civil engineering echoes - rose-hulman institute of · pdf fileinternship experiences of...

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Civil Engineering Echoes Department Newsle�er

Winter 2016

Faculty

John Aidoo

Associate Professor

Jeremy Chapman

Assistant Professor

James Hanson

Professor & Roland E.

Hutchins Endowed Chair

Kyle Kershaw

Assistant Professor

Matt Lovell

Assistant Professor

Jim McKinney

Professor Emeritus

Michelle Marincel Payne

Assistant Professor

Jenny Mueller Price

Assistant Professor

Michael Robinson

Associate Professor

Kevin Sutterer

Professor & Department Head

Staff

Keith Royer

Technician

Angela Tanner

Secretary

Civil Engineering

Department

Contact: (812) 877-8817

[email protected]

Student News

Kevin Mauser

Gene Kum

M. Sanders Park

Wenjun Dai

J. Cody Reynolds

Dillon Reynolds

Dane Irving

Dieter Schultz

Brent Boardman

Eric Harned

Carolyn Morris

Ke Ding

Mark S. Hannig Scholarship

Jim Diehl Memorial Scholarship

Anne Pierce

Ben Klick

Dean Thomas

Emily Johnson

Cecil T. Lobo Scholarship

Anne Pierce Nicole Mora

Fred O. Clayton Scholarship

Brent Boardman Paul Hintz

Congratulations to all our students who were recipients of department

scholarships this fall!

A special thank you to all of our alumni and friends of the department

who support and keep these scholarships going.

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Winter 2016

ASCE Wheelchair Ramp Build

The ASCE chapter continued its long

standing, bi-annual service project by

building a wheelchair ramp for a

Terre Haute resident in need. The

chilly fall weather did not dissuade

the enthusiastic student volunteers,

that completed the ramp, that will

help the homeowner to remain safe

and mobile. One of the challenges

with the ramp builds in recent years

has been having enough tools to

keep all of the volunteers engaged

and productive. To help address this

challenge, Jake Gould (CE ’15), a recent alumnus and long-time ramp build volunteer, has

donated a full set of DeWalt power tools to the student ASCE chapter. A big thanks to Jake!

APAI Scholarship Banquet

Jim McKinney and five RHIT Civil

Engineering students attended the

Annual Meeting and Technical

Conference of the Asphalt

Pavement Association of Indiana.

Seniors Tucker Cox, Seth Dow,

Zach Johnson, Georges Valcour,

and Junior Dean Thomas were

recognized for their summer

experience, academic performance

and career aspirations with a

financial prize.

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AREMA


Winter 2016

President Lauren Plouff, Senior CE; Vice-President Allison Phillips, Junior CE; and Secretary/

Treasurer Madeline Romeo, Sophomore CE have put together an active program of railway

meetings and railroad site visits for 2015/2016. The September meeting highlighted the summer

internship experiences of Lauren Plouff, Senior CE, who interned with BNSF Railroad and Andrew

Roan, Senior EE, who interned with CN Railroad.

Dr. Sam Martland, Associate Professor of History

and Latin American Studies, was the October

meeting speaker. Dr. Martland discussed the

Tokyo Urban Rail system based on his personal

travels.

The October site

visit was the

AMTRAK Beech

Grove facility.

Beech Grove is

AMTRAK’s major locomotive and rail car repair and rehabilitation

facility. A number of locomotives and passenger cars that were in

various states of repair and reconstruction were toured.

Future sites visits include: Progress Rail (Muncie, IN) - new

locomotive construction; CSX Avon, Indiana Classification yard,

and Indiana Rail Road Van Yard (Terre Haute).

Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering Jim McKinney is AREMA

Faculty Advisor.

AREMA Summer Internship Meeting

Tokyo Urban Rail Crossing Tunnels

Newly Painted Locomotive

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Engineers Without Borders (EWB)


Winter 2016

In early fall of 2012, we applied for a

partnership with the community of Gomoa

Gyaman (“go-Moh-ah Jah-mon”), Ghana.

Gomoa Gyaman is a village of approximately

2,500 individuals located about 50 miles from

Accra, the capital of Ghana. The community

reached out to Engineers Without Borders -

USA seeking help to improve their current

living conditions. We were accepted to begin

this program with the community in early

spring of 2013.

We traveled on an initial assessment trip to

Gomoa Gyaman from August 16th to August

27th, 2013. During our time in the

community, we met with village elders to

discuss the needs of the community. We also

conducted interviews with several residents

to get a better idea of what problems they

were facing. We learned the community

suffers from a sanitation issue due to a lack

of adequate places to go to the bathroom.

The Ghanaian government constructed two

latrines (containing six stalls each) for use by

a local school house. One of these is filled

and unable to be emptied due to its

construction and location. The other is

reserved strictly for the school and it is illegal

for it to be used by anyone other than the

students during the school day. The

community has constructed public pit

latrines, however, these are little more than

holes in the ground. When these are filled,

they top them off with soil and dig a new

latrine next to it; this wastes valuable

property in the community. They have also

been digging their latrines too deep in an

effort to increase the service life of the latrine.

The extra depth has the potential to endanger their

water supply as waste infiltrates into the soil. For the

poorer areas in the community, they use the woods

behind their homes, offering potential for

contracting fecal-born diseases.

After two years of overcoming many design and

logistic obstacles, we returned to the community in

August of 2015 to begin construction of the first of

four ventilated pit latrines. We arrived in the

community after 24 hours of travel and were

greeted with open arms. Our first day on site

consisted of material evaluation, dimensioning of

the pit, meeting with community members, and a

lively ceremony initiated by the Queen Mother and

the Elders. For the ensuing two weeks, we worked

cooperatively with local workers to construct the

substructure of the latrine. The design plans

changed often as we ran into difficulties finding

materials similar to those used in the United States.

The community support and effort was essential in

completing this first phase of this structure. People

of all ages were involved in the process and eager to

Pictured from left to right: (front) Dr. Gustavo Garcia, Sanders Park,

Andrew Roan, Rachel Broughton (back) Camille Blaisdell, Amanda

Sparks, Jed Holt, and Jordan Kamp.

Continued on next page

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Winter 2016

help. Some days, we worked well past sunset

and into the night. A considerable amount was

learned both about the materials and

construction used locally. In the upcoming

months, we will be remodeling the

superstructure design based on community

input. The final latrine structure will feature

twelve gender-divided stalls, 10 of which will

be toilets and two of which will be hand

washing stations. The roof will be made of

aluminum and feature a gutter system to catch

and funnel rain into water reservoirs to be

used in the hand washing stations. The walls

will be made of concrete masonry units and

feature windows for increased lighting and

ventilation inside of the superstructure.

Ultimately, there will be four latrines constructed

in the community. Each is designed to service

one quarter of the community, roughly 700

residents, for up to five years before needing to

be emptied. A professional waste removal

service from a nearby city is able to be

contracted to remove the waste as needed.

The team plans to return to Gomoa Gyaman in

February 2016 to complete the rest of the first

latrine, educate the community on proper

hygienic practices, and to assess other needs of

the community.

We have a larger than normal group of seniors this year, so we have eleven different senior design

projects under way. The projects are shown below with their clients identified in parentheses.

• 13th Street Corridor, Terre Haute (City of Terre Haute)

• Chicago River/Albany Park Tunnel, Chicago (Friends of the Chicago River)

• Cross Lane Church Expansion, Terre Haute (Cross Lane Church)

• Indiana DNR Campgrounds, Ferdinand (Indiana Department of Natural Resources)

• Gutu Mission Project, Zimbabwe (Hippo Valley Christian Mission)

• Wabash & Erie Canal Interpretive Canal and Trail, Lafayette (Wabash River Enhancement

Corporation)

• Brownfield Site Development, Marshall, Illinois (Francis and Associates)

• Baptist Church Facility, Terre Haute (First Free Will Baptist Church)

• Pennsy Trail, Hancock County, Indiana (Hancock County Highway Department)

• Rosedale Trail, Rosedale, Indiana (Covered Bridge Gateway Trail Association)

• USFS Office Complex, Hoosier National Forest, Bedford (USDA – Bedford)

The teams completed site assessment, field and laboratory data collection, and concept

development this fall term. They presented their recommendations at our Board meeting at the

end of week 10 of fall term. Based on Board feedback, they revised their recommendations and

presented those to their clients during week 1 of winter term. Some of our teams recently

identified a difficulty with incorporation GIS data into AutoCAD, and we were very pleased to have

members of our Board provide guidance and resources to help the teams overcome that challenge.

The seniors are now very busy working on their sub-discipline design work necessary to provide

their clients with the agreed design.

Senior Design

Continued from previous page

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Winter 2016

Fall Career Fair

Josh Leffert (‘14) & Ricky

Chris Capshaw (‘95) Cole Perry (‘10) Martin Brenny (’05)

TJ Chin (‘14) & Kevin Hanson (‘06)

Drew Twarek (‘05)

Jason Cooper (‘09) Paul Creasey (‘08) Kate Dangel (‘14 & M ‘15) Nick Murphy (‘10)

This year’s Fall Career Fair took place on September 16th and was attended by over 266 companies.

It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces representing their companies, in the crowd. A big

thank you to Dr. McKinney for coaxing our alumni to pose for pictures.

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Winter 2016

Board of Advisors Mee(ng The department moved the winter meeting of the Board of Advisors to week 10 of fall quarter this

year. The move was to arrange earlier mentoring of the senior design projects by Board members

and reduce conflicts with holiday events and winter weather. We believe the change was highly

beneficial to the seniors, and it was a wonderful experience to take a board picture outdoors this

year, in some really nice fall weather. Each year, we invite not only the 12 Board of Advisors

members to our fall meeting, but also other area engineers who can come and help mentor projects.

These other engineers become one year members of our Board of Associates. Most of the attendees

are pictured below. This year’s attendees were Pat Martin, John Cross, Gene LeBoeuf, Chuck Ennis,

Mickey Hines, Jon Stolz, Cash Canfield, Andy Thiesz, Charity Dudley, Troy Swan, Eric Haenlein, Pat

Goodwin, Jake Wagle, and Dave Myers.

In addition to mentoring senior projects and senior discussions about their career after graduation,

they also worked on board business. The department is currently crafting a white paper titled

“Hopes and Dreams 2025” as a follow up to a paper about our 2015 hopes and dreams written in

2005. The Board provided discussion and input on aspects of what will be in that white paper. We

also spent considerable time discussing the environmental/water resources program. In particular

we discussed curriculum, and ways to encourage students to follow a career path in this sub-

discipline. Some of the insights from that discussion are already on the way to implementation, and

we look forward to sharing more about that in the next year. Finally, we welcomed two new board

members while thanking several who are now moving into emeritus status. Greg Henneke stepped

over to emeritus membership after serving the Board of Advisors for 11 years. Pat Goodwin also

transitioned to emeritus membership after 13 years of service to the board. We will greatly miss

having Greg and Pat as a part of the group, but are happy that they’ll still be there in the emeritus

role. Thanks, Pat and Greg, for all of your help. Our two new board members are Ken Koziol and

Kevin Hanson. Ken is a

1992 graduate of the

department, and Kevin is a

2006 alumnus. Ken is

currently the Director of

Development with The

Garrett Companies in the

Indianapolis area and

Kevin is a Project Manager

with Baker Concrete in Ft.

Lauderdale, Florida.

Thanks to Ken and Kevin

for joining the team.

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Winter 2016

ASCE

ASCE had a very busy fall quarter. From field trips and

professional development to volunteer service, many

students have enriched their Rose-Hulman learning

experience by actively participating in the Cecil T.

Lobo student chapter. The fall quarter kicked off prior

to the early Fall Career Fair with a presentation by

President Anne Pierce on interview professionalism

and strategy. New freshmen were also welcomed into

the chapter with an early meet and greet and civil

engineering inspired cake (Figure 1).

In addition to the monthly meeting on interview prep,

numerous professionals also spoke to the chapter on

their fields of civil engineering. This included a

meeting with Sue Bock from the Indiana Department

of Environmental Management (IDEM) on erosion and

sediment control on construction sites. On the non-

regulatory side of construction, Rick Dechamps, the

V.P. of Engineering at Nicholson Construction,

presented on how his firm fixed a 65-foot-long

fracture in Wanapum Dam in Washington State. To

round off the construction experience, Derek

Davidson and Lewis Starr with Thieneman Construction (a local engineering firm) gave a

presentation to the chapter on a new Actiflo system for combined sewer overflows before it enters

the Wabash River. Immediately following the presentation, a group of students got to visit the site

of the construction, which happened to be a brownfield site mentioned in a Codes and Regulations

presentation (Figure 2). Inviting professionals to speak was not the only involvement ASCE had with

professional members of the community. Through the fall and

into the winter, ASCE is hosting a HEC-RAS workshop for those

interested in improving their water modeling capabilities.

For volunteer service, ASCE performed a wheel chair ramp build

on 4th street this fall. Additionally, a group of students

participated in the planting of 111 trees at the new Vigo County

School Corporation Aquatic Park (Figure 3). Their knack for dirt

went a long way as they finished early and helped other teams

plant their remaining trees.

Figure 1: A tasty welcome for freshmen civils.

Figure 2: Rose-Hulman ASCE visiting Thieneman's

construction site.

Figure 3: ASCE students in their natural

element

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Winter 2016

2015 HOT MIX ASPHALT

QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL PROGRAM

Jim McKinney

HMA QA/QC Program Director

This year marked the 30th and final year of the Rose-Hulman Civil Engineering/Asphalt Pavement

Association of Indiana (APAI)/Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Hot Mix Asphalt

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (HMA QA/QC) Certification Program for hot mix asphalt

construction in the State of Indiana. All HMA contractors performing paving operations on state

and federal highways in Indiana must have technical personnel certified through the RHIT-INDOT

HMA QA/QC Certification Program. Twenty-nine HMA contractors, aggregate producers, material

testing laboratory personnel, and consultants took part in the Certification Program this past

month. This consisted of a week-long, laboratory session which was held here in Civil Engineering.

Since its inception in 1985/1986, a total of 2,330 people have enrolled in the HMA QA/QC

Program.

The program came about through the diligent efforts of the former INDOT Chief Engineer- Donald

W. Lucas (CE, ‘59). The HMA QA/QC Program has also allowed us to develop long term

relationships with INDOT, APAI, and various hot mix asphalt contractors. This has resulted in a

number of students receiving summer internships with government and industry, as well as

permanent employment opportunities for graduates.

Additionally, APAI has annually sponsored scholarships for two or three of our students. Since

1998, 51 (fifty one) students have received financial assistance, including this year’s recipients:

Seniors Tucker Cox, Seth Dow, Zach Johnson Georges Valcour, and Junior, Dean Thomas.

THANKS TO OUR DONORS

Each year, the department receives donations sent to the

institute that are designated specifically for our use in Civil

Engineering. These donations are deeply appreciated and

essential to our programming. They enable us to host our

freshman trip to a major city, take our students in classes on

field trips away from campus, purchase essential supplies for

our labs and field work, and assist our faculty and staff with

expenses associated with continuous learning and preparation

and sharing of content that makes our students’ learning

better for you. Your gifts to our department are an investment

in the future graduates who will be your colleagues. Thank

you so much for your generosity! —Kevin

KEEP IN TOUCH

We are always interested in how our alumni

are doing. Keep in touch by e-mailing us at

[email protected].

Mark Your Calendar

April 20 - Spring Career Fair

May 18 - Order of Engineer Ceremony

May 28 - Commencement

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From the Staging Area


Winter 2016

This fall has been really great for the Department of Civil Engineering. Our graduates are seeing

early job offers this year and job placements for the seniors are coming quicker than they have in

years. This is exciting for the students. We moved our winter Board of Advisors meeting to

November and that meeting also went especially well. Our senior project teams met with the Board

and presented their work, which was followed by high-quality mentoring. We think our three-year

transition to a new format for senior design is now complete, and we are all pleased with the

outcome. Surveying has been moved to the fall term so that we can begin organizing a year-long

freshman project experience, and Jeremy Chapman reports both the weather and the brand new

freshmen were very cooperative with the new position of surveying in our curriculum. We are also

pleased to report that we are now offering a course-based Master of Environmental Engineering,

along with our course-based Master of Civil Engineering, which has a structural emphasis. Our

Homecoming open house went very well this year. The attendance was great, and Angela Tanner

and Keith Royer made sure the lab setting and food were first class.

Throughout this fall, our biggest blessing has been the great visits we have had with alumni, not

only during Homecoming and our Board meeting, but also in your visits as guest speakers,

interviewing our students, and even while attending graduate courses on campus. In addition,

some of the faculty got a chance to see and visit with our alumni at various locations off campus.

It’s always great to see and catch up with our friends. Thanks to all of you for seeking us out. Not

only do we just get to hear how you are doing, but we also get a chance to hear your perspective

on how things are going in industry and in your own work. Please keep in touch. We love hearing

from you.

Thank you, Dr. McKinney

Professor Emeritus Dr. Jim McKinney finished the 30th Hot Mix

Asphalt QA/QC program in early December. Next year, this program

will no longer be offered here in the department. Over these 30

years, Jim’s strong leadership of this program has not only provided

a crucial service for the state of Indiana, but also brought the

department the latest technology and equipment for our labs,

fostered support for scholarships for students, and provided

opportunities for numerous improvements around the department,

including lab equipment and supplies, office supplies, and computers

for faculty and staff. This 30 years of programming has been a great

blessing to the department. Thanks so much, Jim, for this wonderful

service to Indiana and to our students!

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