BUILD Magazine announced the School of Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE) in Oregon State University’s College of Engineering as a winner of the 2017 Women in BUILD Awards.
In announcing the awards, BUILD Magazine describes the build industry as traditionally male dominated, but in recent years’ women have come to the forefront, working hard to create innovative projects.
This is the second year BUILD Magazine coordinated the Women in BUILD awards.
“We were pleased to learn that CCE has been selected for this award, as it recognizes the hard work of our faculty and staff in recruiting and retaining a more diverse community,” said Jason Weiss, head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering and the Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering. “One of the four strategic goals of the College of Engineering is related to developing and sustaining an inclusive and collaborative community. While this award recognizes progress, we remain focused on continuing to make progress toward this goal.”
Between 2013 to 2017, the female population in the CCE graduate student body increased by approximately 6.5 percent, spurred in large part by support from the University Graduate Laurels Block Grant program. The program provides scholarships to assist a diverse population of highly qualified students.
Weiss added, “CCE has been fortunate to have strong support from the College of Engineering and OSU ADVANCE — a program aimed at increasing the participation and advancement of women in science and engineering — and we have been able to hire exceptional faculty as the program has grown substantially over the last decade.”
An outcome of this growth can be seen in a three-fold increase in the female faculty in CCE as compared to four years ago.
Recent hires include Erica Fischer, assistant professor of structural engineering, Jihye Park, assistant professor of geomatics, and Yelda Turkan, assistant professor of construction engineering management. Fischer’s research interests revolve around innovative approaches to improve the resilience and robustness of structural systems affected by natural and man-made hazards. Park focuses on advanced algorithms that are used to improve the performance of positioning and navigation systems under harsh environments. Turkan’s interests are centered on the areas of sensing, automation, and information technology for construction engineering and management, infrastructure asset management, and transportation.
In Fall 2018, Meagan Wengrove will join the faculty as an assistant professor of coastal and ocean engineering and Barbara Simpson as an assistant professor structural engineering.
Discussing the awards, Jessie Wilson, coordinator, commented: “The 2017 Women in BUILD Awards are designed to reward women who … work tirelessly to ensure the built environment meets society’s needs. I am exceptionally proud of my winners and would like to wish them even greater success going forward.”
Learn more about the award.