Fieldwork Blogs

2009: Steel Bridge Team

The Steel Bridge team is preparing for the regional competition of the 2009 National Student Steel Bridge Competition. Regionals will be held at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston on April 4. Finals are May 22 and 23 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Team co-captain Adam Talsma, a junior majoring in civil engineering, is keeping a blog for the team.

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2009: Leandro and Mar Reporting From the Chilean Patagonia

Gianna Leandro and Laura Mar, two graduate students in the Environmental and Water Quality Engineering track of the CEE M.Eng. program, are spending January 2009 in the Chilean Patagonia gathering information they and their teammates will use to conduct a thorough assessment of two proposed hydropower dams on the Rio Baker in the southern part of Chile.

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2009: Kate Kerigan Reporting from Singapore

Kathleen Kerigan is a graduate student from Big Flats, N.Y., who is studying in the CEE Master of Engineering program. Kate and four classmates in the Environmental and Water Quality Engineering track are in Singapore in January to complete bacterial sampling and source tracking. The data will be used for their bacterial characterization, attenuation modeling and risk assessment on the Kranji Reservoir for the Singapore Public Utilities Board.

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2008: Anne Mikelonis Reporting From Honduras

Anne Mikelonis, a Master of Engineering student at MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is spending January 2008 in Las Vegas, Honduras, evaluating the town’s sewage treatment facility. The system collects wastewater in open culverts that flow to two tanks where sludge is collected and digested. As the tanks and treatment system have aged, wastewater is not always thorougly treated before being discharged into Raices Creek, which empties into Lake Yojoa.

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2008: Steel Bridge Team Constructs a Winner

The Steel Bridge team placed first in construction time and second overall in the regional competition of the ASCE Steel Bridge Competition April 5, ensuring the team’s spot at the national competition in May. The team’s bridge design—described as a frame-supported, cable-stayed bridge—is an original that did well in the competition against girder bridges, truss bridges, and an arch bridge with a box girder deck.

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2008: Rebecca Neumann Reporting from Bangladesh

Rebecca Neumann, a Ph.D. student in environmental engineering, is researching groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. This January, Rebecca is in Bangladesh studying the role played by rice fields and ponds—the two primary recharge sources for the aquifer—in the arsenic contamination problem.

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2008: Adam Talsma Reporting from Hawaii

Sophomore Adam Talsma is on the island of Hawaii with CEE TREX, an undergraduate field research course. He will study groundwater flow through coastal anchialine ponds and collect data to judge the potential impact of nearby commercial development on the ponds in Kaloko Honokohau National Park.

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2008: Kat Vater Reporting From Mae La

Kat is one of three grad students in the Master of Engineering program in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering working in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand during January to evaluate the camp’s drinking water distribution system.

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