News

Konstantin Sobolev, Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 Faculty Fellow and professor, civil & environmental engineering, and Jian Zhao, associate professor, civil & environmental engineering, will collaborate with the University of Texas at Arlington and a consortium of European universities on a project that ultimately aims to mitigate concrete’s role in global warming. In September, a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant launched a project—Advancing International Partnerships in Research for Decoupling Concrete Manufacturing and Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions—that will support the creation of a multidisciplinary consortium in the U.S. and Europe dedicated to technological advancements to decarbonize the concrete industry. It is being led by investigators at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Read Complete Article

In September, Xiao Qin, professor of civil & environmental engineering and a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 professor, accepted an invitation from Craig Thompson, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, to serve on WisDOT’s Wisconsin Automated Vehicle External (WAVE) Advisory Committee. The committee supports the development of a safe and efficient transportation system in Wisconsin at a time when Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) research and technological advances are moving forward at an incredible pace. Specifically, they will review critical issues related to CAV research and make recommendations to WisDOT on planning priorities, implementation policies, and transportation system impacts.

Read Complete Article

Deyang Qu, an internationally recognized energy-storage and renewable energy expert, was named a UWM Distinguished Professor in May. Qu is a Johnson Controls Endowed Professorship in Energy Storage Research and is chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. He is also an IPIT affiliated faculty member

Read Complete Article

Congratulations to the following eight faculty members at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, each of whom was honored with a named professorship or named fellowship.

The named professorships and fellowships support the growth of some of the college’s key research areas and honor recipients’ research, teaching and scholarship. They were made possible by the generosity of recent donors. “I am very grateful to our donors, who were excited to support our faculty in this way,” said Dean Brett Peters.

Five of them are IPIT affiliated faculty members.

Read Complete Article

In January 2022, Wisconsin Department of Transportation awarded $138,178 to UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) for program of reviewing Wis-DOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise; this 18-month program aims to increase disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE) participation in and success rate of winning highway project contracts.The PI on this project is Al Ghorbanpoor, emeritus professor, civil & environmental engineering and founding director of IPIT; co-PIs are Steve Trick, research scientist with IPIT, and Qin.

WisDOT carries out the federal government’s DBE program, which provides minorities, women and other eligible small businesses with opportunities to participate in highway, transit and airport contracts that are federally or state funded. The intent of the program is to improve the competitiveness of DBEs and increase their participation in Wisconsin’s highway projects.

UWM researchers will evaluate WisDOT’s DBE. Among the tasks: identify barriers to firms’ participation and methods to remove them; make recommendations to maximize DBE participation and its success rate. The team will also recommend a DBE pilot training program to help set directions for developing and implementing a unique and robust DBE pilot training program in Wisconsin.

Read Complete Article

In January 2022, Wisconsin Department of Transportation awarded $78,228 to UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) for program of evaluating Wis-DOT’s Design-Build; this program is meant to streamline highway projects. The co-PIs on this project are Mark Gottlieb, IPIT’s associate director, and Scott Solverson, a research scientist with IPIT.

A UWM team will conduct a third-party evaluation of Wis-DOT’s recently-launched Design-Build program. The program streamlines highway improvement projects by bringing together engineering and construction industries at the outset, with the goals of reducing costs, accelerating project delivery, and enhancing synergy, innovation and communication. The team will also review programs in other states, national best practices, and the processes WisDOT uses to select Design-Build projects. The final report will include recommendations for process improvement and criteria with which to evaluate the program.

Read Complete Article

UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) welcomes Mr. Scott Solverson, as a Assistant Scientist and the newest member of the team!. Mr. Scott Solverson, P.E., AVS joined the Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) after 31 years of career at HNTB Corporation. Mr. Solverson was a Vice President and Wisconsin Construction Services Director. He has over 40 years of engineering and management experience, including design, program and construction management of Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and municipal projects, as well as being a practiced Value Practitioner. His project experience includes Program Management, Design/Build, Construction Management, Highway and Street Design, Transit Systems, Airport Design, Municipal Engineering and Value Engineering. 

Xiao Qin, professor, civil & environmental engineering and director of UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT), was awarded $500,000 in October from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) to develop, among other things, a best-practices guide and a national data clearinghouse to help state departments of transportation, public safety agencies, and the motor carrier industry prevent and mitigate the risk of bridge and tunnel strikes.   

Qin’s team includes: Habib Tabatabai, professor, civil & environmental engineering and director of the UWM’s Structural Engineering Lab; Andrew Graettinger, associate dean for research; and representatives from Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., Applied Research Associates, and Specialized Freight Solutions.  

Read Complete Article

UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) welcomes Dr. Jamshid Abdunazarov, the new visiting scholar, to Milwaukee! Dr. Abdunazarov’s visit is funded by American Councils for International Education (FEP program). Dr. Abdunazarov received his PhD from Moscow State Automobile and Road Technical University (MADI), Russia in 2015, and currently serves as the head of the Scientific Department of the Jizzakh Polytechnic Institute in Uzbekistan. Dr. Abdunazarov’s research interest is in road safety, traffic and safety modelling, sustainable transportation planning, and intelligent transportation systems.

.

UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT) welcomes Dr. Michael H. Schrader, P.E., as a Researcher and the newest member of the team! Dr. Schrader graduated from Wayne State University in 2018 with a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, and has since been a member of the faculty of Minnesota State University-Mankato, teaching transportation, and Gateway Technical College teaching fresh water resources. Prior to his academic experience, Dr. Schrader spent over three decades as a practicing civil and traffic engineering for both the public and private sectors. Dr. Schrader has extensive experience in traffic operations, transportation modeling and planning, signalization, construction, design, and public works.