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This page is
devoted to the activities, endeavors, and interests of students and former students in the
Environmental Engineering Program.
Hallie Bevan
Hallie was selected as the Outstanding Senior of the Environmental Engineering program in 2008. She received the Undergraduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 2008. Hallie exemplifies the commitment to community and global service that we value in our students. She integrated a semester in Chile into her B.S. degree. She worked with Prof. Joe Ryan on a research project studying the impacts of acid mine drainage on a Colorado community, and wrote her undergraduate thesis on this topic. For this project she won a Discovery Learning Research Symposium award in the College of Engineering. As part of the University's student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Hallie worked on the design and construction of a solar-powered public water system for the village of San León in northern Peru. Link to article
Hallie plans to graduate in December 2008.
Brian Stephens-Hotopp
Brian worked on a service learning project for a Native American community in the EVEN capstone design course.
Link to article
Brian graduated in May 2004. He works for Calibre Engineering in Littleton, CO, and became a new dad in 2007.
Melissa Mora
Melissa developed curriculum for grade schools on renewable energy.
Link to article
Melissa works for CH2M Hill in Denver, CO.
First Place
Award for Research Presentation
Bret Harper,
who graduated in May, 2005, spent the summer of 2004 doing research
on high altitude physics
through the SOARS program. His project "Using the TIEGCM to Estimate
the Equatorial Vertical E x B Drift Velocity with Ground Magnetic
Perturbation" won first place at the national American Indian
Science and Engineering Society
conference, held in Anchorage Alaska in November 2004.
The research
involved the the drift velocity of the ionosphere (see Brett's
presentation).
Over the equator, the drift velocity is proportional to the earth's
natural magnetic perturbation. Brett used a global circulation model
of the thermosphere, ionosphere, and electrodynamics of the upper
atmosphere (TIEGCM) to see if the modeled results matched observed
results, and thus test how well modeling of the physics of the upper
atmosphere succeeded.
Leading the
Design of the "SolarBee" for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Erik
Jorgensen, who graduated in
May, 2005, worked with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to
investigate ways of decreasing the size of evaporation ponds
through enhanced evaporation. One recent study helped
determine the effectiveness of a
SolarBee pond circulator.
A SolarBee unit is a water circulation machine that is
capable of drawing up to 10,000 gallons of water per minute
from below the machine and spreading it across the top of
the water surface in a near laminar fashion for continuous
surface renewal. This unit is know for greatly accelerating
biological and chemical processes that clean up wastewater
and freshwater, while running on only a 1/8 horsepower motor
driven by solar power. Test results from the Salton Sea show
that the unit can increase evaporation by 150% during the
night time, and 130% when operating 24 hours a day. Read
Erik's SolarBee
article.
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EVEN Student Leads American Indian Science
and Engineering Society
Bret
Harper, who just graduated in
May, 2005, served as president of CU Boulder's American
Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). He was
instrumental in hosting the annual AISES Region III
conference here at CU for the first time. About 100
participants from 8 universities, 4 high schools, and 20
companies attended this conference, the largest number in
recent years. Bret also regularly tutored high school
students on a monthly basis. He also worked with the Deans
of Engineering in increase American Indian recruitment and
retention.
Bret was also an active participant in the Aloha club. He
coordinated the
Hawaiian band that ties their annual lu`au together, an
event attended by over 500 people. This event has been
recognized as connecting Boulder to the unique traditional
and modern culture of Hawaii. Bret also helped
coordinate the indigenous student club's (Oyate) Native
American Awareness week in April, 2005. The week included
discussions and presentations of various native artists,
comedians, and politicians from across the country.
To the
right is a photo of Brett (second from left) and other
students receiving an award in Alaska for a bone marrow
drive. American Indians have the lowest number of
registered donors amongst the minority groups, but the
highest rate of bone marrow related diseases.
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EVEN
Student Wins David Brower Award
Andrew Azman,
an EVEN senior, was awarded the David Brower Youth Award by the Earth
Island Institute in Berkeley, California, in September, 2003 for his
role in convincing the University of Colorado and the City of Boulder
to run buses on biodiesel fuel. Andrew co-founded "CU Biodiesel,"
a student organization that refined biodiesel from cooking grease collected
from residence hall kitchens on campus. Andrew's work was fostered by
Professor Bernard
Amadei of the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
Department and Engineers Without Borders.
For more information, see the University of Colorado news
release, the Earth
Island Institute web site, and the Circle
of Life Foundation web site.
EVEN Student
Examines Tanning Wastewater in Mongolia
Sam Booth,
an EVEN senior, traveled to Mongolia during the summer of 2003 to work
with Professor Munkhbataar at the Mongolian University of Science and
Technology on the treatment of tanning wastes (see his
poster). Tanning of animal skins,
an important industry in Mongolia, discharges large quantities of chromium
in the highly toxic hexavalent oxidation state. Treatment plants were
not effectively removing the chromium before returning the wastewaters
to streams. Sam's work involved analysis of tannery wastewaters through
the treatment process to improve understanding of chemical controls
on treatment efficiency. The results of his work can be seen in a poster
he prepared for the summer program.
Link to CUE article
EVEN
Student Works with Engineers Without Borders in San Pablo, Belize
Matt
Condiotti, an EVEN senior, went to San Pablo, Belize, in May,
2001, to assist an Engineers Without Borders team in the
installation of a water distribution system. In April 2000,
Prof. Bernard Amadei (CVEN) visited Central America to assist with
the development of a Mayan school for poor children near San
Ignacio, Belize. While there,
Belize Minister of Agriculture Angel Tzec asked Amadei to visit the
small Mayan Indian village of San Pablo and to examine the
possibility of designing and installing a water delivery system in
the village. With project goals in hand for implementation in
May 2001, the team set off to give water to the people -- read more
about this in the
Colorado Engineer Magazine.
Society
of Environmental Engineers (SEE)
SEE was formed
as an independent student organization at the University of Colorado
in 1998 to provide environmental engineering students an outlet for
social activities, professional development, and service to communities.
SEE has organized seminars with speakers from the environmental engineering
profession and tours of nearby facilities related to environmental engineering.
Service projects have included the installation of a simulated coral
reef environment in the College's Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory
and participation in projects with the national organization Engineers
Without Borders. Student members are drawn from the entire College,
but all of SEE's officers since 1998 have been from the Environmental
Engineering Program. The College and the Environmental Engineering Program
provides partial support for SEE activities.
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