2021 News

2021

2020 2022

Dec 13

Senior Greta Markey earns Marshall Scholarship

The Marshall Scholarship is a step toward Markey's goals to earn a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and become a professor.

Nov 24

Professor Costa Samaras to serve in Biden-Harris Administration in White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Samaras will provide senior-level policy advice to the Director, Deputy Director, and OSTP senior staff to analyze, recommend, and implement the energy technologies needed to meet the Biden-Harris Administration climate goals of a net-zero emissions clean energy economy no later than 2050.

Nov 24

Costa Samaras to serve in White House OSTP Opens in new window

Costa Samaras has been appointed principal assistant director for energy and chief advisor for energy policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s first-ever Energy Division.

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Nov 22

Dildine/Pindine's paper predicts benefits of phosphorous recovery

Dildine says that he hopes his research will motivate investment in wastewater remediation because it effectively demonstrates the benefits of phosphorus recovery in a way that’s easily understandable.

Nov 05

Markey and Thompson named Andrew Carnegie Scholars

ACS Scholars are selected each year by their deans and department heads to represent their class in service and leadership. These undergraduate seniors embody Carnegie Mellon's high standards of academic excellence, volunteerism, leadership, and involvement in student organizations, athletics or the arts.

Oct 25

Alumni survey reveals strength and variety of options available to CEE grads

The annual First Destination survey asks new grads each year to report whether they’re employed, earning another degree, volunteering, or on the job hunt. Employer, title, location, and salary details are also collected, or, for those furthering their education, the program and institution.

Oct 19

Devin White’s internship focuses on FHA software prototype

White’s work focused on creating a software prototype to analyze the extent to which employees across the U.S. Department of Transportation were innovating with their teams, network, and stakeholders.

Oct 19

Reimagining advanced infrastructure systems: Inside CEE's new AIS facilities

Combining sensing, artificial intelligence, system engineering, economics, public policy, and more to address challenges, the AIS group has for years been conducting, pioneering research utilizing several different lab facilities in Porter Hall and across campus.

Oct 07

Rounce's summer STEM program reaches high schoolers

Students were broken into four teams—glaciers, deforestation, urbanization, and water resources—and tasked with developing javascript codes to work with Google Earth Engine.

Oct 07

Refuting a 70-year approach to predicting material microstructure Opens in new window

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new microscopy technique that maps material microstructure in three dimensions; results demonstrate that the conventional method for predicting materials’ properties under high temperature is ineffective.

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Oct 06

Ariss awarded Ellegood Fellowship

Ariss’ research looks to identify opportunities to improve controls and planning decisions that are complicated by interdependencies between civil systems.

Oct 05

Karimi awarded Dowd Fellowship

The Philip and Marsha Dowd Engineering Seed Fund is intended to provide support for graduate students proposing work on cutting edge research projects.

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Oct 05

Saudi awarded D'Appolonia Fellowship

Dr. D'Appolonia helped to define and develop the multidisciplinary, creative nature of civil and environmental engineering at CMU.

Oct 04

Who’s paying for your Uber? Opens in new window

Researchers have published a new study quantifying the societal costs and benefits of an Uber or Lyft trip.

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Oct 01

NHL's Penguins install boards designed by CMU students

The Rethink the Rink initiative promotes safety in hockey through innovative solutions. It's a collaboration between CMU, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Covestro, a world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials.

Sep 28

Joseph awarded Cohon Graduate Fellowship

Joseph researches pathways for residential decarbonization and their impacts on vulnerable communities.

Sep 28

70th anniversary of Porter Hall

John L. Porter (1868-1937) was a member and then chair of the Carnegie Institute of Technology Board of Trustees for 16 years.

Sep 24

Jaramillo placing new tool in energy planners’ hands Opens in new window

Paulina Jaramillo led a team working with utility planners, operators, and regulators to prepare our energy system for the effects of climate change.

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Sep 16

Hakimzadeh named Steinbrenner Institute Fellow

The Ph.D. student will work on interdisciplinary projects that relate back to environmental research.

Sep 10

Joe Moore joins CEE faculty

Moore, an assistant teaching professor, earned two advanced degrees with CEE. He says the best part of his career is working with people, and that he plans to bring an interactive, inquiry-based give-and-take relationship into the classroom.

Sep 09

Rebuilding the World Trade Center site: Looking back 20 years after 9/11

CEE alumni, Seth Pearlman and John Wise, both worked at the Nicholson Construction Company and spent lots of time at the grounds of the World Trade Center

Sep 03

Hands-on learning in Tech Spark’s Manual Machining course Opens in new window

Students in 24-200 have the chance to work directly with a wide variety of machining equipment and learn to become better engineers while they’re doing it.

Aug 25

Lowry and colleagues receive two NSF awards for nanoparticle research

The first grant will fund research on the potential of nanoparticles as a nitrogen delivery system. The second award will allow Lowry to create nano-enabled materials that can contribute to personalized biomanufacturing.

Aug 24

Li discusses role of fin structures in heat transfer

Li, a Ph.D. student in the department, says that his research will have potential applications in nanoscale energy storage and conversion.

Aug 09

Whitehead's TED Talk explains mRNA, delivers hope

Katie Whitehead explains lipid nanoparticles and how mRNA drugs will provide treatments and cures for some of the world’s most deadly diseases and pathogens at the 2021 TED conference in Monterey.

Aug 03

VanBriesen named Division Director of the National Science Foundation's CBET

VanBriesen becomes another CMU professor to make significant contributions to the research community in addition to her role in academia, both of which allow her to demonstrate her expertise in finding interdisciplinary solutions to environmental problems.

Jul 27

CEE capstone: Aquaponics for Center of Life

Center of Life hopes to use these student-built prototypes to create a facility to host educational events for schools and community members as well as produce food they could sell at a farmer’s market for revenue.

Jul 08

Ariss looks at environmental impacts of electric delivery fleets

Ariss, a Ph.D. candidate, believes his research will contribute to the ongoing narrative of whether electric fleets can be cost competitive with traditional fleets.

Jun 24

Amekudzi-Kennedy's philosophy encourages diversity in STEM, engineering workforce

The accomplished CMU alumna, who's now a professor herself, says she's most grateful when she's recognized for contributions that improve the human condition and quality of life.

Jun 22

Building diversity, equity, and inclusion into coursework

Students in this higher-level course will work on projects with community partners in order to learn the importance of stakeholder perspective in the design of relevant, equitable solutions.

Jun 18

Drone package delivery study published by Scientific Data

Researchers Rodrigues and Samaras believe that the study will advance the physical understanding of in-flight operations for package delivery drones.

May 26

Congratulations to our graduate student CEE Commencement Award winners

Seven grad students received the honors.

May 25

Congratulations to our undergraduate CEE Commencement Award winners

Seven undergrads received the department's special honors.

May 24

Akinci elected to NAC

Election to the NAC is conferred to individuals who have made significant contributions to the effectiveness of the engineering and construction industry over a period of multiple years.

May 19

Ibekwe awarded David A. Long Scholarship

Ibekwe will use the award to continue her research in evaluating the dynamic between climate change and water quality.

May 14

Rusali presents: Using molecular science to explore urban structure

Rusali's project, which he presented to fellow undergrads at CMU, takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the structure of cities using tools from molecular science.

May 13

Levene presents: Pittsburgh’s story of environmental justice and renewable energy

Levene presented to her peers at the Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research symposium.

May 07

Revising glacier projections Opens in new window

Research performed in collaboration with partners around the world significantly changes our understanding of glacial debris cover and its effect on glacial melt.

May 06

CMU connection leads to success at eIQ Mobility

Company CEO and co-founder, Sila Berkol Kiliccote says that more than half of her employees are fellow CMU alumni. One of them is Emre Kara, who serves as VP of Engineering.

Apr 28

CEE alumni awards shine spotlight on successful grads

CEE celebrated its 2021 alumni award winners via a virtual presentation led by professor and department head Dave Dzombak.

Apr 27

Nock awarded Wimmer Faculty Fellowship

Nock's project will explore the effectiveness of blending compelling social justice themes into technical coursework.

Apr 19

Martin Fertal joins ASCE as new COO

Martin Fertal (BS ‘83, MS ’84) was recently named chief operating officer at ASCE, an organization he’s proud to note was “founded in 1852 and is the nation’s oldest engineering society.”

Apr 13

From Twitter to traffic predictor Opens in new window

Sean Qian and Weiran Yao have used data from twitter to solve one of the greatest hurdles in traffic prediction.

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Apr 09

Akinci named to NASEM BICE

Professor Burcu Akinci was recently named to the NASEM Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE). This group advises government legislators and private sector organizations about the design, construction, security, impacts, maintenance, and evaluation of buildings and infrastructure systems.

Mar 19

Who is marginalized in energy justice? Opens in new window

Destenie Nock is working to bring more perspectives from stakeholders in developing countries into decisions that affect the expansion of their power grid.

Mar 01

Eybpoosh works to improve renewable energy reliability

After graduating with multiple advanced degrees from CMU, Matineh Eybpoosh became co-founder of WattLearn Inc.

Feb 23

Henry Randall Grooms: CEE grad and space program pioneer

Henry Randall Grooms earned advanced engineering degrees at CMU and went on to do groundbreaking work on the U.S. space program.

Feb 16

Christian named ASCE Pittsburgh Section Professor of the Year

Christian, an expert in structural engineering and sustainable materials, has been with CEE for five years.

Feb 04

Kramer explores relationship between social distancing, pedestrian flow

Kelby Kramer, an undergraduate student, presented research that explores social distancing's impact on how people move through a space.

Feb 03

Shi awarded Smith Graduate Fellowship

Ph.D. candidate Ying Shi received the award in support of her research on how falsified or missing data mislead multiple levels of bridge inspection and maintenance planning.

Jan 27

Li awarded Bushnell Fellowship

Ph.D. candidate Yuanhao Li received the fellowship for his research on topics like understanding nanoscale fluid flow and heat transfer physics.

Jan 26

Merging art and engineering for innovative solutions

Nika Finkelsteyn, a CEE senior, says that studying both engineering and art will allow her to be a more creative professional.

Media mentions

USA Today

Nock quoted on air conditioning inequities during heat wave

CEE/EPP’s Destenie Nock was quoted in USA Today on how low-income U.S. households tend to set their thermostats higher in the summer, highlighting how dangerous this cost-saving measure can be during a heat wave.

CNN

Samaras provides insight into Nashville Zoo’s conflict with a data center

Scott Institute Director Costa Samaras sheds light on the conflict between the Nashville Zoo and DC BLOX’s proposed data center just outside the zoo’s limits.

Inside Climate News

Samaras quoted on current challenges of drone deliveries

Scott Institute Director Costa Samaras was quoted in Inside Climate News on how companies face environmental, cost, and quality of life trade-offs when delivering packages with drones.

IEEE Spectrum

Samaras talks adding data centers to the power grid

Scott Institute Director Costa Samaras spoke with IEEE Spectrum about connecting data centers to the power grid in light of recent directives released by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to help accelerate the process. Samaras noted that data centers aren’t the only large, concentrated loads that the grid will have to accommodate — future electrification of industry and transportation will also bring about new demands.

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