The College of Engineering at Oregon State University is poised to strengthen its already substantial efforts in ensuring communities in Oregon and beyond have access to clean water, thanks to two new faculty appointments made possible by support from the college’s wider community.
Oregon State University’s College of Engineering is the nation’s seventh-largest engineering college and a proven leader in research, with impacts that extend statewide, regionally, nationally, and globally. Research conducted here expands knowledge and creates use-inspired solutions in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, sustainable energy, high-performance computing, resilient infrastructure, and health-related engineering.
College of Engineering researchers are playing prominent roles in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s $435 million program to make the nation’s transportation system safer, more innovative, and more efficient.
The program funds 34 university transportation centers, or UTCs. Each center comprises a consortium of researchers from a number of universities and is tasked with conducting research and technology transfer in its assigned topic area. The centers will also help to develop the next generation of transportation professionals.
A group of College of Engineering researchers has been awarded the J. James R. Croes Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The Croes Medal is awarded to the authors of one of the top two papers among the approximately 7,000 papers published in 35 ASCE technical journals and numerous conference proceedings every year. The awardees’ paper, titled, "Probabilistic Structural System Response to Differential Settlement Resulting from Spatially Variable Soil," was published in the February 2022 issue of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.
To increase opportunities for engineering students planning to join the construction industry, the College of Engineering joined forces in 2021 with the OSU Foundation, the Construction Education Foundation, key donors, and construction industry advocates to create the Construction Industry Empowerment Scholarship Program. The program provides a three-year, $30,000 commitment to fund high-achieving, first-generation engineering students committed to joining the construction industry and who face significant financial need, starting in their second year.
Brian Staes grew up in hurricane-prone Florida. His father is a roadway design engineer. His mother, who serves as associate director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida, was recently appointed to the federal Transit Advisory Committee for Safety by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
By now, most diehard Beavers fans know that Mike Hass, B.S. civil engineering ’06, was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame — one of only three Oregon State players who have earned the high honor. The path he took to get there could have gone straight through Hollywood.
Open with a scene of Mike and his wife, Rebecca, on their honeymoon in Jamaica, relaxing after dinner and gazing out over the Caribbean. That’s when Scott Barnes, Oregon State’s athletic director, called to tell them about the hall of fame.
When asked why she has focused her career on water, Meghna Babbar-Sebens has a simple answer: “Water is life.”
Clean water is precious in India, where she grew up. According to a recent report by the World Bank, India contains 18% of the world’s population, but just 4% of the world’s water resources.
For decades, scientists have predicted sea-level rise as a major outcome of the warming climate, bringing with it significant impacts to coastal communities. Yet, accurately predicting how quickly and by how much the world’s oceans will rise remains challenging because of many complex factors controlling how glaciers and sea ice melt.
During the last week of March, six construction engineering management (CEM) students in the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America student chapter traveled to Puerto Rico with 26 others from eight Oregon State University colleges. Working in conjunction with Puerto Rico’s land grant university, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, the group performed service projects in areas that directly benefited those living under difficult conditions after the devastating hurricane of September 2017.
