Civil & Environmental Engineering Alumni Newsletter December 2014

1

Hello Alumni & Friends!

Another academic year is well under way and thus far, “fresh” seems to be the word of the year. We’ve welcomed two new faculty

members and another group of fresh faces to our department, not to mention that fall 2014 has marked the pilot year for our doctoral

program. Thanks in part to generous donations by Banner Associates, Inc. and other donors a brand new freshman laboratory is on the

way that will support our students on their educational journey. If you’d like to learn more about how gifts support our department’s

growth and the professional development of the next generation of civil and environmental engineers, please contact department head

Dr. Molly Gribb at: molly.gribb@mines.edu.

On Campus

CEE Students Participate in Engineers Make Great Entrepreneurs (EMGE) Program

The following CEE students participated in the Engineers Make Great Entrepreneurs program on campus this fall:

Kylie Berger, Abbey Larson, Joshua Maunu, Cody Schellinger, Dakota Spellman, Patrick Stetson, Derrick Thomas, Cassidy Trapp,

Hunter Vincent, and Connie Zehms. The CEE department is proud of these students for taking advantage of this and other unique

opportunities offered at Mines. Several CEE alumni also support the program as speakers and donors.

ASCE Student Chapter Members Travel to Panama City for Conference

Members of our department’s ASCE student chapter recently returned from an exciting trip to Panama City, Panama where this year’s

ASCE Global Engineering Conference was held October 7-11. The eleven students who attended reported they experienced a number

of very interesting presentations and were able to network with professional civil engineers as well as see the Panama Canal and the

new Panama Canal expansion project. Thanks to the many donors who support the ASCE student chapter through endowments and

cash gifts that support our students’ participation in these events.

Professional Advisory Board (PAB) Members Return to

Campus for Annual Meeting

The CEE department welcomed members to its annual Professional Advisory

Board (PAB) meeting on September 22, 2014. The meeting focused on

strategic planning and development and included a panel discussion

presentation by PAB members to CEE seniors. Mines President Heather

Wilson, DPhil, welcomed the PAB and shared an update on the university.

PAB members in attendance were Ray Bettmeng (CE 87), Mike Halde (CE

98, MSCE 99), Mike Hansen (CE 90), Ron Jeitz (CE 69), Joel Jundt (CE

85), Keith Mattecheck (CE 99), Dave Muck (CE 94, MSCE 95), Jason

Love (CE 97, MSCE98), Dennis Rounds (MSCE 91), and Larry Schmaltz

(CE 79). PAB members Mike Halde (CE 98, MSCE 99), Agatha Kotsonis

and Darin Brickman were unable to attend this meeting. For more information

about the CEE department, please visit us on the web: http://cee.sdsmt.edu.

(L to R): Jason Love, Ray Bettmeng, Dennis Round, Ron

Jeitz, Dave Muck, Joel Jundt, Keith Mattecheck, Larry

Schmaltz, CEE Department Head Molly Gribb and Mike

Hansen.

Civil & Environmental Engineering Alumni Newsletter December 2014

2

Alumni Spotlight: Patty Mamola, PE NCEES Immediate Past President Returns to Campus to Deliver Keynote Speech

The CEE department was honored to welcome immediate past president of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and

Surveying (NCEES) and CEE department alumna Patty Mamola, PE to campus this fall. Patty was this year’s keynote speaker for the

South Dakota Engineering Society’s annual professional development conference, held on the SDSM&T campus on October 9, 2014.

While on campus, Patty also met with the CEE 130 Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering class and Women in

Engineering and Science students.

Patty graduated from Mines in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer in Nevada

and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and American Public Works Association. An accomplished professional,

small business owner, and organizational leader, Patty began her career at the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT)

before moving to Nevada to embark on a 14-year career with the Nevada Department of Transportation. Later, Patty joined the firm of

Atkins (formerly PBS&J) as western region Construction Services Manager, covering the western part of the US, and in 2003 she

formed the Bowling Mamola Group with business partner Randy Bowling. In 2012 she became the sole owner and subsequently the

Bowling Mamola Group was certified as a Small Business Administration woman-owned firm and as a Nevada Disadvantaged

Business Enterprise.

In August of 2013, she was installed as the president of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. As most of

our readers know, NCEES is the national organization that advances professional licensure for engineers and surveyors. It develops,

administers, and scores the examinations used for engineering and surveying licensure in the United States. She is the first woman to

hold this position in the 93 year history of the organization. Patty is also serving her third term on the Nevada Board of Professional

Engineers and Land Surveyors, serving two terms as chair.

Awarded

Dr. Marc Robinson Awarded William V. Coyle Professorship

Dr. Marc Robinson has been awarded the William V. Coyle Professorship. Myrna

Coyle, wife of William (Bill) V. Coyle, an iconic former professor and head of the

CEE department at the School of Mines, established the William V. Coyle

Endowment in 2007 to honor Bill’s memory by creating a professorship in the

department he cherished and to which he devoted his life. The goal of the

professorship is to provide assistance for broadening and enhancing the CEE

program at the School of Mines. The Coyle Professorship recognizes Dr. Robinson

for his strong commitment to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department

and outstanding contributions to student learning through his teaching, research and

outreach efforts.

Sustainable Housing Initiative Receives ASCA/AIA Housing Design Education Award

This year’s ASCA/AIA Housing Design Education Award was awarded to the Native American Sustainable Housing Initiative

educational collaboration between University of Colorado Boulder, SDSMT, and Oglala Lakota College. Dr. Jennifer Benning’s work

on the project has stimulated student interest in community issues and has contributed to Mines’ developing relationships with

regional university partners.

$4.9 Million Air Force Research Awarded for GasCube Mobile Waste-to-Energy Concept

SDSM&T was recently awarded a $4.8 million research contract from the US Air Force to reduce Air Force demand for energy. CEE

department faculty member Dr. James Stone is involved with one of the project components, a modular process that would convert

William V. Coyle Professor Dr. Marc Robinson

Civil & Environmental Engineering Alumni Newsletter December 2014

3

organic waste from Air Forces bases to energy and compost. The ‘GasCube’ concept will be a deployable, rugged, self-contained

system designed to allow the Air Force to better utilize mobile base organic wastes. This multi-disciplinary research is being

accomplished by Dr. Stone (http://jamesstonesdsmt.wix.com/stone) along with Principal Investigator Dr. Robb Winter and other

collaborators from the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department and industry.

Invited Stone, J.J., Truax R. [student], Borch, T., Johnson, R., Geochemical modeling of the down gradient transport potential of uranium at

an In-Situ Recovery (ISR) facility. 2014 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of

America International Annual Meeting, Nov. 2-5, 2014, Long Beach, CA.

Benning, J.L. Quantifying interactions of SVOCs with airborne particles in small chambers, Workshop on SVOCs – characterizing

emissions, transport, and exposure: a practical guide. Indoor Air, July 11, 2014, Hong Kong.

Benning, J.L. Integrating sustainable design into engineering education and research. Black Hills Sigma Xi. May 15, 2014, Spearfish,

SD.

Interviewed Stone, J.J., Impact of Pine Beetles to Water Supply, Interviewed by SDPB Charles Michael Ray, http://listen.sdpb.org/post/impact-

pine-beetles-water-supply, Feb. 7, 2014.

Kenner, S.J. Dakota Midday: School of Mines Professor Advises Mongolia on Dams, Interviewed by SDPB Charles Michael Ray,

http://listen.sdpb.org/post/dakota-midday-school-mines-professor-advises-mongolia-dams, December 10, 2014.

Presented Collaboration with National University of Mongolia (NUM) Continues with Training Workshop

Dr. Kenner led a student team and two faculty from the National University of Mongolia for training and collection of physical habitat

data on the Bulgan River in western Mongolia, September 27 - October 4, 2014. This work continues the work Dr. Kenner

collaborated on with Dr. Soninkhishig, Chair Department of Biology, NUM. Their work is being done to establish environmental low

flows on major rivers in the Selenge River Basin Mongolia. For more information about Dr. Kenner’s work, see:

http://www.sdsmt.edu/News/Professor-Supports-Water-Resources-Management-in-Mongolia/.

Also Presented in Fall 2014: Shearer, C. Development of sustainable infrastructure materials. South Dakota Engineering Society Fall Conference, Oct. 9, 2014,

Rapid City, SD.

Gadhamshetty, V. Low-cost bioelectrochemical technology for electricity production from waste. South Dakota Engineering Society

Fall Conference, Oct. 9, 2014, Rapid City, SD.

Gude, V.G., V. Gadhamshetty and N. Khandan, N. Dual-purpose power-desalination plant augmented by thermal energy storage. 10th

International HEFAT Conference, July 13-16, 2014, Orlando, FL.

Gude, V.G., V. Gadhamshetty and N. Khandan, N. An innovative application of thermal energy storage for power production and

desalination. ASES National SOLAR Conference, July 6-10, 2014, San Francisco, CA.

Kenner, S. HECRAS Modeling Workshop. Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Oct. 7-9, 2014, Ulanbaatar, Mongolia.

Sawyer, J. F., J. Kant, J. Benning, D. Fick and S. Burckhard. Forging partnerships, experiential learning, and community impact:

capacity building matters. ASEE Midwest Regional Conference, Oct. 17, 2014, Iowa City, IA.

Gayton, L., [student presenter], J. Benning [faculty advisor], L. Bailey [student presenter]. Effect of building practices on particulate

(PM10) concentrations in sustainable housing projects, poster presentation. South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium,

August 2014, Pierre, SD.

Civil & Environmental Engineering Alumni Newsletter December 2014

4

Betone, P. [student presenter, Oglala Lakota College], J. Benning [faculty advisor]. Weather tower design for the Native American

Sustainable Housing Initiative, poster presentation. South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium, August 2014, Pierre, SD.

Bailey, L. [student presenter], J. Benning [faculty advisor], L. Gayton [student presenter]. Effect of building practices on radon

concentrations in sustainable housing projects, poster presentation. South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium, August 2014,

Pierre, SD.

Benning, J. and J.F. Sawyer. The importance of place, culture, and trust in sustainable engineering education, 2014 Hawaii Education

STEM Conference, June 17, 2014, Honolulu, HI.

Benning, J., A. Surovek, D. Dolan, L. Wilson, A. Thompson, R. Pyatt, Cultural considerations in service learning for American Indian

reservations, Frontiers in Education, Madrid, October 24, 2014.

Attended Dr. Benning Attends Meeting to Discuss Inclusion of Research Initiative in Design Exhibition

Dr. Jennifer Benning attended a meeting with Thunder Valley Community Development, the Native American Sustainable Housing

Initiative, and Oglala Lakota College on behalf of SDSM&T along with Cynthia Smith, Curator for Socially Responsible Design,

Smithsonian Institute Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The meeting was called to discuss the museum’s interest in

highlighting the cooperative sustainable community design project in an exhibition on “Designing with the Other 90%” and was held

this past September.

Dr. Kenner Attends Workshop in Mongolia to Discuss Model for the Tuul River Basin

Dr. Scott Kenner attended the “The Mongolia Integrated Water Resource Management Delivery Workshop” held September 23-25,

2014. Dr. Kenner was invited to participate by the Mongolia Ministry of Environment and Green Development (MEGD), Fresh Water

Institute (FWI) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), who in collaboration with United Nations Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organized the workshop for the purpose of gathering water resource experts in Mongolia to

develop a decision sketch and Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Shared Vision Planning (SVP) decision support

model for the Tuul River Basin.

Also Attended in 2014: Shearer, C. Portland Cement Association Professors' Workshop, July 21-25, 2014, Skokie, IL.

Gadhamshetty, V. (2014, June). Workshop on Electrochemistry Measurements, Yeager Center for Electrochemistry, Cleveland, OH.

Benning, J. 2014 Sustainable Engineering Education Community Workshop, Aug. 5-6, 2014, NSF Headquarters, Arlington, VA.

Workshop sponsored by ASEE, NSF, and Syracuse University.

Published Benning, J. L., Surovek, A., Dolan, D., Wilson, L., Thompson, A., & Pyatt, R. (2014, October 24). Cultural considerations in service

learning with American Indian reservation community stakeholders. Frontiers in Education, http://fie2014.org/.

Hengen, T. [student], Squillace, M. [student], O'Sullivan, A., & Stone, J. J. (2014). Life cycle assessment analaysis of actice and

passive acid mine drainage treatment technologies. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 86, 160-167.

Kenner, S. J., Bender, D. A., Pankow, J. F., & Zogorski, J. S. (2014). The atmosphere can be a source of certain water soluble volatile

organic compounds in urban streams. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA), 50(5), 1124-1137.

Kulesa, A. T. [student], & Robinson, M. J. (2014). Analytical study of structural thermal insulating syntactic foams. Journal of

Composite Structures.

Civil & Environmental Engineering Alumni Newsletter December 2014

5

Liu, C., Zhang, Y., Benning, J. L., & Little, J. C. The effect of ventilation on indoor exposure to semivolatile organic compounds.

Indoor Air.

Shearer, C. R., & Kurtis, K. E. (2014). Use of biomass and co-fired fly ash in concrete. ACI Materials Journal, 111.

Stone, J. J., Truax, R. [student], Borch, T., & Johnson, R. (2014). Abstract: Geochemical modeling of the down gradient transport

potential of uranium at an in-situ recovery (ISR) facility. 2014 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and

Soil Science Society of America International Annual Meeting, Nov. 2-5, 2014, Long Beach, CA.