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Environmental Engineering Students

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.
 

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.
 


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.