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CIVIL and ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING UPDATESpring 2009 RESEARCH THAT MATTERS 1 I FROM THE Greetings alumni and friends! Director Borrowing from the Grateful Dead (at the risk of showing my age): “Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.” After 27 years at Cornell, I find myself sitting in the director’s office in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. When I look around at the school’s distinguished faculty, exceptional staff, outstanding students, and successful alumni, I sometimes feel the need to pinch myself to make sure I’m really here. It doesn’t seem long ago that I was negotiating my starting salary with Professor Arnim Meyburg, who at the time was chair of the school’s Department of Environmental Engineering. Fast forward and in Octo- ber 2008 I was emcee for Arnim’s retirement celebration. For roughly a decade after I came to Cornell I was the “newest hire.” Now, as I look at the demographics of the CEE faculty, it seems clear that (econom- ics permitting) there will be many new hires to come. When I stepped into the director’s office in July 2008, the school was in the midst of a search for a new faculty member in transportation systems engineer- ing. I suppose you could think of this person as Arnim’s replacement, but no one can ever really replace him. Unfortunately, our search has been paused as the university and the College of Engineering make Len Lion budgetary adjustments to reflect the new financial climate, but we hope to resume it soon. With the ongoing economic crisis an ancient Chinese proverb (some say it is a curse) seems very applicable: “May you live in interesting times.” Budget cuts have rippled through both the statutory and the endowed sides of Cornell, and the College of Engineering has not been left unscathed. I take improving what we do as a school in these CEE UPDATE is published once “interesting times” as an achievable challenge. Progress in research a year by the School of Civil and will continue, and we will keep working at the cutting edge. Paradigms Environmental Engineering, Cornell for effective teaching will evolve, and our cadre of faculty will continue University, Ithaca, New York. to be award winning. Our undergraduates will continue to be highly Director: sought by graduate programs and firms, and our graduate students Leonard Lion will continue to make contributions that advance their fields and go on Director of Administration: to join academic faculties or research-oriented organizations. Joe Rowe Newsletter Production Coordinator: My time in the director’s chair will be short. Beginning July 1, 2009, Jeannette L. Little Professor Phil Liu will take over and he will be writing this letter to you Writer: next year. Directors come and go, but the essence of Cornell is con- Metta Winter stant. If you recall your time at Cornell, the people you knew, the pro- Editor: fessors you had in class, I think the continuity of quality between then Sue Baldwin and now emerges. If you remember the hard work, sweat, and (dare Designer: I say it) good times you had while here, the unique benefit of being a Valerie McMillen Photographs by Cornell University Photography, Cornellian comes to mind. If you think about what you and your class- Cornell Daily Sun (Alex Silver), and Jeannette L. Little mates have accomplished since leaving Cornell, then you too may end Printed on recycled stock up pinching yourself. Produced by Office of Publications and Marketing at Best wishes, Cornell University Cornell University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action educator and employer. 5/09 5.4M CP 090267 Spring 2009 Director 2 >>>RESEARCH THAT MATTERS Engineering Learning Initiatives Grants Provide Undergraduate Research Opportunities “At one time the big question was how to interest women in teaching and research careers in engineering,” says Edwin (Todd) A. Cowen, associate professor and director of the DeFrees Hydraulics Laboratory, referring to the not-too-distant past. “Now it’s how do we retain any U.S. citizen?” iving undergraduates research of the City of Ithaca Water Resources Council). students from kindergarten through high school opportunities early on is one answer. With proven success in both domains, Cowen how to take water temperature and turbidity G “Ninety-eight percent of our undergrads applied for a two-part ELI grant so that Phillips readings at depths greater than 40 m. The data have not been exposed to a family member or a could continue work on improving the accuracy will be used to create a turbidity profile, which is peer who has been through a graduate science of a measurement technique involving acoustic a key indicator of water quality. While on board program,” notes Cowen. “So, giving them the Doppler velocimetry (ADV), used in the ongoing Phillips will teach students some physics of the opportunity to tinker, to play with research, is cleanup of Onondaga Lake. The funding also put lake and also discuss data collected by classes the way to open their eyes to the possibilities Phillips’s experience on the lake in the service of earlier in the week that have been posted on the of continuing down a path of exploration or of the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom. Cornell Cayuga Lake Research web site. teaching the fundamentals.” “Professor Cowen is a really great guy who “The premise is that you put on a show that Each year the College of Engineering’s goes out of his way to help students learn and will arouse enough student interest that they’ll Engineering Learning Initiatives (ELI) program to make Ithaca a better community, so there is carry it with them beyond their few hours on the provides funding that supports research no way I’d pass up working another semester for water, and at the same time you are contributing participation for 100 undergraduates. Here’s what him,” Phillips says. What’s more, while the indoor to the greater scientific knowledge of the southern five in CEE are doing this year. work was satisfying, Phillips is passionate about portion of Cayuga Lake,” says Phillips, noting his time on Cayuga Lake. A son of two public that the classroom’s data will be contributed to When Tim Phillips ’09 got excited about research school teachers, he grew up in a small town an ongoing multifaceted monitoring program little did he think it would give him a chance to initiate named Stormville in the Hudson River Valley. He consisting of government and science-based citizen science. But that’s what happened. expects one day to follow in their footsteps but community organizations. “Never before have His first taste of the research atmosphere first to put his civil engineering degree (with a youth been involved, so we’re showing that no occurred in two of Cowen’s courses designed concentration in environmental fluid mechanics child is too young to help study the lake.” to pique students’ interest: Fluid Mechanics and and hydrology) to work in the field. Cowen hopes to continue to grow this involvement Experimental Methods in Fluid Dynamics. These “Many times in my education I’ve had trouble with the on-board classroom: “[Tim] is setting the classes allow students to develop laboratory skills sustaining a passion for what I’m doing because stage for something that might become a bigger comparable to those of a beginning graduate science is often divorced from human endeavors,” outreach component of our partnership with the local student. Phillips enjoyed the courses so much he Phillips explains. “But this project is a chance to community in learning more about the lake asked Cowen if there were possibilities for more explore how what I’m studying intersects with . Tim is really helping to initiate citizen science.” laboratory work. Impressed with Phillips’s abilities community involvement and to promote Cayuga and enthusiasm, Cowen hired him to assist Another senior, Paul Muller ’09, who grew Lake’s well-being.” graduate students with projects in the lab (on up outside Philadelphia, is helping safeguard the acoustical methods for measuring flow) and in the Phillips will get his feet wet on board the quality of New York State’s waters in an entirely field (collecting data on Cayuga Lake in support Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom where he’ll teach different way. Muller loves writing computer continued “One of the reasons I chose civil engineering is that it has to do with civilization, with human beings living with one another in communities.” Tim Phillips “I would definitely recommend anyone interested in research to get involved— if they’re not sure they want to go on to grad school it could help them make a decision.” Paul Muller 3 code. and is putting this skill to work on a project out how to solve any engineering problem.” researchers involved in the characterization of the to protect the groundwater in the Cannonsville Another benefit Muller says he got out of the mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties watershed from a buildup of phosphorus. experience was to see how research groups along the atomic interfaces between individual Phosphorus promotes the growth of algae that work. “One of the main reasons I wanted to do crystals within a material. could eventually require New York City to invest undergrad research was for networking and to “As nanotechnology pushes to create structures upward of $8 billion in a treatment plant to filter figure out what goes on between professors and and devices with nanometer dimensions, the most of its drinking water. graduate students and others who do research role of interfaces in materials becomes much “Paul was very reserved, he didn’t say anything, for faculty members,” Muller explains, saying he more important,” notes Warner.