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Spring Graduation


Study seeks to look at water needs
of whole basin


by Chris Woodka
The Pueblo Chieftain

Moving water, either through sales or leases of agricultural rights to cities, will always have consequences for both water supply and quality. Better understanding those consequences for the Arkansas River is the goal of an ambitious study proposed by Colorado State University professors Tim Gates and John Labadie. The roundtable sent the CSU request for $1.65 million to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

Arkansas River Valley

"We can't deal with a problem of moving water either in or out of the basin without looking at the entire basin," Labadie told the Arkansas River basin, we can use it to improve efficiency and still meet the needs of water rights and the Arkansas River Compact."

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“Chase the Wind” Transportation Safety Studies on I-70


If you have ever watched the movie “Twister”, you may still remember those scientists who chased the tornado using those sensors floating in the air. CSU researchers recently also chased strong wind along I-70 with various sensors.

Dr. Suren Chen (PI) and Dr. Juhua Liu (co-PI) with two graduate students in Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at CSU have been working on a research project entitled “Traffic Safety Vulnerability Information Platform (TS-VIP) for Highways in Mountainous Areas Using Geospatial Multimedia Technology”, which is sponsored by Mountain-Plains Consortium (MPC)-a USDOT university transportation research center. The research team integrates an advanced 3-D ultrasonic anemometer for wind measurements, a NI mobile data acquisition system for vehicle dynamics, three accelerometers, and a GPS-based video mapping system (VMS) for collecting geospatial multimedia information of the Interstate highway. The overall goal of the project is to develop a framework and web-based platform of a “Transportation Safety Vulnerability map” with traffic safety characteristics on feature points.

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New Faculty in Civil &
Environmental Engineering


The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is excited to welcome five new faculty members this year: Dr. Rebecca Atadero, Dr. Karan Venayagamoorthy, Dr. Domenico Bau, Dr. Sybil Sharvelle and Dr. Mazdak Arabi. Each brings with them a diverse set of expertise to our already strong team of professors and researchers. We expect great things from each of them and look forward to their many contributions in the years to come. Hopefully you have already interacted with them personally, but in any case, please take a moment to learn more about them in the following introductions.



Dr. Rebecca Atadero will be joining our faculty as an assistant professor in July 2008. For the past two years, as a research scientist/instructor, she has taught Structural Analysis and Steel Design to undergraduate students. Rebecca earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University in 2002. She went on to the University of California, San Diego to earn a M.S. and Ph.D. in structural engineering. Rebecca first returned to Colorado State University in 2006 as a research scientist, and she and her husband Todd, are both excited to continue living in Fort Collins.
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Dr. Karan Venayagamoorthy joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University as an assistant professor in January 2008. Karan received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering (summa cum laude) and master’s degree in civil engineering (cum laude) from the University of Kwazulu-Natal (formerly known as University of Natal) in Durban, South Africa in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Karan then came to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, gaining his Ph.D. in 2006 specializing in environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology. He then spent an additional year as postdoctoral research fellow at Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at Stanford University.
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Dr. Domenico Bau is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is originally from Padova, Italy, which is very close to Venice. Dr. Bau received his degree (Laurea) in Civil Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Padova, where he also worked as a research scientist following graduation.
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Dr. Sybil Sharvelle is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and is a member of the Environmental Engineering focus area. Her area of expertise is biological waste processing.

Dr. Sharvelle is originally from Indiana and attended the University of Colorado for her B.S. and M.S. degrees. She received her doctoral degree from Purdue University, where she developed a biological processor for treatment of graywater for potable reuse during long duration space missions. Through this project, Dr. Sharvelle gained extensive experience in the area of water reuse, with focus on emerging contaminants.
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Dr. Mazdak Arabi is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as CSU. He is teaching and actively conducting research in the water resources management and planning and environmental engineering areas. After receiving his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran, Mazdak became a graduate research assistant and then a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University, where he received his Ph.D. in August 2005. At CSU, Mazdak is currently an instructor for CIVE 576 “GIS and GPS for Engineering Applications”.
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To view previous "front page" stories from the Civil Engineering website, click HERE.

Contact Civil & Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Colorado State University
Campus Delivery 1372
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1372
Ph: (970) 491-5048, Fax: (970) 491-7727

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