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7/18/2024
Xianbiao "XB" Hu, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State with a Larson Transportation Institute (LTI) affiliation, shared his transportation engineering expertise with President Neeli Bendapudi and others at a visit to LTI’s test track on June 29. Penn State News spoke with Hu about his research and some of his recent and ongoing projects that address emerging transportation issues affecting drivers in Pennsylvania.
7/18/2024
As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State researchers suggests that excess runoff or increased erosion can be easily mitigated — if these “solar farms” are properly built.
7/11/2024
The Institute of Energy and the Environment has announced an update to its research themes. The change is to better align three of the research themes with the energy and environmental research being done at Penn State, and with efforts to recognize the importance of community and justice.
6/27/2024
Six College of Engineering baccalaureate graduates have been selected for the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP). Four engineering graduates were also named honorable mentions for the NSF-GRFP.
6/7/2024
A pair of researchers from Penn State’s Department of Civil and Environment Engineering analyzed the composition of mussels downstream of a wastewater treatment facility in Western Pennsylvania that had accepted and treated fracking wastewater, and found that the tissue and shells of mussels contained radium.
6/6/2024
Six interdisciplinary research teams with investigators from the College of Engineering have been awarded funding through the?Institute of Energy and the Environment’s Seed Grant Program for 2024.
5/7/2024
Li Li, the Barry and Shirley Isett Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, is the inaugural recipient of the Institute of Energy and the Environment’s Person of the Year Award. The award celebrates an exceptional researcher whose accomplishments in energy or environmental research have yielded notable successes over the past year.
5/3/2024
In 2020, the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation committed $15.5 million to create the A. James Clark Scholars Program in the College of Engineering to support high-achieving engineering students with significant financial need. This spring, the first cohort of A. James Clark Scholars will graduate from the Penn State College of Engineering.
5/2/2024
The latest episode of Growing Impact discusses how thawing Arctic permafrost is affecting rivers and communities in the region. With temperatures rising globally due to climate change, landscapes in the Arctic are evolving. A Penn State research team is investigating how thawing permafrost will change Arctic rivers and the consequences for erosion, sediment transport, and ultimately, communities.
4/25/2024
The Penn State College of Engineering has named its student marshals for the spring 2024 commencement ceremony.
4/18/2024
Penn State’s Climate Consortium awarded funding to hold workshops to three researchers from the Penn State College of Engineering, including Zoubeida Ounaies, professor of mechanical engineering, director of the Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems and associate director of the Materials Research Institute; Christine Kirchhoff, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and of law, policy and engineering; and James Mutunga, assistant research professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation.
4/12/2024
Xiaofeng Liu, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, was named a fellow of the Environmental & Water Resources Institute.
4/4/2024
Eight College of Engineering graduate students were among the forty Penn State graduate students named recipients of Penn State’s most prestigious annual graduate student recognition awards.
3/11/2024
Five Penn State College of Engineering graduate students have been selected for the final round of the inaugural Penn State Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
2/26/2024
Alaska needs an estimated 27,500 new housing units over the next 10 years to alleviate overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, according to the Alaska Housing Foundation Corporation. A Penn State interdisciplinary team that includes researchers from the College of Engineering is looking to alleviate some of that stress with a $376,000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant.
2/19/2024
The Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, housed in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State, will host two concurrent conferences on March 27-28 at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center, with two full days of educational panels, talks, exhibits and events.
2/7/2024
Lauren McPhillips, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and of agricultural and biological engineering, was quoted in an article published by The New Republic. The article discussed the importance of addressing aging drain and sewer systems as climate change accelerates.
2/2/2024
The latest episode of "Growing Impact" explores the connection between the expansion of solar energy and land use. To meet net-zero emissions by 2050, it is estimated that the U.S. would need to devote 0.5% of its land to achieve that goal through solar energy. That is nearly 16,000 square miles or about a third of the state of Pennsylvania.
1/24/2024
Vikash Gayah, interim director of the Penn State Larson Transportation Institute and professor of civil engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was featured in the NPR podcast Planet Money.
1/18/2024
A mechanical engineering alumnus honored his late brothers and their Coal Region roots through an $800,000 gift to establish a scholarship in the College of Engineering. The Robert, John, and Edward Mitchell Family Endowed Scholarship Fund in the College of Engineering will help engineering students who hail from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region – or Schuylkill, Carbon, Columbia and Northumberland Counties – in their pursuit to become engineers.
11/20/2023
At its annual awards ceremony, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) recognized engineering faculty, staff and alumni members for outstanding teaching, research, advising and service.
10/26/2023
The Graduate School at Penn State welcomed 20 new National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipients for the 2023-24 academic year. Five College of Engineering graduate students received the fellowship, and two engineering graduate students were recognized as honorable mentions.
10/24/2023
A new study co-authored by Christine Kirchhoff, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and of law, policy and engineering at Penn State, details why individuals are more likely than governments to implement actions to adapt to climate change.
10/11/2023
Nine newly tenured or promoted faculty members in the College of Engineering were asked to select a book title for the University Libraries’ permanent collection and to submit a personal statement explaining why they chose that book.
10/5/2023
The Graduate School at Penn State recognized 114 students as recipients of the 2023-24 University Graduate Fellowships and Distinguished Graduate Fellowships, including 22 students from the College of Engineering.
10/4/2023
Theresa Weston, founder of The Holt Weston Consultancy and a building science research professional specializing in the durability and energy efficiency of buildings, will deliver the 2023 Hankin Distinguished Lecture on November 1 at 4 p.m.
10/4/2023
A group of Penn State students recently traveled to Australia as part of a partnership between Penn State and Monash University to conduct research aimed at better understanding sources of decreased water quality in watersheds, in addition to finding possible solutions.
10/2/2023
Christine Kirchhoff, associate professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation and of civil and environmental engineering, discusses her research into the implementation of solar power at wastewater treatment plants on the latest episode of "Growing Impact," a podcast by Penn States' Institute of Energy and the Environment.
9/29/2023
A video that highlights the work a Penn State team is doing to?3D print houses that can sustain life on Mars?is featured in a new $8.5 million core exhibit opening Nov. 4 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
9/14/2023
Li Li, Barry and Shirley Isett Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was quoted in an article by Newsweek. In the article, Li discusses her recent research that found rivers are warming and rapidly losing oxygen, which may lead to “acute death” in rivers across the southern regions of the U.S.
9/14/2023
Rivers are warming and losing oxygen faster than oceans, according to study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study, led by Li Li, Isett Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, shows that of nearly 800 rivers, warming occurred in 87% and oxygen loss occurred in 70%.
8/30/2023
Microplastics impact how sand travels along riverbeds, suggesting microplastics could increase riverbed erosion, according to an international team of researchers. Roberto Fernández, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and project team member, said this could have effects on river habitats. The team’s findings were published in Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment.
8/11/2023
Five student teams from Penn State’s Engineering Leadership Development program in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation earned recognition in the 17th-annual University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs, sponsored by the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program.
8/11/2023
Vikash Gayah, professor of civil engineering at Penn State, has been named interim director of the Penn State Larson Transportation Institute, effective Aug. 1.
