Student News

Engineering for Climate Extremes, Cleaner Water and Advances in Aviation

Grad Student Spotlights

CEE @ GEO-EXTREME 2021: Ph.D. candidate Mike Uduebor presented a paper titled “Engineered Water Repellency for Frost Heave Mitigation: Practical Modelling Considerations” at ASCE GEO-EXTREME 2021 Conference in early November. The event, which pulls in attendees from around the world, was held in Savannah, Georgia.

Mike’s research on engineering water repellency is part of a larger effort to quantify the relative role of osmotic potential on frost heaving, while exploring the use of organosilanes to mitigate ice lens formation and growth. His advisor, Dr. John Daniels, has been leading CEE’s research on organosilanes since 2007.

“Everything we are doing is novel and new,” Mike said in a College of Engineering interview. “This can be a game changer. Statistics show frost heaving costs the US about $20 billion a year in road maintenance costs, and this would help to save that amount and money so it can be used for other transportation projects.”

Dr. Daniels’ extreme climate research team is made up of students, including one undergrad, from various parts of the world and brings a diversity of solutions to the table.

The Geo-Extreme Conference is offered by the Geo-Institute which was created by ASCE in 1996. It aims to create a multi-disciplinary forum to discuss how the geo-engineering community can work with other professionals to use research to cope with extreme events under a changing climate.

View Mike Uduebor’s paper here: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784483701.037

WRRI Support for CEE Grad Students:

In July 2021, Adeola Sorinolu became a N.C. Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) Graduate Research Fellow. She is a Ph.D. student in the department and does research on the degradation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) using advanced oxidation techniques. Dr. Mariya Munir is her advisor. Adeola is one of the ten graduate students from across North Carolina whose projects were selected for
WRRI sponsorship.

WRRI Grad students were chosen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The Urban Water Consortium, which is a collection of North Carolin’s 12 largest water and wastewater utilities administered by WRRI, co-funded the research of two graduate students. CEE Ph.D. candidate Sara Kamanmalek is one of those students. Her research studied the susceptibility of surface water to antibiotic discharges. Sara’s UNC Charlotte adviser is Dr. Jacelyn Rice-Boayue who is an assistant professor in the Engineering Technology Department and Construction Management.

WRRI is a federal-state partnership with funding through the U.S. Geological Survey in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The National Institutes for Water Resources partner with USGS in addressing water-related concerns by supporting research and other activities.

Read more about the program and about WRRI here: https://wrri.ncsu.edu/blog/2021/07/graduate-students-for-2021-22/

Undergraduate Spotlights

Aiming High:

Senior Ruth Kandolo picked UNC Charlotte because she wanted to attend a large university with many types of degree programs in engineering. She also found it to be affordable — and very welcoming.

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ruth is currently a senior in CEE. She decided to pursue a BS in Civil Engineering because of the diversity of options after graduation.

“Civil engineering has been a dream since I was very young,” she says. Growing up in a community that was economically underdeveloped gave her the motivation to do something that would bring a change in her country.

“And civil engineering is a very big field,” she added. “You can work with so many companies.”

Ruth feels the Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in natural resources and has enough to provide for itself, but has one key missing piece: a developed transportation system. That’s where she wants to apply her skills and experience as an engineer. Her goal is to help end hunger and poverty, and she feels it starts with having a healthy transportation system brought about by engineers.

“Transportation,” she says, “is one of the biggest keys in a country’s development.”

Ruth is now taking the Airport Planning and Design class taught by Jack Christine, COO of the Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) Airport. The class exposes engineering students to aviation engineering principles and design trends, including master planning and forecasting. Until she took the class, she says she did not fully understand the importance of civil engineers to airport development and design.

The CLT airport accounts for 5% of the gross domestic product of the state of North Carolina. The sixth busiest airport in the country with 40-plus million passengers annually, it serves as the second-largest hub for American Airlines. CLT has partnered with the CEE Department for the past several years to develop aviation engineering continuing education options in addition to formal coursework.

After graduation, Ruth will stay at UNC Charlotte in the CEE department as an early entry MS student. She also plans to pursue an internship with Delta Airport Consultants, a Charlotte-based aviation consultancy.

A lifelong learner, Ruth Kandolo wants to learn more about designing airports and developing master plans. Way to go, Ruth — you’ll go far!

Going the Distance:

CEE undergrad Chandler Horton loves to run cross country. She also has a passion for environmental sustainability.

“Being a CEE student at UNC Charlotte has taught me the bonding power of hard work,” she shared. She found the mentality of being a student-athlete on the cross country and track team helped her to succeed as an engineering student. “It’s been very chaotic at times,” she admits. But the West Coast native navigates both worlds skillfully.

Chandler grew up in San Clemente, California and selected UNCC for its athletic and academic prowess. She felt the combination would allow her to reach her academic and athletic goals.

“Growing up in the outdoors,” she says, “I developed a love for nature.” This led her to focus on sustainability, biomimicry, and nature-based design. She thinks the future of society and the built environment lies in working together with nature rather than against it.

Over the summer, she did an internship in coastal management and was excited to apply what she had learned in her geotechnical, environmental, and stormwater classes to the unique issues associated with coastline erosion. Chandler worked on diverse teams of engineers, biologists, GIS specialists, and city planners during as an intern. She’s confident that UNC Charlotte has prepared her for work in engineering and adjacent fields related to sustainability. Chandler plans to double major in environmental science because of what she experienced during her internship.

“Although balancing running on the cross country/track team with the engineering course load has been challenging at times,” she admits, “it has been worthwhile to see the work pay off both personally and for my team which has improved so much since my freshman year. It is also nice to have the camaraderie since multiple of my teammates are also engineering majors. Distance running takes a certain mentality that I think is also shared by many engineers.”

Well done, Chandler. You’re an inspiration!