Texas A&M Engineering News

Students work around the clock to design a more inclusive campus during the 2018 Diversity Hackathon

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

With only 24 hours on the clock, students came together to design and develop ideas to help make the Texas A&M University campus more inclusive.

The 2018 Diversity Hackathon brought students from many disciplines at Texas A&M to the Langford Architecture Center on Feb. 2-3, where they worked overnight to help turn spaces on campus into more welcoming environments for all people.

Cecilia Giusti, associate dean for outreach and diversity in the College of Architecture and head of the Diversity Council, launched the Diversity Hackathon four years ago. The inaugural hackathon featured a partnership with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the College of Engineering continues to play an important role in the event with a majority of the participants being engineering students.

“For 24 hours they talk about what it means to be diverse, what is an inclusive approach, and how to talk better about inclusion and diversity,” Giusti said. “[And] they actually create or produce something. Even if they don’t win anything, the whole exercise is fantastic—it’s magic.”

One team of general engineering freshmen worked to develop a tool to help the visually impaired better navigate campus. Team members prototyped a device that could slip onto the back of a pair of glasses and connect to a phone, which could then use the campus Wi-Fi to pinpoint the wearer’s location. The device would then communicate information through vibrations against the bone in the back of the ear.

“It would notify you of different obstacles around campus and different buildings or streets so that a person who was visually impaired would be aware of their surroundings and know which way to go without needing to look at a map,” said Jaxon Tucker.

There were six challenges teams could choose from provided by different programs across campus. The College of Engineering asked students to focus on the Zachry Engineering Education Complex and how to make it more accessible for students with hearing, visual or physical impairments.

“It’s going to be a world-class, state-of-the-art building, and I was hoping that students might come up with some concepts to ensure that all of our students are welcome and can participate at the same level,” said Debra Dandridge, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and engineering accessibility coordinator.

To help with the creation process, students had access to several resources, including 3-D printers and other tools provided by the College of Architecture. One team took up the challenge to create an open space for communication by developing an interactive screen to help people share concerns and ideas in a more accessible way.

“We’re going to have an interface for people to share their ideas through texts,” said junior computer science engineering student Muin Momin. “We have a phone number set up and people can text complaints or something they like about the space that they’re in, and that will display as a word cloud on the screen so everyone can see what’s going on and the owners of that space can get ideas on how to improve it.”

Being a part of the hackathon may also help students after graduation. Dr. J. Michael Moore, an instructional assistant professor in the computer science and engineering department, said industry is showing more interest in accessibility and expects graduates to be prepared to create these universally designed, accessible products.

“This hackathon is a fantastic opportunity for our students in engineering to not only try and do inventive ideas in a short period of time but also to be creative and innovative, and be ready and thinking that way, before they go out in industry,” Moore said.

Real world data questions long held travel behavior theories

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Time is money and traffic earns nothing but road rage, lost productivity and an increased gas bill. Dr. Mark Burris, the Herbert D. Kelleher Professor at Texas A&M University, seeks to save travelers time, money and frustration with his travel behavior research.

The more accurately researchers can predict future travel, the better they can plan and build the necessary infrastructure quickly and affordably. In doing so, Burris and his team at Texas A&M strive to reduce travelers’ time and frustration in traffic while also saving tax dollars.

“My focus is to improve our understanding of how cost impacts someone’s travel,” said Burris. “How it impacts the route they take, the mode they use, the time of day they choose and more.”

Traditionally, much of this information was based on surveys completed by travelers about past trips and potential future travel. More recently, the technological advances that monitor new travel choices like “high occupancy toll lanes” and “managed lanes” provide real data that reveals more detailed information about travel behavior. This kind of information is very useful in understanding how travelers regard their travel times, and how much they would be willing to pay to reduce those travel times.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority, Texas Department of Transportation, and Houston TranStar supplied data from the Katy Freeway in Houston that Burris and his team used for this research. The Katy Freeway includes four managed lanes, two in each direction, in the middle of the freeway.

During most of the day, carpools and buses can use these lanes for free, while single occupant vehicles have to pay a toll. The toll varies based on the time of the day and the correlating traffic congestion peaks. This freeway is one of only a few worldwide that had the ability to identify travelers in both the managed lanes and the regular lanes. Note the data were anonymized so it was impossible to know who used the roadway, just that a specific vehicle had used the roadway.

When analyzing the data collected from the Katy Freeway, Burris and his team found surprising results. About 11 percent of travelers were paying to use the managed lanes at times when the regular freeway lanes were traveling at the same speed or faster than the managed lanes – a behavior that no models ever predicted. Also based on these data, little evidence was found supporting the notion that travelers would be willing to pay for more reliable travel times in the managed lanes.

Farinoush Sharifi, a master’s student in transportation engineering, is studying this anomaly in her master’s thesis.

“To make it clear, many people believe that paying a toll to use a lane will bring them shorter travel time,” said Sharifi. “However, by looking into the Katy Managed Lanes study we have found that there are times users pay to travel on the toll lane but go slower than the toll-free lanes.”

Sharifi and Burris are working to understand the reasons for these uneconomical travel decisions using pattern recognition methods. Burris also found that the vast majority (84 percent) of freeway travelers with transponders only used the regular lanes, a small percentage of people (3 percent) only used the managed lanes and 13 percent utilized both. Thus, most travelers are not choosing between these lanes every day (as models assume), but rather have chosen the lanes they will travel well in advance and do not alter that choice regardless of travel conditions.

After collecting and analyzing this data, Burris and his team have begun exploring travel behavior in new and innovative ways. Partnering with a psychologist and a behavioral economist, Burris is now working to find ways to model travel behavior decisions in laboratory studies.

“This real-world data has led to some very surprising findings that put my research at the forefront of this field,” said Burris. “This improves our understanding of how travelers’ value different travel options and should dramatically change how we model travel behavior. Combined, this allows transportation agencies to better predict and prepare for future travel demand.”

These advances in understanding traveler behavior come at the same time great advances in automobile technology are occurring. Automated and connected vehicles will also greatly impact travel behavior.

Burris has teamed up with Texas A&M Hagler Institute for Advanced Study fellow Dr. Kumares Sinha and doctoral student Arezoo Samimi to examine some of these potential impacts. They are developing a traffic simulation model of El Paso to determine the travel time and emissions impacts of having connected vehicles in the traffic stream. These vehicles will have information on travel times to their destination and can help the traveler choose the best route – or reroute when an incident occurs.

In theory, this should reduce travel times and emissions. However, if too many vehicles reroute at once it could have negative overall impacts on travel. Their research will examine these potential impacts and strategies that combine data from connected vehicles and travel behavior to maximize potential benefits of connected vehicles.

Texas A&M Engineering and Alamo Colleges District co-enrollment program to begin offering classes fall 2018

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Texas A&M University, Chevron and Alamo Colleges District will enroll the first cohort of students for the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District in fall 2018. This innovative co-enrollment partnership was developed to address the state’s growing need for engineers. Qualified students will be admitted to the Texas A&M College of Engineering, complete the first two years of coursework at an Alamo Colleges District college and finish their engineering degrees in College Station, Texas. The program will begin accepting student applications March 1.

The Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District allows students to remain close to home for their first two years while pursuing one of 19 majors within the College of Engineering at Texas A&M. This program is generously supported by Chevron.

“We are pleased to offer students in the Alamo Colleges District a unique pathway toward a first-rate degree from an engineering college ranked among the top 10 in the world,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. “Our goal is to attract the very best students to Texas A&M Engineering, even if circumstances require them to stay close to home for the first two years of college. These students will be Aggies in San Antonio from day one.”

“We are always eager to offer our students new opportunities for continuing their education once they graduate from one of the colleges of the Alamo Colleges District,” said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie. “Our latest partnership with Texas A&M University and Chevron will offer our students a pathway to a bachelor’s degree in a field with excellent job growth and high salaries, benefiting not only the students, but the state’s economy as well,” he added.

In Texas, the projected need for engineers in the workforce is 53,000 by 2024. To meet this need, universities and two-year colleges will need to work together to bridge the gap and attract and retain students who are interested in STEM fields. Engineering students in the Engineering Academy program enroll in math, science and core curriculum courses through Alamo Colleges District and have the unique opportunity to enroll in Texas A&M engineering courses taught by Texas A&M faculty at Northeast Lakeview College, part of Alamo Colleges District.

“Northeast Lakeview College is proud to be home for this program,” said Dr. Veronica Garcia, Northeast Lakeview College president. “This new program will help address the need for more programming in high-demand STEM fields and provide an opportunity for more students, in San Antonio and surrounding areas, to pursue engineering coursework.”

Chevron has donated $5 million to support Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academies across the state at Austin Community College; Houston Community College, Spring Branch in Houston; Texas Southmost College in Brownsville; El Centro and Richland Colleges in Dallas; and Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio.

“Chevron is committed to increasing access to, and the quality of, education around the world. We are proud to partner with Texas A&M on this important initiative to help ensure an educated and skilled workforce,” said Shariq Yosufzai, Chevron vice president of ombuds, diversity and inclusion and university and association relations.

“Our longstanding relationship with Texas A&M, through support of the Engineering Academy initiative, will help provide opportunities in the field of engineering for many underrepresented and first-generation college students,” Yosufzai said. “Partnering with Texas A&M, a top source of engineering hires for Chevron, to help provide opportunities in the field of engineering will support our efforts to help build the diverse workforce of tomorrow that will be required to meet the energy needs of the future."

Texas A&M Engineering Vice Chancellor and Dean Dr. M. Katherine Banks said the academies have the potential to reach beyond the typical pathways for access to a top-ranked engineering program.

“The academies, through our partnership with Chevron and the two-year colleges, provide new pathways to a first-rate engineering education,” Banks said. “Through this co-enrollment program, students can live at home for the first two years of college without postponing their participation in an engineering program that is highly regarded by employers across the country.”

For more information about how to apply and other details, visit /academies or email engineeringacademies@tamu.edu.

Civil engineering faculty honored at 2018 Transportation Research Board meeting

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 00:00:00 CST

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine held its annual meeting Jan. 7 – 11 in Washington, D.C., and faculty from Texas A&M University were recognized for their contributions to the civil engineering discipline.

Dr. Stuart Anderson, the Zachry Chair in Construction Integration and assistant vice chancellor for facilities planning and management, has been recognized as an emeritus member of the TRB Committee on Construction Management.

Dr. Amy Epps Martin, professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M, received the 2017 Practice – Ready Paper Award from the TRB Design and Construction Group for a paper titled “Evolution of the Surface Performance-Graded Specification for Chip Seal Binders,” with co-authors Shi Chang, Swathi Mayi Theeda and Edith Arambula-Mercado. Epps Martin is a member of the TRB committees on Asphalt Binder and Structural Requirements of Asphalt Mixtures.

Research team develops novel program to make more cost effective runways

Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:00:00 CST

An aircraft’s impact on the runway is likely the last thing to cross anyone’s mind when boarding a flight. The constant taking off and landing of aircraft throughout the day places stress on runway pavement, which needs to be in good condition to ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.

Thanks to a predictive model developed by a collaborative research team led by the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M, understanding how to build, improve and maintain these runways is now easier than ever.

“We are applying a very sophisticated model called Pavement Analysis using Nonlinear Damage Approach, or PANDA,” said Dr. Dallas Little, the project’s principal investigator and a professor of civil engineering. “We are using this model to predict damage that is being measured and recorded under the repeated loading of heavy aircraft such as the 1.4 million-pound Airbus 380 and other next-generation heavy aircraft.”

PANDA is the product of almost seven years of development by the research team under a contract with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The team includes collaborators Dr. Mashoud Darabi at the University of Kansas, Dr. Eyad Masad of Texas A&M University at Qatar, Dr. Amit Bhasin at The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub and Dr. Maryam Sakafier at Virginia Tech, as well as more than a dozen student researchers.

The idea behind PANDA is straightforward but not simple: create a computational model that takes into account variables such as time under pressure, temperature dependency of the asphalt, different types of stress and other environmental factors that impact the usage of runways by aircraft, including diffusion of moisture and oxygen into the asphalt layer. This model would give the user an accurate prediction of the damage the pavement would take over repeated usage and allow designers of airfield and major highway pavement to create or maintain a product that would react optimally to a variety of conditions. The team is using PANDA, in conjunction with test data, to develop a platform that can become a user-friendly software package for industry and commercial usage.

“This package will provide the level of reliability required by design and contract agencies, as well as the driving public, reduction in pavement downtime and safety that the infrastructure of today and tomorrow requires,” Little said.

PANDA is not the first model of its kind, but is unique in that it has the ability to specifically account for mechanical damage caused by airplane traffic and model this data in conjunction with environmental effects and damages such as moisture, oxidation processes, temperature and other factors.

As the team has developed PANDA, what has been made clearer is the effect of all the differing variables that have impacted the pavement in ways that are not necessarily intuitive. For example, the coupling of moisture diffusion with mechanical damage may substantially alter the life prediction of the pavement, as well as change the location of damage. Location of damage is of great importance in today’s move toward the design of perpetual pavements that do not require replacement from the subgrade up, but only periodic replacement of the upper surface. So the goal is to make sure localization of damage does not occur in the lower part of the asphalt layer.

“As we continue to develop the PANDA model and use it to evaluate more and more cases of complex loading coupled with environmental effects, we more clearly understand the synergy of all of these effects,” Little said.

While the project will still need additional computational development and testing time, the end goal is to produce a modeling system that can be used without other pre- or post-processing software by the FAA for design and analysis known as PANDA-Airports that acts as a stand-alone system for aviation installations.

“We hope that this will be of such great utility for the FAA that they can use it for both commercial and general aviation pavement design and analysis,” Little said.

* The scientific research and fundamental variable models for this project were developed in partnership with the Asphalt Research Consortium over a seven-year period for the FHWA. PANDA is being developed under a grant from the FAA.

Civil engineering celebrates 2017 Distinguished Graduate Awards Banquet

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

On Nov. 2, 2017 the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University hosted its annual banquet honoring recent donors of endowed scholarships or fellowships, recipients of former student awards and students who were awarded scholarships or fellowships.

The distinguished graduate award was established in 2000 to recognize and honor former students who have excelled in the civil engineering profession, highlighting their significant contributions and achievements. Including 2017’s recipients, 88 former students have been recognized since its formation.

This year’s recipients were Fred Balda ’82, George Cozart ’74 and Thomas Stewart II ’72.

Balda currently provides strategic leadership and oversees all aspects of operations within the Hillwood Communities division, continually expanding and redefining the division’s business plan to satisfy changing homebuyer demands and market opportunities. Balda also shares his industry insights and expertise through his involvement with various institutes, commissions and committees, including the Civil Engineering Advisory Council.

Balda credits his uncle Cesar as a key influencer in his life and career. As a physician, Balda’s uncle personified a tireless work ethic and sought to instill that same characteristic in Balda, encouraging him to better himself through higher education. By serving as a living example, Cesar taught Balda that family and faith are the strongest core values. Ross Perot, Jr. mentored Balda over the course of his career and inspired him to expand his self-imposed boundaries. Through his exemplary leadership skills, focus on family, integrity, work ethic, fairness and focus on selfless - service, Balda learned that true success is achieved through a balance of these core values.

Cozart has performed, supervised and managed both geotechnical engineering and environmental consulting projects for more than 40 years. He currently serves on Terracon’s board of directors and as a national director for Terracon in the area of risk management. Cozart has served as the geotechnical engineer for hundreds of projects involving retaining walls, earth retaining systems, foundation investigations, soil and groundwater contamination studies, municipal solid waste landfills, and failure and remedial action studies.

Cozart considers his cousin, Don Murff, a mentor and personal example for his professional career. Cozart credits him and influential professors like Drs. Harry Coyle, Bob Lytton, Wayne Dunlap and Louis Thompson as his personal motivators for his pursuit of a career in geotechnical engineering. For Cozart, they set great examples of professionalism, engineering excellence and embody essential virtues for a successful life.

Described by colleagues and friends as a prime example of the Aggie core values, Thomas Stewart II was the first black student to receive a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M. Stewart learned to be successful and productive in this changing and challenging field through a variety of positions he has held over the past 40 years.

As a professional engineer, Stewart has made significant contributions to numerous oil and gas and transportation infrastructure development projects around the world. He developed and implemented project control systems (budget and schedule) for the eight-mile, $300 million, Houston METRO light rail starter line that runs from the Astrodome through the Medical District to the downtown Central Business District and had similar responsibilities for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit $400 million Light Rail Green Line Expansion. Both projects were completed on time and under budget. In Stewart’s current position with HS&S Development Inc., he has initiated a joint venture with engineering and construction companies to plan for the onsite clean-up of the Niger Delta in Nigeria.

The department awarded 244 scholarships and fellowships (28 more than last year) for a total of $688,100, a 16 percent increase. The department also recognized those former students who established an endowment in the past year. Acknowledged for their recent gifts were:

Albert Fernandez ’54; San Antonio, TX
Annette Browne; College Station, TX
Denise ’76 & Ken ’75 Meyer; Elgin, TX
Diana & Mark ’82 Dunn; The Woodlands, TX
Fiona McCracken Allen ’82; Arlington, TX
Jean & Don ’70 Murff; Austin, TX
Jeff Robertson; Bryan, TX
JQ Engineering, LLP.; Dallas, TX
Kelsey ’06 & Scott Whitmire; Moulton, TX
Patricia & Richard ’65 Kistner; San Antonio, TX
Raul Fernandez ’59; San Antonio, TX
Sandy & Les ’74 Pittman; Bryan, TX
Yma & Chuck ’75 Urban; Corpus Christi, TX

“In the last 130 years our department has graduated over 15,000 civil engineers, “said Dr. Robin Autenrieth, department head of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering. “This banquet serves as an opportunity to celebrate current and former students as each year we recognize the professional accomplishments of a few distinguished graduates who provide inspiring stories of their professional success. The banquet is also a time for us to show appreciation for recent generous donors who have created endowments to support the next generation of civil engineers. We also take time to celebrate the academic excellence of our student scholarship and fellowship recipients, who are given an opportunity to meet those former students who have invested in them through established endowments.”

Click here for photos of the evening.

Civil engineering course works to help students communicate their designs on a visual platform

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Jeffrey Otey, an instructional assistant professor with the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, is teaching new and innovative visualization courses that aim to open a new dimension of engineering design for students.

“Problem solving, communication and experience with modern tools for the civil engineering practice contribute to making our students ready to enter industry,” Otey said.

Otey teaches CVEN 250, “Introduction to Graphics and Visualization Applications in Civil Engineering Design,” and CVEN 489/689, “Special Topics: Visualization and Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Structural Engineering Design.” The courses offer students the opportunity to work on projects that address typical engineering problems they will encounter in future classes and internships. The students are introduced to common industry tasks, such as the creation of site plans, earthwork calculations, virtual structure creation and methods of project visualization.

Otey said the courses were created to accomplish a number of goals, including increasing the students’ visualization skills when working to understand complex construction geometry, and how different design components relate and interact with one another.

“Communication of technical ideas is vital to engineers because they rarely oversee the construction or manufacture of their ideas, but rely on others in the product life cycle to carry out these steps,” Otey said.

Another goal is to familiarize students with Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CAD) software, which Otey said are commonly used in the civil engineering profession, while also focusing on design concepts, such as data analysis, document creation, rendering and animation through the software program.

“The use of animations, photo-realistic images and augmented reality are wonderful tools that reinforce design concepts to those who may not be able to read traditional two-dimensional engineering drawings,” Otey said. “Engineers need to sell their ideas, and often have to present these ideas to nontechnical professionals. The ability to describe and present your design ideas in three-dimensions gives the audience a true sense and understanding of your design concepts.”

Elizabeth Kellen, a senior civil engineering student, said she was excited to take a course focused on graphics and visualization after taking a similar course in high school. She said one of the skills she’s acquired through the course is the ability to visualize projects better.

“Many people don’t think of that as a skill, and it doesn’t sound too complicated when you’re simply discussing visualization, however, as a civil engineer it is so important to be able to understand and visualize every aspect of the project you’re designing and contributing to, which isn’t always easy considering the size and location of many civil projects,” Kellen said. “Professor Otey was sure to incorporate a lot of visualization exercises throughout the course, and it’s really cool to see self-improvement throughout the semester.”

Nicholas Danney, a junior civil engineering student, has a focus in structural engineering as a part of his degree. Danney has taken both the introductory course in civil engineering graphics and visualization and a Building Information Modeling course, where he said Otey taught students how to use programs to create graphics that were produced neatly and efficiently. Danney has been exposed to a variety of programs, which he said are used in the structural engineering industry.

“My learning of BIM and industry software is currently being put to use in my senior design class, in which I am both designing and modeling a reinforced concrete research building,” Danney said. “I expect to utilize this knowledge further in my graduate studies, where I will apply this knowledge to advanced courses in structural design and analysis.”

Kellen said she found the modeling software to be “extremely valuable,” and is already seeing the benefits of the course outside of the classroom. Last summer Kellen had an internship with a land development firm that only used Civil 3-D software for their design work, a program Kellen had worked with through Otey’s class.

“It was extremely helpful for me to not need a crash course in the software at the beginning of my internship, and I think it was also helpful for my supervisors because they were able to put me right to work,” Kellen said. “I definitely feel like I had an advantage by taking Professor Otey’s class.”

Aquifer research leads to effective, cost efficient water acquisition and aids in drought recovery

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

It’s no secret to anyone that Texas is hot and that with heat comes drought. Across the more than 269,000 square miles that make up the state, many Texans constantly fight cycles of drought or flooding season after season. In these places, good water management is essential and thanks to new research by Dr. Gretchen Miller in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, getting clean water to communities that need it most may now be easier and more cost-effective than ever.

Miller works on what is known as managed aquifer recharge or aquifer storage and recovery. These methods are used to intentionally refill aquifers, or water sources that live in permeable rock, from which many communities draw groundwater. Using these techniques, municipalities and utility districts can draw water from the aquifers during times of drought, but also put water back in them during rainier seasons.

“We are hoping to advance the science on aquifer storage and recovery in order to help local entities better implement these techniques as water conservation strategies,” Miller said. “We want to determine how well current techniques are working and how they can be improved.”

Miller’s research focuses on the feasibility of these water extraction and recharge methods, and seeks to improve not only the efficiency of how water is removed or stored in the aquifer, but the quality of water that is used. In working with these systems, Miller is looking for the best places to implement them across the state and has worked with water management agencies in San Antonio, El Paso and Harris County, Texas.

“How the aquifers are used and managed changes depending on the geology,” Miller said. “We can use models to represent a typical managed aquifer recharge system and then test different methods of running it, when and how we extract or inject water and how we can best use the wells.”

According to Miller, it takes a lot of energy to pump water either in or out of a system, so in using these modeling techniques researchers can now give water municipalities the power to understand when they decide to inject or extract water in a well and how it will affect other wells in the system. It will also give them a better understanding of how to best pump wells efficiently to conserve energy and achieve the highest quality of water available. Miller hopes a better understanding of these processes will benefit communities around the state.

“We see this as a mechanism for helping communities be more resilient against environmental changes,” Miller said. “Some of the cities in Texas are so water stressed that they need a whole arsenal of ways to adapt, and we think this can be one of many tools they can use to help communities bounce back faster. Hopefully we can help prevent them from needing to impose tight drought restrictions.”

In her work with municipalities in Harris County, Miller has also looked at reducing the impacts of flooding by storing excess storm water in managed aquifers. While Miller explains that such measures will not prevent flooding on a large scale, it still has the opportunity to reduce some flood impacts. Miller also sees potential in using aquifer storage and recovery to allow the continued use of groundwater in areas of Houston, where prolonged groundwater extraction has caused portions of the city to sink as the water that fills the porous sediments is drained away.

“If we pump water into the areas that are experiencing high usage, then we can stop the subsidence [the sinking of land] and those people can still use groundwater in those areas without restriction,” said Miller. “We are keeping up with the demand in these areas so that more water isn't taken out of these already taxed areas.”

Miller is also optimistic about the impacts of her research and how it could help communities outside of Texas and even abroad.

“The ideas we are developing on how to operate these facilities and how to make them more efficient can definitely be applied elsewhere,” Miller said. “Looking forward, we want to be able to determine how much water needs to be stored in order to provide an adequate buffer given that there are factors that we can’t fully take into account. We hope this can best help communities in a variety of conditions.”

*This research is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Zhuping Sheng of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M, as well as the contributions of doctoral students Saheli Majumdar, Ben Smith and Liting Tao.

This research is also a result of collaborations with the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District, the El Paso Water Utility, the Harris County Flood Control District and the San Antonio Water System.

Civil engineering professor, team seek to understand Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Texas coastal waterways

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 CST

Heavy rainfall during Hurricane Harvey flushed most of the salt water out of Galveston Bay, making the bay extremely fresh. Now, researchers from Texas A&M University are working to collect vital information on how the storm impacted the waterways of coastal Texas.

Dr. Scott Socolofsky, professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, joined principal investigator Dr. Kristen Thyng and other researchers from Texas A&M’s Department of Oceanography to study how Galveston Bay and the coastal Gulf of Mexico responded to the extreme amount of freshwater that poured into the gulf from rainfall and runoff from the Houston area.

“Normally, tidal exchange between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico keep the bay fairly salty,” Socolofsky said. “By studying the rates that salt water re-enters the bay and the exchange processes of salty and fresh water at the bay inlet, we can better understand the normal mixing patterns between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.”

By recording these salt water rates, scientists can better understand the water exchange rate between the bay and open coast and supply the measurements for use in future models to help study Harvey and similar events.

The project is funded through a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). RAPID grants focus on projects with severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to, data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural disasters. The researchers are expected to turn in their results to the NSF within the first year of being awarded the grant.

With eyes on Galveston Bay, the team conducted its first cruise offshore from Sept. 27-29 using the Point Sur, a research vessel from the Division of Marine Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. The research team mapped the freshwater flowing out of Galveston Bay in the immediate vicinity of the Galveston Bay Inlet on the Gulf of Mexico side of Galveston and Boliver Island.

This cruise was the second leg of a three-leg cruise, in which three different RAPID grants to oceanography faculty collaborated to form a complete cruise plan. Socolofsky was co-PI and his team included civil engineering graduate Kerri Whilden, who works for the Texas A&M Geochemical & Environmental Research Group.

Another cruise conducted on Oct. 8 mapped the salinity distribution in the bay, and Socolofsky said results found the water to be much fresher compared to normal conditions.

Two more offshore cruises are scheduled in November and February with two more bay-wide surveys.

Civil engineering student helps assess coastal impacts after Hurricane Harvey

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 CST

Few students expect to be called upon to take action after a catastrophic event, and even fewer answer that call. After Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas coast on Aug. 25, causing wind and water damage along the coast and the Houston area, a group of civil engineers worked to study and collect data about the geotechnical aspects of coastal impacts during the hurricane in an effort to prevent structural damage in the wake of a future storm.

A week after the devastation, Iman Shafii, a Ph.D. candidate in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, joined other civil engineers as part of an investigation team to assess the erosion impact on the coast. By collecting data, results from the erosion studies can be used by local, state and federal organizations to aid in preparation for future weather disasters.

“We can research how a structure’s foundation failed and how to improve it for next time,” said Shafii. “Before the next disaster, we can get information from the soil and the areas around bridges and levees that failed. In order to prevent a failure, you have to modify the structure; if you’re going to have the same structure in the next hurricane, you’re going to have the same problem.”

Shafii, who has a concentration in geotechnical engineering, said the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds different groups to conduct engineering investigations after major disasters, including the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) team, which Shafii joined. Once all the information is recorded, the NSF shares it in a public archive for future use.

“The whole purpose behind this GEER team is to learn from the disaster and use that information for the next one,” Shafii said. “The goal was to go to those areas that are more prone to failure because of the hurricane, like the bridges and levees. We tried to cover a good amount of locations.”

The team traveled to southeast Texas, starting in the Corpus Christi area, and went along the coast for four days investigating soil quality and places where structures had failed at 14 different sites. They documented the hydraulic and geotechnical aspects of coastal impacts from Hurricane Harvey.

While on site, team members tested various components of the soil property including compression strength, undrained shear strength, moisture content, and soil erosion resistance. Shafii also collected more than 10 soil samples and is running erosion function apparatus tests on them at the Texas A&M Erosion Laboratory, where he works as manager.

Shafii said by analyzing the samples, he can better understand how the soil withstood different water flow conditions and note where each sample was retrieved from along the coast.

The first two days were spent in the Rockport and Corpus Christi area, the first places hit when Harvey made landfall in the United States. Shafii said the team struggled to find a hotel to stay as they were all booked by people seeking shelter.

“In the hotel where we ended up, the roof was down and it didn’t have water or electricity,” he said. “We saw people worse-off, with no food and electricity, and we saw people helping others out of their flooded homes and providing supplies. It was nice to see people helping each other.”

While Shafii had not done field research in an area impacted by a hurricane before, his master’s and doctoral research included learning about Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans in 2005.

“All the time I was at the coast, I was comparing what I had learned from Katrina. Where there was erosion or partial structure failures, I could see them and compare them in my mind to what I’d learned from different places impacted by Katrina,” he said.

Shafii received his bachelor’s in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology and his master’s from Southern Illinois University.

He expects to graduate in August 2018. He said he was drawn to civil and geotechnical engineering because he always had an interest in buildings.

“Geotechnical engineering is important because you have to make sure your foundation system is good enough to build any type of structure,” he said. “It’s the core in civil engineering in my mind.”