Civil Engineering

Julia Baaklini Receives ASCE National Scholarship

Andrew Specian — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:27:59 +0000

Julia Baaklini (Class of 2014) has been awarded the John Lenard Civil Engineering Scholarship by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The scholarship is awarded to a junior or senior civil engineering student who has demonstrated an interest in either water supply and/or environmental engineering. Two students are selected each year on a national level to receive this prestigious scholarship.

Civil Engineering students earn Leadership Awards

Peter Szafranski — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:05:07 +0000

Two Civil Engineering students, Catherine Brabston (’13) and Michael Soriano (’14) have been recognized with an Outstanding Student Leadership Award by TCNJ Leadership Development Program.

Catherine Brabston was recognized for her outstanding leadership effort as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter president (12/13). Under Catherine’s leadership the chapter was recognized as an official TCNJ student club. She also led the chapter through the design and installation of the AISE Steel Sculpture in front of Armstrong Hall. The sculpture is not only an art monument but also a learning tool and an impressive engineering landmark for Armstrong Hall. Catherine was nominated for the Leadership Award by the Faculty of the Civil Engineering Department. Her award recognizes her leadership effort in Building the Way to the Future.

Michael Soriano was recognized for his tireless effort in leading the Sigma Pi fraternity. As the current president Michael makes sure that all members continuously meet and exceed expectations. He is a driving force behind the success and respect Sigma Pi receives on and off campus. Michael was nominated for the Leadership Award by Matthew Scorzo, Sigma Pi member, on behalf of Sigma Pi fraternity. His award recognizes his leadership effort in Motivation.

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Civil Engineering Juniors Win Traffic Bowl Competition

Andrew Specian — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:45:15 +0000

Andrew Samuel and John Corak represented TCNJ at the Institute of Transportation Engineers Metropolitan Section of New York and New Jersey meeting on October 17th at Arthur’s Tavern in Hoboken, NJ. They competed in and won the Traffic Bowl Competition against 4 other schools, including NJIT, Cooper Union, and NYU-Polytech. The Traffic Bowl Competition is an academic game show style competition where students team up and answer questions based on what they are learning or have learned in transportation classes, ranging from AASHTO standards to sign dimensions to general transportation trivia around the New York Metropolitan area. A team wins by scoring the most points through several rounds against a different school in each round. Twelve questions are asked in each round, and teams are awarded a point for each correct answer, and if the team answers incorrectly, the other team can answer.

Parth Shah Receives ASCE Scholarship

Andrew Specian — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:41:58 +0000

The department of Civil Engineering is proud to announce that Parth Shah (Class of 2013) has been awarded The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) New Jersey Section 2012 Student Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded each year to a Civil Engineering student entering their final year who is a member of an ASCE student chapter and is either studying at a school in the state of New Jersey or is a legal resident of the state. The award is given based on scholarship, character, leadership, and activity in the Civil Engineering Community. Parth received his award at a ceremony held by the New Jersey Central Branch of the ASCE on May 11, 2012. In the past TCNJ students have received ASCE schollarship award in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

New Art Instillation at Armstrong Hall

Andrew Specian — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 01:37:45 +0000

The College of New Jersey has a new testament to its achievement and excellence in engineering. Thanks to the efforts of the students and the generosity of Capital Steel Service, LLC. and Waters and Bugbee, Inc, the School of engineering is now proudly displaying an American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) steel sculpture in front of Armstrong Hall. The sculpture serves not only as public art for the campus, but also as a learning tool for engineering students providing many examples of fundamental steel structure members and connections. Equally important, the sculpture now serves as an impressive landmark for Armstrong Hall. The achievement has even caught the eye of Modern Steel Construction Magazine, who published an article about the sculpture in September. The article can be found here.

The sculpture is the product of the College’s civil engineering student’s hard work and was spear headed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter. Both students and faculty of the chapter came up with the idea after visiting other colleges with similar sculptures. Once they decided to go ahead with their idea, they quickly found donors and were busy working to achieve campus approval.
The students were deeply involved in the initiative from beginning to end, from performing soil testing at the site to the working with Waters and Bugbee to complete the final assembly. Dr. Vedrana Kristic’s class even went out to see the pouring of the foundation. Additionally, the students made several presentations around campus to various constituent groups, including the Board of Trustees, and solicited feedback from the community.
Future plans of Dr. Nabil Al-Omaishi, associate professor of civil engineering, involve incorporating the piece in his structures class. The students and faculty take great pride in the sculpture’s presence and the recognition it has received. ASCE’s students are grateful to the donors as well as the School of Engineering and the professors for their support in making this happen.

Harmony in Engineering

Web Administrator — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 23:36:28 +0000

Many students in the School of Engineering pursue a variety of interests beyond their studied fields. This is especially true for Civil Engineering graduate Lori Ruggiero who not only graduated with a minor in Music, but was also inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Currently she is working in the construction industry where she is utilizing her degree to the fullest. “The School of Engineering provided me with not only theoretical and mathematical engineering knowledge but also a strong design background that helped me to transform abstract ideas into a tangible understanding of how things work,” states Lori who is also an experienced violinist of many years.

During high school she studied with Choong-Jin Chang, graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music Associate Principal Violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. While at The College of New Jersey she was a member of various college orchestral and musical ensembles. Lori has held the position of concertmaster of the Washington Township Symphony Orchestra as well as the Rowan Youth Orchestra. She was a member of the Garden State Pops Orchestra, the Philadelphia Sinfonia, the South Jersey Orchestra, and the All State Orchestra. Lori has performed at various venues including Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall, Perlman Theater, the Commerce Bank Arts Centre, and the Washington Lake Park Amphitheater, where she twice soloed with the Washington Township Symphony Orchestra as the winner of their annual concerto competition.

“I do believe that music has played a role in developing my overall character for pursuits academic and otherwise. Studying anything as intensely as I have studied music inevitably instills a character of perseverance, discipline, perfectionism, and determination. There is a strong desire to excel and succeed in the competitive music industry. Talent and natural ability are often not enough and we can only hope to distinguish ourselves by working harder than everyone else.” These are traits which helped Lori succeed both musically and academically, graduating with top honors from Civil Engineering. Lori is planning on continuing her education as well as her music.

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Meet Dr. Andrew Bechtel

Web Administrator — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 23:05:21 +0000

Dr. Andrew Bechtel will be joining the Civil Engineering Department as a full-time faculty member beginning Academic Year 2012/2013. Dr. Bechtel recently completed his PhD in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in structural engineering. He earned his degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in December 2011. Dr. Bechtel possesses a wealth of technical knowledge and experiences which he will be able to bring with him to the classroom. The civil engineering faculty members are very excited about the newest addition to their department and highly anticipate his arrival.

Civil Engineering

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:25:04 +0000

Matthew Horner Earns Scholarship from ASCE

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:20:10 +0000

Civil Engineering student Matthew Horner ’12 has recently earned a scholarship from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The ASCE New Jersey Section 2011 Student Scholarship was available “all students entering their final year of a BSCE program that either are members of an ASCE Student Chapter or Club located in the State of New Jersey or are members of an out-of-state ASCE Student Chapter or Club and have a legal home address in the State of New Jersey.” In addition to this basic requirement students had to answer questions about their activities on and off campus, their future plans and GPA among other things.

Matthew received his scholarship at an award ceremony led by the New Jersey Central Branch of ASCE on May 6, 2011. When asked to explain why he believes that he’s earned this scholarship Matthew stated “First of all, I think my class rank and GPA was certainly a factor. Second, I think I demonstrated that I have a relatively good idea of what direction I want to go with my future. I want to go to graduate school, earn my Ph. D, and hopefully teach at a university someday. And third, I think I demonstrated that I’m the kind of person who likes to take initiative in all aspects of my life and ensure things that I’m a part of are working properly.”

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Civil Engineers Compete at 2011 ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:17:50 +0000

Four civil engineering students designed and built a concrete canoe which competed at the 2011 ASCE Concrete Canoe competition hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University. Every year, schools from around the country compete to see who can design and fabricate the best concrete canoe. The canoe is judged based on design, documentation, and performance in flatwater racing. The 2011 TCNJ Concrete Canoe Design Team was the first team to represent The College of New Jersey in this competition.

The team won first place in the Design Paper category while competing against City College, Rutgers, Stevens, Fairleigh Dickinson and Polytechnique de Montréal.

The senior team which completed the design and built the canoe included: Keith O’Sullivan (project manager), Oluwaseye Akele, Ryan Havey and Kevin Morgan. In addition to the senior team the following students attended as the paddling crew: Nicole Brown, Lindsay Klesitz, Jackie Ferraro, Amanda Hess and Aileen Leahy. Jackie, Amanda and Aileen will be members of next year’s canoe team.

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