CEE News

June 19, 2008

Smart Home Gets Top Environmental Building Score

Residence hall/laboratory receives state's first platinum LEED rating DURHAM, NC -- The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University, a 10-person student residence hall for green living and learning, has achieved a top-level platinum standard for its design from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system. The building becomes the first in North Carolina to achieve that standard. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The 6,000-square foot-residence, designed by students and advisers, earned 59 READ MORE

May 22, 2008

Gavin Awarded for Undergraduate Teaching

By Richard Merritt Humor is often one of the telling characteristics of an effective and respected teacher, and from all accounts, Henri Gavin, associate professor of civil engineering, can be a pretty funny guy. "He always tries to crack jokes about things, especially when it seems the class isn't paying attention well enough," said Ian Cassidy, who took two Gavin classes and graduated this spring with a degree in civil engineering. "I remember in one class, most READ MORE

May 19, 2008

Lee Pearson Commencement Speech 2008

Welcome mothers and happy Mother's Day, thank you for all that you do. Welcome fathers thanks for your part in making Mother's Day possible. Welcome Pratt Class of 2008. It has been a long road and we have reached the end of this journey in what seems like much less time than anticipated. Although our parents were certainly focused on getting to the destination on time and on budget, we were more focused on what interesting READ MORE

May 8, 2008

Gift to Drive Better Understanding of Uncertainty Analysis

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has received a gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor to establish a new undergraduate curriculum that will encourage students to think critically about problems that lack obvious solutions, like those they will encounter after graduation, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Wednesday. The planned curriculum will be open to undergraduates from all majors. "Duke's strategic plan, 'Making a Difference,' calls for investments in programs that help students READ MORE

March 12, 2008

Harrington - Leading Duke's ASCE Chapter

Student Highlight: Josclyn Harrington Hometown: Charlotte, N.C. Josclyn Harrington got involved with the Duke chapter of the American Society for Civil Engineering (ASCE) in her sophomore year. Now a senior and ASCE president, she will lead the student club in its annual concrete canoe race and steel bridge competition at the Carolinas Conference. The annual conference gives students fun opportunities to test out both their technical and communications skills. Last year, Duke's canoe, dubbed the "Hazzards of Duke," was READ MORE

January 28, 2008

Focus on Engineering � Problems engineers solved

For the second year in a row, Professor Ana Barros led a freshman year experience Focus course cluster called Engineering Frontiers. Open to both engineering and arts and sciences students, this year's cluster examines the planet earth as the life support system that sustains us. Taught by engineering professor David Needham, one course in the cluster, Engineering 32F is Mapping Engineering onto Biology. Focus students had the opportunity to join into Needham's ME/BME 265, Introduction to READ MORE

January 22, 2008

Pratt Fellow Crabtree Seeks Understanding of Flaws in 'Smart Gels'

Liza Crabtree, a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow and civil and environmental engineering major, is working to understand the flaws that can develop in so-called stimulus-responsive hydrogels. These 'smart gels,' which look essentially like Jello, can be made to undergo dramatic transformation in response to changes in their surroundings, including pH and temperature. Thanks to those unique abilities, hydrogels are now poised to become integral mechanical components and sensors in the increasingly tiny devices of the READ MORE

December 21, 2007

Water Conservation Paying Off at Duke

by Missy Baxter During recent tours of Duke's Home Depot Smart Home, visitors marveled at two 1,000-gallon rain barrels that collect water to flush toilets, wash clothes and irrigate landscaping at the home. "It's a smart way to save water and help the environment, especially since we're in a drought," said Alessandro Mangiafico, 9, as he toured the home with his parents Paula Mangiafico, a Duke University Libraries archivist, and Paolo Mangiafico, Duke IT-Web Services READ MORE

December 5, 2007

Catching Rain in Uganda

This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Patrick Ye, BME '10 This past summer, I was one of six students on a Duke Engineers Without Borders team that traveled to Uganda. Our goal was to build a rainwater harvesting system to supply a community with a clean and reliable source of READ MORE

December 5, 2007

Moldy Human Cells, Water Pipes, 2-Watt Computers, and Concrete Machines: One Pratt Senior's Summer Extravaganza

This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Lee Pearson, BME/CEE '08 "Viva Peeeruuu!" the perfect stranger yelled to me with Pisco on his breath as he threw his arm around my back and we proceeded to walk towards the concert stage. It was July 27th, the night before the Independence Day READ MORE

December 5, 2007

Aaron Lee on Environmental Research in Germany

by Aaron Lee, CE/German/German Studies '09 Before this summer, I had figured that lab research would be very similar anywhere in the world. Like Gertrude Stein said, "a rose is a rose is a rose," and although there may be some slight differences from lab to lab, I thought that in the end, a test tube is still a test tube. However, this summer allowed to me see that while some things will be the same, READ MORE

November 12, 2007

The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke is a Showcase of Green Design

The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University is a showcase of green design and a living laboratory. Designed by Duke students through a strategic partnership with The Home Depot, the 6,000-square-foot home features a variety of eco-friendly and high-tech elements and will house 10 students. The public can tour the Smart Home Nov. 12 and 13 to glean ideas and inspiration for green living. Open house tours are being offered from 2 READ MORE

November 10, 2007

Duke's Home Depot Smart Home Officially Opened

Duke University's new Home Depot Smart Home, a high-tech dorm and research laboratory, was officially opened Nov. 9 by the university president, the current and former deans of the Pratt School of Engineering, and some of the 10 students who will live there. The $2.5 million, two-story building located on Duke's Central Campus is the centerpiece of the Duke Smart Home Program, a research-based approach to smart living sponsored by the Pratt School. Primarily focused on READ MORE

November 5, 2007

Why Engineers Make Good Business People

Note: The following represents a speech presented by Sy Sternberg, chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Co., at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Saturday, Nov. 3, during Parents Weekend. Sternberg is an engineer by education, with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Download his power point slides. It's great to be here this week with so many other Duke parents. My son, Matthew, has just entered his senior year at READ MORE

November 1, 2007

Raising Awareness about Contaminated Water in Ghana

Professor Fred Boadu and undergraduate Natalia Rossiter-Thornton with villagers in Ghana. Two years ago, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Fred Boadu made an unexpected discovery while mapping the geology in his home country of Ghana. The fractured bedrock beneath villages there allow nitrates from fertilizers to seep down into the groundwater, which is then pumped through boreholes for domestic use. Local farmers depend on the fertilizers to boost their yields of pineapples, which provide the locals' READ MORE

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