CEIE News and Events

CEI Members Tour New Engineering Building

On Wednesday October 1, members of the Civil Engineering Institute Board toured the new Academic VI/Research II building under construction on the Fairfax campus. The building is rapidly approaching completion with the exterior skin now complete and the interior systems being installed. Occupancy of the building by the CEIE Department faculty and students will be in the first half of 2009.

Arciszewski Active in Computing Research

In July 2008, Dr. Tomasz Arciszewski attended an international conference on"Intelligent Computing in Engineering” organized by the European Group for Intelligence Computing in Engineering.  The conference took place in Plymouth, UK.  Earlier, Dr. Arciszewski served on the International Scientific Committee of this conference and organized a session on “ASCE Global Center of Excellence in Computing.”  During the conference, he chaired the session and gave a talk about the Center.  Also, he presented an invited talk on “Successful Civil Engineering Education.”

CEIE Active in University Sustainability Efforts

Dr. Sharon deMonsabert was recently selected by Provost Peter Sterns to the position of University Fellow for Sustainability Curricula. She plans to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities that investigate environmental, economic and social sustainability. Dr. deMonsabert recently developed CEIE 499/690 Sustainable Development which looks at incorporating sustainable practices in land development. Students in this course learn about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) concepts as they apply to commercial and residential development. One team in the fall 2008 CEIE 490 Senior Design class will develop their property to LEED silver standards. Dr. deMonsabert has a number of CEIE graduate students researching sustainable topics. Last spring, Ali Bakhshi and Jamie Headley studied the carbon footprint of municipal water and wastewater treatment and distribution. Janelle Wilson and Davis Chau completed an analysis of Low Impact Development practices on campus. Jeremy Jessup is currently studying the conversion of waste oils on campus to biodiesel that would be used to fuel the GMU fleet.

GMU ITE Chapter Recognized

During the September 16th Institute of Transportation Engineers Technical Dinner held at the Arlington Holiday Inn, the Washington D.C. Section of ITE (WSDSITE) announced that it would provide sponsorship funding to the GMU ITE Student Chapter based on the chapter’s proposal submitted earlier in September. The chapter was presented with a $220 check for use in chapter events during the Fall 2008 semester. In addition to the chapter’s sponsorship funding award, Omar Elkassed was awarded the “Washington D.C. Section ITE Student Leadership Award” and was presented with $500 check. Congratulations to ITE!

Dewberry Program in Technical Entrepreneurship

Can civil engineers be taught to be entrepreneurial?  That is what Dr. Sharon deMonsabert is attempting to answer in a new certificate program for engineers and architects at the Dewberry Company.   Every Wednesday evening, Dr. deMonsabert spends time mentoring engineers to help them develop innovative technical solutions that can be molded into business opportunities. Teams of students will compete for a cash prize of $1,000.  Dr. deMonsabert recently developed the Technical Entrepreneurship Assessment Model (TEAM)with her PhD student Abeer Abass.  This model was developed to study the important criteria in technical business plan competitions.  The research results will be used to provide insight to the students in the Dewberry class to help them develop improved proposals.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Initiatives in CEIE

Dr. Michael Casey is involved in several initiatives for BIM education and research. He has been named a member of the Design-Build Institute of America's BIM Committee whose charge is to develop guidance for project owners to incorporate virtual modeling practices in their RFPs. He recently participated, along with Young-Hoon Kim (MS '07) in the Alexandria BIMStorm event. The event brought together teams from around the world to participate in real-time planning exercises for the creation of Federal Friendly Zones. In October, Dr. Casey will be presenting a paper at the ASEE Frontiers in Education conference on the incorporation of BIM into the the Civil Engineering curriculum.

"Inventive" CEIE Students Featured

Dr. Tomasz Arciszewski's “Introduction to Design and Inventive Engineering" class was featured in the most recent edition of the Volgenau School News on Page 4. Recent CEIE graduate Christopher Kingsland (left) was recognized as outstanding presenter during the class' final presentations last spring.