CEE Researchers to Help Northern California Communities Reduce Wildfire Risk with Dynamic Modeling

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2.5 million to an interdisciplinary, multicampus University of California research team, partnering with Bay Area agencies and community organizations to help residents respond to natural disasters more efficiently.

Led by CEE Professor Kenichi Soga, the researchers will use the grant to create an interdisciplinary framework simulating wildfire evacuation methods in Bay Area communities, Marin County, and the city of Oakland in Alameda County.

How Much Are We Exposed to Emissions from Road Construction Activities?

CEE researchers co-authored a paper describing the process of developing a novel model quantifying PM2.5 exposure impacts from operating and maintaining paved roads in the San Francisco Bay Area. The paper was co-authored by Postdoctoral Associate Fiona Greer (Ph.D., CEE 2021), ECIC Ph.D. student Ahmad Bin Thaneya, and Professors Arpad Horvath and Joshua Apte in Environmental Research Letters.

Structural Health Monitoring for Wind Turbines

In mid-October, Linqing Luo (Research Scientist at LBL) and James Xu (Ph.D. Student at CEE) helped install fiber optic cables for structural health monitoring of wind turbines in Oklahoma through their work at the Center for Smart Infrastructure. Using distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS), analyzers can detect the dynamic strain, which can help identify structural degradation. This technology can help to build innovative infrastructure within critical clean energy systems.

SWE Hosts Mini University: High School Students Tour Structures Lab

On Wednesday, the UC Berkeley Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hosted Mini University! This one-day free event introduces underserved high school students to the college environment and research involved in pursuing STEM careers. Undergraduate students from SWE led lab tours for high-school students to help them learn about the different engineering disciplines available and the cutting-edge research happening on campus.