Ten faculty in CEAE, led by Associate Professor Abbie Liel, have been awarded a GAANN grant from the Department of Education to fund eight graduate students for PhDs. The project aims to increase the number of graduate students and, eventually, researchers and teachers, who have the multidisciplinary skills to address (i) the country’s deteriorating infrastructure and (ii) the need for upgraded and new transport, water/sanitation, building, and power infrastructure.
Rebuilding infrastructure requires not only inspecting, repairing and replacing our nation’s existing infrastructure, but imagining novel solutions that utilize new materials, new technologies, and new processes for design, construction and management, integrated through systems (or systems of systems) approaches. These solutions must reflect changing demands on our infrastructure to support safe, prosperous and resilient communities. The students selected for this multidisciplinary program will become leading thinkers in infrastructure assessment, design, construction, and maintenance. This new generation of graduate civil engineers will have the highest level of technical expertise, as well as a deep understanding of social, cultural, economic and political factors that influence how we plan, prioritize, use, and maintain infrastructure in the interests of tomorrow’s communities.
The faculty involved are Kyri Baker, Sherri Cook, Ross Corotis, Shideh Dashti, Amy Javernick-Will, Joseph Kasprzyk, Wil Srubar, Cristina Torres-Machi, and Brad Wham. They will be seeking graduate students interested in integrative reengineering of infrastructure for tomorrow's communities in early 2019.