Author: SoE Scholarships Will Support Master’s of Engineering Students
The School of Engineering is aiming to provide support for students interested in pursuing a Master’s of Engineering degree by offering the 2020 Springboard Graduate Scholarship. This generous scholarship will bring the cost of the program for full-time applicants down from $39,000 to $13,650. This scholarship would save students $25,350 while also providing stability for engineering students during an uncertain time.
The scholarship, which is entirely funded by the School of Engineering, will provide 20 scholarships to the CEE department. The department expects to offer 10 scholarships for Structural Engineering and 10 for Environmental Engineering. If you have interest, or more questions, reach out to soeprofed@uconn.edu.
Read more about this incredible opportunity in the Hartford Courant.
Author: CAREER Project on Humanizing Engineering and Resilience Awarded by National Science Foundation
Societies depend on resilient infrastructure and the uninterrupted provision of drinking water, electricity, and wastewater treatment; when infrastructure is not resilient, hazards and disasters can disrupt these services causing enormous economic losses and human and environmental impacts. Improving the resilience of the nation’s infrastructure to current and future hazards is vital for society and a grand engineering challenge. While much is known about the physical and technical dimensions of resilience, there are fundamental gaps in our understanding of the human dimensions of resilience. In particular, we cannot explain why infrastructure managers overwhelmingly focus on building resilience to the past, bouncing back from disruption, rather than bouncing forward or building resilience to future hazards and surprise. This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant supports fundamental research that will address this gap in knowledge to: advance resilience theory to include human dimensions, identify the different human dimensions factors necessary to bounce back as well as bounce forward, produce actionable knowledge that will enhance resilience of U.S. infrastructure systems, and develop curricula to educate students and professionals about human dimensions of engineering. The novel integrated research and education approach offers unique opportunities for students to engage in research, prepares them to help solve societal problems, and helps diminish the gender gap in engineering. In addition to training a postdoctoral researcher and graduate and undergraduate students, this project will engage a broad audience including 150 students and 200-250 infrastructure managers and public officials.
This research advances fundamental understanding of resilience and resilience theory to enable researchers to assess human dimensions factors of resilience across a range of critical infrastructure not previously possible. It also advances novel methods and applies experimental techniques to demonstrate the effectiveness of tools for improving resilience and of a new educational model for enhancing student understanding and commitment to engineering. Results from this research will provide scholars with a new theory and methods for assessing human dimensions of resilience and will give practitioners concrete guidance on how to measure and improve infrastructure resilience to present and future hazards. Unique quantitative and qualitative datasets, interactive graphic displays, and professional and undergraduate engineering curricula will be produced and made widely available. Broad dissemination will occur through publications and conferences as well as webinars, trainings, and presentations to partners, infrastructure managers, and their communities.
This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Author: CT Towns Obtain EPA Grant Funds with Help from Connecticut Brownfields Initiative
Assistant Research Professor Nefeli Bompoti and her students visit a brownfields site in New Haven, CT. Photo by Evan Olson.
This year, the Connecticut Brownfields Initiative provided assistance to several Connecticut communities seeking grant funding through the Environmental Protection Agency for brownfields assessment and rehabilitation.
As a result of these efforts, a combined $800K in EPA grant funds was awarded to three communities to conduct assessment of brownfields. The Capitol Region Council of Governments was awarded $300, 000 in funding, the City of Middletown was awarded $300,000, and $200,000 in funding was awarded to the City of New Haven.
The activities of the program were conducted in conjunction with a course offered through the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The ENVE 3995 course in Brownfields Redevelopment allows undergraduate students to work directly with municipalities to prepare grant proposals for submission to the EPA.
Arthur Bogen, President of the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank praised the CBI program for providing a real-world education that also benefits local communities. “What a testimonial to teacher, student and municipal staff dedication. The need will continue and this fine CBI tool has been wrought to serve for years to come. What striking proof of academics creating real world value.”