Major News

Major News In Civil Engineering

Trine Students earn Top Honors at National Convention

ANGOLA, Ind. – A group of Trine University students was named one of the top five teams at the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Fall 2011 Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, recently. ACI is a nonprofit technical and educational society organized in 1904 and is one of the world's leading authorities on concrete technology.

Under the leadership of Reiners Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering assistant professor Will Lindquist, Ph.D., PE, seniors Adam Sitka, Melissa Terry and Travis McDaniel earned fifth place in the load-to-cost ratio category when producing a pervious concrete cylinder that has both a high permeability and a high strength. Pervious concrete is becoming a popular sustainable alternative to traditional pavements because it allows rainfall to pass directly through the pavement, reducing runoff and allowing groundwater recharge. In Trine’s first year at the convention, the team competed against 34 teams from 26 universities from all over North America.

Lindquist, an expert in concrete design and durability, said he has a “healthy obsession” with the rough building material. Before his work at Trine, he traveled across the country working in concert with transportation departments to design and construct durable, long-lasting concrete bridges.

Earlier this year, he earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited status. LEED certification is the most widely adopted set of green building requirements used to recognize green building projects. Concrete is considered to be not only environmentally friendly, but the building material of choice for its sustainability.  Applying the LEED rating system to his coursework and projects equips Trine’s civil and environmental engineering students with the most up-to-date information and standards to take into their future workplaces.

Trine students also are participating in ACI certification programs. Last year, 14 Trine students participated in ACI field concrete testing technician (grade 1) certification, and Lindquist is expecting more in the coming year. Lindquist said that at least four students received internships this past summer as a result of the certification.

“The other purpose of offering the certifications to these students is to improve the concrete industry. I don’t anticipate that most of the students will perform these tests regularly as a part of their full-time job, but they will know how to properly perform the tests (and will have the certification to prove it) and can expect the same from others,” Lindquist said.


Value Realized - ICACI Student Certification Program

Article taken from October 2011 issue of Indiana Chapter- ACI "The Palindrome"

In keeping with our mission to educate, the ICACI now provides ACI Concrete Field Testing Technician, Grade I, certification programs at colleges and universities statewide. The board recently implemented the program in response to strong demand from both schools and industry. Now, by demonstrating their knowledge and ability to properly perform the basic field tests through certification, recent graduates and summer interns alike have an additional arrow in their quiver when seeking employment. Likewise, testing firms and quality departments statewide are now benefiting by moving qualified, certified new-hires into service faster with less training required. A true win-win, the program benefits the students, the industry and everyone’s bottom line.

Will Lindquist, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP BD+C, Assistant Professor at Trine University’s Reiners Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, wrote of the program: “Last year we had 14 students participate and I’m expecting even more this semester. I really appreciate the help of ICACI and I know that students do as well. I know of at least four students who received internships this past summer as a result of the certification, and I’m sure that several others job prospects were helped as well. The other purpose of offering the certifications to these students is to improve the concrete industry. I don’t anticipate that most of the students will perform these tests regularly as a part of their full-time job, but they will know how to properly perform the tests (and will have the certification to prove it) and can expect the same from others.”

To date, the ICACI has provided ACI Field Testing Technician Certification programs at Trine University, Evansville University, Valparaiso University and Southern Indiana University. If you are interested in hosting the program, please contact an ICACI board member. Also, if you are a student or firm that has benefited from the program, the board would love to hear about your experience.

Michael F. Leydecker, 1977 Civil Engineering Alumnus, Appointed Chairman of ACEC New York

Buffalo, NY – Wendel is pleased to announce that Michael Leydecker has been inducted as the new chairman for the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York).  His term began on July 1, 2011.

Michael Leydecker, P.E., is an associate principal and surface transportation group manager at Wendel.

Mr. Leydecker brings to the position over 30 years of experience in the civil engineering and transportation field, with particular expertise in context-sensitive transportation design, traffic engineering, community participation and environmental assessments. He has worked on major civil, environmental, highway and bridge projects.

Since 1994, Mr. Leydecker has served on the board of directors of ACEC New York and held numerous other leadership positions within the organization. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Mr. Leydecker holds a BSCE degree from Trine University and is a licensed professional engineer in 14 states, including New York.

About Wendel

Wendel is a nationally recognized design firm providing services to clients across the country, including architecture; civil, electrical, energy, environmental, mechanical, municipal, structural, and transportation engineering; construction management; energy management; commissioning; GIS; landscape architecture; land-use planning; and survey. The firm is headquartered in Buffalo, NY; with offices in New York Metro; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; Richmond, VA; and Washington, DC areas.

Announcing William Barry, Ph.D. as new Chairman

I am pleased to announce the appointment of William Barry, Ph.D., to the position of Dresser Chair, Reiners Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Allen School of Engineering and Technology, effective immediately. Tim Tyler, Ph.D., John G. and Virginia C. Stemples Professor of Civil Engineering, who held this position since June 2008, has chosen to focus on teaching full-time. In addition, he will lead and coordinate the Master of Engineering program in Civil Engineering. On behalf of the university administration and the ASOET faculty, I would like to thank Tim for his outstanding contributions as the chair.

Barry completed his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and his MS in Structural Engineering at Stanford University. For several years, he served as Assistant Professor and Coordinator for Structural Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand. His research has focused on computational solid and fluid mechanics with projects ranging from analysis of vehicle/guardrail impact to wind effects on mega-billboards. He also has made significant contributions in the area of meshless methods, an alternative to the finite element method. For the past five years, Barry has focused on undergraduate engineering education in the United States, spending his last three years as a faculty member in the Reiners Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Trine University. His responsibilities have included full-time teaching, serving as the Civil Engineering graduate program coordinator, co-advising the Trine student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and serving as faculty advisor for the Sigma Phi Delta fraternity. We are fortunate to have him as a member of the ASOET faculty.

Please join me in welcoming William Barry, Ph.D., and wishing him success as he assumes his new position as Dresser Chair, Reiners Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

VK Sharma, Ph.D.
Dean
Allen School of Engineering and Technology

Engineering students win top

awards at regional ASCE contest

Trine University’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineering earned several awards and was named one of the top five teams Saturday, April 2, at the ASCE Great Lakes Region Student Conference at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Trine competed against 18 universities from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
 
Students Melissa Terry, Travis McDaniel and Megan McElroy, under the direction of Will Lindquist, Ph.D., earned first place for their design of and presentation in pervious pavement. Trine’s ASCE chapter was awarded $500. They constructed a structurally sound concrete cylinder designed to allow water, but not other substances, to infiltrate the surface. This type of design decreases the amount of oil and sediment entering local waterways by infiltrating water through the pavement rather than allowing it to run off into streams or lakes. The students were one of three teams whose design did not allow any of the oil to filtrate through the bottom of the cylinder.


 
Students Ben Lauletta, Robert Demyon and Curtis Holcom took second place in a surveying competition. They were given angles, lengths and surveying equipment and instructed to mark a specific point. The team came within .09 feet from hitting the point. The winning team came within .06 feet of the target.
 
“Our students just keep getting better every year,” said civil engineering professor TJ Murphy. “We are so pleased with our wins and are setting new goals for next year’s competition.”

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Trine civil engineering students heading to national contest


From left, Trine University civil engineering students Nick Savage, Kayla Criswell, Aaron Brazier and Matt Shergalis show off their project they will take to a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall-building contest at the national Geo-Frontiers competition next month in Dallas, Texas. The box is designed to hold more than 500 pounds of sand. They will remove one of the sides of the box and replace it with a paper wall, which is made to resist the weight of the sand.

ANGOLA, Ind. — What looked like the start of a magic show actually turned out to be a lesson in engineering. With a few equations and some engineering know-how, a group of Trine students built a model wall made of paper that can resist more than 500 pounds of dry sand.

Four Trine University civil engineering students — seniors Matt Shergalis, Nick Savage and Aaron Brazier and sophomore Kayla Criswell — are determined to take top honors at the national Geo-Frontiers competition next month in Dallas, Texas. They were the only Hoosiers selected to compete in a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall-building contest. Walls such as this are frequently used at the abutments of bridges to stabilize soil.

In one of their nearly 20 practice “builds” this past week, the team constructed a model wall out of lightweight cardboard and paper. The foursome worked together like clockwork, each anticipating the next person’s move.

After cutting out a 64.7-square-inch piece of lightweight cardboard, they secured it to the open side of a medium-sized wooden box by folding the paper inward and securing it to the box’s interior using tension rods.

As they filled the box with sand, they removed the tension rods. The strength of the wall relies on the strips of paper anchored to the lightweight cardboard. As the strips were pulled taut and the sand was compacted, the wall became more structurally sound.

After filling the box with more than 500 pounds of sand, the students demonstrated the strength of their wall by standing on the sand. Not a speck of sand escaped from the paper wall.

“The goal is to use the least amount of reinforcement,” Savage explained. “We started out with over a 120-square-inch wall and took it all the way down to 64.7 square inches.”

Last year, three members of the team were part of a group that took part in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Great Lakes Regional Competition MSE wall-building contest in Terre Haute. They captured a “disappointing” second place, and Shergalis became determined to take the wall elsewhere.

“We put in a lot of time last year,” said Shergalis “We logged 50 hours or more in the lab.”

Shergalis and his friends set out to find another contest. After hard work, determination and plenty of research, they applied for the Geo-Frontiers competition. They submitted a report giving the details for their wall, which was modified from last year’s model. Now, they will face some of the top engineering students in the country for a national title.

“This is all outside their regular class work,” said civil engineering professor Tim Tyler, Ph.D. “They found this competition on their own and have put hours into this project.”

Trine University’s Reiner’s Department of Civil Engineering is using funding from its endowment to send the students to the competition.

“We are so thankful for the support of our university and our professors,” Shergalis said. “This is an amazing opportunity, and I’m in it to win it.”

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Trine's Lindquist applying certification to course work

Trine University students will learn about “green” building techniques this fall, thanks to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited professional (AP) status earned by assistant professor Will Lindquist, Ph.D., in the Reiners Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Lindquist will use the certification to strengthen the department’s materials course, which he will teach.

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system is applied as a voluntary, consensus-based national standard used to design high-performance sustainable buildings. The overall goal is to establish a quantifiable standard of measurement to define “green buildings,” reward building owners who seek certification, and encourage the construction of green buildings. 

LEED AP’s are distinguished as building professionals with the knowledge and skills to successfully steward the LEED certification process. LEED AP’s have demonstrated a thorough understanding of green building practices and principles and the LEED rating system. The AP program was launched in 2001.

“The rating system covers a number of disciplines, but my primary focus will be on how concrete, timber, and steel can be utilized to help achieve LEED certification,” Lindquist said of his application for AP certification. “This type of work will fit perfectly into the civil engineering materials course I'm teaching this coming semester. I expect that most courses will also include at least a short explanation of the system.”

As environmental concerns continue to receive a strong governmental focus, LEED AP certification will become more and more relevant to the construction industry. “The process is voluntary, but many owners and developers are choosing to seek certification to minimize the environmental impact of their building,” Lindquist said. “In addition, many government projects are beginning to require certification, and I expect the demand for LEED certified buildings to continue to increase in the next several years.”

 Applying the LEED rating system to his coursework equips Lindquist’s civil and environmental engineering students with the most up-to-date information and standard to take into their future workplaces.

Vice President for Academic Affairs David Finley, Ph.D., said Lindquist was a valuable addition to the Reiners Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering as Lindquist prepares for his first semester at Trine this fall.

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Tri State College alumnus donates $1.5 million to Trine civil engineering


The generosity of a Tri-State College alumnus and his wife will enhance education for generations of Trine University civil engineering students.

The university has announced the receipt of a $1.5 million gift from Larry and Judy Reiners of Tulsa, Okla., to the Trine University Department of Civil Engineering. Larry Reiners completed a bachelor of science in civil engineering at TSC in 1965.

The gift punctuates a long history of generosity shown the university by the Reiners. They are 20-year annual university supporters and have donated to the Fawick Hall master plan and the New Horizons and Vision for the Future capital campaigns. They have advocated for the institution and for higher education for 45 years.

“The Reiners’ support, dedication, and generosity will ensure a rich repository of new resources for Trine civil engineers setting out to create solutions to the world’s complex environmental and infrastructure issues,” said Trine University President Earl D. Brooks II.  “We are pleased at the opportunity to strengthen civil engineering programs for Trine University students,” Larry Reiners said. “I am grateful for the preparation Tri-State College provided for my professional success, and hope to pave the way for Trine engineers to reach even greater heights as they employ their skills in the betterment of the world.”

Fawick Hall, the engineering building at Trine, has been completely renovated at a cost of $5 million. It houses the Department of Civil Engineering and include classrooms, laboratories, and computer centers devoted exclusively to the department.

Fawick Hall is just one of many beautiful, outstanding facilities on the campus in Angola, Ind. There is also a state-of-the-art Computer Center.

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