Report from the chair

Erhard F. Joeres (43K JPG)

I continue to be amazed at all of the changes that have occurred in our department over the years. While we maintain the solid core of civil engineering analysis and design, our profession continues to change and, fortunately, we are changing with it.

A quarter century ago our department had a substantial presence in hydraulics and hydrology, sanitary engineering, surveying, structures, and, to a lesser extent, transportation and ocean engineering. Although our faculty size is essentially the same, the areas and their attributes have shifted.

Hydraulics now encompasses environmental fluid mechanics. Hydrology has added urban water management and ecosystem restoration. The traditional focus of water supply and waste-water treatment of sanitary engineering has become environmental engineering that includes environmental biotechnology and air pollution chemistry, along with hazardous and solid waste management, and environmental geotechnics. Structural engineering has added competence in earthquake engineering and a strong emphasis on structural materials. Although traditional surveying is still taught, the field has moved into geospatial information engineering.

And transportation engineering, with strong involvement of our new Midwest Regional University Transportation Center, now addresses asset management, intelligent transportation systems, and safety. Finally, we now have two strong new areas — one in construction engineering and management, and the other in geotechnical engineering with strong ties to geological engineering and to the geophysics community. Much of this change has been enabled by the information technology revolution.

If you'd like further details, please let me know. You can also gain perspective on these changes by visiting our department web page at www.engr.wisc.edu/cee. Better yet, why don't you plan show up next fall for Engineers' Day on Homecoming weekend and we'll have time to give you a tour and fill you in on details.

There are some faculty changes. Professor Robert L. Smith, Jr., my predecessor as chair, will retire at the end of the fall semester. We are delighted to welcome two new faculty members. Assistant Professor David Noyce joined our transportation group this fall. David's interests are in traffic operations, driver simulation, and safety. And as of January, our environmental engineering group will be augmented by Assistant Professor Katherine (Trina) McMahon. Trina is an engineering microbiologist working in environmental biotechnology. It is gratifying that we are able to attract such talented new colleagues as our department research activity continues to expand.

The most noteworthy event since our last Conduit is the enormously successful, first-ever American Society of Civil Engineers' National Student Conference hosted at the UW-Madison by our student chapter in June to commemorate ASCE's 150th anniversary. The meeting, which took more than two years to plan, combined field trips, service projects, a career fair and exhibition, recreation, and student competitions, among them the national Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, and Daniel W. Mead Paper contests. In addition to a superb organizational job for the over 1,000 student participants, our UW student contestants placed 5th overall nationally in Concrete Canoe, 16th overall in Steel Bridge, and 1st in the Mead Essay Contest which was won by Tamara Larson, the co-chair of the conference. Future such conferences will have a challenge to meet the baseline of excellence established by our students.

This issue of the Conduit marks the formal kickoff of our department development campaign. I invite you to consider some of the excellent opportunities to establish a legacy for future generations of students.

Erhard F. Joeres
2205 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1691

Tel: 608/262-3542
Fax: 608/262-5199
E-mail: russell@engr.wisc.edu