Embedded Files
BRITE Grant provides opportunity to Pivot
BRITE Grant provides opportunity to Pivot
We're excited about the chance to enhance our understanding of complex microbial communities in the soil supporting civil infrastructure thanks to the Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) Pivot Grant from the National Science Foundation. Read more about it here.
Bon Voyage to Dr. Qianwen Liu
Bon Voyage to Dr. Qianwen Liu
This spring we say good bye to Wen. She has been a positive, supportive, curious, and innovative researcher in our lab for over 5 years. We are sad to see her go, but happy for the adventures ahead.
Recognition for our Wonderful Grad Students
Recognition for our Wonderful Grad Students
Our grad students have had a number of wonderful recognitions this spring, including:
Preparing the Professorate Program: https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/news/2022/four-ccee-ph-d-students-accepted-into-nc-state-graduate-schools-preparing-for-the-professoriate-program/
Outstanding Teaching Assistant: https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/news/2022/ccee-students-receive-recognition-as-outstanding-teaching-assistants/
AAUW International Doctoral Fellowship: https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/news/2022/ccee-ph-d-candidate-nancy-ingabire-abayo-awarded-aauw-international-doctoral-fellowship/
NCSU returns to Geo-Congress
NCSU returns to Geo-Congress
Our CCEE Geotech Group had a wonderful time and showing at ASCE Geo-Congress this year. We had 16 students, five faculty, and a number of alumni gather together. A wonderful celebration at the time away due to COVID. Read more about it here:
https://www.ccee.ncsu.edu/news/2022/sixteen-ccee-students-attend-geo-congress-2022-win-three-awards/
Lab Social
Lab Social
We celebrated the end of the Fall 2021 semester will some fellowship and enjoyed the slightly warmer winter weather.
Qianwen Liu and Zahra Faeli Graduate
Qianwen Liu and Zahra Faeli Graduate
So happy to celebrate these amazing women at graduate today, and happy to be able to hood them in person. They are have a bright future and I can't wait to see their contributions.
Nancy on Director's Cut!
Nancy on Director's Cut!
Find out more about Nancy Ingabure Abayo in Director's cut here.
Director's Cut
Director's Cut
Had a wonderful chat with Brad Keelor, the Director of the ASCE Geo-Institute. Find out why we are laughing here.
Nancy Ingabire Abayo wins 1st Place for Geo-Poster
Nancy Ingabire Abayo wins 1st Place for Geo-Poster
Nancy Ingabire Abayo won the Geo-Institute Student Poster Competition this year! Nancy competed in the virtual competition this year, and took home first place for her work, "Assessing the Influence of Fluvial Geomorphological Variables on Empirical Models of Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading."
Happy Birthday Geo-Institute!
Happy Birthday Geo-Institute!
Enjoy this beautiful video produced by the Geo-Instutute, with a quick cameo from our group!
Congratulations to Nancy Ingabire Abayo!
Congratulations to Nancy Ingabire Abayo!
Nancy Ingabire Abayo won second place in the Departmental 3-Minute Thesis competition. Nancy described “Why the Earth Cracks up” in under 3 minutes and spoke about her research on liquefaction-induced lateral spreading to a broad audience. We're very excited Nancy and her research were recognized through this competition!
Congratualtions to Qianwen Liu!
Congratualtions to Qianwen Liu!
Qianwen Liu won the Thomas Griffin Graduate Award from the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering based on her outstanding research contributions and fellowship to the graduate group.
We are thrilled Wen received this well-deserved award!
A USUCGER Early Career Education Award to Dr. Montoya
A USUCGER Early Career Education Award to Dr. Montoya
Congratulations to Dr. Montoya! She won the 2020 USUCGER Early Career Research Award that was awarded by the US Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) Board.
Evolving Group Meetings
Evolving Group Meetings
Though many of our group meetings have been virtual since March 2020, we have taken some opportunities to meet safely in person (socially distant, masked, and outside). We started the fall semester with an in-person social meeting, and we finished the semester disussing our plans and hopes for the new year as well as a friendly game of bocce. Seeing each other in person, no matter the circumstances, is so cathartic we plan to do more in the future.
Group Meetings during Social Distancing
Group Meetings during Social Distancing
Like many groups these days, our research group has been meeting virutally to stay connected and advance our research. Though it's not as good as in-person meetings, it's great to still work with each other each week and have a little fun. This group picture is from our recent game night.
NCSU at Geo-Congress 2020
NCSU at Geo-Congress 2020
NCSU CCEE was well represented at Geo-Congress 2020 in Minneapolis, MN. Research students, Zahra Faeli, Qianwen Liu, Pegah Ghasemi, and Maria Ramos presented their work at the conference. Drs. Cabas and Montoya also presented recent research. And our we got to catch up with our alumni, Drs. Ashkan Nafisi and Atefeh Zamani. A great conference experience!
Rowshon Jadid on WRAL
Rowshon Jadid on WRAL
Jadid's research was featured on WRAL. The segment covers the highlight's of Jadid's recent published work as well as highlighting the importance of his work for our levee system in North Carolina and across the nation.
Repeated Flooding on Levee Performance
Repeated Flooding on Levee Performance
A recent paper led by Jadid was published and is currently in the news. His work shows that as flood cycles are introduced, plastic strains progressively develop reducing the stability of the levees. This progressive failure is not captured with limit equilibrium approaches, and is becoming more relevant with increased flooding events. You can read his paper here.
Reviewing 2019 and Saying Goodbye to Dr. Jinung Do
Reviewing 2019 and Saying Goodbye to Dr. Jinung Do
We were able to celebrate as a group at the end of 2019. It has been an eventful year for our group. We have had lots of opportunities, like the field site test in North Carolina and work at OSU's Large Wave Flume, as well as many wonderful visitors to our group.
We also had to say goodbye to Dr. Jinung Do. He has been an pivotal part of our group since Fall 2015. He has many new experieneces and opportunities ahead of him, and he will be greatly missed here at NC State.
Dr. Bob Bachus visits NC State's Geotech Group
Dr. Bob Bachus visits NC State's Geotech Group
We were lucky to be able to host Dr. Bob Bachus in our department during his Cross USA lecture series for ASCE Geo-Institute. He shared his valuable time and met with each of our graduate students in small groups to discuss their research and the future of geotechnical engineering. Thank you Bob for sharing your expertise with us.
Bio-cementing a dune at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University
Bio-cementing a dune at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University
As part of a new NSF project, Pegah and Wen, along with our collaborators Dr. Matt Evans and his students, have been working around the clock to bio-cement a dune in the large wave flume at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University. We are looking forward to seeing how the bio-cementation holds up to the wave loading next week!
Update: Wave testing is underway, and Jinung and I have joined Pegah and Wen for the wave testing and post-test forensics. So excited to see the bio-cementation perform so well and many hours of hard work pay off.
Dr. Jinung Do transitions to a Postdoc position
Dr. Jinung Do transitions to a Postdoc position
Jinung Do succesfully defended his doctoral dissertation last month and is beginning his new position as a postdoc in our group and department. We feel lucky to be able to continue to work with him on our bio-cementation and coastal projects. We are also lucky to continue to interact with him and his beautiful family, shown here with his committee after his defense.
Goodbye to Dr. Nafisi
Goodbye to Dr. Nafisi
Ashkan Nafisi had his last day at NCSU. He successfully defended his dissertation, Elucidating the Failure Behavior and Bond Mechanics of Bio-cemented Sands, a few weeks ago, and has wrapped up his remaining work here. We will miss him terribly, but wish him luck with his next phase. Best of luck in DC!
5th NCSU Geotechnical Graduate Student Symposium
5th NCSU Geotechnical Graduate Student Symposium
Our Geo-Institute Graduate Student Organization put on their 5th annual research symposium last Friday, June 7th. We had a mix of student presentations and presentations from local industry. Our keynote speaker was Ben Rivers from FHWA. Thank you to all who have participated and all who continue to support our graduate geotechnical program.
Four CCEE professors receive prestigious teaching awards!
Four CCEE professors receive prestigious teaching awards!
CCEE was well represented at the teaching awards this year. Read all about it here.
Installation of the new Resonant Column
Installation of the new Resonant Column
Dr. Ashly Cabas's new resonant column is being installed this week, and we could not be more excited. We are joining the students for training with the device over the next few days as well. We are looking forward to many years of productive research investigating dynamic properties of soil, cemented soil, and rock.
We even made GDS's News! See the article here.
NCSU Geotechnics at GeoCongress 2019
NCSU Geotechnics at GeoCongress 2019
The geotech faculty and some graduate students attended GeoCongress 2019 in Philadelphia, PA this week. Our students did a wonderful job presenting their work and meeting fellow researchers. A successful conference for all.
Field Work Begins
Field Work Begins
We are excited to begin our field work implementing MICP in a sandy coastal soil. We had a crew from our research group out on site installing different treatment methods to assess effectiveness of approaches in this environment. Pegah Ghasemi has been working hard to prepare for this moment, and it is finally here. We are all very excited, as you can tell below.
Alleviating Coal Ash Spills with MICP
Alleviating Coal Ash Spills with MICP
One of our recent papers about using MICP to treat coal ash slurries is in the news. The news article presents the work done by Shahin Safavi Zadeh, Ph.D., in the broader context that we hope to one day reduce the impacts of coal ash on nearby surface and ground waters.
Our work is also featured in NSF's Science360 News. Check out the video here.
(Update) Our coal ash work is also featured in C&EN.
Students Honored for their Research
Students Honored for their Research
Ph.D. candidate Ashkan Nafisi was selected as the 2018- 2019 recipient of the Vern Case Scholarship provided by the International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC). This scholarship is provided to support a student’s academic and professional goals in the field of civil engineering. Nafisi evaluates the behavior of bio-cemented sand at micro- and macro-scales by conducting triaxial tests and a series of microscale measurements. The scholarship was presented at the annual ADSC meeting in February 2019 in Nassau, Bahamas.
Ph.D. student Rowshon Jadid was a winner of the Student Paper Competition sponsored by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials Committee on Education Outreach in conjunctions with their dam safety conference in September 2018. His paper was titled “Deformation-Based versus Limit Equilibrium Analyses to Assess the Effect of Repeated Rise and Fall of Water Level on the Stability of Princeville Levee.” He characterized the damage level resulting from hurricanes on the stability of the Princeville, NC levee. Jadid’s work informs risk assessment and the development of a rehabilitation program for earth structures. He is working with Drs. Mo Gabr and Brina Montoya.
Assessing Hurricane Florence Impacts with GEER
Assessing Hurricane Florence Impacts with GEER
Dr. Montoya along with several geotech graduate students, Jinung Do, Long Vo, Md (Ahasn) Ahsanuzzaman, and Rowshon Jadid, participated in the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) team to assess the effects of Hurricane Florence across North Carolina. Over a week near the end of September, after most of the flood waters has receded, the NCSU team members visited sites throughout the Neuse and Cape Fear River basins to document observations including dam overtopping and breeches, scour at bridge foundations, slope failures, and highway washouts.
More information about the GEER experience of the NCSU team members can be found here. The Post-Hurricane Florence efforts of the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department can be found here.
Pictured to the right are two students (Jadid and Jinung) assessing the dam breach at Maxwell Mill Pond in Duplin County, NC (top), and the washout of Highway US 421 in Wilmington, NC (bottom).
Find the full GEER Report here.
Ashkan's presentation at B2G Atlanta 2018
Ashkan's presentation at B2G Atlanta 2018
On Sep. 13th, Ashkan Nafisi attended Bio-inspired and Bio-mediated in geotechnics (B2G) conference in Atlanta. The conference theme was multi-scale bio-mediated and bio-inspired geotechnics. Whether as part of field characterization, laboratory testing, numerical simulations, data analysis, subsurface process visualization, technology development or geotechnical education activities, process and behavior understanding at multiple scales is playing an ever increasing role in geotechnical research and practice. It was a great opportunity to meet and talk with people working in this field and learn more about cutting edge research in the bio-inspired field. He presented the experimental portion of a collaborative study evaluating the effect of grain size and shape on the behavior of MICP-treated sands. The corresponding numerical study which was conducted by Dr. Evans’s group at Oregon State University was also presented . The papers will be published and available for download by the end of the year. Stay tuned!
Jinung's presentation at ACEM18 in South Korea
Jinung's presentation at ACEM18 in South Korea
Jinung Do presented his work in South Korea on Aug. 29th at the 2018 World Congress on Advances in Civil, Environmental, and Material Research (ACEM18) with the title, "Debonding of Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation-Stabilized Sand under Axial Compression and Impinging Jet." Researcher from diverse countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and Bangladeshi, among others, shared their ideas regarding innovative soil treatment and geotechnical approaches.
Dr. Leon van Paassen from Arizona State University provided a wonderful mini symposium invited lecture, "A multiscale approach towards improved design and better understanding of bio-based ground improvement methods," and discussed issues associated with implementation, applicable geomaterials, and drawbacks of bio-inspired geotechnics with audience.
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