2010 Annual Report - University of Rhode Island

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URITC Researcher of the Year Christopher Baxter By Jessica Buffi URITC Intern The URITC named Christopher Baxter its Researcher of the Year at the 10th Annual Transportation Week Breakfast. Baxter is an associate professor in URI’s Ocean, Civil and Environmental Engineering Departments. He has worked for the University for 10 years. “Chris brings everything to the table. He is a top notch researcher, a great teacher and an excellent colleague who is always willing to consider new opportunities,” said URITC Executive Director Deborah Rosen. “His research in the realm of transportation has been extremely productive and he is highly respected by our transportation partners in industry.” Baxter is recognized for his research achievements in numerous projects involving the liquefaction resistance of silts. The overall goal of the projects is to better understand the behavior of Providence silts under dynamic loading, such as what would occur during pile driving or during an earthquake. “Silts are a difficult material to characterize and underlie much of downtown Providence. As such, they pose a problem for many geotechnical projects in the state,” Baxter explained. “This has been a great Chris Baxter (right) works with students at the URITC’s summer Engineering Academy. Photo by Jessica Buffi opportunity to work on both fundamental research and on a problem that is relevant to practicing engineers in Rhode Island.” Baxter began work on the liquefaction resistance of silts in 2004 through grants provided by the URITC and Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT). One of his studies revealed a relationship between shear wave velocity and cyclic resistance for the Providence silts. “We were able to show that practicing engineers can use standard field-based approaches to evaluate the liquefaction potential of these difficult soils,” Baxter said. When asked his reaction to being named URITC Researcher of the Year, Baxter made sure to credit the people he works closely with for helping him achieve the award. “I am honored to be recognized for my work to the geotechnical engineering community. My success comes from the hard work of my excellent graduate students,” Baxter said. In addition to teaching college students, Baxter conducts learning labs each year at the URITC Engineering Career Day event for high school students. “High school students have very little exposure to engineering and events like Engineering Career Day show the students how concepts in science and math can be used to solve real-world problems,” said Baxter. “My goal is to introduce the students to the study of soils and geotechnical engineering, and to get them enthusiastic about learning.” The subject of Baxter’s current research projects include the settlement of adjacent ground due to pile driving in silts, the cyclic behavior of sands and clays related to offshore wind farms in Rhode Island, the relationship between shear wave velocity and effective stresses at failure for dilatant soils, and the development of load transfer curves for piles in silt. URI Transportation Center -6- 2010 Annual Report
Publications, Presentations & Success Stories For FY2010 (and those not previously reported) Christopher Baxter Volumetric Change of Silts Following Cyclic Loading Publications Baxter, C.D.P., Sharma, M.S.R., Seher, N., and Jander, M. (2010). Evaluation of Liquefaction Resistance of Non-Plastic Silt from Mini-Cone Calibration Chamber Tests, CPT-10, 2nd International Symposium on Cone Testing, 8 pps.; Haffke, Stefanie (2010). Development of Load-Transfer Curves for a Large Diameter Pile in Silty Soil, M.S. Thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, URI. Presentations Baxter, C.D.P. (2010). Unique Relationship between Small Strain Shear Modulus and Effective Stresses at Failure for Dilatant Soils, 2010 Purdue Geotechnical Society Workshop: Making Waves in Geotechnical Engineering, West Lafayette, IN, May 1, 2010; Baxter, C.D.P. (2010). Liquefaction Potential of Non-Plastic Silts, Workshop on the Application of the CPT to Evaluate Soil Liquefaction, Huntington Beach, CA, May 12, 2010. Awards Invited Presentation, 2010 Purdue Geotechnical Society Workshop: Making Waves in Geotechnical Engineering, West Lafayette, IN, May 1, 2010; Invited Presentation, Workshop on the Application of the CPT to Evaluate Soil Liquefaction, Huntington Beach, CA, May 12, 2010. Vinka Craver Phase I- Pervious Pavement Research Facility Presentation Oyanedel-Craver, V., Kohm, S., Singer, R., (2011). “Environmental Implication of Graffiti Removal Techniques”. Transportation Research Board Conference. Washington D.C. James Kroes Port of Davisville Utilization Study: Phase II Presentation Chen, Y., Kroes, J., Mangiameli, P. (2010) “Short Sea Shipping: A Demand Analysis of East Coast Ports”. DSI Annual Meeting - November 2010. Norbert Mundorf Increasing Seatbelt Usage Rate Among High School Students Outreach Norbert Mundorf, URI, and Erika McCormick, Scituate HS (July, 2010). Seatbelt Safety and Distracted Driving for High School Students. Presentation at MADD Team Spirit Event, Bryant College, Smithfield, RI. Reached student leaders from RI High Schools; Norbert Mundorf, URI. Outreach to three RI High Schools (Narragansett, North Kingstown, Scituate) to promote Seatbelt Safety and Distracted Driving prevention. Creating Sustainable Transportation Awareness in Communication Courses Outreach Promoted Sustainable Transportation as part of the innovative Grand Challenges Freshmen teaching initiative at URI (Teaching Module, Group Project). Will be Grand Challenges mentor in 2011/12; Supervised Transportation Related Independent Study projects for Communication Studies students. Manbir Sodhi Transportation for Sustainability: Phase II Publications Husen, T., A Branch and Bound Algorithm for the stochastic replacement problem, M.S. MCISE, URI August 2010; Palau, Ramon, How people read graphs - a preliminary study, M.S., MCISE, URI, August 2010. Presentations Ferguson, James and Sodhi, M., Using simulation for setting terms of performance based contracts, Proceedings of International Conference on Operations Research, Munich, Sept. 2010; Sodhi, M. and McKeon, B., Planning upgrades in complex systems, Proceedings of International Conference on Operations Research, Munich, Sept. 2010; Bussiere, M., Jester, B., Sodhi, M. and Ferguson, J., Using Simulation to Determine Terms of Performance Based Logistics Contracts, Defense Acquisition Conference, Monterey, CA., 2010. Jyh-Hone Wang Studying the Vehicle Headway Issue and its impact on the Slow-Down Effect Publications Song, M., Wang, J.H., Maier-Speredelozzi, V., “Tailgating on Urban Highways and Possible Means to Mitigate Tailgating Behavior,” to appear in the ITE Learned Journal of Transportation, March 2011; Song, M., Wang, J.H., “Studying the Tailgating Issues and Exploring Potential Treatment,” Journal of Transportation Research Forum, Fall 2010. Presentations Song, M., and Wang, J.H., “Assessing Counter-Tailgating Measures Through a Driving Simulation,” to appear in the Proceeding s of the 52nd Annual Transportation Research Forum, March, Long Beach, California, 2011; Song, M., Wang, J.H., “Studying the Tailgating Issues in Rhode Island and Its Treatment,” Proceedings of the 51st Transportation Research Forum, Paper No. 426, p.1-17, March 2010 URI Transportation Center -7- 2010 Annual Report
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2010 Annual Report - University of Rhode Island

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