Don Leo Named Associate Vice President for Research in the National Capital Region

Virginia Tech has named Donald Leo associate vice president for research in the National Capital Region. The announcement was made by Jim Bohland, vice president and executive director of National Capital Region Operations. Leo will be located at the new Virginia Tech Research Center – Arlington and will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic direction for research throughout the National Capital Region by integrating the university and its community of researchers in the Ballston facility with government agencies as well as private firms in the region.

“Don’s experience and success in developing a research and development ecology with Rolls Royce and other partners through the founding of the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing demonstrates his skills in creating new and exciting collaborations across multiple sectors," Bohland said.

Leo is a professor of mechanical engineering who has been at Virginia Tech since 1998, serving as the associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering from 2007 to 2011. From 2005 to 2007 he was a program manager in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.

During his time as associate dean, Leo oversaw several initiatives in research and graduate studies for the College of Engineering. He was the lead at Virginia Tech for creation of the Commonwealth Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems and the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing as part of a five-year, $14.6 million investment by the state. These funds will be used to support students, faculty, faculty hiring, and the development of new laboratories dedicated to aerospace and manufacturing research.

As associate dean, Leo also instituted several mentoring programs for junior faculty for early career awards, and worked with the departments to develop the first fall recruiting event in the college for prospective graduate students. Research expenditures grew from $107 million to $134 million over the four year period that he was associate dean in the College of Engineering.

His research expertise is the synthesis, modeling, and control of active material systems, with particular interest in the field of electroactive polymers. In 2007 he authored the textbook "Engineering Analysis of Smart Material Systems," published by John Wiley and Sons. He is also the author of more than 200 papers, 80 of which have been published in archival publications.

Leo earned a bachelor of science in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and both a master of science degree and a doctor of philosophy in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Buffalo.

Virginia Tech has fostered a growing partnership with the greater metropolitan Washington, D.C. community since 1969. Today, the university’s presence in the National Capital Region includes graduate programs and research centers in Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, Leesburg, Manassas, and Middleburg. In addition to supporting the university’s teaching and research mission, Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region has established collaborations with local and federal agencies, businesses, and other institutions of higher education.

Diane Baxter of GZA GeoEnvironmental Promoted to Senior Project Manager

GZA GeoEnvironmental, an environmental and geotechnical consulting firm, has announced that Diane Baxter, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP has been promoted to senior project manager at GZA GeoEnvironmental’s Providence, Rhode Island office.

A resident of Cranston, Rhode Island, Baxter joined GZA in 2000 as a geotechnical engineer for a variety of geotechnical, marine, and environmental engineering projects. She has acted as field engineer, project engineer, and project manager and has experience providing foundation recommendations, geotechnical site investigations, construction monitoring, earth support system design, seepage analysis, liquefaction analysis, and slope stability analyses.

Prior to joining GZA, Baxter worked for Metcalf & Eddy in Wakefield, Massachusetts and James K. Mitchell in Blacksburg, Virginia on a variety of geotechnical and environmental consulting projects. Baxter has managed geotechnical aspects of recent projects including Waterplace Luxury Residences, Cape Wind Offshore Wind Farm, Deepwater Wind RI Offshore Wind Farm, RI Hospital Bridge Building, Roger Williams Park Zoo Elephant Barn, and geothermal evaluation for Providence Schools.

Baxter earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tufts University in Massachusetts and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. She earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Rhode Island and a LEED Accredited Professional..

Founded in 1964, GZA GeoEnvironmental is a multi-disciplined firm providing environmental consulting, geotechnical and geo-civil engineering, environmental remediation, regulatory compliance, litigation support, air quality, solid waste services, specialty construction, occupational health and safety, and site development services. GZA maintains corporate offices in Norwood, Massachusetts, and the firm has 550 employees and operates 24 offices in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes Regions. For additional information, visit www.gza.com.

Engineer Receives Honor Reaching out to Children

For more than 20 years, structural engineer Bob Johnson of Chicago has presented lectures on engineering to children and students in a host of outreach programs. Johnson's lectures feature interactive displays and presentations that are fun and educational and designed to enhance children’s interest in math, science, and, of course, engineering.

These efforts caught the attention of Water Reclamation District Commissioner Frank Avila, who recently presented an award to Johnson for his efforts, “In recognition of exceptional Leadership in educating our children in K-12 in Engineering.” The award was presented by Commissioner Avila during taping of a television program (CAN-TV) with Johnson. The program aired on Chicago Cable TV in late June and will be available via the Internet.

According to Avila, Johnson’s structural engineering models and ‘toys’ provide an enriching hands-on practical application of structural engineering principles. His building and bridge models provide students and adults insight into their designs.

Joint Venture Designing Los Angeles Regional Connector

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) has selected a joint venture of AECOM and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) to provide conceptual planning and preliminary design for the $1.4 billion Metro Regional Connector Transit Corridor Project, also known as the Downtown Connector or Downtown Light-Rail Connector.

The 1.9-mile-long underground rail connection will link the Metro Gold and Blue lines with the new Expo light rail through downtown Los Angeles, enabling passengers to travel from Azusa to Long Beach and from the Eastside to Culver City. In tying together light rail lines in downtown L.A., the Regional Connector will provide major regional north/south and east/west rail line linkages that will give transit commuters a one-seat, one-ticket ride and significant travel time savings not available today. The connection itself will save approximately 20 minutes of time by eliminating line transfers through downtown. The project is estimated to provide access to 90,000 passengers daily, including 17,000 new transit riders by 2035.

The Regional Connector will receive partial funding from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by the voters of Los Angeles County in November 2008 as part of the Measure R program, an aggressive vision of transportation improvements totaling $40 billion over 30 years. Rail and transit improvements were the cornerstone of the program, with over half of the total Measure R revenues dedicated to a broad set of commuter rail, light rail, and bus projects.

The AECOM/PB joint venture, known as the Connector Partnership, will be responsible for creating an advanced conceptual plan for the project as well as preliminary engineering, with options for design support during construction and system activation. The joint venture will also assist LACMTA with project controls and risk assessment. Construction on the connector could begin in 2013 and be completed by 2019, depending on the availability of federal funding.

AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water, and government. With 45,000 employees around the world, AECOM serves clients in 125 countries. For more information, visit www.aecom.com.

Parsons Brinckerhoff develops and operates infrastructure around the world, with 14,000 employees serving clients and communities in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia-Pacific regions. PB offers strategic consulting, planning, engineering, program/construction management, and operations for all modes of infrastructure, including transportation, power, community development, water, and the environment. Parsons Brinckerhoff is part of Balfour Beatty plc, the international infrastructure group operating in professional services, construction services, support services and infrastructure investments (www.pbworld.com).

HOK/Vanderweil Team Wins National Competition with "Process Zero" Building Retrofit Proposal

METROPOLIS has announced that a team of young architects and engineers from HOK and Vanderweil Engineers has won the magazine’s Next Generation Design Competition with a proposal for a visionary, net-zero retrofit of a 1960s federal building in Los Angeles. The Washington, D.C.-based team, which worked on a volunteer basis for three months to create the winning submittal, offered a fully integrated design solution highlighted by solar collection, photovoltaic production, and the breakthrough use of an on-site microalgae bioreactor system.

The HOK/Vanderweil team’s proposal “Process Zero: Retrofit Resolution” demonstrates how an aging downtown office building, owned by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), could yield an 84-percent reduction in overall energy demand through energy conservation and renewal strategies. On-site energy generation would supply the remaining 16 percent needed to achieve the net-zero goal.

The team’s recommendation of the use of an energy-producing envelope system, highlighted by a modular system of algae tubes along the building’s façade, was among the many strategies that appealed to the Next Generation jury. The tubes would absorb the sun’s radiation to produce lipids for on-site fuel production while also shading interior office spaces within the 1.2-million-square-foot building. The 25,000-square-foot microalgae bioreactor system would generate 9 percent of the building’s power supply following the retrofit.

“Harvesting algae to generate energy is a new concept for building applications, but it shows a lot of promise,” says Brandon Harwick, PE, who led the design team along with HOK’s Sean Quinn. “Urban buildings would be especially suitable given the carbon dioxide levels found in city environments. As design professionals, we need to remember that nature has a lot to offer.”

The 15-person team “put in a lot of weekends and long nights” says Harwick. “It was many hours of research, design, and number crunching, but we also tried to be as creative as possible and bring a lot of ideas to the table. We wanted to demonstrate an approach that not only reflects the latest in design and technology but calls for a whole new mindset, one that engages and involves tenants as well.”

Highlights of the retrofit proposal include:

Thin film photovoltaic façade solar shading system

Rooftop photovoltaic panels

Integrated solar-thermal and photovoltaic rooftop panels for space and domestic water heating

An algae bioreactor system

A cloud computing system contributes to an 80-percent reduction in office equipment energy use

Radiant floor heating

Geothermal cooling

Rainwater harvesting

Energy recovery mechanical ventilation

Central atria for daylighting and natural ventilization

Phase-changing insulation material in ceilings to help extend natural ventilation periods

Daylight controls reduce artificial lighting energy consumption by 75 percent

“What is particularly remarkable about this solution was how a large, interdisciplinary team collaborated on a comprehensive plan that not only achieves net zero, but also deploys its design and technical solutions in a humanistic and contextually integrated way,” says METROPOLIS editor-in-chief Susan Szenasy.

GSA Chief Architect Leslie Shepherd says he and the other jurors were impressed by “the sophistication of the winning entry and of the many other inventive submissions. With appropriate testing and validation, certain Next Generation strategies could be replicated across a wider swath of our Great Society-era buildings.”

Founded in 1950, R.G. Vanderweil Engineers specializes in mechanical, electrical, and plumbing system design, commissioning for buildings, and central heating and chiller plants, power generation, and transmission and distribution systems. The 330-employee firm has offices in Boston (headquarters), New York, Princeton, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.vanderweil.com.

Skelly and Loy Adds CAD Specialist at Virginia Office

Skelly and Loy has hired Kimberly Britton as a CAD Specialist in its Wise, Virginia office. In this role, Britton prepares maps, plans, cross sections, and other types of CAD drawings; prepares exhibits for permit applications and other technical reports; and prepares field surveys as needed. With more than 16 years experience, she provides CAD services using the AutoCAD 2010 suite of products (AutoCAD Map, Raster Design, and Land Desktop). An experienced survey crew member, Britton is proficient with ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox and experienced with GPS survey equipment using Terrasynch software and Pathfinder Office to postprocess.

Most recently, Britton worked for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, where she reviewed annual and final maps for state approval. In fall of 2010, Skelly and Loy expanded its operations into Wise, Virginia, located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains and Central Appalachian Coal Region. This location allows the firm the opportunity to more effectively offer its engineering and environmental services to the central Appalachian region. Skelly and Loy has provided mining engineering services throughout the United States and around the world for the past 42 years. Skelly and Loy’s Mining Services Group is staffed with mining engineers (surface and underground), geologists, and scientists who can guide proposed and active mining operations from a pre-feasibility stage through geologic investigations, detailed design, permitting (state and federal), and reclamation. Our mining engineering services are offered to mining companies, electric utilities relying on coal as a boiler fuel, financial institutions, and support industries.

Skelly and Loy, celebrating its 42nd year in business, is a mid-sized engineering-environmental consulting firm with six Mid-Atlantic offices and is among the top engineering and environmental firms in the nation, consistently ranking among Engineering News Record’s Top 200 Environmental Firms. The firm provides expert mining, geologic, engineering, environmental, waste management, water resource, and cultural resource services to private and public sector clients throughout the United States and abroad.

AMEC Acquires MACTEC

AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, announced recently that it has agreed to buy MACTEC, an engineering and environmental services company, for a cash consideration of US$280 million. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, MACTEC has some 2,600 employees, mostly technical professionals, and 70 offices, the majority in the Eastern United States. It provides a similar wide range of services to AMEC’s existing Earth & Environmental (E&E) business, including environmental planning, assessment and remediation, infrastructure engineering, water resources, and construction support services.

MACTEC has a public- and private-sector client base and provides a broad range of environment and infrastructure services to the energy, commercial/industrial, transportation/infrastructure, and federal sectors. In North America, E&E has a strong presence in the Western United States and in Canada, so the combination allows AMEC greater access to new clients and regions and MACTEC a better international platform for growth.

Neil Bruce, Chief Operating Officer of AMEC, says, “This acquisition is fully aligned with AMEC’s Vision 2015 growth strategy and provides us with the right scale to service this important and growing environmental and infrastructure engineering services market.” Hisham Mahmoud, president of AMEC’s E&E business, adds, “MACTEC and E&E have a complementary client base and service offering, with minimal overlay in geographic coverage. Our combined business significantly enhances our competitive position in the U.S. market and is in line with our strategy of global geographic expansion.”

The combined E&E business will be headquartered in Alpharetta and led by Hisham Mahmoud. It will have more than 7,000 employees around the globe and bring AMEC’s total North American workforce to almost 14,000.