CIVIL & CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING

BIG BEAM TEAM SHINES IN COMPETITION

In October, the Construction Engineering Management (CEM) program turned 50. In celebration of this landmark anniversary, alumni and friends of CEM participated in two days of special events including a distinguished lecture presentation, barbecue, lab tours, and anniversary reception. Originally named Civil Engineering Technology, the Oregon State University Construction

Engineering Management program began during the 1966-1967 school year within the College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering. While many contributed to the growth and success of the program, three faculty members – Harold D. “Hal” Pritchett, Robert E. “Bob” Phelps, and George B. LaBaun – provided foundational support in its development. Along with numerous civil engineering

faculty and construction industry representatives, Pritchett, Phelps, and LaBaun helped shape CEM into the premier education and research program it is today. In honor of their efforts, the school dedicated a special display – funded by Mike (’76) and Terri Phelps – with a bas relief of Pritchett, Phelps, and LaBaun. Additionally, the new installation features an interactive kiosk where alums can view historical photos and class composites – which is already a main attraction in Kearney Hall.

IN THIS ISSUE

CCE NEWSFALL 2016

CEM 50TH ANNIVERSARY

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTKamilah Buker shares her experiences at OSU.

DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIESJosh Bone delivers third lecture in series.

NEW LABORATORY IMPROVEMENTSOSU invests $2M in upgrades.

IN MEMORIUM

OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH GRANTGrant will fund research toward improved maritime safety.

CEF GOLF TOURNAMENT

Oregon State earned third place among competitors throughout North America at the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Big Beam Contest. The contest objective is for student teams to fabricate and test a precast/prestressed concrete beam with the help of local PCI members. The beam must be made primarily of concrete without any trusses, arches, or other non-flexural members. Prizes are awarded to the top 20 performers in consideration of efficient design, highest load capacity, and other categories. Team members this year include: Tyler Oathes, Cody Tibbits, Neil Schweitzer, Taylor Kiefel, Anh Nguyen, and Jonathan Kopp with faculty advisor Keith Kaufman, and PCI producer Knife River - Prestress of Harrisburg, Ore.Congratulations to the students on an outstanding performance and thank you to PCI producer Knife River for your continued support of student learning at Oregon State.

CIVIL & CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING

CEM PROGRAM CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE

Professor Emeritus Harold “Hal” Pritchett addresses guests at the dedication of a new display in honor of the Construction Engineering Management program’s 50th anniversary on Friday, Oct. 14.

VIEW ALUMNI STORIES ON FACEBOOKNew! This fall, the School of Civil and Construction Engineering launched Beavers Build, a new social media campaign on Facebook. Beavers Build tells stories of our alumni and their recent projects. Follow us on Facebook to learn more.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

School of Civil & Construction EngineeringSchool of Civil & Construction EngineeringCollege of EngineeringOregon State University101 Kearney HallCorvallis, OR 97331

cce.oregonstate.edu

facebook.com/oregonstatecce

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: KAMILAH BUKER 2016 MARKS YEAR OF MAJOR UPGRADES IN LABS AND FACILITIES

JOSH BONE PRESENTS THIRD LECTURE IN SERIES

WHY OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY?I chose OSU because I was looking to stay within the state and knew I wanted to study engineering. When I visited the university, I was sold. The campus was beautiful and the people were very friendly. I could see myself studying there for the next four years.

HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING?I became interested in transportation engineering after my summer internship at David Evans and Associates, Inc. I was able to help in a wide range of transportation projects and learned about the diversity of the field. I chose a career path in Transportation Engineering because I have always had a passion for problem solving. With the progression of technology and a rapidly increasing

domestic population, traffic issues will continue to develop and efficient and economical solutions will need to be discovered.

DESCRIBE YOUR RESEARCH. My current topic of research is the improved safety and efficiency of Protected/Permitted Right Turns in Oregon. The goal of my project is to develop an understanding of the safety and operational implications of using the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) to indicate a permitted right-turn, and to provide general guidance as to when Protected/Permitted Right-Turn (PPRT) phasing should be used to maximize the safety of non-motorized road users and the overall efficiency of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) signalized intersections.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOLLOWING GRADUATION?After graduation I hope to move to Portland and work at an engineering firm with a focus in transportation engineering.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY?I enjoy the small town atmosphere and the easy access to nature. I enjoy running and hiking and like having the ability to easily access places such as Avery Park and Baldhill Natural Area.

Jean Richardson ’49, the first woman to earn a civil engineering degree from Oregon State, has passed away at age 88. Upon graduation, Richardson worked for an engineering firm for a month without pay to prove herself before being hired for pay. She ended her career working for the city of Portland on the Columbia River sewage treatment plant and paved the way for other women in civil engineering.David Hatch passed away unexpectedly on September 20. Hatch received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering in 1976 and 1978 respectively, and also taught for the Transportation Research Institute at Oregon State. He worked for the City of Portland as a project engineer and district engineer. Hatch, who started the American Indian Science and Engineering Society student chapter at Oregon State in 1981, also served as a Tribal Councilman for the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians of Oregon.

IN MEMORIUM

As part of the CEM 50th anniversary celebration on Friday, Oct. 14, Josh Bone of JBKnowledge presented his talk, “Construction Technology – Accelerated Change” to approximately 400 guests at the LaSells Stewart Center. The lecture was the third presentation of the CCE Distinguished Lecture Series, presented by the AGC Oregon-Columbia Chapter Foundation with support from the Construction Education Foundation. This lecture introduced attendees to the fast-paced world of construction technology and described how tools such as augmented and virtual reality along with 3D printing, robotics, and drones are changing how we design and build. Save-the-date of April 13, 2017 for the next presentation in the series.

Josh Bone, BIM services manager at JBKnowledge.

HALLER RECEIVES $1.4 MILLION OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH GRANTMerrick Haller, professor of coastal and ocean engineering and associate head of graduate affairs, has been awarded a 5-year, $1.4 million research grant from the Office of Naval Research to investigate hazardous tidal currents in coastal inlets. Under the grant, “MINERS: Multiple Inlet & Estuary Remote Sensing,” Haller and David Honegger, postdoctoral scholar in the Nearshore Remote Sensing Group, will collect radar observations at seven inlets and estuaries across the U.S. for the purpose of better understanding the dynamic current fronts that develop on the ebbing and flooding tides and how they impact the U.S. Navy’s undersea acoustics operations.

“This is an exciting project for us for several reasons,” said Haller. “Navigational inlets are dynamic places that are often dangerous for fishing boats and cargo ships, so our observations will contribute to improved maritime safety. The U.S. Navy is also interested in these data because they show how fresh water coming out of the estuaries interacts with the salty ocean water forming internal tidal bores. These highly turbulent features are hazards to underwater vehicles and disrupt underwater acoustic communication systems.”

CEF GOLF TOURNAMENTRAISES $38,000On Friday, Sept. 23, the annual CEF Golf Tournament – now in its 29th

year – raised $38,000 to support scholarships, job-placement assistance programs, professional associations, and faculty support for the CEM program. Thank you, sponsors:

In 2016, CCE made substantial improvements in laboratories and new equipment with nearly $2 million in upgrades. Through a cooperative research agreement, CCE acquired a new mobile lidar system from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The system, which is mounted on a vehicle, uses several advanced technologies including GNSS, inertial measurement unit, camera arrays, and 3D laser scanners to map locations around roadways at highway speeds.“The system is highly versatile and can be utilized throughout many applications including asset management, construction documentation, safety evaluations, visibility analyses, or determining clearances,” said Michael Olsen, associate professor of geomatics. “It is a unique opportunity for students at Oregon State to access state-of-the-art technology.”Also this year, CCE constructed a free standing space in the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory for the Driving and Bicycling Research Laboratory. The space provides several functional improvements over the previous location including climate control, sound insulation, and isolated areas for the driving simulator, bicycling simulator, and interview room. Additionally, the lab upgraded the simulation hardware and software and added a new data acquisition system. “Collectively, these advancements greatly improved the fidelity of our simulators and will contribute to improved experimental designs and the associated research findings,” said David Hurwitz, associate professor of transportation engineering.In another move, the Asphalt Materials Performance Laboratory relocated to a spacious area in the Oak Creek Building. “We received new test equipment at the Oak Creek space, which is capable of conducting nearly all cracking and rutting experiments for asphalt materials,” said Erdem Coleri, the John and Jean Loosley Faculty Fellow and assistant professor of infrastructure materials. “The lab also purchased a new roller compactor, which can simulate field asphalt pavement compaction.”In addition to acquiring equipment, Coleri and his research group developed two field test devices, the Oregon Field Tack Coat Tester and Oregon Field Toque Tester, which evaluate the long-term performance and bond strength of tack coats without destructively removing core samples from the roadway.At the Infrastructure Materials Research Laboratories, there is a new 12-channel acoustic emission system that can record data at 40MHz across each channel simultaneously. This system is currently used to investigate concrete mixtures for oxy-chloride damage, a type of chemical attack that can occur on concrete through the application of de-icing

salts. High precision concrete electrical resistivity measurements can be obtained at a variety of temperatures via a custom designed temperature chamber. Up to seven samples can be measured nearly simultaneously at a range of temperature from -15C to 80C.Through these improvements and more, CCE is driving breakthroughs that will change the world and expose students to cutting edge technology before they enter the workforce.

Jason WeissHead of the School of Civil and Construction EngineeringThe Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in EngineeringDirector of the Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Research

This fall marked a golden anniversary for our school. The CEM program turned 50 and it was a joy to connect with friends of CEM at two days

of special events. I’m pleased to report that our program grows stronger each year. Today, 92 percent of CEM graduates enter full-time employment immediately upon graduation with an average annual starting salary of $60,046.

As part of the CEM 50th anniversary celebration, we heard a lively and informative lecture from Josh Bone of JBKnowledge who took guests on a tour of the future of construction. I hope that you can take advantage of this opportunity to hear from leaders of industry and join us in April for the next presentation of the CCE Distinguished Lecture Series.

In this newsletter you’ll learn about some of the recent improvements in our facilities and laboratories with nearly $2 million in upgrades. Thanks to these major enhancements, our school can advance research that will change the world and our students will gain exposure to cutting edge technology before they enter the workforce.

Now in my second year at Oregon State, I’m continually impressed by how well our students perform in many different competitions. Our students don’t excel in just one category; they shine across the board – and most recently in the national Big Beam competition.

Each day, I see our students acquiring the knowledge and valuable experiences they need to become the next generation of leaders in civil and construction engineering – following in the footsteps of many remarkable alumni.

FROM THE SCHOOL HEAD

Andersen ConstructionFortis Construction, Inc.Turner Construction of PortlandKnife RiverHamilton Construction CompanyPerlo ConstructionOEGP&C ConstructionCalPortland

CochranGerding Builders, LLCL&M Industrial FabricationMcGuire and HesterSierra Nevada Construction, Inc.SITECHSkanskaSwinerton BuildersW.R. Gamble Engineering

SCHOOL OF CIVIL & CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING

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