FACULTY NEWS
UW-Madison in
driver's seat of National Transportation Center
 ith
$16 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, UW-Madison
became one of 10 National University Transportation Centers charged
with advancing research on critical national transportation issues and
expanding the workforce of transportation professionals. Professor Teresa
Adams will direct the center, which will build on the transportation
research, education and outreach activities in the department. Faculty,
staff and students associated with the new center will address a range
of national transportation priorities, including aging infrastructure,
freight capacity and management, traffic congestion, materials sustainability,
and environmental issues such as air quality and pavement runoff.
| IN
THE NEWS |
A Sept. 17 story on foodconsumer.org
cites Professor Marc
Anderson’s titanium dioxide technology as one use
for a compound that can do everything from whiten toothpaste
to break down organic compounds.
In July, Madison Channel 15 interviewed Director
of Environmental Studies and Professor Thomas
Lillesand about research projects stemming from a massive
tire fire in Watertown, Wisconsin.
Assistant Professor David
Noyce was a guest in the July 20, 7 a.m. time slot on Joy
Cardin’s Wisconsin Public Radio call-in show, discussing
aspects of traffic safety relating to an idea in the state legislature
to raise the rural freeway speed limit to 75 mph. He also was
a guest at 11 a.m. Aug. 31 on WPR’s “Conversations
with Larry Meiller” program.
The story, “Wanted: Civil Engineers,”
about the global demand for well-rounded civil engineers, appeared
in the July issue of Civil Engineering
magazine and quoted Professor Jeff
Russell, who said attracting talented students is only one
piece of the puzzle.
A story in the July 13 Sheboygan
Press quoted Assistant Professor Chin
Wu about polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, buried in the
sediment of the Sheboygan River.
A story in the July 18 Engineering
News Record mentions the UW-Madison Concrete Canoe Team’s
third consecutive national championship and quotes student Jaime
Kurten. The September issue of Concrete
International also highlighted the team’s win.
Stories about the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers
Without Borders appeared in the fall issue of On
Wisconsin (the UW-Madison magazine for alumni and friends)
and in the Sept. 17 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In early August, news stories about the department’s
new $16 million national transportation center ran in a number
of media outlets, including the Detroit
Free Press, Wood 8 (a Grand Rapids, Michigan, television
station), wisbusiness.com,
Madison TV channels 3 and 15, the St. Paul
Pioneer Press, the Janesville Gazette,
mlive.com
(Ann Arbor News), the Duluth News Tribune,
The Capital Times, and the Appleton
Post-Crescent.
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The Midwest Regional University Transportation Center,
part of the Wisconsin Transportation Center, hosted the Federal Highway
Administration Biohazards Workshop at the Pyle Center in July. Forty
representatives from Wisconsin police, emergency response, transportation
and highways, natural resources, military, agriculture, university,
homeland security and laboratory communities drafted an operational
plan for biohazard events. Professor and MRUTC/WTC Director Teresa
Adams and MRUTC Deputy Director Jason Bittner
served on the workshop planning committee.
Professor Steve
Cramer received approximately $40,000 from the John and Jean Berndt
Technology-Enhanced Learning Initiative to develop innovative teaching
approaches. Cramer, Professor Hussain
Bahia, Program Assistant Carole Kraak
and staff from Engineering Media Services are converting CEE 395 (Materials
for Constructed Facilities), a 3-credit course required for all CEE
majors, from a traditional 50-minute faculty lecture to online modules.
The group plans to pilot its course in spring 2006.
At a May 16 ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building in Washington, D.C., Professor Jeffrey
S. Russell received the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in
Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). The National
Science Foundation administers the award, which recognizes people and
institutions who encourage those in traditionally underrepresented groups
to participate in science and engineering, on behalf of the White House.
Russell is passionate about developing future leaders
from underrepresented groups. His mentoring efforts couple a local,
“one-on-one” approach with “global” participation.
He encourages female engineering students to be leaders in on-campus
activities and provides opportunities for them to interact with and
learn from leaders in the construction engineering and management field.
In addition, he supports the efforts of female faculty and staff to
assume leadership roles within the UW-Madison community and in the construction
industry.
Nationally, Russell has participated in and led initiatives
to increase awareness of and publicize diversity issues within engineering
education and practice. To address these issues, Russell has worked
with leaders in the construction industry, in government agencies and
through private and professional organizations.
Associate Professor Jamie
Schauer is the new director of the Water Science and Engineering
Laboratory, a multidisciplinary facility that joins scientists and engineers
from UW-Madison, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the
U.S. Geological Survey, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, industry
and other universities in collaborative projects and graduate education.
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