FAMU-FSU Engineering
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

June 2020 CEE Newsletter



Greetings from the Chair
(6.11.20)

I am sitting in the shade of my camper awning, enjoying an Atlantic beach breeze, while I sip coffee and read a book I picked up from the tiny lending library at our last campground. Occasionally (my husband might say frequently), a work-related email slips through, or I devote a few hours to our upcoming ABET report, or my overdue faculty evaluations. There’s no better place to relax, and it’s an incredibly relaxing way to work.

But these days, it seems downright frivolous to be vacationing while so much pain and controversy swirls around our city, state, and nation. Not able to concentrate on my coffee and novel, I began to write to you all. Like many of you, I have seen only a few colleagues and no students in person since spring break, when COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders mandated that our parent universities temporarily transition to remote education. We had just made the call to send our students to the ASCE southeast regional student conference in Orlando—a decision that seemed reasonable at the time—but the event was cancelled between the judges’ meeting and the first concrete canoe race, so our students dispersed to their respective homes. Their hopes to return in two weeks turned into online classes for the remainder of the term, a trend that looks to continue in some form through the fall semester, as the current thought is that only essential classes, primarily labs and classes with significant teamwork and design components, will be taught face to face.

As FAMU-FSU faculty and grad students were slowly returning to their labs this summer to restart their research programs in a socially-distanced, PPE-enhanced environment, several Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty received grants that offer great potential to learn from the current pandemic and help communities prepare for future disruptive events. Drs. Juyeong Choi and Tarek Abichou received grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on solid waste streams. This research will help municipal solid waste agencies better prepare for and adapt to challenges posed by the pandemic, from an increase in residential waste resulting from school closures and corporate work-from-home policies, to the effect of worker shortages and travel bans on waste movement and facility management. You can read more about this important work in this month’s newsletter.
In addition, CEE Assistant Professor Maxim Dulebenets is part of a team led by Dr. Hui Wang, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering, that received a second NSF-sponsored grant to develop a concept called “factory-in-a-box.” The goal of the project is to design a fully functional mobile factory that will address shortages in critical supplies that can occur due to natural disasters and other disruptions, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Dulebenets will apply his expertise in transportation logistics to address supply chain issues necessary to get raw materials to the factory site, especially in the event of weather-related road closures or other impediments. The new project will be highlighted in next month’s newsletter, but if you can’t wait, you’ll find stories on the COE website and our social media pages.

In the meantime, the country has been rocked by a number of events, including the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, that highlight racial injustice across our country. In Tallahassee and around the nation, communities appear to have reached a tipping point, where persons of all races and colors have joined together to say “enough.” FAMU and FSU students have joined in local demonstrations, which have echoed other protests across the nation. My heart has been saddened and angered, not just by these brutal deaths, but by the inequities faced by those of color on a daily basis. With this backdrop, I am pleased to report that the college has announced the #LetsStartHere initiative, a program designed to improve not only diversity, but also inclusion, within our joint College of Engineering. Although it has been several months in the planning, the college has taken recent events as an impetus to move forward with the program, which will begin with a climate survey to identify barriers, whether based on race, gender, or other individual differences, that exist in the college, and then work to eliminate them.

As a longtime supporter of our joint college, and the opportunities that it brings to increase the diversity within the field of engineering, I am very excited about having this intentional, challenging, uncomfortable conversation about what we are doing well, and what we could be doing better. Whether you are a student, alumni, or friend of the college, I hope that you will consider joining the conversation. We know that we will need leaders in all areas—faculty, staff, alumni, students and industry—to help us move LSH forward and to make real change. If anyone reading this letter wants to get involved, here’s a way to indicate you want to volunteer to help with the FAMU-FSU Let’s Start Here initiative in some form. For those of you who feel like you’ve been talking for a long time and no one is listening, I hope that you will keep talking. For those of you who feel like everything has already been said, I hope that you will keep listening, with open minds and hearts. All lives cannot matter until black lives matter. Let’s start the conversation here .
CEE Students & Alums in the News



Senior Engineering Students Finish Year Remotely
Although the COVID-19 pandemic moved many traditional end-of-the year events to Zoom and other virtual spaces, the College and CEE department worked hard to recognize its graduating class.    In many cases, the virtual gatherings made it easier for friends and relatives to join from far away.    A group of mostly senior students participated in a virtual   Launch ceremony , taking the Order of the Engineer oath led by conductors Dave Crombie, Victoria Howard, and Mandi Petrella.    The traditional Engineering Design Day gathering had to be cancelled, but click   here   to meet the teams and learn more about their capstone design projects.    Finally, FAMU-FSU department chairs donned cap and gown to recognize the new graduates by name in a virtual ceremony.    To see Dr. Spainhour’s remarks to the CEE Class of 2020 and hear their names announced, skip ahead to the 12-minute mark in   this   video.    Congratulations to the Class of 2020!
Virtual Launch Ceremony
COE Spring 2020 Graduation Ceremony

FAMU-FSU Engineering graduate honored by Seminole top 100 list

Scott Collins, graduate of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is the principal owner of Orlando Project Controls, LLC . The company was recently honored on the Seminole 100 list for the second consecutive year. The list, compiled by the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, represents the fastest-growing businesses owned or managed by Florida State University alumni.
“Being recognized in consecutive years as part of the Seminole 100 is truly an honor, “Collins said. “To be mentioned among these other honorees, especially along with my older brother’s company Global Sales who won for three consecutive years, is quite humbling.”
Collins received his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 1987 and has more than 30 years of extensive project controls and scheduling experience. 

Civil & Environmental Engineering department bestows inaugural Graduate Student Excellence Awards

The CEE Graduate Student Research Excellence Award winners are from left: Masoud Kavoosi, Mohammad Resa Seyedi, Zhiming Zhang, Olumide Abioye, Yu Xiong and Runwei Li

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering recently honored six graduate students with the CEE Graduate Students Research Excellence Award. Each recipient will receive up to $1,000 that may be used for presenting a paper at a conference.

Sungmoon Jung is an associate professor of civil engineering and graduate advisor for Mohammad Reza Seyedi, one of the recipients of the award. Jung said the award is given out by the CEE graduate committee and recognizes students who have shown exemplary achievement in their research.

“The goal of the award is to recognize excellence in graduate student research,” Jung says. “We think this will lead to the overall enhancement of our graduate program quality.”
Each applicant was evaluated by the committee for journal publication record and presentation experience.

Mohammad Reza Seyedi was selected for his academic excellence in research that involves vehicle safety and structural crashworthiness. Seyedi said an award of this type is extremely beneficial to both students and the department. 

Tarek Abichou CEE Professor


Juyeong Choi CEE Assisant Professor

Faculty In The News

FAMU-FSU professors to study pandemic’s impact on solid-waste systems

While the COVID-19 pandemic has focused largely on the impact of public health, a FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researcher is interested in a different environmental focus: solid waste management.

The National Science Foundation is equally interested and has awarded a Rapid Response Research grant to Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Juyeong Choi.
Choi and Professor of Civil Engineering Tarek Abichou will use the $152,000 grant to study waste-management system-related challenges in the pandemic environment across several states.
ANNOUNCEMENTS


Civil engineering faculty Wei-Chou (Virgil) Ping receives professor emeritus status


Civil engineering professor Wei-Chou (Virgil) Ping has been granted emeritus status in recognition of service to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

Professor Ping retired after thirty years with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he made a wide and far-reaching impact. His primary research area was in the field of asphalt pavements and subbase materials. Many of his research projects were funded by the Florida Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and led directly to technology transfer courses and materials that impacted the state of practice in Florida and across the country.

Professor Lisa Spainhour, department chair, said that Ping was instrumental in establishing the infrastructure of the department’s teaching and research laboratories where he guided dozens of graduate students to the successful completion of their degrees.

“Dr. Ping’s contributions were foundational to our department and our construction materials research area,” Spainhour said. “He was one of our most prolific researchers in our early years. He was successful in recruiting outstanding students even though we hadn't yet developed a Ph.D. program.”

Master of Engineering Program: ONLINE UPDATE

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce a fully-online Master of Engineering program, enrolling students beginning in Fall 2020 at FSU and Spring 2021 at FAMU.    Click   here   to find out more about the program, including application windows and admissions requirements.
For Your Information  is an update from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering providing breaking news and information about upcoming events. For more, please visit https://eng.famu.fsu.edu/cee
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