CEOE Professor Dibyendu ‘Dibs’ Sarkar was recently awarded $1,292,035 from the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) of DOD for "Green Remediation of PFAS in soil and water.” Professors Christos Christodoulatos from CEOE and Athula Attygale from CCB are Co-PIs from Stevens in this multi-institutional collaborative project involving the University of Tennessee, Tennessee State University, and Michigan Technological University. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are being detected in soils and sediments, aquatic environments, plants, animals, and humans at alarming rates, present significant health risks. This project aims to develop effective and sustainable in situ remediation of PFAS-impacted soils, and treatment of PFAS-impacted water, both in situ and ex situ. The central hypothesis is that a cost-efficient green remediation technology can be developed repurposing a solid waste feedstock, namely aluminum-based drinking water treatment residuals, informed by the fundamental knowledge of adsorptive processes at solid-water interface, which will provide an improved technique for restoration of PFAS-impacted media.

CEOE Professors Marouane Temimi and Kaijian Liu received $863,000 for their project “Leveraging USGS Hydrologic Imagery Visualization and Information System (HIVIS) for an operational monitoring of streamflow using computer vision”. The project will be conducted in collaboration with NOAA and USGS with the goal of improving the monitoring of streamflow across the US using a network of cameras maintained and operated by USGS. This project will develop a computer vision-based system to automatically measure streamflow, water level, and determine river flow conditions. The approach is to acquire real time feed from a network of cameras, performing an automated segmentation of the received frames, detecting changes, and inferring water level, water velocity, and streamflow values using a combination of machine learning and velocimetry methods. The developed methods will be packaged in an integrated system as a prototype for operational deployment.

In the US Geological Survey funded project “Assessing Pluvial-Coastal Flood Risk and Potential Climate Inequities in New York City”, Professors Philip Orton and Kaijian Liu will collaborate with social scientists at Columbia University and Brooklyn College to better understand these flood risks and inequities.  Orton and Liu will develop and apply novel hydrodynamic and machine learning models for integrated pluvial-coastal flood modeling, both developed using citizen photographs (Community Flood Watch Project) and ultrasonic sensor measurements (FloodNet) of street flooding.  Their collaborators will collect and analyze social data through interviews and household surveys to document impacts of and recovery from flooding in neighborhoods that have recently been impacted by rainfall and high-tide flooding, One example is hurricane Ida, which caused major flooding of basement apartments occupied by residents who are often disadvantaged in many ways, being low-income, from minority racial groups, or recent immigrants  and resulted in loss of life.  

Raju Datla, PI, Davidson Lab and CEOE Research Associate Professor, received a DARPA award of $146K for his project “Experimental Assessment of Wing-In-Ground Effect (WIG) Craft Design of the DARPA Liberty Lifter Program” (with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation as prime).  

Weina Meng, PI and CEOE Assistant Professor, received an award from PVT Clean Energy LLC for her project “Correlation between Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Lightweight Materials.” 

Tsan-Liang Su, CEOE Research Associate Professor, was the recipient of the Patrick J. Higgins Award 2022 by the American Society of Sanitary Engineering (ASSE) for outstanding contribution in the field of codes and standards.

Erfan Amini, CEOE Ph.D. student, has been awarded the "2022 Clean Energy College Student of The Year" by The Cleanie Awards for his high-quality research in the area of ocean renewable energy conversion and optimization.

Berina Mina Kilicarslan, CEOE Ph.D. student, was awarded the opportunity to participate in the NOAA-National Water Center Innovators Program Summer Institute in Tuscaloosa, AL. This 7-week learning program provides hands-on experiences in water science research by offering training, mentorship, and access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.

Yash Shah, CEOE masters student, was the recipient of the 2022 Jerome Frommer Memorial Scholarship, issued through the Utilities and Transportation Contractors Association to provide New Jersey students with the opportunity to advance their studies in the field of construction.

Amanda Beltre, CEOE undergraduate student, has been awarded the Professional Engineers in Construction of NJ Scholarship Award. She was selected from nominees from each of the seven Universities in NJ offering civil engineering. 

Robert Stepien, CEOE undergraduate student, was awarded the WSP Inc., USA Scholarship on behalf of WSP and the American Council of Engineering companies of New Jersey (ACECNJ). Robert was honored at the 52nd Annual Engineering Excellence Awards Banquet. 

Ryan Krawczyk, CEOE undergraduate student, has been awarded the Dr. Wesley Eckenfelder Award through Brown and Caldwell for his excellence in environmental engineering.