Annual Report Year 2009 - Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROGRAM AREAS
VECELLIO CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT
Lectures highlight eventful year for VCEMP
20 | VIA REPORT | 2009
The Vecellio Construction Engineering
and Management Program
(VCEMP) has had an eventful year.
The highlights include: the CH2M Hill
Distinguished Lecture in the spring semester
presented by Brendan Owens
(see sidebar story, page 22) of the U.S.
Green Building Council; the recognition by
the Construction Industry Institute (CII) as
the 2009 CII Curriculum Partner, recognizing
the incorporation of CII research findings
within curricula; and the 2009 Vecellio
Distinguished Lecture in the fall semester
presented by Paul E. Torgersen (see
sidebar story, page 22).
Six undergraduate Vecellio Scholarships
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: Joseph Arcella,
Shane Cochran, Arsalan Heydarian, Jeffrey
Smith, Zachary Stutts, and William
Tartaglia.
To help bring all these initiatives to
fruition, Sandy Simpkins has provided
essential and extraordinary administrative
support to the 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, received the College of
Engineering Dean’s Award for Teaching
Excellence and CII’s Distinguished Professor
award.
He is member of the National Research
Council’s Board on Infrastructure and the
Constructed Environment (BICE) and just
published the report on “Sustainable Critical
Infrastructure Systems: A Framework
for Meeting 21st Century Imperatives.”
de la Garza’s research is funded by the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the Virginia Department of Transportation
(VDOT) and focuses on highway infrastructure
maintenance through his leadership
of the Center for Highway Asset Management
ProgramS (CHAMPS).
He traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to present
his research on RFID technology for
highway infrastructure to the CIB Task
Group 78. He also taught three courses,
namely, construction management, construction
control techniques, and schedule
impact analysis.
de la Garza chairs CII’s Academic
Committee and is the associate editor of
ASCE’s Journal of Construction Engineering
and Management. He serves as the
faculty advisor to the Construction Management
Association of America (CMAA)
student chapter in the Myers-Lawson
School of Construction.
Michael J. Garvin was appointed as
the associate director of the Myers-Lawson
School of Construction in early summer
of 2008. (See related article, page 4.)
In this role, he will focus upon the school’s
academic and organizational affairs.
He also was appointed to Federal Highway
Administration’s (FHWA) Expert Task
Group on Public-Private Partnerships in
the spring.
Garvin taught two courses in common
core graduate curriculum in the
Myers-Lawson School of Construction,
Preconstruction Planning and Facilities
Integration. He also once again taught
construction management to nearly 130
undergraduates in the spring.
Garvin had another productive year in
the area of scholarship. He had a book
chapter accepted for publication, one
paper published in an archival journal,
and three papers published in conference
proceedings.
He was also the primary author and
report facilitator for the FHWA/AASHTO
report entitled “Public-Private Partnerships
for Highway Infrastructure: Capitalizing on
International Experience.”
He made presentations at the AASHTO
Subcommittee on Construction’s annual
meeting and TRB’s annual meeting regarding
the findings from this report.
He was also a plenary speaker at the
2008 Specialty Conference on Leadership
and Management in Construction, sponsored
by CIB Task Group 64 and ASCE’s
Construction Research Council.
Garvin continues his NSF CAREER
award research efforts to develop decision
support systems to improve how infrastructure
projects are programmed, financed,
and delivered. One Ph.D. student
and three M.S. students were supported
by this award graduated this past year.
He also began a research project with
VDOT to investigate risk allocation and
contract provisions in design-build contracts.
Sunil Sinha’s research group continues
to develop a national and international
reputation in the area of sustainable water
infrastructure management system.
Sinha is co-director of the Center of
Excellence (ICE) in Sustainable Water
Infrastructure Management (SWIM).
Currently, he has several ongoing
research projects, funded by the NSF,
EPA, WERF, and industry and all related
to the water infrastructure system.
He is also working closely with
international research institutions working
in the areas of water infrastructure such
as CSIRO, Australia; NRC, Canada;
University of Birmingham, U.K.; and
SINTEF, Norway.
During the past year he taught two
graduate level courses, Infrastructure
Asset Management and Information
Technology (IT) in Construction.
Sinha’s research group currently
consists of one post-doc, three doctoral
and seven master’s students.
In February 2009, Sinha and his
graduate student Raj Kola visited
Washington Suburban Sanitary
Commission (WSSC) in Laurel, Md.,
to investigate the failure mode and
mechanism of large diameter water prestressed
concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP).
Sinha was featured as an expert
on water infrastructure on the History
Channel’s news special on America’s
Continued on next page