News

One of the greatest threats to the health of the Great Lakes is the increasing frequency of algal blooms, occurring in response to excess nutrients in the water due to a warming climate.

In response to the urgent need to better understand and mitigate human impacts on water quality, Dr. Nandita Basu, a civil and environmental engineering professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology, has been awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance grant for one such approach.

Basu's research is developing Poseidon, an innovative web-based water quality portalthat changes the way in which we monitor and analyze stream nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, loads, and landscape inputs, and will empower stakeholders with invaluable insights to drive conservation efforts.

"We cannot manage what we do not measure," said Basu. “Nutrient pollution management is challenging given limited water monitoring data and large gaps in available datasets. By combining comprehensive data and advanced analytics, Poseidon will empower scientists, policymakers, and communities to make evidence-based decisions and implement targeted interventions to address nutrient pollution effectively.

Go to New funding to support development of AI-powered nutrient load prediction system for the Great Lakes for the full story.

"The Wayne Gretzky of the Water Industry"

Dr. Peter Huck, Civil and Environmental Engineering professor and Water Institute Member, is celebrating 30 years as NSERC's Chair in Water Treatment. What an amazing accomplishment!!!

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gUZaxdMW

Congratulations to MASc candidate Saida Rezaee who was awarded an American Concrete Institute (ACI) Foundation Fellowship (https://lnkd.in/g5vZpgZ2), which provides funds to attend two ACI conferences and a $10,000 USD educational stipend. The ACI Foundation supports students’ education, research, and innovation throughout the concrete industry to contribute to keeping the industry at the forefront of technological advances in material composition, design, and construction.

Congratulations are in order!!!

The Waterloo Steel Bridge Team competed at the Canadian national competition on May 11/12 and had an excellent result, placing 3rd nationally and 4th overall (there where 13 teams, including 3 international teams from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Japan).

Congratulations again to this team - what an amazing job!!!

More details on the competition can be found here: https://www.cscecompetitions.ca/en/home/cnsbc/.

We are pleased to announce that the Scan Map Inspect (SMI) team, comprised of Max Midwinter, Zaid Abbas Al-Sabbag, and Rishabh Bajaj, PhD students in civil and environmental engineering, and supervised by Chul Min Yeum, has won the Engineer of the Future Fund

Did you ever wonder where the water ends up after it goes through the grate? When rain falls and snow melts on the UW campus, most of that water travels through pipes to Laurel Creek.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department extends their congratulations to the winning team for the highly competitive 2023 Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Expand Your Empire (EYE) Development Conference (9^th annual edition).

Created and operated by our department! UW weather station has provided our community with local weather data since Feb 28th, 1998. Local media often highlights the station and the data the it collects. Private citizens, schools, industry and others have used and appreciate the data. UW courses also rely on the station for teaching and research.

Wayne Parker's ENVE 577 (Engineering for Solid Waste Management) class recently toured the Region of Waterloo's landfill and Materials Recovery Facility. Tracy Annett (UoW Civil alumnus) provided an excellent tour and discussed ongoing initiatives at the site.

Have a listen to this amazing interview with the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology, Nandita Basu.