAAA event (see story page 16), alumni enjoyed a faculty-hosted dessert in Purdue’s Memorial Union.

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Civility EngineeringCompliment guys notice the best in passersby

Westcott says he had no idea that their friendly idea would have taken them this far. While working a summer internship at a geotechnical engineering firm, he and Brown got a call from Kodak. From July 20 to July 31, the pair took their compliments through a 10-city road trip on Kodak’s BrightSide Tour, beginning in New Orleans and ending in Rochester, New York. And they’re both looking forward to bringing it back to campus in the fall. Westcott has cleared a slot in his Wednesday schedule and the two have even talked about incorporating guitars into the compliment gig. So if you’re in need of a lift, maybe you’ll get one in two-part harmony. ■ William Meiners

Sometimes nice guys finish first. Or at least gain some recognition for their efforts. Such was the case for the Purdue “Compliment Guys,” who turned Wednesday afternoon good tidings into national media attention in last spring’s semester. Half of the complimentary duo, Brett Westcott, is entering his junior year in the School of Civil Engineering this fall. Westcott met Cameron Brown, a junior in business management, while play-ing his guitar outside of his freshman dorm. Brown grabbed his own guitar, the two bonded over music, and began the start of what Westcott describes as their “awesome friendship.” The idea to dish out free compliments to passersby on campus, Westcott says, was never to pick up girls or part of any prank, sociological experiment, or lost bet. “We just wanted to do something nice,” he says. “I’d heard of people giving free hugs, but I didn’t want to hug strangers, or make them have to hug me.” Instead the pair, with their sign in hand, generally dished out heartfelt reflections on people’s clothing, sunglasses, haircuts, and smiles. What Westcott figured would be a back-page article in the Purdue Exponent made front-page news. Quick to follow were articles in the Lafayette Journal and Courier, the Indianapolis Star, and the Chicago Tribune. Radio and television also came calling. They made an appearance on “The Bob and Tom Show,” a personal favorite of Westcott’s, and even Oprah’s people called. While the Oprah appearance never materialized, the students, suddenly a little weary from the numerous radio interviews, we’re revitalized the day before Spring Break when “Good Morning, America” offered to fly them out to New York. “We got to compliment people in Times Square,” Westcott says of his first visit to the Big Apple, where he was pleasantly surprised by the reaction of big city strangers. “Most people waved or said thank you.”

America, You’re Beautiful: The Compliment Guys, Brett Westcott (left), junior in civil engineering, and Cameron Brown, junior in business management, took theirfriendly show on the road last spring to New York City and over the summer on a10-city tour. Here they’re on the set of “Good Morning, America.”

around ce

Faculty and Student NewsSrinivas Peeta, professor of civil engineering and the director of NEXTRANS (see story on page 6), is one of five winners of the 2009 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prizes by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award was given for his “outstanding research contributions to the advancement of transportation network modeling.” He was particularly recognized for his application of control theory, fundamental techniques in operations research, and advanced computational methods to large-scale transportation networks. The award will be presented during the ASCE annual conference in October.

Kendra Schenk, a civil engineering co-op student, has been awarded an American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Indiana Scholarship. As a result of being selected as the number one recipient from ACEC Indiana, Schenk also was entered into the competition for a national scholarship and was selected as the second place scholarship winner there.

Purdue civil engineering students (left to right) Brian Holman, Jithin Kumar, Kevin Mueller (also the coach), Amanda Shelly, and Nate Cooper successfully defended the trophy for the ASCE Student Project Presentation Competition at the Indiana Section Annual Meeting at the Fountains in Carmel, Indiana.

Awarded• Rob Connor, assistant professor of civil engineering—the Harold Munson Teaching Award

• Garrett Jeong, associate professor and the associate head of civil engineering—the Ross Judson Buck Advising Award

• Santiago Pujol, assistant professor of civil engineering— the Roy E. & Myrna G. Wansik Teaching Award

• Amit Varma, associate professor of civil engineering—the Roy E. & Myrna G. Wansik Research Award

PromotedLarry Nies, from associate to full professor of civil engineering


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Using Transportation Infrastructure to Drive

the EconomyAny stimulus should also aim for sustainability

The bottom line is: infrastructure investments should be made with long-term, sustainable impact in mind. Under the current economic relief pro-gram of stimulus spending, we can put people to work simply digging ditches and paving roads just about anywhere, thus jumpstarting the econ-omy, as was done in Japan a decade or so ago to address similar immediate economic needs. But we must take into consideration where the roads will lead to 10 and 20 years in the future, if we want to avoid the predicament that Japan now faces of having a signifi-cant part of its road system underused and economically unsustainable. ■ Kumares Sinha, the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering Kumares Sinha, a Purdue faculty member for 35 years, is the director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, a collaboration between Purdue and the Indiana Department of Transportation. His research inter-ests are transportation infrastructure planning and policy analysis. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Can an investment in transportation infrastructure, either for new construction or renewal, have an impact on the economy? If so, how do we measure the impact and how can the information be used in making investment decisions? These are questions my colleagues and I have been asking for more than a quarter of a century. The short answer is, yes, investment in transportation infrastructure does have an impact on local, state, and even multi-state regional economies at a varying degree and the impact can be quantified. Nearly 30 years ago, I had the opportunity to take the lead on a project to identify transportation improvement and related strategies that could assist in the economic revitalization of a major industrial region like northwestern Indiana, where a mature multimodal freight transportation system exists. Such regions are in transition with declining manufacturing industry and the emergence of a service sector and small-scale, high-tech industries. In order to attract and nurture this economic shift associated with high-value, low-bulk products as well as white collar workers, the existing transportation infrastructure geared to heavy manufacturing is not adequate. Getting information technology and biomedical businesses to either start up or relocate in northern Indiana would require good access to air transportation. But the quality of life issues becomes more important, as the workers of this new economy seek good neighborhoods and housing, quality schools, and good local transportation. These findings were further confirmed in a subsequent study where the interac-tion between public infrastructure including transportation and economic vitality of an urban area was investigated. Over the years, we have done extensive research to determine what exactly a road improvement can do for an area. Analyzing the historical data from counties in Indiana, we found that highway mileage density was indeed positively related to employment and personal income growth and the impact of multi-lane high-ways was 5 to 10 times more than that of other highway types. In a recent study, we developed a quantitative tool that can be used to esti-mate the long term economic development effects of different types of highway investments including added travel lanes, new roads, and interchanges, in terms of statewide employment. This tool can be used to see what sort of stimulus can come, for example, out of turning a two-lane road into a four-lane road, or adding an interchange to provide access to a facility like the Honda plant in Greensburg, Indiana, or expected additional jobs under various scenarios of the I-69 corridor in southwestern Indiana. The underlying question is, “If you build it, will they come?” After all, transportation is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition to generate economic growth. Also, there is the issue of the chicken or the egg—which comes first?

Professor Sinha in a traffic lab with students.

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Economic DriversFrom local to global impact, how

transportation initiatives can change the worldBy William Meiners

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while economic woes certainly have dominated headlines in recent months, President Barack Obama’s plan to create millions of jobs in the United States by “making the single largest investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s” could help overhaul the transportation industry. The transporta-tion and infrastructure systems specialty group—a longtime strong suit within Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering—promises to provide the cutting-edge research, as well as talented engineers, to help in that restructuring at local, regional, national, and global levels.

John Haddock, associate professor of civil engineer-ing and director of the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), offers a global perspective on building an economy through infrastructure. China’s tremendous growth, he says, is a classic example of a country capital-izing on its infrastructure explosions. The challenge in the U.S., with so much aging infrastructure, could come with refining current systems, as well as adapting to new ones.

Kumares Sinha is the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and director of Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). Established in 1937, Purdue’s JTRP is one of the oldest transportation research programs in the United States. In partnership with the Indiana Department of Transportation, as well as other groups within Civil Engineering, JTRP has become a na-tional model for the successful partnership of government, academia, and the private sector, combining its efforts in a mutually rewarding research program. Sinha suggests that you can put people to work building new roads and highways. But he cautions against development without looking at where these roads will lead 10 and 20 years from now (see his “In My View” column on page 5).

Wherever those roads lead, civil engineering acronyms, including LTAP, JTRP, CRS and NEXTRANS, will be offering the much needed expertise to help turn the economic tide.

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Regional and global outreach

The NEXTRANS Center (which stands for Next Generation Transportation) is one of 10 regional university trans-portation centers selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in 2007. Based at Purdue, NEXTRANS serves Region V, which consists of the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

For Srinivas Peeta, professor of civil engineering and director of NEXTRANS, the strength of his group lies in its ability to look at the challenges through a “system-of-systems” perspective. In other words, how are the various transporta-tion modes working together and affecting one another? The question takes NEXTRANS beyond the Region V boundaries to consider national and global challenges.

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Citing the USDOT’s 2006-2011 Strategic Plan, Peeta says that unless the U.S. adopts new technologies and operating procedures soon, rising shipping and travel costs will make it difficult for U.S. businesses to compete in international markets, a situation that could further deepen the world economic crisis.

Great challenges likewise present great opportunities. The 2009 stimulus plan, says Peeta, “is an opportunity not only to improve on past infrastructure projects, but to invest in the future by making America’s transportations systems more efficient, technologically advanced, and multimodal.”

Through the collaborative research efforts of NEXTRANS, Peeta hopes to help create an advanced infrastructure that will accommodate new technologies. These “intelligent” transportation systems would improve mobility and safety for the public sector, while at the same time allowing the private sector to move products more efficiently.

“If we were to upgrade our rail, air, and sea transportation systems and ease intermodal connections, we could further improve congestion on highways and lower freight trans-portation and energy costs,” he says. “Such integrated solutions do more than repair damage and give our econ-omy a one-time jump start through job creation. They foster lasting solutions that will reap economic benefits for decades to come.”

Since the $80.5 billion promised in the stimulus package can only begin to finance these investments, another goal

“As the world’s largest importer of goods, the U.S. plays a central role in the efficiency of the global supply chain,” Peeta says. “However, increased globalization has put pressure on U.S. ports, borders, and airports. At the same time, our nation’s love of auto travel has become an economic drain, resulting in congestion, energy wastage, and a complex highway infrastructure that is costly to main-tain. Air transportation systems have become sluggish, and there is a need for a viable rail transportation system for public transit.”

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of NEXTRANS is to foster public-private partnerships, as well as international collaborations.

Local focus and safety initiatives

As Peeta and his colleagues in NEXTRANS take a Midwestern regional view of all things transportation, all the while keep-ing tabs on the global ramifications, the civil engineers at LTAP have a decidedly more local focus. “We like to take all of the academic and research activities at Purdue and share that expertise with the Indiana counties, cities, and towns,” says John Habermann, the LTAP program manager who helps maintain those relationships in 92 counties, 117 cities, and 456 towns.

Part of the shared expertise is to encourage practices that make infrastructures last longer. Last spring semester’s Road School—the oldest statewide transportation confer-ence in the country, also co-sponsored by JTRP—put state and federal folks alongside private vendors and represen-tatives from counties and towns. “A big emphasis of this last Road School was on the recovery money,” Habermann says. “We focused on the transportation part of the recovery bill, which is in the area of $600 million. We tried to get all the players in one room together so conversations could take place.”

Even in an Internet age, Habermann is concerned that people in rural areas can be left in the woods when it comes to finding out how to get help or secure the proper

funding for transportation improvements. For him, it is about helping them make connections. But the challenge is often making the most of scarce resources.

LTAP often takes the show out on the road, offering technical expertise on everything from a chainsaw safety class (to show how to properly trim a tree that falls on the road) to advice on the best snowplow practices. “Another big challenge,” Habermann says, “is the political solution. We’re trying to present a thorough plan to an elected official who has multiple demands from their constituency.”

With many people appointed to road and street departments, LTAP experts look to get the new appointees up to speed. Again, that’s where simple, good networking can come in by introducing someone new to someone experienced.

Many of the economic recovery efforts as they trickle down to local levels are “much more based on system recovery over system expansion,” Habermann says. “We’re looking at the short-term impact of construction and the long-term impact of economic development that can now be served by transportation improvement.”

Case studies can help graduate students like Jen Sharkey and Kevin Gerst, both master’s students in civil engineering, link engineering expertise with economic impact. One such study, for example, detailed how inadequate transportation funding delayed the completion of the Ronald Reagan Parkway in Hendricks County,

JTRP Director Kumares Sinha (red tie next to podium) moderates a panel titled “Transportation, Logistics, and Economic Development” at the NEXTRANS Center’s Inaugural Summit, held at Purdue in 2008. The summit allowed 200 participants from government, industry, and academia to explore integrated solutions to transportation and economic challenges such as infrastructure renewal, congestion, and freight logistics. These solutions will be achieved by leveraging technology, innovative financing strategies, and new types of public-private partnerships.

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economic drivers continued

resulting in lost economic opportunities. Any improvements to transportation

infrastructure systems also should have goals for improved safety. Researches in Purdue’s Center for Road Safety (CRS), directed by Andrew Tarko, professor of civil engineering, are developing engineering tools related to driver, vehicle, and roadway safety characteristics.

“According to the Indiana Crash Facts issued by Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, around 900 people are killed and additional 50,000 injured in 200,000 vehicle accidents in Indiana each year,” says Tarko. “This tragic toll costs Indiana annually more than $4.5 billion dollars due to loss of productivity, medical bills, and property damage.”

CRS has been actively involved for many years in developing tools and performing analysis aimed to help Indiana agencies identify cost-effective safety improvements of the Indiana transportation infrastructure in order to reduce this huge burden.

So safety and sustainability should be byproducts of an economic boost to the transportation sector. And with so many Purdue civil engineering researchers working on so many different transportation fronts, those better times could be arriving soon. ■

Looking Local, Thinking Impact

Several civil engineering researchers, connected with CRS, JTRP, LTAP, and NEXTRANS are looking at how transportation improvements can reap economic benefits.

• Darcy Bullock, professor of civil engineering and the associate director of JTRP, is looking to maximize travel times and safety conditions through intelligent transportation systems, real time traffic control, and image- based vehicle detection.

• Rob Connor, assistant professor of civil engineering, is looking how to effectively rate the more than 250 bridges in Indiana that were built with flatbed railroad cars.

• Jon Fricker, professor of civil engineering, is determining the impacts of bypasses on communities in order to find mutually agreeable solutions to adverse impacts.

• John Haddock, of LTAP, is focused on asphalt performance and looking at a cross section of roads (low, median, and high volume) and how they should best be built.

• Samuel Labi, assistant professor of civil engineering, is studying the feasibility of dynamic congestion pricing in Indiana, which would allow toll prices to increase or decrease in response to traffic conditions.

• Fred Mannering, the Charles Pankow Professor of Civil Engineering and associate director of research for CRS, is applying cutting-edge technology to develop a model that can accurately measure travel-time reliability on Indiana interstates.

• Srinivas Peeta, of NEXTRANS, is developing a model by which small to medium trucking firms can collaborate, leveraging existing infrastructure and technological advancements to improve efficiency.

• Kumares Sinha, of JTRP, continues his cutting-edge work in transportation systems analysis, transportation economics and management, transportation safety, and urban and regional planning.

• Andrew Tarko, of CRS, is leading a team that is building the most comprehensive Geographic Information System database for Indiana safety management, developing several computer tools for safety-oriented road planning and design, and annually screening all Indiana roads to identify safety needs.

• Jason Weiss, professor of civil engineering and director of the Pankow Lab, is developing sustainable concrete (see “Campaign Impact” on page 14) that can be used in place of aging highway and bridge infrastructure.

Darcy Bullock, from left, professor of civil engineering, and Edward Smaglik, a postdoctoral research associate working with Bullock, discuss information

provided by detection equipment at an “instrumented intersection.” The engineers are using the system to test specialized detection and control software algorithms

designed to help improve the safety and efficiency of traffic flow.

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Assistant professor of civil engineering Ming Qu has taken her show on the road—all the way to her native China. In the interest of doing more showing than telling, Qu’s educational “Maymester” trip aimed to give students immediate and immersive exposure to civil engineering practice in a country in which half of the world’s buildings go up each year. Civil engineering senior Phillip Cherry was one of the 18 students who went to China from May 14 to May 27 to see the country’s wonders through the lens of civil engineering. “Our trip’s highlights were being able to visit many historical and modern culturally relevant sites in China, such as the Summer Palace, The Great Wall, and Yuyuan Garden,” Cherry reports. Not his first trip abroad, Cherry points out that it was his first time overseas as a student. “We had one classroom lecture, and many ‘lectures’ at company of-fices in relation to green building,” he says. “Most of the trip was field-trip style, and much of the learning occurred in this environment.” As foreign study goes, the China experience for Cherry—his first—was not without its difficulties. Besides the very real challenge of the language barrier, Cherry notes that “it was also extremely difficult to adjust to the ultra-dense cities of Beijing and Shanghai, although it was very eye-opening.” That “eye-opening” experience is what makes any foreign study valuable. Professor Qu knows that her homeland has a lot to teach young civil engineering students who study their field mainly in classrooms situated in the sprawling Midwestern plains that are home to Purdue. Qu knows well that China suffers the effects of high population density. “China is facing a big problem with pollution,” she admits. Qu wanted her students to see for themselves the benefits of smart design that Chinese engineers have em-ployed to address some of these environmental troubles. She also wanted her students to gain first-hand impressions of mistakes and poor practice. “My time in China helped me realize how far ahead China and other countries are in green building design,” Cherry says. “And not only how far ahead they are, but how much of a necessity [green building design] is for them, and soon, the rest of the world.”

China’s Sustainable FutureCivil engineering students travel abroad to learn first hand about sustainable design

In addition to viewing some com-mercial and residential buildings in Shanghai and Beijing, students also toured Olympic sites in Beijing such as the Bird’s Nest. At the Water Cube, the famous site of Michael Phelps’s history-making swims, students were addressed by Hongtao Yi, the general project manager for the site. In summation of their trip, students were required to complete a final re-port, touching on sustainable building practice, Chinese culture, and even suggestions to improve the program. Cherry was inspired to focus on some key concepts that made an impres-sion on him during the trip. “I broke the technical part down into several sec-tions,” he says. “Ways energy could be saved via better cooling and heating, energy-saving techniques, using more efficient lighting, methods for conserv-ing water, and more efficient land-use strategies.” Cherry’s take-home lessons will surely benefit him as he plans to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering. They might also ultimately contribute to good civil engineering practice in this country. ■ Gina Vozenilek

up close: students

Civil engineering senior Phillip Cherry (foreground, green shirt) in front of the famed Olympic swimming venue better known as the “Water Cube.”

up close: faculty

A civil engineer unearths new possibilities

for growth

Digging Deep


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Antonio Bobet

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professor Antonio Bobet is having deep thoughts about research. Deep underground, that is. His research interests—engineering geology, un-derground construction, and rock mechanics—have him delving below the surface of things. While scientists in other fields are pushing the innovation envelope upward, outward, even skyward, Bobet, professor of civil engineer-ing, sees great potential for new engineering discovery and application right below his feet.

One of his most exciting projects is a literal gold mine of opportunity. The Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, which before its closing in 2002 was the oldest, largest, and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere, will be the site of a major new research center. Certain to stimulate a new rush of scientific discovery, the National Science Foundation is funding the creation of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL).

When completed, DUSEL will give scientists access to unique environmen-tal conditions. The depth of DUSEL (its deepest rooms will be at almost 8,000 feet) will, for example, allow astrophysicists to conduct neutrino experimenta-tion insulated from cosmic radiation. Microbiologists will be able to study how bacteria survive and reproduce at extreme depth. Other specialists will study hydrology, physics, and geology. But none of this science will be conducted without innovations by engineers like Bobet. “We are enablers,” he says proudly. “Infrastructure is needed to make DUSEL possible.”

Building DUSEL will push the limits of what is known about the stability of underground structures. Massive, extremely sensitive instrumentation will

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be housed in DUSEL, and the structure will have to stand up to unprecedented loads. The project also will require civil engineers to explore and define new excavation techniques. “We will come up with new paradigms and push know-how to points we have not been before,” says Bobet. And the knowledge gained will transfer usefully to other commercial construction projects.

Bobet believes in the need to find “different means of solving new problems.” Some of these newer challenges stem from the fact that we are living in a so-called “built” society in which the structures of our cities, roads, bridges, and utilities are already in place. As building codes get progressively more exacting, old structures need upgrading, and that can cost a pretty penny.

With an interdisciplinary team of scientists, including civil engineering faculty Vincent Drnevich, professor, and Maria Caterina Santagata, associate professor, and Cliff Johnston, Purdue professor of agronomy, Bobet has studied liquefaction, in which soil behaves as a fluid under seismic loading. This action can cause serious distortion to struc-tures like bridges and can have devastating consequences in an earthquake. Bobet’s approach is not to focus on strengthening the bridge. “We have a different way of looking at the engineering,” he explains. “We want to fix the soil.”

Others have tried to strengthen “loose” soils by “densifying” them. But Bobet has gone beyond this idea and turned his attention to the pore space between the soil particles. He has successfully tested a way to “engineer the pore fluid” by using bentonite, a clay nanoparticle. Because bentonite particles are electrically charged, their interaction can be engineered. Bobet’s team

has devised the means to decrease the initial viscosity of the bentonite slurry such that it can permeate into the pore space of the soil; with time the process is reversible and the viscosity of the pore fluid increases, thereby stabilizing the soil. His con-cept provides a non-invasive—and therefore cost-effective and financially competitive—way of reinforcing bridge foundations located in liquefiable soils around the globe. “I can see this as an innovation with which we will open new doors,” says Bobet.

Bobet relishes his role as an innova-tor, both in breaking new ground and in refining existing knowledge. “The U.S. has always been able to move forward and have impact, to push technology further,” Bobet says.

“We still need to keep working on well-established principles,” Bobet observes, “but we should also be working on leaps and jumps forward to another magnitude of progress.” ■ G. V.

campaign impact

Concrete ConclusionsPankow family gift brings state-of-the art

materials lab to Purdue

In a land with aging infrastructure, the ability to determine what causes concrete to crack becomes big business. It’s part of the day-to-day business of Jason Weiss. A professor of civil engineering and director of Pankow Lab, Weiss has worked with companies to develop new types of concrete that are more resistant to cracking. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Pankow family, these studies will take place in a unique, world-class laboratory. The Pankow Materials Lab will allow for multiscale evaluation and modeling of materials. For Weiss, the new lab is about connecting the large scale with the small scale. “Purdue has historically had real great strengths in the mechanical response of large structures and microstructure/nanostructure of materials,” Weiss says. With space big enough to cast and move large slabs of concrete in carefully controlled environments, researchers and students will develop a better focus on durability. Some of the fundamental questions remain the same. “Can we make reinforced concrete where the steel is less likely to corrode? Can we make concrete that is less likely to crack?” Weiss asks. “A lot of what we do is focused around cracks,” Weiss says. “We develop computer codes to predict when cracks form. We look for how cracks form. We listen for them, take X-rays of them, and use ‘glow-in-the-dark dyes’ to take images of them. All of this in an effort to quantify their influ-ence on service life and to develop processes to prevent their formation.” A large environmental chamber at the heart of this lab will allow for concrete, asphalt, metal, and polymer test-ing in extreme environments. From minus 20 degrees C to plus 60 degrees C, the slabs of concrete can be exposed to different environments. “We have the ability to simulate any environment we want,” Weiss says, “from Alaska in the winter to Dubai

in the summer. We can also control humidity and wind speed.” This has great advantages since unlike many items that are manufactured in a carefully controlled factory, civil engineering facilities are built on site, year-round, under some of the harshest conditions. The reactions and potential for manufacturing defects is strongly influenced by casting and curing conditions. New binders also will be studied in this lab. Jan Olek, professor of civil engineering and director of the Superpave Center, is working on the development of ternary blends to reduce the amount of cement in concrete through the addi-tion of fly ash, slag, or silica fume. When cement is pro-duced, it creates carbon dioxide. To reduce carbon dioxide, alternative, more sustainable cements need to be created. These facilities allow researchers to examine both the sen-sitivity of these materials to placement temperature and also the role of environment on their long-term durability. John Haddock, associate professor of civil engineering and director of the Local Technical Assistance Program, is working on the development of advanced ‘greener’ binders for asphalt pavement construction. These new binders may serve as a replacement to the petroleum-based binders currently being used. “We cannot provide enough thanks for the opportunities that this lab provides,” Weiss says. “This gift enables Purdue to tackle the renewal of the aging infrastructure by test-ing and simulating infrastructure material performance over a wide range of length scales with real-life environmental boundary conditions.” Charles Pankow (BSCE ’47) received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1983. In 2006, he received (posthumously) the national Chi Epsilon’s organization’s highest individual honor. He founded his own construc-tion company, Charles Pankow Inc., in the garage of his Altadena, California, home in 1963. The company builds commercial office buildings, multifamily housing, mixed-use developments, hotels, hospitals and parking structures. The Pankow family has been longtime supporters of programs, professorships, and facilities in the School of Civil Engineering. ■ W. M.


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Civil engineering undergraduates will be able to use the new lab as well. “One of the things we’ll be doing with the undergraduates is working with

full-scale concrete batches of concrete,” Jason Weiss says.

Greetings from ChicagoAlumnus credits blue collar

background with his white collar success

Economic times may be affecting foot traffic in retail stores, but greeting cards aren’t staying on the shelves. Even in an Internet age, the tradition of giving birthday cards to friends and loved ones appears to be standing the test of time and technology. That’s good news for Jude Rake (BSCE ’81), the chief executive officer of the Chicago-based Recycled Paper Greetings (RPG). The third largest greeting card company in the United States, RPG was recently purchased by American Greetings.

So how did this civil engineer come to flex a marketing and branding mus-cle in the competitive greeting card industry? He adopted the work ethic of his mother during his boyhood days in the small southern Indiana town of Floyds Knobs. The son of two fac-tory workers, Rake would be the first member of his family to attend col-lege. His father left the family when the younger Rake was just 6 years old, so his mother worked three jobs to make ends meet—the factory by day, waiting tables at night, and a shooting range on the weekends. Rake even took to work early—at the shooting range by the age of eight and bussing tables by 12.

Rake’s hard work paid early dividends when he earned the Dale Stoffer Memorial Scholarship from his high school for scholastic and athletic performance, allowing him to attend Purdue. He developed a love of struc-tures in the civil engineering program, but a minor in psychology combined with leadership roles in his fraternity helped him nurture the people and

“This is my favorite business because there’s such a premium on creativity and innovation, and the commercialization timelines are fast,” says Rake. “There aren’t many categories in the consumer packaged goods world where consumers actually get to try the product at the shelf before they pur-chase it, so the bar is really high for product performance. At RPG we consistently deliver better creative content to our shoppers because we have a unique and eclectic net-work of over 250 independent artist

partners working exclusively with us to create our cards. Our artists have skin in the game because they receive royalty payments for every sale, so they tend to be hungrier and more entrepreneurial than our competition.”

He adds, “We’ve also printed our cards on recycled paper since our inception in 1971, and being green is an advantage we’re leveraging with our customers now more than ever. We like to say we’re sustaining the environment one smile at a time.”■ W. M.

team-building skills he would use in the business world.

Fresh out of college, Rake began designing and building nuclear power plants for Bechtel Power Corporation. But it was his desire to build business-es that led him to the rigorous MBA program at the University of Chicago, a challenge he felt well prepared for because of his Purdue experience.

His resume is lined with companies like Clorox, Pepsi-Cola, S.C. Johnson, and Eastman Kodak, where he led teams building brands like Formula 409, Clorox 2, Pepsi, OFF!, Windex, Shout, Drano, Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles, and Kodak. He has been rec-ognized for leadership, creativity, and marketing excellence with Clio, Mobius, and Effie awards, and he received the Burnham Award for Innovation. He was also named a Top 100 Marketer twice by Advertising Age.

Recruited to Recycled Greetings in January 2007, Rake rebuilt the leader-ship team and championed a strategic plan that led to new distribution with several retailers, including Walmart and Tesco. “In every retailer where we have been tested versus our competition, RPG has sold at a higher velocity, and we have helped our customers grow their category sales,” says Rake.

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Jude Rake (BSCE ’81)

Courtesy of Recycled Paper Greetings

up close: alumni

alumni news


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Class Notes Donald Gray (MSE ’69 (AAES); CE PhD ’74) is the president of the West Virginia Academy of Science. Founded in 1924, the West Virginia Academy of Science is a nonprofit corporation organized for the ad-vancement of learning and scientific knowl-edge in all fields of science in the state.

Michael Grimaldi (BSCE ’74), of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is the presi-dent and CEO of GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co. in Seoul, South Korea.

Howard Hanes (BSCE ’53), of Glen Rock, New Jersey, is retired and singing in his 35th season with the Chorale, a classical music group that has performed in great halls in New York City, New Jersey, and Europe.

CEAAA Winners

2008 winners recognized in April ceremony

In April, the School of Civil Engineering honored five alumni with Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Awards (CEAAA). This was the 16th annual awards ceremony. Congratulations to our newest CEAAA recipients. Their brief bios follow.

Samuel Ebow Coleman (PhD ’81) was born in Kumasi on the west coast of Africa. His curios-ity in nature and science led him to study chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and later to the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague for his master’s degree. Stateside, he earned a PhD in the materials area in Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering. Upon gradua-tion, he took a position in the com-pany Dowell Schlumberger in Tulsa, Oklahoma, developing a number of patents in the area of oil well ce-ments. Coleman ultimately opened his own Houston-based compa-ny, C3S, which has helped resolve some of the world’s most challeng-ing construction material problems.

Born in Paducah, Kentucky, William N. Dudley Jr. (BSCE ’74) spent his child-hood summers working for his father’s construction company in Indianapolis. Like his father, Dudley entered Purdue to earn his civil engineering degree. He would work with the Flour Corp. in Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Africa on projects ranging from coal-fired power plants to multi-billion-dollar oil-from-coal projects. In 1981, he joined Bechtel in Houston, working his way around the world. After stints in Bangkok and Singapore, he went to London as presi-dent of Bechtel’s Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Southwest Asia business. In 2001, Dudley took over the Petroleum & Chemical business unit, growing it to Bechtel’s largest business unit. In 2008, he was named president and chief oper-ating officer of Bechtel Group Inc.

John Davis (BSCE ’82, MSCE ’87), of Waukesha, Wisconsin, began a three-year term as a director for the Transportation Professional Certification Board and also a term as president of the Midwest district of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, which covers an 11-state area.

Milo Riverso (MSCE ’82, PhD ’84), of Scarsdale, New York, was appointed president of STV — a leading architectural, engineering, planning, and construction management firm.

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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.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Chuck Dulic (BSCE ’76, MSCE ’78) decided to attend Purdue after hearing a lecture on the NASA space program by a Purdue professor. After receiving his BSCE, Chuck stayed on for a master’s, specializing in the transportation area. He then joined HNTB, earned his professional engineering license, and stayed with the firm for 30 years, recently retiring as senior vice presi-dent. During those 30 years, Dulic sought to expand his technical knowl-edge base beyond his “comfort zone” of traffic engineering, transportation planning, and geometric design. He was involved in significant infrastruc-ture projects around the country, and including Accelerate 465 Indianapolis, Indiana and Virginia HOT Lanes, the largest public/private partnership managed-lane project in America.

A Beech Grove, Indiana, native, Rosalie Flack Morgan (BSCE ’77) fulfilled a promise she made her grandmother to attend Purdue and study engineering. Upon gradua-tion, she went to work for Donohue and Associates of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, as part of the Milwaukee Water Pollution Abatement Program. In 1983, following in the footsteps of her entrepreneurial parents, Morgan founded EMCS Inc. (Engineering Management Consulting Services), a civil engineering consulting firm in Milwaukee. More than 25 years later, the firm includes an office in Wausau, Wisconsin, and 40 employees. Over the years, EMCS has helped to deliver many key Wisconsin projects includ-ing Miller Park, 6th Street Viaduct, I-94 North/South Freeway, General Mitchell International Airport, Wausau West Arterial, and the award-winning Marquette Interchange.

Mishawaka, Indiana, native, Jim Rowings (BSCE ’75, MSCE ’79, PhD’ 82) chose civil engineering because of his passion for construc-tion. After graduation, he worked for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia as a con-struction engineer on projects rang-ing in scope from $60 million to $2.3 billion. In 1978, he returned to Purdue, earning both his MSCE and PhD in the construction area. Rowings taught at the University of Kansas before mov-ing to Iowa State University as the Professor-in-Charge of Construction Engineering. After 15 years at Iowa State, Rowings joined Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc. in 2001 as vice presi-dent for organization development. Named chief learning officer of Kiewit University in 2007, Rowings is respon-sible for the education, training, and development programs for 20,000 employees.

The 2008 Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award recipients (from left to right): Jim Rowings, William N. Dudley Jr., Rosalie F. Morgan, Charles Dulic, and S.Ebow Coleman.

Andrew Warnecke (BSCE ’92), was named principal in Fish & Richardson PC litigation group in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

David Lach (BSCE ’94), of Carmel, Indiana, has achieved his Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited pro-fessional certification. He is a client service director for Cripe Architects & Engineers.

Thomas Riley (BSCE ’98), of Chicago, Illinois, became a partner at the intellectual property law firm of McCracken & Frank LLP.

Emily (Barnett) Karry (BSCE ’99), of Lindenhurst, Illinois, married Kim Karry last October in Long Grove, Illinois.

Brian Vosberg (BSCE ’00) married Livia Esteves in Edison, New Jersey, last October.

Jennifer (Baran) Clark (BSCE ’05) married Jonathon Clark last November in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They now reside in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

behind the scenes

when Barbra Streisand was singing “The Way We Were” and the American public was adjusting the rabbit ears on their television sets to get “Happy Days,” Molly Stetler and her trusty typewriter were already working for Purdue. “I was just out of high school,” Stetler recalls. At the time, she could not have predicted that her tenure in the School of Civil Engineering would outlast the primetime versions of the song and the sitcom, nor that those titles would still pertain to her career. For 35 years Stetler has supported the faculty and students of the structural engineering group. “Molly is the structural engineering office,” remarks Robert Frosch, professor of civil engineering. Some of her many roles include schedul-ing visits by prospective graduate students, assisting with the review process for graduate student admissions, providing graduate thesis format checks, scheduling and organizing meetings and seminars, and assisting students in obtaining required course materials. Currently 11 faculty and 50 graduate students rely on her as they carry on with the business of advancing structural engineering. She is the person be-hind the scenes making sure that everyone can do what they have come to Purdue to do. Stetler is the point person when graduate students and profes-sors need to order materials for experimentation in the Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research. “If someone needs any special materials for experimentation in the Bowen lab, I get them,” she says. “I order a lot of strain gauges and concrete. Also bolts and washers, lumber, and cotton balls. I don’t know why they use cotton balls.” Things have changed just a little bit since the original happy days of work-ing in the structural engineering office. Take that typewriter, for example. “When computers came along way back when, it was frightful,” Stetler admits. “Moving to computer-based work was a big step at the time.” But like the science going on around her, things keep moving forward. “There is continual change. You have to be willing to go with the times and change too,” says Stetler, whose ability to adapt and grow has helped her stay so vital to the structural engineering team. Of course, it takes a winning personality and a strong work ethic to make it to a 35-year anniversary mark in any field these days. Stetler has those things going for her, too. “Molly is well-organized and jumps on work immediately. She is a very dependable and loyal employee—always willing to help,” says Frosch of his longtime colleague. “Molly is an integral part of the structures area. She has been a part of the department ever since I arrived, and I just know that Molly will be there when I need her.” It also helps job longevity if you like what you are doing, as Stetler does. “The people in the structural engineering group are just great to work with,” says Stetler. And she enjoys the annual influx of new energy as a fresh crop of engineers arrives on the scene. “I love seeing new students each year,” says Stetler. Stetler has built a happy career in the structural engineering office, and she has no plans to leave it just yet, even though her 3-year-old granddaughter claims a good deal of her attention these days. “I hope I am going to be here a few more years,” Stetler says. As for her granddaughter? “Of course we hope she will come to Purdue.” ■ G. V.

Staying PowerA veteran in the office of

structural engineering marks 35 years of service


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“These activities allow us to apply

everything we learnin the classrooms.”

To Float and Span Student teams compete in spring regional competitions

In April, Purdue student teams partici-pated in the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge competitions at the Great Lakes Regional at the University of Notre Dame. While neither team floated or built its way to a win, a good time was reportedly had by all… as these pictures bear witness. According to Steven Buck, a senior in civil engineering and the Purdue chapter president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, these activi-ties “allow us to apply everything we learn in the classrooms.” And for the concrete canoe competitors—from the designers of hull to the mixers of the concrete—the event calls for a special collaboration of students from the vari-ous subsets within the civil engineering program. For Buck, studying structural engi-neering, the Steel Bridge Competition falls a little closer to his heart and career calling. “To design and build the bridge, we had to learn about what kind of stresses could be put on the bridge, what kind of load it could take, and figure out the geometry of the bridge,” he says. “So it all allows you to get an in-depth look about what you will be doing once you graduate.”■ W. M.

Fall 2009

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