Page 6 - CEGE Magazine Spring 2017

CEGENEWS CONT ... STUDENTS
UNDERGRADS
travelled to Denver for the national con- ference (pictured); a team competed in the geo-wall competition, which involves speed-building a model wall and testing how well it resists loads.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
PAOLO CELLI (PhD student advised by Stefano Gonella) won second place in the student’s poster com- petition at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the
Society of Engineering Science (SES 2016) for the poster titled “Unraveling metamaterial concepts with reconfigu- rable bricks.”
KATELYN FREESEMAN (PhD 2016, advised by Lev Khazanovich) was named as an Outstanding Student
of the Year by the USDOT University Transportation Centers. Her thesis work was in the area of nondestructive evaluation of concrete pavements and structures. Freeseman is a research engineer in Iowa State University’s Institute for Transportation.
MARIA GARCIA-SER- RANA, a civil engineer- ing PhD student at
the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (advised by John Guilliver), was the recipient of the 2016
Edward Silberman Fellowship, named in honor of the late professor and direc- tor of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory.
MARIA GARCIA-SERRANA, ZEINAB TAKBIRI, ABIGAIL TOMASEK, and ANNE WILKINSON, four PhD stu- dents from the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering (CEGE) and the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL), recently won a series of environmental design com- petitions at the regional and national
level. Their presentation was “A New Tool for the Retrieval of Harmful Algae Concentrations using Multi-Satellite Observations.” The group originally presented at the Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA); after winning, they moved on to the national design competition. They won first place again at the WEFTEC 2016 New Orleans conference, sponsored by the Water Environment Federation (WEF), this past September.
JILL KERRIGAN (advised by Bill Arnold) has been selected as a winner of one of the 2017 Graduate Student Papers by the Division of Environmental Chem- istry of the American Chemical Society. This is the highest award given to stu- dents by the Division of Environmental Chemistry.
KIRA PETERSON (2016, advised
by Paige Novak) and REUBEN VERDOLJAK (2016, advised by Lauren Linderman) were both acknowledged with the CEGE Cale Anger Best Master’s Thesis Award. Verdoljak’s thesis was titled “Application of Sparse Feedback Control Strategies to Civil Structures.” He now works for HGA. Peterson’s topic was “Estrone Removal in Treatment Systems Designed
for Nitrogen Removal.” Peterson’s education and research was funded
by the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). Her outstanding work has also been recognized with the University of Minnesota Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award in Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering and the 2017 Midwest Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award in Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering. Peterson
is an engineer with CDM Smith in Bellevue, Washington.
JUSTIN ANIBAS (CivE), KRISTIN CARL- SON (CivE), MATTHEW KLUTHE (CivE), TYLER OLSEN (EnvE), and RENA WEIS (EnvE), all won scholarships from
the American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota (ACEC/MN). Students are awarded for leadership, involvement, community activities, work experience, academic achievement, and understanding of the consulting engineering profession.
HENRY CROLL (CivE) was featured in CSE’s story “Scholarship helps Student Focus on Career of Providing Clean Water Worldwide.”
The SME student chapter (EMILY ERHART (GeoE), President; Randal Barnes, Faculty Advisor) has had a busy year: They received a $3,000 grant
from the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME); representatives
6 CEGE | CEGE.UMN.EDU