Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for March
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Mar 06, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nasaran Bassam Zadeh and Ali Ghahramani, Astani CEE Ph.D. Candidates
Talk Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Spring 2015 Environmental Engineering Seminar Series
Wed, Mar 11, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Effects of Fossil Fuel Extraction and Utilization Wastewaters on Drinking Water Treatment Processes
Host: Katie Russo
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kaela Berry
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Seminar
Wed, Mar 11, 2015 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Effects of fossil fuel extraction and utilization wastewaters on drinking water treatment processes
Abstract:
Changes in human activities associated with fossil fuel extraction and utilization can alter source waters in ways that affect treatment choices, costs, and the quality of the finished water distributed for human consumption. Produced waters from oil and gas extraction, especially those associated with shale formations, are often high in salts and bromide. Discharge of these wastewaters, even after partial treatment, can increase surface water concentrations of dissolved solids and bromide. Similarly, coal-fired power plants can produce wastewater with high dissolved solids, where the bromide concentration depends on the source coal, the addition of bromide for mercury control, and the use of pollution control devices such as flue-gas desulfurization units. These new or increasing sources of bromide have the potential to affect drinking water treatment plants. Several areas of the country not traditionally associated with high source water bromide levels (including the Ohio River Basin) have been reporting increasing bromination of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in treated drinking water. These changes may require changes to treatment at the drinking water plant or new methods for DBP control in the distribution system. This represents a significant challenge for drinking water infrastructure in the United States. A recently completed three year field study, and an analysis of state and industry reports for produced water quantity and quality, along with power plant discharge data, enables an assessment of the effect of fossil fuel extraction and utilization activities on source water quality and finished water disinfection by-products in the Monongahela River in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Biography:
Dr. Jeanne M. VanBriesen is the Duquesne Light Company Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. VanBriesen holds a B.S. in Education and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University. She is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Delaware. Her research focuses on biotransformation of recalcitrant organics, detection of biological agents in drinking water and natural water systems, and speciation-driven biogeochemistry of chelating agents and disinfection by-products. Dr. VanBriesen has published fifty scientific papers and given more than 100 professional presentations. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Colcom Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, the Packard Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance. Dr. VanBriesen has served on the boards of the Association for Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and the Ohio River Basin Consortia for Research and Education. She is currently serving on the U.S.EPA Science Advisory Board.
Host: Dr. Amy Childress
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes
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Seminar with Ermah Ergelen
Mon, Mar 23, 2015 @ 04:30 PM - 05:30 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Emrah Ergelen, Vice President of Arge Construction
Talk Title: Strategic Alliances in Emerging Markets: A Perspective from International Construction Industry
Abstract: The presentation discusses strategic alliances used in the international construction industry, while focusing on reasons, processes, types, success factors and pitfalls in relation to such alliances. The speaker illustrates these topics with specific project examples from his experience in the emerging markets.
Biography: Mr. Emrah Ergelen is an entrepreneur and a professional with a 20-years experience in the international construction industry in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. He is currently the Vice President of Arge Construction, co-founded by him in 2005 as a spin-off from his family firm Hazinedaroglu, for which he has worked between 1995-2005. During his career Emrah managed 19 strategic alliances, all of which were international. He holds a MBA from Bocconi, a MS in Construction Engineering and Management from MIT and a BEng with Honours in Civil Engineering from Nottingham.
Host: Hank Koffman
More Information: Ermah Poster.pdf
Location: Von Kleinsmid Center For International & Public Affairs (VKC) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kaela Berry
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Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Seminar
Fri, Mar 27, 2015 @ 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Subhayan De and Simin Karvigh , Astani CEE Ph.D. Candidates
Talk Title: Efficient Bayesian Model Selection for Locally Nonlinear Systems incorporating Dynamic Measurements
Abstract: Subhayan De's abstract:
The modeling of a structural system is often complicated by the dynamic characterization of a component by competing families of models, also known as model classes, where the choice of a particular model class falls to the discretion of the researcher. Bayesian model selection can be used to help find the most plausible model class. For linear models, the computational effort for characterization of dynamic properties using natural frequencies and mode shapes, as well as Monte Carlo sampling method, is reasonably well understood. On the other hand, to characterize the dynamic behavior of nonlinear models, response time histories are needed, resulting in high computational cost even when most of the structure is linear and the nonlinear behavior is very localized.
In this study, the computational effort of Bayesian model selection is dramatically reduced in two ways: (1) using a more intelligent Monte Carlo sampling and (2) exploiting the local nature of the nonlinearities. The marginal likelihoods, which are the evidences of the model classes, are estimated with response time histories using ânested samplingâ (Skilling 2006), which samples more from regions with high likelihood values than regions with low likelihood regions. The localized nature of the nonlinearities in the dynamic system is exploited using an efficient response calculation algorithm (Gaurav et al. 2011) by transforming the system equations of motion to a low-order nonlinear Volterra integral equation (NVIE) that is solved numerically. This approach is demonstrated with numerical models of a base-isolated 11-story 2-bay 99-DOF superstructure on the hysteretic lead rubber bearing (LRB) isolators. Model selection is performed to choose from among six model classes: four linear (AASHTO, CALTRANS, JPWRI, modified AASHTO) and two nonlinear (Bouc-Wen, bilinear) models of the isolator, using simulated responses to historical earthquake records. The computational efficiency of the proposed approach is compared with a traditional ordinary differential equation solver (MATLABâs ode45) demonstrating speedup up to two orders of magnitude.
Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Evangeline Reyes