Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering
Construction Engineering & Management Minor
Environmental Engineering Minor
7 Technical Areas Graphic
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering
Construction Engineering & Management Minor
Environmental Engineering Minor
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Undergraduate Research

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Program. Through this program, undergraduate students will gain valuable work experience while exploring their areas of interest in research.

As an Undergraduate Research Assistant, you will:

  • Receive a competitive hourly rate (minimum of $18 per hour) for your work on research projects during the academic year (https://studentjobs.uconn.edu/employment-guide/ provides info on job descriptions and pay rates) 

  • Earn a competitive summer stipend for part-time or full-time employment (20 to 40 hours per week for 10 weeks) for work on your research project. 

  • Earn a $250 award when you co-author a journal paper related to your research (upon notice of submission). 

  • Receive funding for travel to attend professional conferences in an area related to your undergraduate research. 

  • Receive priority consideration for a graduate assistantship if you decide to pursue graduate school. 

Program Requirements:

  • Be an undergraduate student in Civil Engineering or Environmental Engineering
  • Undergraduate student applicants must have completed their freshman year.  

Application Process: 

  • Contact the CEE faculty you are interested in working with – you may choose one of the open positions below OR contact any CEE faculty whose area of research is of interest to you 
  • Provide your resume and discuss the potential project and scope of work with the faculty member – they will then submit the application on your behalf 
  • Deadline to submit proposals for Summer 2024 is April 12th

For general information about the program, contact Dr. Marisa Chrysochoou at marisa.chrysochoou@uconn.edu.

 

Open Positions

Structures

Wireless ultrasonic displacement sensor development
Advisor: Shinae Jang
Hours per week: 10
Hourly rate: $15.69 (Level 1)
Position description: In this position, a selected undergraduate research assistant will work to develop a new wireless ultrasonic displacement sensor to measure bridge's expansion joints movement under temperature fluctuation. The development procedure includes 1) sensor selection compatible with Arduino, 2) laboratory-scale calibration tests with traditional displacement sensor, 3) field bridge measurement. This task will give you insight on sensing system development for infrastructure systems, deep understanding of structural behaviors, risk and uncertainties, and needs for resilience civil infrastructure.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

Accelerated Testing of Damage Evolution in Crumbling Concrete Foundations
Advisor: Kay Wille
Hours per week: 10 to 40
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: Students will have the opportunity to work with a group of graduate and undergraduate students to assist with various laboratory analyses of concrete samples in the Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composite (ACMC) Lab. This includes preparation of test samples and assisting in execution of laboratory experiments. Depending on the student's interest, this might include assisting in obtaining concrete samples from homeowners by joining our field sampling team, or crushing, pulverizing, sieving and sample splitting of material in the lab, mixing of concrete, material mechanical characterization such as compressive strength, material chemical characterization, such as total sulfur analysis, crack tracing and measuring bulk resistivity.

Date posted: 4/01/24

 

Characterizing and Advancing the Performance of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC)
Advisor: Kay Wille
Hours per week: 10 to 40
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: Students will have the opportunity to work graduate and undergraduate students to assist with UHPC related laboratory analyses in the Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composite (ACMC) Lab. This includes preparation of test samples and assisting in execution of laboratory experiments. Depending on the student's interest, this might include assisting in mixing of UHPC, material mechanical characterization such as compressive strength, tensile behavior, single fiber pull-out testing, and long-term stability testing.

Date posted: 4/01/24

 

Environmental

Ion-selective solid state sensors for phosphorus detection in soils
Advisor: Timothy Vadas and Baikun Li
Hours per week: 20-40
Hourly rate: $17
Position description: Students will have a chance to work on multiple aspects of environmental solid-state sensors. We are developing sensors to deploy in soil systems for ammonia, nitrate and phosphorus. There are commercial products available for ammonia and nitrate, but ion selective molecules for phosphorus are under development. The student would have the chance to help with organic synthesis of phosphorus ion selective molecules, development of solid state sensors, testing of sensor layers to aid in analysis and testing in control laboratory environments and the field plots.

Date posted: 3/19/24

 

Assessment of changes in wind speed, gust and temperature in the Northeast United States for the Past Fifty Years
Advisor: Marina Astitha
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $17 (class II)
Position description: The student will work on analyzing a long record of weather observations and model outputs for the past 50 years in the NE US. Required skills: excellent knowledge of excel and adequate knowledge of scripting in python or R. The student will collaborate with PhD students in Dr. Astitha's research group and will be directly supervised by Dr. Astitha.

Date posted: 3/22/24

 

Evaluating Artificial Intelligent Apps, that can be used for urban Island Heat mapping
Advisor: Abi Lawal
Hours per week: 10
Hourly rate: $19
Position description: Looking for a student interested in combining artificial intelligence application to render electronic mapping of various urban landforms, that can then be used in calculating the impact on Urban Island Impact, due to specific infrastructure's Prefer a junior or senior, with an interest in machine learning and AI, or computing. Such a student will need to take active interest in researching and exploring the range of AI tools that are available for this task. Should be familiar with heat transfer.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

Dispersion modeling of a point source, combined with health analysis mapping.
Advisor: Abi Lawal
Hours per week: 10
Hourly rate: $16
Position description: Requires a student with an interest in math and modeling to learn how to run either a dispersion model (AERMOD) or health analysis map (BENMAP) in order to generate air quality maps and conduct health assessment analysis.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

Wildfire Ignition Model
Advisor: Diego Cerrai
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: The student selected for this project will work on the Wildfire Ignition Model, a machine learning based model capable of predicting wildfire ignition locations, based on weather and environmental data, and historical wildfire occurrences.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

Outage Prediction Model
Advisor: Diego Cerrai
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: The student selected for this project will join the UConn Outage Prediction Model team for three months and work on testing new machine learning model techniques for improving the current version of the model.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

NASA snow measurement campaign
Advisor: Diego Cerrai
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: The student selected for this project will work together other graduate students who have been collecting snow measurement data from ground instruments over the winter, and who will compare these data with satellite measurements.

Date posted: 3/25/24

 

Pyrrhotite Oxidation Evolution in Crumbling Concrete Foundations
Advisor: Marisa Chrysochoou and Kay Wille
Hours per week: 10 to 40
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: Students will have the opportunity to work with a group of graduate and undergraduate students to assist with various laboratory analyses of mineral and concrete samples in the Geochemical Lab. This includes preparation of test samples and assisting in execution of laboratory experiments. Depending on the student's interest, this might include assisting in material pulverization, vacuum supported sieving, pH measurement, sample dilution, and data organization.

Date posted: 4/01/24

 

Soil screening for metal contaminants in Hartford
Advisor: Marisa Chrysochoou
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $18
Position description: The student will have a chance to conduct both laboratory and field tasks pertaining to soil analysis of metal contaminants in Hartford, CT. Field work will consist of visiting vacant lots in Hartford planned for community reuse, collecting soil samples by digging using an auger, performing X-Ray Fluorescence analysis using a portable XRF instrument, and interacting with community members during sampling of Hartford resident soils during community workshops. Laboratory work will consist of preparing (drying, sieving, pulverizing) and analyzing soils with the pXRF instrument. There will be additional soil samples collected for laboratory analysis in Mansfield, CT. The data will be used to develop a methodology for the rapid assessment of trace metals in urban soils and draw a connection between lead contamination and environmental justice in Hartford.

Date posted: 4/03/24

 

Transportation

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Pedestrian Crashes: Unraveling Socio-Demographic Influences and Trends
Advisor: John Ivan
Hours per week: 20 to 40
Hourly rate: $17.00
Position description: The student researcher will work with a graduate assistant and faculty in acquiring, formatting, and summarizing data about pedestrian safety, demographics, traffic, road characteristics, and land use patterns. Data will be downloaded from web portals or other sources and managed using spreadsheet and database software. Also required will be weekly meetings with the research team (virtual or in person) with reports of progress, as well as documentation of the data extraction and formatting procedures and summaries of the resulting data. There will be opportunities to do basic analysis of the collected data.

Date posted: 3/20/24

 

Improving Crash Prediction Using GRIDSMART Infrastructure
Advisor: John Ivan
Hours per week: 20 to 40
Hourly rate: $17.00
Position description: The student researcher will work with a graduate assistant and faculty in acquiring, formatting, and summarizing data about traffic safety, traffic signal operation, road characteristics, and other relevant items. Data will be downloaded from web portals or other sources and managed using spreadsheet and database software. Also required will be weekly meetings with the research team (virtual or in person) with reports of progress, as well as documentation of the data extraction and formatting procedures and summaries of the resulting data. There will be opportunities to do basic analysis of the collected data.

Date posted: 3/20/24

 

Evaluating the Impacts of Real-Time Warnings and Variable Speed Limits on Safety and Travel Reliability during Weather Events
Advisor: John Ivan
Hours per week: 20 to 40
Hourly rate: $17.00
Position description: The student researcher will work with a graduate assistant and faculty in acquiring and formatting data associated with traffic operations, weather conditions, and electronic signage. Data will be downloaded from web portals and managed using spreadsheet and database software. Also required will be weekly meetings with the research team (virtual or in person) with reports of progress, as well as documentation of the data extraction and formatting procedures and summaries of the resulting data.

Date posted: 3/20/24

 

Evaluating and Improving Performance of Robo-Taxi Systems
Advisor: Monika Filipovska
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $17
Position description: Ride-hail services (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Didi) can create significant economic and social value by expanding access, promoting multimodal transportation, and easing the requirement of car ownership in urban areas. These services are on the brink of another revolution due to the emergence of autonomous ride-hailing, known as robo-taxis (e.g., Waymo, Cruise, etc.). This project aims to evaluate and improve the performance of a robo-taxi fleet composed of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) operating in an urban setting.

Date posted: 3/22/24

 

Equity in Livability: Identifying systemic, operational, and systemic inequities in active transportation for socio-economic disadvantaged communities in Connecticut.
Advisor: Davis Chacon Hurtado
Hours per week: 20
Hourly rate: $15
Position description: The National Safety Council's 2022 reported that road traffic fatalities in the United States exceeded 46,000 in 2021, with pedestrians accounting for 20% and pedal cyclists for 3% of these fatalities. In particular, pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in the US have seen a continuous increase over the past decade, reaching their highest levels in the past three decades. This summer project will aim to identify and document the inequities in the systemic, operational, and safety that disproportionately affect individuals from ethnic/racial minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged communities in Connecticut based on a literature review. This step will inform data collection that will be used to evaluate the association between the spatial distribution of pedestrian/cyclist crashes with respect to pedestrian-friendly infrastructure and land use types in Connecticut while controlling other critical factors.

Date posted: 3/24/24

Past Participants

2022

Faculty Sponsor Student Name Student Degree Project Title
Ramesh B. Malla Max Mendoza Raha Civil Engineering Analysis, Modeling, Testing, and Monitoring of Railroad and Highway Bridge Infrastructure
Baikun Li Jason Contreras Environmental Engineering Water sensor development continuous monitoring of water quality
Guiling Wang Nicholas Morillo Civil Engineering Cold season stream flow and flooding
Davis Chacon-Hurtado Leo Gomez,

Sophia Fenn

Civil Engineering,

Civil Engineering

Transportation Equity and the Clean Energy Transition in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities.
Nefeli Bompoti,

Marisa Chrysochoou

Smriti Hamal Environmental Engineering Contaminant fate and transport studies

2021

Faculty Sponsor Student Name Student Degree Project Title
Norman Garrick Luke Lombardo Civil Engineering Impact of the pandemic to traffic patterns in the state of Connecticut
Norman Garrick Carina Scher Civil Engineering Assessment of best practices for policies and systems to promote Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the State of Connecticu
Malaquias Peña Julia Jackson Environmental Engineering Image registry for geophysical flow forecasting for the analysis and prediction of offshore wind, sea waves and currents
Tim Vadas Ben Manoli Environmental Engineering Water reuse in greenhouse agriculture from stormwater, wastewater and lagoon water sources
Jin Zhu Kaitlyn Kondos Civil Engineering Data collection, running simulation experiments, and result analysis for resilient infrastructure planning 
Davis Chacon-Hurtado Avishan Montazer Civil Engineering Short term (revealed) and long term (stated) impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transportation in Connecticut and underlying socio-economic factors influencing changes in the travel behavior of people using transit service
John Ivan Torail Murphy Civil Engineering Using crowdsourced traffic data from StreetLight and Inrix for estimation of models of vehicle speed as a function of volume.
Ramesh B. Malla, Ph.D., F. ASCE, F. EMI Kelly Voong Civil Engineering Analysis, Modeling, Testing, and Monitoring of Railroad and Highway Bridge Infrastructure
Marina Astitha Henry Carrington Environmental Engineering Extreme weather forecasting - data analysis and model development

 

2020

Faculty Sponsor Student Name Student Degree Project Title
Diego Cerrai Sita Nyame Environmental Engineering Development of Fire Ignition model using weather forecasts and analysis, land cover, tree types and leaf conditions datato forecast the location of possible wildfires
Wei Zhang Liam Hanley Civil Engineering Damage Modeling for Communities due to Nature Hazards
Marina Astitha Matthew Boehmer Environmental Engineering Extreme weather forecasting - data analysis and model development
Baikun Li Clifford Otis Environmental Engineering Development of a microbial fuel cell to convert CO2 to organic carbon
Nefeli Bompoti/Maria Chrysochoou Alex Robotham Environmental Engineering Nickel complexation through adsorption to iron oxide coated quartz sand
John Ivan Vincent Huang Civil Engineering Model development to predict pedestrian countrs using  parcel level land use, population and employment data from online sources
Norman Garrick Luke Lombardo Civil Engineering Analysis of the effect of various factors on the rist in pedestrian fatalities in CT

2019

Faculty Sponsor Student Name Student Degree Project Title
Jin Zhu Huang Xinyan Civil Engineering Application of biomimicry principles to models of disaster resilience for civil infrastructure
Manos Anagnostou Genevieve Rigler Civil Engineering Can understanding the self-efficacy of female citizen science data collectors improve food and water security in the Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia?
Norman Garrick Anne Quevraux Civil Engineering Evaluating the Factors Contributing to the Increase in Pedestrian Fatalities in Hartford
Christine Kirchhoff Reginald Denny Environmental Engineering Challenges faced by water systems threatened by increasingly toxic harmful algal blooms
Marisa Chrysochoou Leana Santos Civil Engineering Investigation of clay soil stabilization mechanisms by cementitious materials 
Nick Lownes Akira Dunham Civil Engineering examination of U-PASS data collected by the Public Transportation Systems research group and how this system can be used to expand mobility options across the state
Wei Zhang Yiannis Bagtzoglou Civil Engineering Finite element analysis modeling of transmission tower and power lines udner coastal environmental conditions