News In Brief: 2008

MIT researchers are working with Portuguese colleagues to design a pilot-scale device that will capture significantly more of the energy in ocean waves than existing systems, and use it to power an electricity-generating turbine. Wave energy is a large, widespread renewable resource that is environmentally benign and readily scalable. In some locations — the northwestern coasts of the United States, the western coast of Scotland, and the southern tips of South America, Africa and Australia, for example — a wave-absorbing device could theoretically generate 100 to 200 megawatts of electricity per kilometer of coastline. But designing a wave-capture system that can deal with the harsh, corrosive seawater environment, handle hourly, daily and seasonal variations in wave intensity, and continue to operate safely in stormy weather is difficult. To help engineers design such devices, Chiang Mei, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his colleagues developed numerical simulations that can predict wave forces on a given device and the motion of the device that will result. Read more.

CEE researchers Professor Roman Stocker and post-doctoral fellow Justin Seymour have created a microbial ecosystem smaller than a stick of gum that sheds new light on the plankton-eat-plankton world at the bottom of the aquatic food chain. The work, reported in the January print issue of American Naturalist, may lead to better predictions of marine microbes’ global-scale influence on climate. Through photosynthesis and uptake of carbon compounds, diverse planktonic marine microorganisms — too small to be seen with the naked eye — help regulate carbon flux in the oceans. Carbon flux refers to the rate at which energy and carbon are transferred from lower to higher levels of the marine food web, and it may have implications for commercial fisheries and other ocean-dependent industries. The MIT study is one of the first detailed explorations of how sea creatures so small — 500,000 can fit on the head of a pin — find food in an ocean-size environment. Read more.

Graduate student James Vanzo has just been awarded the Marvin E. Goody Award to support his thesis, "Nanochemomechanical Analysis of Cement Paste Subjected to Carbonation." The $5,000 award is given to MIT graduate students in any department whose work explores the bond between good design and good building, extends the horizons of existing building techniques and materials, and fosters links between the academic world and the building industry. Professor Franz Ulm is Vanzo’s thesis advisor. Yaniv Junno Ophir, a graduate student in the Architecture Studies program, also received an award for his thesis, titled "Programmable Space: An AI Approach to Programmatic Organization in Architecture." Members of the award committee are Marilyne Andersen, assistant professor in the Department of Architecture; Professor Yung Ho Chang, head of the Department of Architecture; Professor Herbert Einstein of CEE; and Professor Patrick Jaillet, CEE department head.

Two MIT students, Matt Gethers and Alia Whitney-Johnson, have won prestigious Rhodes Scholarships to study next year at Oxford University in Britain. Whitney-Johnson is a senior in civil & environmental engineering, former Truman Scholar and one of Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women. In 2005, she founded Emerge Global, a non-profit organization that seeks to empower young Sri Lankan mothers - many of them children themselves - made pregnant through rape and incest. Whitney-Johnson plans to continue her education in international development, so that she can expand Emerge Global and found similar organizations elsewhere and has therefore decided to undertake the MSc course in development studies at Oxford's Queen Elizabeth House. Read more.

Anthony Guma, who graduated in June with a master's degree in Real Estate Development, won the MIT Center for Real Estate Alumni Association's best thesis award in September. Professor Richard de Neufville of CEE was Guma’s research and thesis advisor. De Neufville teaches that planners should build flexibility into design, because the function of a building, transit system, airport, etc. may vary substantially over time. In his research project, Guma analyzed how flexibility can allow a developer to take advantage of changes in the real estate market. His thesis, "A Real Options Analysis of a Vertically Expandable Real Estate Development," deals with a 30-story office building in downtown Chicago to which an additional 24 stories are currently being added.

Graduate student Rory Clune is winner of Britain and Ireland’s most prestigious award for science and engineering undergraduates: the GKN Award for the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year. The GKN Award (named for the British engineering firm) is given to the top student out of 15 winners of Science, Engineering & Technology Student (SET) Awards. Clune won the SET award in the mechanical engineering category--Bentley Motors Award for the Best Mechanical Engineering Student--for his undergraduate work at University College Cork on shape optimization of stainless steel coronary stents. He and his research advisor, Denis Keliher, who was named Lecturer of the Year, received their awards at a ceremony in London Sept. 26 attended by more than 500 people. Clune began his graduate study in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in September on an MIT Presidential Fellowship. More information.

Many lives and dollars could be saved if emergency managers could make better decisions when faced with an approaching hurricane. Now, MIT student Michael Metzger, who works with Professor Richard Larson of CEE and the Engineering Systems Division, has developed a computer model that could help do just that. Metzger's software could help emergency managers decide early on whether and when to order evacuations, and to do so more efficiently by evacuating people in stages according to population category. The tool could also help planners optimize the location of relief supplies before a hurricane hits. By analyzing data from 50 years of hurricanes and detailed information on several major ones, and by comparing the information available as a hurricane approached with data from the actual storm's passage, Metzger produced software that provides a scientifically consistent framework for planning. Metzger, who is a research assistant in the Engineering Systems Division and a Ph.D. student in the Operations Research Center, received a second-place award from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for this work. Read more.

Professor Richard de Neufville of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Engineering Systems Division will receive the Francis X. Mc Kelvey Award from the Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Research Council, at its annual meeting in January. The Mc Kelvey Award recognizes individuals whose work has contributed to the betterment of the aviation industry. In this case, it honors de Neufville’s lifelong achievements in education, research and consulting in airport planning, design and management. Read more.

MIT civil and environmental engineering faculty and alumni wrote most of the articles in the summer 2008 issue of the National Academy of Engineering’s quarterly magazine, The Bridge. All dealt with the urgent problems of transportation infrastructure in the United States: defective bridges, congested airports and political obstacles to properly funding a massive national repair effort. Read more.

Professor Richard de Neufville, an expert on risk management in the design of infrastructure, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to participate in a Fulbright German Studies Program held in Berlin and Brussels in June. He joined 15 other U.S. academics to learn about the current German approaches to environment risk and management, in the context of the European Union. On his return, de Neufville said, "I was very impressed by the great concern with the unknown risks associated with new technologies, such as nanotechnology and genetically modified crops, which contrasts with the relative lack of effort on known environmental hazards such as smoking, high speeds on the autobahns and dirty water.” De Neufville, a professor in CEE and the Engineering Systems Division, was the founding chairman of MIT's Technology and Policy Program, which prepares graduate students for leadership roles dealing with major technological issues confronting society.

Ph.D. student David Gonzalez-Rodriguez is recipient of the 2008 School of Engineering Graduate Student Extraordinary Teaching and Mentoring Award, Dean Subra Suresh announced last week.  Gonzalez-Rodriguez also won the CEE Maseeh Award for excellence as a teaching assistant in 2007. Department head Professor Patrick Jaillet said that the Maseeh Award faculty nominations for Gonzalez-Rodriguez were “simply exceptional and represent endorsement of the highest level.” Jaillet said that Gonzalez-Rodriguez not only received extraordinarily high praise as an undergraduate Teaching Assistant, but also as a mentor of fellow graduate students. Read more.

NPR's Joe Palca attended Prochlorococcus Fest, a two-day celebration at MIT honoring the 20th anniversary of the discovery of the marine microbe. The fest featured a range of talks highlighting research on the smallest and most abundant oxygen-producing organism in the oceans. Palca also visited CEE Professor Penny Chisholm's lab and talked with her about the amazing little microbe. Listen to the interview. Read more.

The Global Poverty Initiative (GPI), a group formed by 40 MIT students including environmental engineering major Connie Lu, organized the Millennium Campus Conference, held at MIT April 18 to 20.The conference sponsored a Millennium Challenge Competition for student projects that solve drinking water and sewage problems. The first and second-place teams both have civil and environmental engineering student members, again including Lu and M.Eng. students Vanessa Green and Tamar Losleben. Both teams also were advised by CEE senior lecturer Susan Murcott. Read more.

Dean for Graduate Education Steven R. Lerman, the Class of 1922 Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will become MIT's vice chancellor, effective July 1, Chancellor Phillip L. Clay announced last week. In his role as vice chancellor, Lerman will serve as a full deputy in support of the chancellor on operational issues across all student and education areas for which the chancellor is responsible. Lerman will also continue as dean for graduate education. Read more.

Rafael Bras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who pioneered the field of hydrologic science, is MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award winner for 2008-2009. Bras is "an internationally acclaimed researcher in surface hydrology and hydrometeorology whose work encompasses many aspects of the Earth's water cycle," said Wanda Orlikowski, chair of the Killian Award selection committee, reading from the award citation at the Wednesday, May 21 faculty meeting. Read more.

The MIT Steel Bridge team had a construction time of just 5 minutes at nationals May 24, but suffered a few penalties that contributed to their final cost of $3.8 million. That earned the team a #21 ranking out of 42 competing at the 2008 National Steel Bridge Competition at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Read Quinn Vollmert’s blog entry.

At the CEE awards dinner, the department presented the 23 graduating seniors with diploma frames signed by department head Professor Patrick Jaillet and associate department head Professor Ole Madsen. In turn, the seniors presented technical instructor Stephen Rudolph with cufflinks shaped like a saw and hammer as an expression of their appreciation for his help and mentoring during their three years in the department. Read more.

The MIT chapter of Chi Epsilon welcomed seven new members into its fold April 29 with a dinner at the Faculty Club and a talk by Professor Dee Ann Sanders, the first woman to hold the honor society's elected position of National Council Vice President. Sanders spoke of changes in the engineering field since she was an undergraduate. She recalled often being the only woman student in her classes, and said that engineering courses were taught in a building with no women’s restrooms. All the new MIT members for 2008 are women. Read more.

Professor Edward F. DeLong of the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Biological Engineering was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences today. DeLong, a marine microbiologist whose groundbreaking work on ocean microbes is internationally recognized, will also receive two other major awards this spring, from the European Geosciences Union and the American Academy of Microbiology. Read more.

MIT Professor Dara Entekhabi will lead the science team designing a NASA satellite mission to make global soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements, data essential to the accuracy of weather forecasts and predictions of global carbon cycle and climate. NASA announced recently that the Soil Moisture Active-Passive mission (SMAP) is scheduled to launch December 2012. Read news release.

CEE Senior Lecturer Susan Murcott started a nonprofit enterprise in 2005 to sell a simple, low-cost ceramic water filter system to residents of northern Ghana. The system is designed to remove bacteria, viruses and other hazards from drinking water. Seeking to help people who earn less than $1 a day, Murcott’s company, Pure Home Water, had priced the water filter system at or below cost, so PHW has depended on grants and donations to stay in business. But it turns out the price doesn’t have to be so low, at least according to MIT market research. In January, 15 MIT business and engineering students spent four weeks in Ghana conducting water tests and a survey of people's needs. Read more about the market research and a blog from the January trip to Ghana.

The Engineering School Alumni of the City College of New York (CCNY) have named Professor Joseph Sussman ('61 CCNY; PhD '67 MIT) to receive their 2008 Career Achievement Award. The annual award is given to graduates of the School of Engineering whose career and achievements are a source of pride to the school and to fellow alumni. Sussman, the JR East Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Engineering Systems Division, will receive the award at the group's annual meeting on May 27 in New York City. Sussman's research has focused on large transportation networks and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In February, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to understanding large, complex engineering systems with an emphasis on transportation, freight, and traveler systems, and for pioneering work in transportation systems education. An MIT faculty member for 40 years, he wrote a widely used graduate textbook, “Introduction to Transportation Systems” (Artech House 2000). His latest book is “Perspectives on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)” (Springer 2005).

The Steel Bridge team placed first in construction time and second overall in the regional competition of the ASCE Steel Bridge Competition on Saturday, 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. Northeastern University won first place in the competition with its Warren truss bridge. Scores are measured as a dollar amount, simulating costs for construction, material and robustness over time. Northeastern came in at $3.6M, MIT at $4.6M, and third-place UConn at $4.7M. Junior Lauren Biscombe placed third in the ASCE paper competition with her paper and speech on Infrastructure Privatization. Read team member Quinn Volmert’s account.

Goldfish in an aquarium are able to dash after food flakes at mealtime, reaching them before they sink or are eaten by other fish. Researchers at MIT recently proved that marine bacteria, the smallest creatures in the ocean, behave in a similar fashion at mealtime, using their swimming skills to reach tiny food patches that appear randomly in the ocean blue. Scientists in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering demonstrated for the first time in lab experiments that the 2-micron-long, rod-shaped marine bacterium P. haloplanktis is able to locate and exploit nutrient patches extremely rapidly, thanks to its keen swimming abilities. Read news release.

Amy Mueller and Matt Orosz, graduate students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, recently designed and installed a solar array used to provide hot water to a girls’ dormitory at a rural school in southern Africa. Though the winter temperatures often drop well below freezing at the residential school in Lesotho, students in the dormitories had access to hot water only rarely. Read more.

Research by Professor Moshe Ben-Akiva will be featured in an episode of The History Channel’s "Modern Marvels," scheduled to air Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. The episode, titled “Superhighways,” features a short interview with alumnus Ramachandran Balakrishna (Ph.D. 2006) describing the traffic modeling program, MITSIM. MITSIM simulates traffic the way drivers experience it—cars following each other, changing lanes, braking when the car in front slows down, etc.—and models the drivers’ responses in real-time. For more information about this and other research in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program, see the ITS web site.

Professor Markus Buehler and Ph.D. student Sinan Keten reveal that the strength of a biological material like spider silk lies in the geometric configuration of structural proteins, which have small clusters of weak hydrogen bonds that work cooperatively to resist force and dissipate energy. This structure makes protein-based materials as strong as steel, even though the hydrogen bonds that hold them together are 100 to 1,000 times weaker than the metallic bonds in steel. Read news release.

Professor Elfatih Eltahir has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an honor granted every year to only 0.1 percent of AGU's 50,000 members. Fellows are elected based on their acknowledged eminence in the Earth and space sciences, and their contributions to the scientific community and the advancement of the public's understanding. In his research, Eltahir seeks to advance understanding of the fundamental hydrological processes and mechanisms that govern the role of the biosphere as characterized by vegetative cover and soil moisture conditions, in the dynamics of biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and the associated water cycle at regional scales. Specifically, his work looks at the impact of deforestation and desertification on regional water resources, the predictability of regional-scale droughts and floods, and the regional impacts of global change on water resources, agriculture and ecosystems.

Researchers from MIT and two Singaporean universities met on January 24-25 for an inaugural workshop to launch a bold new international research program, called CENSAM. The program will develop pervasive environmental sensor networks to collect data on parameters such as air and water quality from many sources, and use this data to provide accurate, real-time monitoring, modeling and control of the environment. Read more.

An extensive subway system with lines fanning out in many directions speeds transportation in small, crowded Singapore. On April 20, 2004, during construction for the new Circle line of the subway, a deep excavation suddenly collapsed. The catastrophe killed four people, twisted steel beams, swallowed two construction cranes, and knocked out a substantial chunk of the main highway running over the tunnel. Read more.

Ph.D. student Rebecca Neumann is researching groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. This month, Rebecca is in on site studying the role played by rice fields and ponds in the arsenic contamination problem. Read more.