Civil researchers work toward a sustainable waste management system for the wastewater treatment industry

Dr. K. Victor Lo’s team of graduate students, research associates, and postdoctoral fellows in Civil are approaching pre-commercialization of their “sludge-busting” microwave technology for sustainable waste management in the wastewater treatment industry. The microwave enhanced advanced oxidation process (MW/H2O2) is a patented technology developed by Dr. K.V. Lo’s research team at the UBC’s Civil Engineering […]

Civil alumnus chosen for the 2014 UBC Engineering Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Congratulations to Duncan McNicholl, who was honoured at the 2014 Engineering Excellence Celebration as the recipient of the 2014 UBC Engineering Outstanding Young Alumnus Award*! Duncan received his BASc in Civil Engineering in 2009, with distinction, but he was dedicated to more than just his studies during his time at UBC. In 2003, his life […]

Civil professor accepts Chair in Earthquake Engineering at University of Auckland

After 11 successful years on faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering, Professor Ken Elwood (PhD ’02, P.Eng.) will be leaving UBC to pursue exciting new opportunities at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he will take on a newly created position as “Chair in Earthquake Engineering”. Professor Elwood first joined UBC Civil Engineering […]

Civil instructor awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Award for Historical Writing

Dr. Ruth Derksen has been awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Award for Historical Writing. It will be presented to her in June by The Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, during the BC Historical Federation Annual Conference. Dr. Derksen’s book, Daughters in the City, chronicles the stories of young refugee Mennonite women who […]

Civil Club honours top undergraduate professors

The Civil undergraduate student body has voted for their top undergraduate professors for the 2013/2014 academic year.  In recognition of their demonstrated commitment to fairness, communication, and quality teaching, the Civil Club has announced that Dr. Greg Lawrence (second year), Dr. Bernard Laval (third year), and Dr. Ken Elwood (fourth year) were selected by the students as this year’s best undergraduate […]

Civil student selected as Engineering Co-op photo contest winner

Photo courtesy of Joanne Chow and Engineering Co-op. Learn more about Engineering Co-op’s Photo Contest. Civil Engineering student Joanne Chow was awarded Second Prize in the Engineering Co-op Programs’s 2013 photo contest. Pictured is a tunnel boring machine, which Joanne encountered during her recent Co-op term in Hong Kong. Joanne shares a description of the machine: […]

Civil professor co-leads Building Information Modeling project

Dr. Sheryl Staub-French is one of the leaders of the Construction and ICT project research team who published a report this week on the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Canada’s construction industry. The report, entitled “The Inevitable Shift Towards Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Canada’s Construction Sector” details the main benefits, challenges and […]

UBC Professor to serve on the GIEES Board of Directors

The new, non–profit, Global Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability-GIEES, has been incorporated in the US, and will be based out of MIT, in due course. It will have an international Board, of 15 members, with a mandate to provide technical and research services/advice on topics of Energy, Environment and Sustainability , globally, but in […]

UBC Concrete Toboggan Team: Success at the 40th Annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race

This February, the UBC Concrete Toboggan Team competed in London, Ontario at the 40th annual GNCTR against 24 North American Universities and Technical Institutions. The team spent five days networking with over 400 students, Western University Alumni and industry representatives. The team raced with an all new, component-based design and after some last minute adjustments, made multiple successful runs down […]

Civil is hiring! Three faculty positions available

Find out more about Faculty opportunities in the Department of Civil Engineering, and discover why UBC is one of British Columbia’s top employers.

Why we need more women engineers: Q&A with Sheryl Staub-French

Few women and a looming skills shortage could create a crisis for the industry On the eve of International Women’s Day, UBC Public Affairs conducted a Q&A with Civil Engineering Associate Professor and Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science & Technology Faculty Associate Sheryl Staub-French, on her work to boost female enrolment. Why are you concerned about the […]

Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS) visits Civil Engineering

The Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS) visited UBC Civil Engineering on Saturday, March 8 to learn about earthquake engineering.  Twenty girls between the ages of seven and fourteen and their parents enjoyed a demonstration of the shake table in the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility.  The girls then worked in teams to construct straw buildings in the […]

Civil students win top prize at WEFTEC Student Design Competition in Chicago

Four Civil Engineering graduate students were part of the team of five that took home a top prize at the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) Student Design Competition in Chicago in fall 2013. Christopher Lawson, Laith Furation (CHBE), Michal Simhon, Connor Wilson, and Rony Das earned the opportunity to compete in this […]

Faculty Seminar Series: Dr. Carlos Ventura gives overview of seismic risk in BC

Images courtesy of Carlos Ventura. At centre: BC Smart Infrastructure Monitoring System Shake Map, showing infrastructure currently being monitored. At right: Engineers inspect field vibration testing equipment at Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing. Dr. Carlos Ventura, Civil Engineering Professor and Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility (EERF), presented the faculty seminar “The Art and Science […]

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) UPDATE: Civil graduate student advances to UBC Semi-Finals

UPDATE: Kelly Graves placed third in the APSC heat, and will be advancing to the UBC Semi-Finals, to be held Tuesday March 11. Click here for details. On February 27th, six graduate students competed in this year’s Civil heat of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Staff, faculty and students made up the audience of nearly 50, and enjoyed a […]

Study in Beijing this summer – CIVL technical electives offered at Peking University

Complete fourth-year technical electives at Peking University with the Globex Summer Study Program, July 1 – July 31, 2014. UBC Civil Engineering students have a fantastic opportunity to travel to Beijing this summer to participate in the The Globex Summer Program for international engineering students. Students enrolled in this four week intensive program can take […]

MASc student wins 2013 Canadian Dam Association Scholarship

MASc student Ryan Rasmussen won the 2013 Canadian Dam Association Scholarship for his research on “Optimization of Revelstoke Dam Operation during the Spring Freshet”.

Civil Engineering unveils new Structural Teaching Lab

The Department of Civil Engineering welcomed industry partners to campus on April 24th, 2013, to mark the grand opening of the new Structural Engineering Teaching Laboratory in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Building. Those present witnessed a demonstration of the lab’s new Reconfigurable Structure Testing Frame and Small Scale Shaking Table Facility. The new testing […]

Civil Engineering welcomes the new Dean

The Department of Civil Engineering is pleased to welcome the new Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, Professor Marc Parlange. Dean Parlange officially  took the helm of the Faculty on September 1, 2013, for a five year term. He now leads the education of more than 5,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate  students, in the School […]

Civil PhD student receives 2013 David Crighton Fellowship

Anirban Guha, UBC Civil Engineering Ph.D. candidate, received the prestigious 2013 David Crighton Fellowship from the Department of Applied Mathematics and   Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge. The award will support Guha to study and conduct research at Cambridge for two to three months,  where he will be working with Prof. Peter Haynes to study […]

Civil MASc student awarded UBC Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship

Kelly Graves was awarded the UBC Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship. Kelly is a Master of Applied Science student in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. She is  researching under-ice mixing due to solar heating in an arctic lake in Finland where she was able to use conventional instrumentation as well as use an  autonomous underwater vehicle to collect data. Kelly […]

NSERC Graduate Scholarships and UBC Four-Year Fellowships awarded to Civil students

NSERC Graduate Scholarships and UBC Four-Year Fellowships The National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awarded the  2012 Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) to Ph.D. candidate Shona Robinson, M.A.Sc. candidate Lisa Tobber, and M.A.Sc. candidate  Stanley Chan; the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS-D) was awarded to Ph.D. candidate Elnaz Amirzehni. The UBC […]

Concrete Toboggan Team’s success at the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race 2013

The UBC Civil Concrete Toboggan Team placed 3rd in the top speed, and 10th overall of 21 teams in the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race 2013, the oldest and largest engineering student competition in Canada. Team members were able to be part of the complete life cycle of a project and gained experience in  the […]

Steel Bridge Team places 1st in Pacific Northwest Steel Bridge Competition

The UBC Steel Bridge Team achieved the following rankings in the Steel Bridge Competition at the 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers Pacific Northwest  Student Conference at Oregon State University: 1st in Display, 2nd in Stiffness, 2nd in Construction Speed, 4th in Economy and 3rd Overall. This notable outcome qualified the team for participation in […]

EERI Undergraduate Seismic Design Team competes for UBC

The UBC EERI Undergraduate Seismic Design Team was honored to represent UBC at the Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, hosted by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Student Leadership Council. It was a successful experience for the team, and they were proud to represent UBC and Canada at this international competition, where they placed 19th overall. Notable […]

Civil researchers develop award-winning Seismic Retrofit Guidelines for BC schools

Professor Carlos Ventura, Professor Emeritus Liam Finn, and researchers Dr. Armin Bebamzadeh and Dr. Freddy Piña along with a number of graduate students recieved three awards for their recent work on the Seismic Retrofit Guidelines for the Performance-based Seismic Risk Assessment and Seismic Retrofit Design of BC School Buildings. By the Association of Consulting Engineers of British Columbia, […]

Professor Sheryl Staub-French joins Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science, & Technology

Dr. Sheryl Staub-French has joined WWEST as Faculty Associate to work for improved gender diversity in engineering.  WWEST (Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science & Technology) is a program to support the recruitment and retention of women in engineering, science and technology on the west coast.  This program is funded through the NSERC Chair for Women in Science […]

Civil professor leads IC-IMPACTS to prevent disease and ensure water supply in India and Canada

Researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Toronto and 11 leading institutions in India have joined forces in a $30 million partnership to tackle urgent issues in both countries. Supported by the Canadian government and state and industry partners in India, the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate […]

Professor Tarek Sayed honoured by the Engineering Institute of Canada

Professor Tarek Sayed will be inducted as Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for his exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada. World-renowned for his research on road safety analysis and evaluation, Sayed’s work on proactive road safety management is being applied in projects in several countries and is considered by many as the future of […]

Professor Nemy Banthia renewed as Canada Research Chair in Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Sustainability

Dr. Nemy Banthia is the recipient of a renewed Canada Research Chair in Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Sustainability. He has held this Chair since 2006. Click here for more information on Dr. Banthia’s Canada Research Chair.

2013 WEFTEC Design Competition Win

Congratulations! University of British Columbia team wins first place at the North American Water Environment Ferderation Student Design Competition (Environmental Division). This is the first time a Canadian team has won this event!

Professor Ken Elwood receives ACI Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Ken Elwood has been selected to receive the American Concrete Institute Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award. From ACI: “The Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award is given in recognition of noteworthy work on ACI technical committees. This award goes to a current (or recent) chair, or under special circumstances, to deserving individuals other than […]

Play House: The Architecture of Daniel Evan White

This retrospective exhibition on the work of the Vancouver architect Daniel Evan White at the Museum of Vancouver, is curated by UBC Faculty members Greg Johnson (SALA/Civil Engineering) and Martin Lewis (SALA), in collaboration with Viviane Gosselin, Curator of Contemporary Issues, at the MOV. The exhibition will run for six months beginning October 16, 2013. […]

Civil Engineer helps re-launch Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science

Co-edited by UBC Civil Engineering prof. Don Mavinic, the Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science (JEES) will be re-launched this year by The Institution of Civil Engineers. It will begin publishing quarterly at the onset and progress to six editions per year. The journal aims to provide a forum for the dissemination of environmental research, while encouraging […]

CIVL Engineering researchers publish earthquake report on Guatemala

Civil Engineering professor and Director of the UBC Earthquake Engineering Research Facility Carlos Ventura and his PhD student Manuel Archila are part of the team who produced a report on the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Guatemala on November 7, 2012. The report, entitled “The November 7, 2012 M7.4 Guatemala Earthquake and its Implications for […]

New Master’s in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program starts in September

UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science is working with marine industry leaders to develop a new Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NAME) graduate program in Mechanical Engineering.  The Department of Civil Engineering is also a partner to this new program, and Civil Engineering professor Dr. Michael Isaacson serves as the program’s Director.  Students in the NAME program […]

Bombardier Establishes NEW Fellowship in Transportation Planning at UBC

The Faculty of Applied Science is pleased to announce the establishment of the J. Armand Bombardier Sustainable Transportation Fellowship with a generous gift of $500,000 from the J. Armand Bombardier Foundation. The fellowship will be awarded to graduate students whose research is focused on one of three areas: The impacts of transportation investments on equity […]

Two CIVL Engineers inducted Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering

Two Civil Engineering professors Tarek Sayed and Dharma Wijewickreme have been inducted Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) in recognition of their distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession. The induction ceremony took place on June 20, 2013 in Montreal in conjunction with the Academy’s 2013 Annual General Meeting and Symposium. […]

EERF Researchers win Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Engineering Excellence

Researchers at UBC’s Earthquake Engineering Research Facility, including Dr. Carlos Ventura, Dr. William Finn and Dr. Armin Bebamzadeh, were part of a group of researchers from industry and academia who received the 2013 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Engineering Excellence for their work in developing the “Seismic Retrofit Guidelines for the Performance-based Seismic Risk Assessment and […]

2013 NSERC Discovery Grant Accelerator Supplements Award Recipients

The 2013 NSERC Discovery Grant Accelerator Supplement Awards have been awarded to three of our colleagues this year: Nemy Banthia, Ken Elwood and Bernard Laval. Congratulations to Nemy, Ken and Bernard for their success in securing this supplemental grant to their NSERC DG. This year only 12 DAS have been awarded nationally and having 25% of […]

UBC Civil Engineering Professors Honoured by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Five UBC Civil Engineering professors and one graduate student were honoured by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) during its annual conference in Montreal from May 29-June 1, 2013. Dharma Wijewickreme was doubly honoured at the conference: he received the CSCE’s Horst Leipholz Medal for his outstanding contributions to engineering mechanics research and practice in […]

The International CONCUR team has descended on Kilpisjärvi!

Dr. Bernard Laval’s International CONCUR team have finally landed in Kilpisjärvi Northern Finland to study the transition from ice cover to summer in a high latitude lake (70ºN). The team is hard at work in the field taking measurements of the temperature, conductivity, pressure, pH, turbidity, redox, PAR and current from the surface of the […]

Civil Engineering Professor receives UBC’s highest Teaching Honour

Professor Perry Adebar received a UBC Killam Teaching Prize during the May 28, 2013 convocation ceremonies where the following award citation was read, detailing Adebar’s unique contributions to teaching at UBC: “A well-known structural engineer in the British Columbia construction industry, Dr. Adebar is an exceptional teacher, able to convey highly complex mathematical and solid […]

PCWM Students at Science Rendezvous, 2013

On May 11th, check out Science Rendezvous at UBC, a family-friendly event where people and science meet! PCWM graduate students will be promoting the science of drinking water. Get hands-on experience experimenting with water treatment processes yourself; take the bottled vs tap taste challenge; pledge to reduce your water use (and enter to win awesome […]

CIVL grad student wins prestigious Cambridge Fellowship

UBC Civil Engineering PhD candidate Anirban Guha received the prestigious 2013 David Crighton Fellowship from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge. The award will support Guha to study and conduct research in Cambridge for two to three months, covering his travel and subsistence expenses up to £3,600 (approximately $5600 […]

Civil Professor Dr. Jonathan Fannin honoured by the Engineering Institute of Canada

UBC Civil Engineering professor Jonathan Fannin will be inducted as Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for his exceptional contributions to engineering. Fannin has compiled a body of experimental findings and related field observations that have contributed significantly to the state-of-the-art in geotechnical engineering as it relates to landslide risk management, designing with geosynthetics and seepage-induced […]

A Green and Sustainable Solution to Global Phosphorus Depletion

Closing the loop through nutrient recovery from different waste streams is now evolving as a necessary, sustainable development objective, driven by the urgent need to reduce consumption of vital natural resources (e.g. phosphate rock), reduce gas emissions and conserve energy. A better understanding of the chemistry, engineering and overall process integration is developing quickly and […]

Civil Engineering Professor appointed for a 2-Year Term as the VP of Finance for the Canadian Geotechnical Society

Congratulations to Professor Dharma Wijewickreme who is appointed for a two year term as the Vice-President Finance of the Canadian Geotechnical Society effective January 1st, 2013.   The announcement was made during the 65th Canadian Geotechnical Conference held in Winnipeg on October 1-3, 2012.  The Canadian Geotechnical Society is the premier organization for geotechnical engineers and geoscientists in Canada and […]

UBC Civil Engineering professor receives international transportation educator award

Vancouver, Canada—August 24, 2011—UBC Civil Engineering Professor Tarek Sayed received the 2011 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award for his significant contribution to the transportation profession by relating academic studies to the actual practice of transportation. The award was presented August 15th, 2011 at the institute’s annual meeting in […]

Dr Michael Isaacson PEng: Seeking New Approaches for Meaningful Engagement

Photo credit: Andrea Sunderland Photograph With an academic’s keen insight, Dr Michael Isaacson PEng seeks to bring creative solutions and innovative approaches to the Council table. “I like to focus on how to make things happen, and to do so in the most efficient and effective way,” he says. A faculty member at the University […]