Page 5 - CEGE Magazine Fall 2022

Family Foundation gave a generous lead gift for the renovation at the direction
of Dick and his wife Faith. They, along with other supporters, effected the renovation of the rock mechanics lab to ensure CEGE students continue to have first-rate facilities. This is the second laboratory facility modernized through the generous giving of Dick and Faith Coleman, the first being the C. Edward Bowers Fluid Mechanics Laboratory.
BOB HOLTZ (BCE and MS 1962) is featured on the Geo-Legends video interview series. While at UMN, Holtz studied with Miles Kersten, who gets a brief mention.
CRAIG JAHREN (BGeoE 1981) passed away in November 2021, at age 63. Jahren worked for many years with the City of Minneapolis.
ROMAN Y.
MAKHNENKO (MS 2009, Ph.D. 2013), Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Urbana Cham- paign, is the founder
of Shield Ukraine, an organization that sends
life-saving medical supplies to Ukraine, where some of his family still live. Makh- nenko recently ran a half-marathon as part of the Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend in Champaign. As he entered Memorial Stadium, his daughters handed him a Ukrainian flag. He held it high as he crossed the finish line. His efforts to help Ukraine were featured in the local paper where he mentioned the importance for the world of not forgetting about the war. He told CEGE, “I am doing my best to help and collect donations.”
DINO XYKIS (BCE 1981, MSCE 1983, Ph.D. 1988) was appointed Interim CEO of Power Solutions International, Inc.,
a company that designs, engineers,
and manufactures emission-certified engines and power systems. Xykis, the company’s Chief Technical Officer, was appointed to the additional role of Interim Chief Executive Officer effective June 1, 2022.
ALWIN C. H. YOUNG (Ph.D. 1975) passed away. Yang Chang Hsin (Alwin Young) was born in Taiwan under
Japanese occupation. He earned
his Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering at
the University of Minnesota where he studied at the St. Anthony Falls Labo- ratory. He worked for Barr Engineering, and then the National Weather Service (NOAA) as a flood forecaster for over 28 years. His family invites gifts to the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory where they are starting a fellowship in his name. Go to https://cse.umn.edu/safl/give; choose General Fund. Near the bottom of the form, check “Make this gift in honor or memory of someone,” and specify your gift in honor of Alwin Young.
Correction: Itasca’s contribution to the project was the neural network, not the sensor. Many thanks to David O. DeGagné for correcting our misstate- ment. ITASCA INTERNATIONAL, INC., won a MN Tek Award for 2021 in the category of Machine Learning. A local construction company asked Itasca to look into the problem of cranes
and similar equipment being prone to toppling when moving over ground of varying deformability. Itasca developed an artificial neural network bundled into a webapp that reads raw data files from in-situ testing equipment and notifies the engineer whether the location is suitable for walking the cranes safely. Dr. Varun, Senior Geomechanics Engineer, and Dr. Jason Furtney, Chief Technical Officer and Senior Engineer, led the effort.
Graduation year correction:
ROBERT KRUSSOW (BCE 2004, PE LEED AP) joined 3M as the Facilities Civil Engineer. He provides civil engineering and project management services to 3M facilities in the U.S. and Canada.
STUDENTS
Minnesota Surveyors and Engi-
neers Society (MSES) awarded 22 scholarships for a total of $44,000
in the 2022-2023 academic year. Awardees from UMN Twin Cities
campus include TESSA EDGE, MADELINE FIDLER, CHANDLER LALLAK, and NOAH STRUCK. BERIT KLEIN also received a scholarship and the high distinction of the Weinel Scholarship Designation.
NOAH GALLAGER (advised by Andy Erickson and John Gulliver) was selected as the winner of the 2022 Richard P. Braun Transportation Scholarship. The scholarship honors Richard P. Braun for his leadership in transportation within MnDOT and for founding CTS. Gallager was honored at the CTS Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon, May 9, 2022, with a plaque and a $1,000 scholarship.
GRANT GOEDJEN, a doctoral candidate co-advised by William Arnold and Paul Capel, is trying to discover what happens to pesticides
in compost. This spring, the Compost Research and Education
Foundation (CREF) awarded him one of their two 2022 Compost Research Scholarships in recognition of his work.
KIMI GOMEZ, advised by Raymond Hozalski, completed her Ph.D. degree on the iternational day of honoring women engineers. Her research on microbial communities that live in the biofilms of drinking water distribution systems will help make our water safer.
PRAMESH KUMAR, advised by Alireza Khani, completed his Ph.D. in April.
His dissertation, titled “Modeling and Design of Integrated Transit Systems with Strategic Passenger Behavior,” develops modeling frameworks to predict strategic passenger behavior
in transit networks and use behavior
in the design and long-term planning
of integrated transit systems. Kumar devised efficient algorithms to solve the proposed models. Numerical exper- iments show that the park-and-ride passengers commuting from suburban regions to Downtown Minneapolis could save around 36 hours every year by employing strategic routing.
JIYONG LEE, a Ph.D. student, studies river flows and works at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. He is featured on a video on the SAFL website, explaining that one of SAFL’s great advantages
is support of an excellent engineering team that can build tools and equip- ment needed for research.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 5