Civil and Environmental Engineering: Research Interests

Vision:

The vision of the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) is to accelerate the research and sponsored program enterprise while adhering to university policies and federal regulations.

Mission:

The mission of the ORSP is to provide the following services:

• proposal development assistance and training;
• review and provide institiutional endorsement of all applications for external sponsored funding;
• review, negotiate, and accept awards on behalf of the University;
• compliance and post-award monitoring and oversight;
• maintenance of sponsored project data for the University;
• coordination of institutional review boards for research with human and animal subjects and for biosafety;
• management of the University's intellectual property; and
• promotion of entrepreneurial and commercialization activities.

Please note: The vision & mission statements are from ORSP website.

Research centers associated with The Department of Civil Engineering

• Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CTIS)
• Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM)
• Center for Structural Integrity of Aerospace Systems - FAST Center
• Center for Inland Desalination Systems (CIDS)

Structural Engineering

• Structural reliability
• Non destructive testing and evaluation
• Finite Element Modeling of linear and non-linear systems
• Structural dynamics
• Large deformation mechanics
• Response of structures under shock loading
• Constitutive modeling of material response

Environmental Engineering

• Membrane Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment
• RO Concentrate Management
• Water Treatment Process Optimization
• Disinfection Byproduct Control
• Characterization of atmospheric aerosols
• Evaluation of transportation air quality impacts
• Impact of traffic related air pollution on sensitive receptors
• Inhalation/exhalation of atmospheric aerosols
• Ambient air quality monitoring and modeling
• Surface runoff chemistry as it influences surface and groundwater interaction
• Release mechanisms for radioactive waste repositories
• Evaporation and recovery of concentrated brine
• Monitoring alternatives for disposal and decommissioned facilities

Geotechnical Engineering/Pavement/Materials

• Nondestructive Testing of Infrastructure
• Advanced Laboratory Characterization of Civil Engineering Materials
• Pavement and Geotechnical Field Characterization
• Pavement Analysis and Design
• Recycling of Civil Engineering Materials
• Stabilization of Soils
• Instrumentation of Infrastructure
• Quality Management of Infrastructure during Construction
• Numerical Modeling
• Developing intelligent computation algorithms (Expert Systems, Artificial neural networks, data fusion)

Transportation Engineering/Operations Research

• Operations research applications to freight transportation
• Freight transportation demand analysis and forecasting
• Use of information and sensor technologies for real-time operations of time dependent freight systems
• Transportation infrastructure safety and security
• Supply chain and collaborative logistic modeling
• Traffic simulation
• Visualization for transportation planning
• Public transportation planning
• New intersection designs (roundabouts and diverging interchange)

Infrastructure and Construction Management

• Developing of Strategic Plans for Managing Infrastructure
• Asset Inventory for Infrastructure Management Systems
• Data Collection Methods to Manage Infrastructure Assets
• Condition Assessment of Infrastructure Assets
• Development of Performance Models
• Forecasting Network Condition of Infrastructure Assets
• Network Level Needs-Gap Analysis
• Impact Scenarios Analysis
• Prioritization of Treatment Needs for Budget Allocation
• Quantifying Benefits for Trade-off Funding Allocation Analysis
• Maintenance Strategies to Preserve Infrastructure Assets
• Value Engineering
• Life-Cycle Cost Analysis
• Risk Assessment
• Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)