2009 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

 

 

Research Theme

The theme of this year's undergraduate research program is "Engineering for Sustainability", which can be broadly interpreted within all program areas of civil & environmental engineering and related fields (e.g., architecture, earth sciences, etc.).

Top of page

 

Financial Support

The 2009 summer program provides a full-time stipend of up to $5,200 ($520 per week) for the 10 week summer session, plus $500 towards research project expenses (supplies, travel, etc.).

Top of page

 

Requirements and Restrictions

• Eligibility is limited to Stanford undergraduates who are working under the supervision of a faculty member affiliated with the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Co-terminal master's degree students are eligible only if the bachelor's degree will not be conferred before the end of the research appointment.
• Students receiving full summer stipends may not register for more than 5 credits of coursework, nor may they work for more than 10 hours per week in addition to their research appointment.
• Students are prohibited from receiving both credit and salary for any single research activity. This does not, however, preclude students from working on a research project during the summer and then expanding it into a senior thesis during the following academic year.
• Students are expected to participate in organized program activities throughout the summer (provided research is on campus), provide a final 3-page summary report on their project, complete an on-line evaluation, present the results of their research orally at the end of the summer at a CEE VPUE conference, and fill out a CEE evaluation form.

Top of page

 

Application

Prior to submitting an application, students should identify and contact a CEE faculty member who is agreeable to supervise a summer research project. Students are encouraged to reference the CEE faculty web pages to learn more about the specific research interests and opportunities of the faculty. Faculty who have indicated an interest in advising summer projects are listed below. You may also apply for projects with faculty that are not listed here.

Applications should include the following:

1. student applicant information (name, major, expected graduation date, local address, e-mail address),
2. faculty research supervisor name and e-mail address,
3. brief (500 word max.) statement of your research topic and plans,
4. copy of your transcript (an unofficial transcript is fine),
5. resume or summary of relevant experience. If your application is to request financial support for other than a full-time stipend during the 2008 summer session, your plans should be clearly stated, including proposed dates of appointment and level of support.

Applications should be submitted either in hardcopy or e-mail to Sandra Wetzel (Yang & Yamazaki Envvironment & Energy Bldg. Room 316) before 5 PM on Wednesday, February 20. Applications received after this date may still be considered, pending availability of funding.

Questions about the program should be directed to Sandra Wetzel <swetzel@stanford.edu>, Susie Stone <sstone@stanford.edu> or Professor Alexandria Boehm <aboehm@stanford.edu>.

Top of page

 

Sustainable Natural Environment - Environment and Water Studies
Faculty: Alexandria Boehm E-mail: aboehaboehm@stanford.edu Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~aboehm Drinking water quality and human health in Tanzania. A project testing the effects of water-quality information on attitudes, beliefs, water quality, illness and behaviors of households in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Summer activities may include in-country assistance with research design, sample frames, data collection instruments, sampling protocols, etc. Desired skills/interests include environmental engineering/microbiology, OR public health/statistics/computer programming. Ability to travel to Tanzania required; prior experience in a developing country preferred. Travel to Tanzania needs to be co-funded by student (part of VPUE stipend could be used for this purpose). Pathogens in California coastal streams. Student will work in the lab and the field to study the concentrations of human pathogens and microbial pollutants in coastal streams of central California. Knowledge and experience with microbiology is a plus. Student should be a self-starter and comfortable working independently. Groundwater discharge has been shown to be an important source of nutrients and, in some cases, human fecal indicator bacteria to the coastal ocean. This project will investigate the role of sediments and porewater salinity on human health indicator and nutrient transport in the subsurface at California beaches. The project will include a short literature review and a series of bench-top column experiments whereby nutrient- and fecal indicator bacteria-contaminated groundwater will be filtered through aquifer material collected within the saline, brackish, and fresh zones of the aquifer at Stinson Beach, California. Target bacteria and nutrients will include enterococcus and nitrate, respectively. Experience in the lab is a plus.
Faculty: Jenna Davis E-mail: jennadavis@stanford.edu Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/jennadavis/ An investigation into the design of sustainable water systems for rural and peri-urban communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The field site will be in Kenya or a west African country. Desired skills/interests include EITHER civil engineering/hydrology and/OR economics/statistics/computer programming. Prior experience in developing countries a plus but not essential. Opportunity may include field work in country, which would need to be co-funded by student (part of VPUE stipend could be used for this purpose). Developing a model of water and sanitation infrastructure financing in urban India. The project will entail collection and analysis of secondary data on water supply and sanitation infrastructure, as well as on levels and sources of local government finance. Desired skills include database management/statistics/GIS; an interest in water, sanitation, health and development a plus. Must be a self-starter and able to work independently for a portion of the project.
Faculty: Richard Luthy E-mail: luthy@stanford.edu Website: http://www-ce.stanford.edu/faculty/luthy/ Student will conduct experiments with a graduate student and Prof. Luthy to study water quality. This position is open to CEE majors.
Faculty: David L. Freyberg E-mail: freyberg@stanford.edu Website: http://cee.stanford.edu/faculty/freyberg/ Searsville Dam and Reservoir—Sediment Accumulation and Management and Sediment-Reservoir-Wetland Interactions. The goal of this multi-faceted research project is to better understand the hydrologic interactions between Stanford's Searsville Reservoir, its inflowing streams, and the large sediment deposit that has been trapped in the reservoir. The context is the need to make management decisions about the 114-year-old dam and its rapidly diminishing reservoir. Opportunities include field work designing, installing, and obtaining data from field instrumentation; analyzing field data to develop a water balance for the system; laboratory analysis of sediment core samples collected from the site; GIS analysis of accumulated sediment over time; assisting a Ph.D. student in implementing a mathematical model of flow through the system; literature review of reservoir sediment processes; and other similar projects. You will be working as part of a team of students and faculty and have considerable latitude to choose a project of greatest interest to you. Use of LIDAR data to communicate about flood risk and the impacts of urban development. LIDAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) data provide very high resolution topographic and surface feature information with many potential applications. In this project you will work with a faculty member and a spatial data professional to explore the ways a LIDAR data set for the area around the Stanford campus can be used to create communication tools to help community members better understand the nature of flood risk, the extent of human alteration of the natural environment, and related aspects of public environmental education. You will work with LIDAR data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and other computer graphics tools to develop creative communication tools, along with exploring opportunities for assessing the effectiveness of these new tools.
Faculty: Craig Criddle E-mail: criddle@stanford.edu Website: http://cee.stanford.edu/faculty/criddle From Waste to Plastic: Producing Biodegradable Plastics from Methane. The need for environmentally friendly plastics is becoming more and more apparent as landfills continue to fill up with plastic waste and plastic materials are downcycled through recycling processes. This project studies the biodegradable polymer poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), which is produced in bacterial cells and can be harvested and used as plastic. The student will work in the lab on a sequencing bioreactor designed to select for microorganisms that produce the highest amounts of PHB. Students will work in the fields of microbiology and applied chemistry. No coursework is required, although basic knowledge of microbiology, chemistry, and environmental engineering may be helpful.
Faculty: Craig Criddle & Michael Lepech E-mail: criddle@stanford.edu & mlepech@stanford.edu Website: http://cee.stanford.edu/faculty/criddle & http://www.stanford.edu/~mlepech Life Cycle Analysis of Biodegradable Plastics. As biodegradable plastics begin to enter markets as practical alternatives to petrochemical-based plastics, it is important to understand their complete, cradle-to-cradle life cycle. The student will investigate the resource and energy demands, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions, for the entire life cycle of green plastics versus traditional plastics. The student will be asked to do independent research and will work to collaborate with other students, faculty, and organizations such as the California EPA. No specific coursework is required, although a basic knowledge of life cycle analysis is preferable. Enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, and independence are a must.
Faculty: Lynn Hildemann E-mail: hildemann@stanford.edu Website: http://cee.stanford.edu/about_faculty/cee_faculty_profile.php?sunetid=hildeman The Effects of Organics in Airborne Particles on Global Climate and Chemistry. The presence of organics can alter the fundamental properties of airborne particulate matter (PM), such as the tendency to take up water and form clouds. The undergraduate will work with 2 PhD students in the lab to generate atmospheric organics under different conditions, using a smog chamber. After the PhD students conduct measurements of these samples, the undergraduate can evaluate how the properties of PM containing these generated organics vary with conditions. The undergraduate can also investigate what other measurement techniques might be helpful for these smog chamber samples. The ideal student will have a basic knowledge of organic chemistry, enthusiasm for working in the lab, an ability to work independently, and good organizational skills.

Top of page

 

Sustainable Built Environment - Structures and Construction
Faculty: Sarah Billington E-mail: billington@stanford.edu Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/strgeo/People/billington.htm Biobased Composites for the Construction Industry. This project is investigating the design of composite materials made from natural resources that can replace wood, engineered wood and plastics in the construction industry. The composites are made up of natural fibers and plastics that can be produced from waste. They have a closed-loop life-cycle in that they can biodegrade to products that can in turn be used to make more polymer. The student working on this project will fabricate material specimens as well as small-scale structural components to test under mechanical and environmental loads. If interested, computer modeling of the composite behavior can also be investigated. This is an interdisciplinary project with structural, chemical and environmental engineers involved. Evaluating a ductile fiber-concrete infill panel system to protect seismically-vulnerable steel frames. This project is evaluating a new retrofit system to protect buildings, in particular critical facilities that must remain operational after an earthquake. Large-scale experiments will be underway at the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation testing facility at Berkeley this summer. The student will participate in conducting computational analyses of the experiments and panel components as well as assist with collecting and analyzing data from the experiments. Most of the work will be carried out at Stanford with occasional travel to Berkeley with graduate researchers. Preference to students who have completed CEE 101A, E14. CEE 180 is a plus.
John Haymaker, John Kunz, Ray Levitt, Martin Fischer, John Barton E-mail: jhbarton@stanford.edu Impacts and Opportunities of High Speed Rail. Students will work in teams, in the field and in the studio to investigate, document and report on options and constraints for high speed rail construction and associated development in the mid-peninsula area. The end result will be a package of diagrams, plans, data, costs and options that would outline the costs and benefits of a variety of development scenarios. A specific professor will direct each topic area, and the projects will work independently and convene regularly to integrate their work. Following are the topic areas. Architecture: John Barton will work with a student to research the project stakeholders, to understand and document their goals, and to assemble and document promising design options. Organization: Ray Levitt will work with a student to understand and model the organizations and institutions and to develop processes that are suited to these organizations. Life Cycle Analysis: Martin Fischer will work with a student to develop 4-dimensional model-based analyses of these design scenarios for their lifecycle economic and environmental costs. Process: John Haymaker will work with a student to design, coordinate, and communicate the design and decision making processes and information. Management: John Kunz will work with a student on the social design process through Integrated Concurrent Engineering design sessions.

Top of page