Annual Report Year 2010 - Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROGRAM AREAS
Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management
Faculty recognition, research efforts highlight eventful year
The Vecellio Construction Engineering and
Management program has had an eventful
year. The highlights include: the retirement of
Michael C. Vorster, now the David Burrows
Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental
Engineering; the faculty hire of Mani Golparvar-Fard
from the University of Illinois
(see new faculty section); the hosting of the
Construction Engineering Conference at the
Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference
Center (see sidebar story); the 2010 Vecellio
Distinguished Lecture presented by Michael C.
Vorster (see sidebar story); and the induction
of Jesus M. de la Garza into the National
Academy of Construction.
Four undergraduate Vecellio Scholarships and
one graduate Vecellio Fellowship were awarded
to highly qualified students who have demonstrated
leadership potential and an interest in
pursuing a career in the construction industry.
These students who were formally recognized
during the proceedings of the Vecellio Distinguished
Lecture are: Katherine Rios, William L.
Carter, Nicholas Fugaro, Brennen Halvorson,
and Stephen Rodgers.
To help bring all these initiatives to fruition,
Sandy Simpkins continues to provide unwavering,
essential, and extraordinary administrative
support to our program, students, and faculty.
As for news from the VCEMP faculty, the following
paragraphs showcase their activities.
Jesus M. de la Garza, the Vecellio Professor
in Construction Engineering and Management,
has been elected to the National Academy
of Construction (NAC). W.A. Brubaker, the
academy’s president, wrote, “Initially conceived
in 1998 … the NAC is a select organization of
distinguished leaders widely recognized for their
outstanding achievements in and contributions
to the engineering and construction industry.
Election follows a peer-nomination and clearance
procedure culminating with ballot vote
by the entire academy of 119 members at this
time.”
de la Garza is also a member of the National
Research Council’s Board on Infrastructure and
the Constructed Environment which advises the
executive and legislative branches of government
and the private sector on questions of
technology, science, and public policy; and,
the relationship between the constructed and
natural environments and their interaction with
human activities.
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
and the Virginia Department of Transportation
(VDOT) fund his research. It focuses on
highway infrastructure maintenance through
his leadership of the Center for Highway Asset
Management ProgramS (CHAMPS) www.
champs.eng.vt.edu.
He traveled to Nottingham, England to present
his research on optimization of highway
maintenance renewal strategies to the International
Society for Computing in Civil and
Building Engineering and the European Group
for Intelligent Computing in Engineering.
He also taught three courses, “Construction
Management,” “Construction Control Techniques,”
and “Schedule Impact Analysis.” de la
Garza chairs the construction industry institute’s
academic committee and is the associate editor
of the American Society of Civil Engineers’
(ASCE) Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management. He serves as the faculty advisor to
the Construction Management Association of
America student chapter in the Myers-Lawson
School of Construction.
Michael J. Garvin had a productive year in
teaching, research, scholarship, and service. He
taught the graduate courses, “Preconstruction
Planning” and “Facility Delivery and Financing
Strategies” in the fall and the undergraduate
course, “Construction Management” to over
130 students in the spring. He concluded work
on his NSF CAREER Award that supported
research in the area of infrastructure programming,
financing, and delivery. Five students completed
their Ph.D.’s with support from this award
and are now working in academia/industry or
pursuing postdoctoral opportunities.
Garvin also completed a project for VDOT
investigating risk allocation and contract provisions
in design-build contracts, and began a new
project with VDOT to develop economic and
financial analysis tools for Public-Private Transportation
Act projects.
Garvin published his second book chapter,
two journal papers with a third forthcoming,
three conference proceedings and two book
reviews. He also spoke about infrastructure
public-private partnerships at the American
Road and Transportation Builders Association’s
21st Annual Public-Private Ventures Conference
and the Transportation Research Board’s 89th
Annual Meeting. He continues to serve on the
editorial boards of the Journal of Infrastructure
Systems and Public Works Management & Policy
and act as a specialty editor for the Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management.
Garvin was also quite active in the affairs
of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction
during his first year as associate director where
he supported the ABET accreditation of the
bachelor of science in construction engineering
and management degree.
Mani Golparvar-Fard – See article in the
New Faculty section, page 8.
Sunil Sinha had a productive year in teaching,
research, scholarship, and service. He taught
the graduate courses, “Infrastructure Asset
Management” and “Information Technology”
for construction in the fall and the spring,
respectively.
Sinha will be directing two new research
projects to develop a web-based national pipeline
infrastructure database. Information will be
gathered on technologies to assess the condition
as well as the location of the buried pipes, and
on methods of how to repair, rehabilitate, or
replace them entirely.
Sinha is conducting this research through the
See Construction, page 19
18 | VIA REPORT | 2010