Events

Feb

1

SPREE Seminar Series - Ramez Hajj

McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

11:00 AM A230, Technological Institute

EVENT DETAILS

Multiscale characterization of viscoelastic construction materials using microscopic experiments and machine learning

Viscoelastic materials are used widely in construction of built infrastructure, most notably in the case of asphalt binders used in road construction. The characterization of these materials presents substantial challenges due to their complex molecular makeup and time, temperature, and geometry-dependent failure mechanisms. Specifically, understanding the mechanism underlying failure due to fatigue and fracture has been a challenge. Meanwhile, at larger scales, the engineering of asphalt mixtures involves complex manipulation of volumetric and other variables. To address these challenges, a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) was established to predict the dynamic complex modulus of asphalt mixtures based on a range of data from existing literature and our laboratory. The BNN was shown to have comparable errors to those observed experimentally when enough training and validation datasets were used. However, nonlinear viscoelastic problems provide more substantial challenges due to both lack of data and repeatability. Microscopic observations of the cavitation phenomenon underlying asphalt binder fracture were therefore observed using in-situ testing and darkfield microscopy. Future work involves predicting these cavitation events using physicsinformed neural networks.

Bio

Ramez Hajj is an Assistant Professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining UIUC, he completed his Ph.D. and Master's in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering with a minor in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. Dr. Hajj's research spans everything related to asphalt materials and flexible pavements, from as small as investigating asphalt binder behavior at the molecular, nano-, and micro-scale, to developing novel materials for roadway pavement and railroad track applications, to solving network-level transportation infrastructure problems. Primarily, his research focuses on asphalt binders, mixtures, and pavements, but more broadly, these research areas are situated in wider research areas of viscoelasticity, composites, machine learning, and computational modeling. So far, his work includes fundamental scientific discoveries into the origins of cracking in asphalt binder microstructure, the development of predictive machine learning algorithms for linear viscoelastic properties, and practical contributions to the asphalt industry, state Departments of Transportation, and local transportation agencies. To date, he has authored more than 25 peer-reviewed journal articles in these areas and presented his work at many international conferences.

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TIME Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

LOCATION A230, Technological Institute map it

CONTACT Stephanie Lukas stephanie.lukas@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

Sep

20

CEE New Student Orientation

McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

8:00 AM A230, Technological Institute

EVENT DETAILS

Orientation for new students to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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TIME Friday, September 20, 2024 at 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

LOCATION A230, Technological Institute map it

CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

Sep

23

Welcome & Luncheon for New Full-time Graduate Students

McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

11:00 AM Ryan Auditorium, Technological Institute

EVENT DETAILS

Enjoy a welcome from Dean Christopher A. Schuh and other McCormick leaders, and receive a Northwestern Engineering T-shirt. A free lunch on the Tech East Plaza will follow.

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TIME Monday, September 23, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

LOCATION Ryan Auditorium, Technological Institute map it

CONTACT Andi Joppie andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

Sep

24

Fall 2024 Classes Begin (No Northwestern Monday in Fall)

University Academic Calendar

All Day

EVENT DETAILS

Fall 2024 Classes Begin (No Northwestern Monday in Fall)

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TIME Tuesday, September 24, 2024

CONTACT Office of the Registrar nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

Sep

27

EES Seminar- Nanqing Zhou

McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

2:00 PM A230, Technological Institute

EVENT DETAILS

Title: Production of Nanoplastics and Bioavailable Carbons by Wastewater Comamonas

Abstract: Comamonadacae bacteria are enriched on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microplastics in wastewaters and urban rivers, but the PET-degrading mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated these mechanisms with Comamonas testosteroni KF-1, a wastewater isolate, by combining microscopy, spectroscopy, proteomics, protein modeling, and genetic engineering. Compared to minor dents on PET films, scanning electron microscopy revealed significant fragmentation of PET pellets, resulting in 3.5-fold increase in the abundance of small nanoparticles (< 100 nm) during 30-day cultivation. Infrared spectroscopy captured primarily hydrolytic cleavage in the fragmented pellet particles. Solution analysis further demonstrated double hydrolysis of a PET oligomer, bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate, to the bioavailable monomer terephthalate. Supplementation with acetate, a common wastewater co-substrate, promoted cell growth and PET fragmentation. Of the multiple hydrolases encoded in the genome, intracellular proteomics detected only one, which was found in both acetate-only and PET-only conditions. Homology modeling of this hydrolase structure illustrated substrate binding analogous to reported PET hydrolases despite dissimilar sequences. Mutants lacking this hydrolase gene were incapable of PET oligomer hydrolysis and had 25% decrease in PET fragmentation; re-insertion of the gene restored both functions. Thus, we have identified constitutive production of a key PET-degrading hydrolase in wastewater Comamonas, which can be exploited for plastics bioconversion.

Bio: Dr. Nanqing Zhou is a postdoctoral scholar working with Prof. Ludmilla Aristilde at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. Dr. Zhou obtained her B.S. in Environmental Science and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China. She then obtained a doctoral degree in Marine Biosciences from the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on applying multi-omics approaches to unravel the metabolic network in biotechnologically relevant microbes using waste carbon sources.

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TIME Friday, September 27, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

LOCATION A230, Technological Institute map it

CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

Sep

30

McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

2:00 PM A230, Technological Institute

EVENT DETAILS

TBA

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TIME Friday, November 15, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

LOCATION A230, Technological Institute map it

CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL

CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)

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SPREE Seminar Series - Ramez Hajj

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Welcome & Luncheon for New Full-time Graduate Students

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EES Seminar- Nanqing Zhou

Last day to add a class or change a section for Fall (Last day for tuition adjustment related to enrollment changes (to or from full-time). No reductions are made to bills for dropped or swapped classes after this date)

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