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Download your copy of the CME NEWS today! All Fall 2008 MS and PhD Applicants are required to submit GRE test scores, no exceptions. NSF IGERT Opportunities at the University of Illinois at Chicago Outstanding transportation planning and engineering students are invited to apply for interdisciplinary doctoral fellowships in computational transportation science (CTS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago . As a National Science Foundation-funded Integrative Graduate Research Education and Traineeship (IGERT), CTS engages students and faculty from multiple disciplines in collaborative research to solve a broad range of transportation problems. By taking advantage of ubiquitous computing and focusing on the information aspects of transportation, CTS researchers can make an impact on day-to-day transportation. Students interested in topics such as intelligent transportation systems, regional planning, transportation systems analysis, urban travel forecasting, privacy and information security, and socioeconomic and institutional issues will find interesting applications of their work to CTS. The CTS IGERT affords its students opportunities beyond the scope of traditional doctoral programs, such as an interdisciplinary curriculum, industrial internships and international research experiences. CTS IGERT fellowships provide full tuition and an annual stipend of $30,000 for two years, as well as research, travel and equipment funds. UIC is the largest public research university in the Chicago area and its 25,000 students comprise one of the most diverse student bodies in the country. It ranks among the top 50 universities in the US for federal research support. Transportation planning and engineering research is conducted through UIC’s Urban Transportation Center and the Translab. Students have opportunities to work on projects with key local, regional and national transportation agencies, such the United States Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation Authority, PACE, Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Students must apply BOTH to a participating doctoral program (computer science, urban planning and policy, civil and materials engineering, mechanical and industrial engineering, and information and decision sciences) using the usual UIC graduate student application process AND directly to the IGERT program. Fellows will be selected based on students’ records and research interests, as well as balance among participating programs and faculty. Promoting diversity in the sciences is integral to the IGERT mission and members of underrepresented minority groups are especially encouraged to apply. US citizenship or permanent residency is required. Visit the CTS IGERT website at http://cts.cs.uic.edu/ to download the short application form, and for additional information. Contact: Laura Goddeeris, CTS IGERT Program Coordinator
DNAPL-contaminant distribution in the subsurface: Marina Pantazidou The short answer to the question “why is it difficult to characterize the distribution of a dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) contaminant at a site?” is “because we have never seen how a DNAPL-affected area looks like at a real site”. Our conceptual understanding of possible DNAPL distribution patterns is based on results from laboratory experiments, numerical simulations and few moderate-scale controlled releases, of which this talk will first give a brief overview.
The premise that it makes sense to characterize the DNAPL-affected area at different levels of accuracy, depending on the candidate remedial technologies being evaluated, provides the motivation to consider alternative variables for characterizing the DNAPL distribution. For this purpose, several alternative measures describing the DNAPL plume were defined and computed for two sets of 20 simulated DNAPL distributions in statistically identical hydraulic conductivity fields. For each set, the hydraulic conductivity fields were generated with different amounts of sampling data. The results of the simulations showed that (1) uncertainty in soil characteristics affects differently the prediction of the different variables that describe the DNAPL plume and (2) increased sampling frequency reduces in varying degrees the uncertainty of different plume features. It is hence of practical interest to consider jointly (i) the expected uncertainty of the DNAPL plume features that are important for the application of a DNAPL plume depletion method and (ii) respective investigation strategies. BIO Marina Pantazidou is Assistant Professor with tenure at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. Apart from university appointments in the USA (CMU) and Greece (NTUA), her professional experience also includes work in Hazardous Waste consulting. Her research interests include (1) numerical and physical modelling of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) flow (2) decision support methods for environmental decision making and (3) engineering education. |
