Students in La Paz, Bolivia

Serving a Global Society

Civil engineers and environmental engineers design solutions that improve the human condition—an embodiment of Duke's mission of knowledge in service to society

Duke's Civil & Environmental Engineering programs feature several distinctive research and educational efforts by our faculty members that are making impacts globally:

Research

Finding Global Sanitation Solutions

Despite progress on the UN’s millennium goal to improve sanitation worldwide, 2.4 billion people are still using unimproved sanitation facilities, including the nearly one billion people who practice open defecation. The result is the spread of diarrheal germs which, according to the CDC, are the cause of 1 in 9 child deaths worldwide—the second most common cause of death among children under the age of 5.

Several research projects are underway within Duke CEE to address this issue. A neighborhood-scale fecal sludge processing system is being developed to provide human waste treatment for communities of 1,000-1,200 people. A combined toilet and processing system is being engineered to offer onsite treatment for groups of 20-50 people. Effective methods of odor control for these and many other solutions are also being investigated.

This work has been made possible through funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The principal investigator is Marc Deshusses.

Creating Tools to Assess the Environmental Impact of New Materials

Leveraging what was learned during the operation of Duke's Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), a global “network of networks” is being created to address the largest questions looming about the environmental impacts of emerging materials.

Funded by a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s AccelNET program, the new initiative is called the International Network for Researching, Advancing, and Assessing Materials for Environmental Sustainability—or INFRAMES.

The network's leader is Mark Wiesner.

Studying Air Quality

A research group headed by Michael Bergin, looking at the influence of air pollution on both climate and human health, has conducted a wide range of studies on the emission, formation, deposition and impacts of particulate matter.

The Bergin group is studying the influence of particulate matter on human health with emphasis on determining the relative contributions of sources (such as biomass burning and vehicular emissions) to acute health impacts. Research studies have been conducted in pristine regions of the world (Greenland and the Himalayas), as well as hazy regions (Southeastern U.S., China and India).

The group is also involved in developing and deploying the next generation of air quality sensors to inform citizens on the quality of the air they are breathing so that they can make informed decisions to improve their air.

Mitigating Earthquake Hazards

Mitigating Earthquake Hazards in New ZealandHenri P. Gavin, with a team of New Zealand researchers from the University of Canterbury, GNS Science (Wellington) and the Canterbury District Health Board, is examining the behavior of a base-isolated structure in Christchurch via an array of seismic response instruments, detailed computational modeling, and measurements of local soil conditions.

This work is funded throught two grants from the National Science Foundation and has contributed to engineering assessments of the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence.

International Outreach

Ghana: Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology

For more than 14 years, CEE faculty member Fred K. Boadu has regularly returned to the university where he gained his first degree, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, to help the physics and engineering departments develop their curriculums. Boadu helped set up the first geophysics course at the university and often returns to Ghana to teach students, with support from the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, of which he is a fellow.

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program has supported 110 short-term fellowships for North American academics at higher education institutes in six African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

Duke Engineers for International Development (DEID)

Duke Engineers for International Development (DEID) is a student organization supporting cost-effective and high-impact engineering projects that improve communities in the United States and around the world.

DEID projects combine community-driven ideas with student design. The work involves a wide range of engineering disciplines and promotes a sense of international responsibility.

Previous projects have included building vocational classrooms in Uganda, construction of a suspension footbridge in Rwanda and the design of a system to remove litter from a creek a few miles from the Duke campus in Durham, N.C.

Students who participate in a DEID project can earn credit toward the department’s Certificate in Global Development Engineering.

DEID’s faculty advisor is David Schaad.

Educational Programs

Certificate in Global Development Engineering

The innovative Certificate in Global Development Engineering prepares engineers to partner with marginalized and disadvantaged people around the world to implement designed solutions to meet specific community needs.

To earn the certificate, students undergo training in technical subjects as well as culture and language, ethics, public policy and economics. In addition to course work, those who pursue the certificate get real-world experience, implementing a designed solution either in the United States or abroad, as well as during a project-focused capstone course.

The certificate program director is David Schaad.