Welcome to Fall 2012 Season of CEE6910 Graduate Seminar

Welcome CEE Grad students to yet another semester full of many planned activities for our graduate seminar series!! In this series, we have lined up an outstanding group of speakers. This is the first time we have selected more than half of our seminar speakers from outside institutions such as Ohio State, Tufts University, University of Tennessee, University of Tokyo, Illinois Institute of Technology and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

With support from CEE and the Water Center, we have arranged for some of the world’s best authorities in their field. We have Prof. CK Shum of Ohio State, an expert in the field of satellite detection of water bodies from space, particularly sea level and ice. He was part of the IPCC community that shared the Nobel Prize for Peace on Climate Change. He is also a distinguished member of the National Academy of Sciences. From Tufts University, we have Dr. Akanda, who is one of the few pioneers to have studied the interconnection between health epidemics and water using modern monitoring techniques. One of our very own BS alum (class of 2007), Dr. Brent Stephens, is planned as an outstanding seminar speaker on built environment and indoor air quality. From University of Tennessee, we have Dr. Rahbar to speak to us about new concepts of structural design. Lastly, Dr. Francis Turk from Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present emerging technology on monitoring the state of our planet’s rainfall patterns that engineers need to know for operations and design.

In addition to all the above, CEE Graduate Program is delighted to host Dr. Kumiko from University of Tokyo for a 2 day visit. Dr. Kumiko has selected Tennessee Tech’s Civil Engineering program as one of the three programs in the US relevant for his research on understanding the impact of infrastructure (dam) building on climate and extreme weather. The other universities he has selected to visit are University of Alabama-Huntsville and University of Colorado.

In short, we are indeed very privileged that our graduate program and the seminar series continue to be regarded and supported well by our peers. This is certainly a testament to CEE’s commitment to provide you all with a quality education at the graduate level.

I hope you will all make a conscious effort to get the best out of these world class experts that CEE is making available to you at your doorstep. Because you won’t get such a chance so easily once you graduate. Go TTU-CEE!!