Archives: Monthly Archives: March 2019

UConn Student Awarded Chi Epsilon Scholarship

UConn engineering student Genevieve Rigler was selected by the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society to receive a $2000 scholarship. Genevieve Rigler is a fifth-year EuroTech student majoring in German studies and civil engineering. She has focused on both transportation and environmental engineering during her undergraduate degree. Over the past year she has been working with Dr. Zoi Dokou and Dr. Emmanouil Anagnostou in the Environmental Engineering Department on the PIRE Food and Water Security Project. She completed an internship with PIRE partner International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC for the project and plans to continue to connect practical engineering with impactful policy.  Genevieve is grateful to begin her master’s in environmental engineering at UConn in Spring 2020 and to have the opportunity to continue working with the PIRE research team. Her focus will be on hydrology and the educational citizen science component of the project. 

Congressman Joe Courtney Meets with UConn Engineers about Crumbling Concrete Research

Congressman Joe Courtney met with UConn engineers at the Storrs campus this March to discuss ongoing research efforts related to the crumbling concrete foundations that have affected over thirty-five thousand homeowners in northeastern Connecticut. UConn researchers hope to validate a method that may be used to accurately determine the quantity of pyrrhotite in concrete. 

Congressman Courtney later tweeted about the meeting, saying, “A uniform test method and rating system for homes with potential #crumbling foundations will be a crucially important step for understanding the scope of the problem, and will help to provide clarity to homeowners and home-buyers. @UConnEngineer is working to make that happen.”

Congressman Joe Courtney Visits UConn

Congressman Joe Courtney met with the deans and key staff at the School of Engineering when he visited UConn in early March to discuss the school's regional collaborations with industry partners. During the meeting, Professor Richard Christenson, co-director of the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology (NIUVT), updated Congressman Courtney on the initiative's ongoing research efforts.

Professor Christenson leads the initiative along with co-director Arun Shukla of the University of Rhode Island (URI). The institute, based at UConn's Avery Point Campus in Groton, Connecticut, is centered around the advancement of key research in undersea vehicle technology and workforce development.

Dr. Christine Kirchhoff Featured in Hartford Magazine

Portrait of Dr. Christine Kirchhoff, a woman with shoulder-length light brown hair wearing black glasses and a black top.

Portraits for UConn CEE department including some graduate students.

Dr. Christine Kirchhoff was featured in Hartford Magazine as one of five "Greater Hartford Players" who are at the forefront of research on climate change and sustainability. Dr. Kirchhoff is studying the vulnerability and resilience of water and wastewater systems to extreme weather events such as storms and droughts. Read the full story here.