Dear CEE Community and Friends,

In this month’s newsletter, we highlight the mini-UROP Program, an opportunity for first-year students to gain experience in civil and environmental engineering research. Prof. Charles Harvey discusses the concept of carbon trading systems, the department held its 12th annual CEE Research Day, and CNN features Prof. Admir Masic’s work with archaeologists in Pompeii to reveal ancient Roman building techniques. We congratulate Moala Keshei Bannavti on being selected to join the 2023-25 MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence, and Prof. Charles Harvey’s collaborative research grant with the Simons Foundation.

Also in this issue, a deep learning technique developed by Prof. Cathy Wu and colleagues could streamline operations in robotic warehouses, research from Prof. Elfatih Eltahir and colleagues reveals a new way to quantify climate change, and a study from Prof. César Terrer explores the effects of cattle grazing on climate change. Prof. Ruben Juanes and Wei Li SM ’14, PhD ’19 develop a new method for understanding how landslides and earthquakes are triggered, and Prof. Oral Buyukozturk and former postdoc Young-Jin Cha provide a comprehensive review of Deep Learning Based Structural Health Monitoring. Lastly, we profile two undergraduate students, Justin Cole and Ananda Santos Figueiredo, who are in the new course 1-12 Climate System Science and Engineering major.

Sincerely,

Ali Jadbabaie

JR East Professor

Department Head, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering

Core Faculty, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

First-year students gained hands-on research experience in a supportive, collaborative community during the 4-week mini-UROP program. The program, which takes place over Independent Activities Period (IAP), pairs first-years with current CEE graduate students and postdocs for an inside look at the research taking place in the department.

Explained: Carbon Credits

Can carbon trading systems reduce global emissions, or are they little more than greenwashing? Prof. Charles Harvey suggests that clear, enforceable standards may make the difference.

Annual CEE Research Day showcases research across the department

This year’s topic, “CEE Across Environments,” gave faculty, graduate students, and postdocs the opportunity to share their research across four themes—atmosphere, the built environment, soil, and water.

Home renovation frozen in time reveals Roman building technique

Prof. Admir Masic’s lab works with the Pompeii Archaeological Park to uncover the materials and techniques that made ancient concrete so durable.

CEE postdoc joins MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence

Moala Keshei Bannavti has been selected to join the 2023-25 MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence. Bannavti’s research focuses on air quality in public schools and developing new approaches to remediate airborne, semivolatile organic compounds in low-income, minority-predominant public schools.

Prof. Harvey awarded grant in collaborative research project

The Simons Foundation has awarded a grant to support a collaborative research project with Prof. Charles Harvey, MBL, and researchers from other institutions studying coastal tidal marshes.

By breaking an intractable problem into smaller chunks, a deep-learning technique developed by Prof. Cathy Wu and colleagues identifies the optimal areas for thinning out traffic in a warehouse.

A new way to quantify climate change impacts: "Outdoor days"

This measure, developed by MIT researchers including Prof. Elfatih Eltahir and postdocs Yeon-Woo Choi and Muhammad Khalifa, reflects direct effects on people’s quality of life — and reveals significant global disparities.

Study finds lands used for grazing can worsen or help climate change

A new study from Assistant Prof. César Terrer and colleagues shows how to determine the tipping point between the two outcomes, given a certain climate zone and soil type.

With a new experimental technique, MIT engineers probe the mechanisms of landslides and earthquakes

Prof. Ruben Juanes and Wei Li SM ’14, PhD ’19 developed a new technique that visualizes the way forces are distributed in a collection of irregularly shaped grains. This method could lead to a better understanding of how some landslides and earthquakes are triggered as well as how to control the flow of granular materials in industrial processes.

Deep learning-based structural health monitoring

Prof. Oral Buyukozturk and his former postdoc, Young-Jin Cha, provide a comprehensive review of Deep Learning-Based Structural Health Monitoring (DL-based SHM) in a new article published in the Automation in Construction journal. The paper provides a synergistic analysis of DL and its evolution leading to future research and development needs to bring the SHM technology to a common practical use for building and infrastructure applications.

Justin Cole pivots from military service to climate crisis

After witnessing extreme weather events firsthand while serving in the Air Force, Justin Cole pivoted his career to address the climate crisis, enrolling in the new Climate System Science and Engineering bachelor's degree from CEE and EAPS.

Ananda Santos Figueiredo pivots form astrophysics to climate change

Motivated by a desire to improve people’s lives, Ananda Santos Figueiredo became one of the first undergraduates to declare the new 1-12 Climate System Science and Engineering major.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil 

and Environmental Engineering

77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-290 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 

(617) 253-7101

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