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With the construction of increasingly taller dams, Geotechnical Engineering Assistant Professor Yida Zhang is concerned about the potential effects of soil grain breakage caused by pressure. He recently received a prestigious NSF CAREER award to fund his research on the evolution of grain sizes in dams.

The Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering welcomed four new faculty members for 2023-2024. Meet the team and see why we're so excited about these talented individuals:

University of Colorado Boulder researchers are advancing water resource management in the South Caucasus through a partnership with Deloitte Consulting. Associate Professor Evan Thomas, director of the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience, is the principal investigator on the contract.

The Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) is hosting the first post-Covid RiverWare User Group meeting on August 29-30. The agenda includes presentations by many users on their RiverWare applications including the Bureau of Reclamation on the Colorado River Basin modeling, Bonneville Power on managing the Columbia River Basin, the International Boundary and Water Commission on binational management of the Rio Grande, the Tribal Water Settlement in Oklahoma and the Cooperative management of the Nile River.

Structural Engineering Professor Mija Hubler and her team of researchers and partners are developing a technology that infuses concrete with self-repair capabilities found in living organisms. The project has landed a $10 million Department of Defense grant.

Water Resources Associate Professor Aditi Bhaskar is studying a lesser-known consequence of irrigation efficiency: the potential reduction in streamflow, which could have implications for urban stream health, recreation and downstream users.

Associate Professor Wil Srubar has been nominated for the 2023 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award for his research re-imagining sustainable building materials. His lab conducts major research into biomimetic and living materials that have the potential to drastically reduce environmental pollution caused by construction activities around the globe.

Professor John Z. Zhai, a building systems engineering and indoor air quality expert, received a Fulbright Fellowship to investigate indoor air quality (IAQ) in affordable housing in hot, humid climates, exploring both technical aspects and the impact of cultural practices.

Building Systems Professor Moncef Krarti emphasizes the importance of adapting "smart" technologies to people's needs for increased acceptance and usage.

In this CU Engineering (CUE) Magazine cover story, Kellisha Ostler (CivEngr’22) attributes her early career success to two partnerships. She was a student in the Colorado Mesa University-91ÊÓƵ Engineering Partnership Program, as well as a Kiewit Design-Build Scholar.