Center for Environmental Research & Technology

Partnership for the Environment: Academia, Industry, Government

Vehicle Detection and Classification Approach Recognized at IEEE IV2010

Doctoral candidate Lili Huang received an Award of Distinction for her Oral Presentation at the 2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Intelligent Vehicles Symposium. The conference took place June 21-24 at University of California San Diego.

IEEE IV2010 is the premier annual forum for researchers, academics, practitioners and students to discuss research and applications for Intelligent Vehicle And Intelligent Infrastructures. The presentation dealt with research by Huang and CE-CERT Director Matthew Barth's research on "Real-Time Multi-Vehicle Tracking Based on Feature Detection and Color Probability Model."

Part of the center's intelligent transportation systems research agenda, the paper proposed a real-time multi-vehicle tracking approach, which combines both local feature and a global color tracking model. Their vehicle detection and classification using sensor fusion systems has proven to be efficient in high density traffic surveillance.

Barth is Yeager Families Professor of Environmental Engineering and Professor of Engineering at Bourns College of Engineering. Huang is a graduate student in electrical engineering.

 

CE-CERT Biofuels Researcher Honored for Providing New Insights into Pretreatment of Cellulosic Biomass

 
Graduate Student Researcher Heather L. McKenzie received the Martin Keller Award for the best student poster presentation in the Characterization area at the Bioenergy Science Center (BESC) Summer Retreat. She is a Ph.D. candidate in chemical and environmental engineering at UCR's Bourns College of Engineering and works in Professor Charles Wyman's Celluosic Ethanol Pretreatment Laboratory at CE-CERT.

McKenzie’s poster dealt with her research, done in collaboration with scientists and engineers in the Environmental and Chemical Sciences Divisions of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to understand the release of xylooligomers and lignin during the breakdown of cellulosic biomass to make sugars for fermentation to ethanol and other fuels. By flowing hot water through a fixed bed reactor containing poplar wood, the team was able to more closely follow biomass deconstruction than previously possible.

Photo: Heather McKenzie is congratulated for her Keller Award by John Perkins of DSM, a Dutch life sciences and materials sciences company that was one of the award sponsors.

McKenzie also chaired the graduate student/post doc research session at the retreat, which included several other Graduate Student Researchers from CE-CERT’s Cellulosic Ethanol Pretreatment Laboratory: Jaclyn DeMartini (winner of the 2009 Keller Award), Hongjia Li, and Xiadi Gao. All four are Ph.D. candidates in Wyman’s group at the Bourns College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.  Representatives of several BESC partners such as Cornell University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) remarked on the strength of the CE-CERT team, which is a leader in pretreatment technology for  the national bioenergy team, according to Wyman, the Ford Motor Company Professor of Environmental Engineering at UCR.
 
BESC is a partnership to capitalize on leading scientific minds and resources to reach the U.S. Department of Energy’s bioenergy goals. Based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, BESC’s five year mission is no less than to “revolutionize how bioenergy is processed,” leading to the commercialization of cost effective biofuel technologies. 

A high throughput pretreatment and hydrolysis (HTPH) system developed last year in Professor Wyman’s laboratory is being employed by the BESC for rapid screening of large numbers of combinations of plant varieties, pretreatment conditions, and enzyme loadings and formulations that are vital to achieving the BESC goal.  Martin Keller, after whom the poster award is named, is the founding Director of the BESC.

Energy Researcher Ula Joins CE-CERT Solar Initiative

Sadrul Ula, formerly a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wyoming, has joined CE-CERT as a Project Scientist affiliated with the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE).

Dr. Ula’s research interests include renewable energy (solar and wind) electric power generation, electric power systems, energy management, and energy education.

“Dr. Ula brings us valuable background on sustainable energy from the research, industry, government and education perspectives – all of them core priorities for SC-RISE,” said Matthew Barth, faculty director of both SC-RISE and CE-CERT where the solar initiative is housed.

Among the sponsors of Ula’s research have been the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Education, the Western Research Institute, and the Wyoming Business Council.

He has also served as Director of Cooperative Education at University of Wyoming, Energy Advisor to the Governor of Wyoming, Advisor to the Power Minister of the Government of Bangladesh, and member of the Bangladeshi Planning Commission on long range national energy planning.

“I am honored to be part of SC-RISE, a very timely and appropriate initiative for clean, renewable energy,” said Ula. “Southern California is fortunate to have one of the best solar resources in the country coupled with sizable geothermal resources. The unique combination of these resources being relatively close to the very large user base of the Southern California area makes energy transmission practical.”

Research On Eco-friendly Navigation Yielding Promising Results

Eco-friendly navigation research which is expected to allow vehicles to save 10-15 percent in fuel is featured on a video about the Audi Clean Air - A Viable Planet Initiative.

The research at UC Riverside and UC Berkeley is demonstrating the use of advanced traffic information and network connectivity to produce significant fuel savings.

Featured in the seven minute video are Matthew Barth, CE-CERT Director at UCR, and Karl Hedrick, Director of Berkeley's Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory.

Advances in networking and computer processing power are allowing the researchers to build an integrated, dynamic database of regional traffic activity. This enables drivers to select not just the fastest route in time, or the shortest route in distance, but now also the least fuel consumed, or even the least pollution emitted.

"When this capability becomes part of Audi's emissions reduction technology it can make a significant difference in how we drive," Barth said. He noted that today transportation accounts for half of the energy we use and 29 percent of greenhouse gases produced by human activity.

The key to this technology is the ability to combine traffic data from freeways and arterial roads, bringing together existing vehicle sensors with traffic signal information, vehicle-based GPS sensors, and broadband wireless communications.

With multivariate, real-time information available, the researchers can reliably predict traffic patterns using a data fusion model based on microscopic flow traffic theory.

Assisting Barth on the UCR team are Kanok Boriboonsomsin, Assistant Research Faculty, and Alex Vu, Junior Development Engineer.

 

UCR Solar Initiative Recognized as Diplomacy with Real Impact

SC-RISE has been recognized as a leading example of international collaboration for sustainable energy by Sister Cities International.

The Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy is a collaboration of industry, academia and other interested parties to drive the adoption of solar energy throughout Southern California.

The Sister Cities Awards recognize outstanding achievements in citizen diplomacy which demonstrate real impact in their own city and around the world. The award will be presented at SCI’s 54^th Annual Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 31.

Photo: SC-RISE Managing Director Alfredo A. Martinez-Moralez (center left) and Research Faculty member Sadrul Ula (center right) are interviewed at Riverside Plaza June 19 as part of Riverside Public Utilities' Solar Day.

The 2010 Innovation Award for Sustainable Energy Development was announced for the City of Riverside’s Sister Cities Program which led to the establishment of SC-RISE. At a 2007 meeting between Riverside and its Japanese Sister City of Sendai, Riverside Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge also included the two cities’ major research universities – UC Riverside and Tohoku University.

Loveridge, a longtime UCR professor, said he takes pride that Sister Cities International selected Riverside to receive the award. "We are a city of arts and innovation. By making cutting-edge solar science and technology possible on an international scale, SC-RISE is good for UCR and CE-CERT, it is good for Riverside, and it is good for energy and the environment. SC-RISE is exactly what I challenged UCR, Tohoku University, Sendai and Riverside to make happen when we signed the four-party agreement in Sendai in 2007."

SC-RISE, launched in 2009 with major support from the City of Riverside, was the answer to that challenge.

"This sister city relationship has evoked momentum for critical goals in sustainability that were long overdue,” said Matthew Barth, faculty director of both SC-RISE and the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology. “I can't imagine a more productive town-gown relationship in one hemisphere, let alone two."

SC-RISE, and the concept behind it, has become an important element in Riverside’s (and its International Relations Council which administers the Sister City program for the city) strategy for developing new Sister City relationships, according to the IRC’s entry for the Innovation Award. For instance the city and UCR are already exploring additional sustainable energy partnerships in Europe and in Asia.

“This would indicate that Riverside may have captured an important way of leveraging and optimizing Sister City relationships in a world already without borders,” the award document concluded.

For more information about SCI, visit www.sister-cities.org.

For more information about Riverside’s International Relations Council, visit www.irc-riverside.org.

 

CE-CERT Advisor Delivers 2010 Commencement Address

Ford Motor Company executive Robert D. Brown delivered an uplifting Commencement Address at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering Commencement Ceremony on June 14.

Brown, Director for Vehicle Environmental Engineering at Ford, is a member of the Board of Advisors at the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology. His message to graduates earning BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees stressed the importance of teachers, family and ethical character as the foundation of meaningful lives.

“You have been taught to work for goals that transcend the individual,” Brown told the Class of 2010.  “As engineers you have also been trained to acquire and apply technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realized a desired objective and that improve the quality of life.  I ask that you use a significant portion of the time and talent that you have, and the treasure that you will surely accumulate to serve others.”

As a first time college graduate in his family, Brown offered six pillars that helped him overcome insecurity and become successful.

• Trustworthiness – “We must constantly live up to the expectations of others and refrain from self-serving behavior that can quickly destroy our relationships.”
• Respect – “We have a responsibility to be the best we can be in all situations, even when dealing with unpleasant people.”
• Responsibility – “Our capacity to reason and our freedom to choose make us morally autonomous and, therefore, answerable for whether we honor or degrade the ethical principles that give life meaning and purpose.”
• Fairness – “fairness implies adherence to a balance standard of justice without relevance to one's own feelings or inclinations.”
• Caring – “People who consider themselves ethical and yet lack a caring attitude toward individuals tend to treat others as instruments of their will.”
• Citizenship – “good citizen(s) do more than their fair share to make society work, now and for future generations.”

Brown closed by urging graduates to make good use of the gifts of family, education and character. “Go forth in the certain knowledge that all you will eventually leave behind are your good name, your good works, and the blessings of your children. Graduates, your only limitations are your dreams.  So dream well and dream large.  And, always remember it is the content and quality of your character that ultimately defines who you are.”

A video of his address can be viewed at UCR's Commencement 2010 "A Look Back" page.  More News

Environmental Research by Undergraduates Comes into Focus at CE-CERT

Spring Quarter brought a flurry of environmental research by undergraduates in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Bourns College of Engineering and its Center for Environmental Research and Technology.

Each year CE-CERT provides valuable opportunities for dozens of undergraduates as early as their freshman years. During 2009 46 undergraduate students worked as important members of research teams in the Center's laboratories.

Two teams competed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) competition in Washington DC. Each team won $10,000 to develop their sustainable technology designs and made them eligible for the showcase in the National Mall.

A team which developed its project in the CE-CERT labs of Charles Wyman was recognized with an honorable mention in Washington. Their work explored techniques for diverting green wastes from landfills to treat them to produce ethanol for transportation fuel. The team was made up of Anthony Turgman, Josh Garong, Vu Nguyen, and Christine Kwon.

Also competing in Washington was a team working on concentrating solar power to improve methods of water desalinization. Undergraduates on that team were John Johnson, Christopher Salinas, Elizha West, Wesley Chen, Alex Chen and Luke Chen.

For the second straight year the College won two EPA P3 National Sustainable Design Expo grants. The unusual success will send two more teams to the national student design competition and provide each with $10,000 to conduct their research.

One team will work in Joe Norbeck’s Steam Hydrogasification laboratory at CE-CERT to demonstrate technologies to reduce waste streams generated on campus to produce energy sources through diesel and methane. That team consists of Douglas Duchon, Phillip Brendecke, Joshua Comfort, Thinh Vo, and Stephanie Stasiuk.

The second team will work in Yushan Yan’s laboratories to explore ways to provide electricity in remote areas using unitized regenerative hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell. This work will be conducted by Marcus Chiu, Christian Contreras, Joon-Bok Lee, and Jason Skovgard.

Bourns Chemical and Environmental Engineering undergraduates also won second place at the WERC 20th International Environmental Design Contest in Las Cruces, NM this spring. It was the highest place ever for UCR in the competition in which the students dealt with the problem of "Reduction of Direct Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Mine."

WERC is a consortium for environmental education and technology development based in New Mexico. The design competition challenges teams with one of a series of engineering challenges for which they develop bench-scale demonstrations, papers, oral presentations, and poster presentations. The WERC award-winning team includes Mina Ghabbour, Bryan Goldsmith, Robert Bonderer, Kyle Pease and Dylan Switzer.

CE-CERT was also the scene of three solar energy senior projects this spring. The projects were tested at the Center with the potential for becoming examples of research demonstration projects under the Center’s Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE).

One team designed a built a solar salt water desalination system intended to provide sufficient drinking water for a small community. Salt water was heated to boiling in a tube running the length of a parabolic trough solar collector. The steam was then directed to a condenser/evaporator and then to a condenser unit where fresh water was captured. This team consisted of Chihiro Iwahashi, Bethany Richie, Nico Schulte, Selcuk Sindir, and Raymond Vallido.

Another team, including Alejandra Moreno-Aguilar and Shanel Chand, demonstrated a solar appliance designed to act as a household cooking range. Their solar collector was designed to deliver hot motor oil to a salt storage tank where the heat could be used for cooking.

The third team devised design to produce a solar thermal wind generator. The apparatus was designed to use the sun's energy to create a pressure gradient inside which would generate wind pressure to turn a turbine to create electricity. This senior project was developed by Kevin Guevarra, Henry Hsu and Jason Miller.

Faculty/research advisors for the above projects included Sundar V, Mark Matsumoto, Joe Norbeck, Yushan Yan, Charles Wyman, and Kawai Tam. Tam has coordinated UCR’s participation in the EPA P3 competition at UCR since 2004, sending six teams to the national design expo in that time.  More News

 

 

 

New Zero-Emissions Mower Exchange Makes Dirty Job Better for Atmosphere

June 7

A popular lawn mower exchange program was hosted in the CE-CERT/Bourns Inc. parking lot on Saturday, June 5, helping cut a swath of old polluting lawn mowers out of the local airshed.

The Southern California Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sponsored the event during which gasoline mowers were exchanged for a significant discount on a new electric, zero-emission lawn mower.

Photos: Except for the hot sun, the SCAQMD mower exchange process (above) worked like an efficient machine.  (Below) Hundreds of old gas mowers were dumped in containers for a trip to the metal recycling plant.

According to SCAQMD a conventional lawn mower's annual emissions can equal that of a car driven more than 20,000 miles.

This year 9,380 electric mowers are available. Over the eight years of the program, the agency estimates its has replaced 37,800 highly polluting gasoline mowers, removing about 80 tons of smog-forming volatile organic compound emissions from the region’s air.

The exchange is held cooperation with Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.  The program is funded through AQMD’s Air Quality Investment Program (AQIP), which is financed by Southland companies that pay a fee in lieu of offering rideshare incentives as required by AQMD’s Rule 2202. The lawn mower exchange program will reduce more emissions than would be achieved by an employer rideshare program. Additional funding provided this year comes from CARB through AB 118, a measure to fund clean vehicle and equipment projects.

The mower exchange program will continue through July 24 at other locations. Pre-registration is required. For more information visit http://www.aqmd.gov/news1/2010/LMX.htm.  More News

 

Yeager Brothers Honored for Strength of their Vision for Education, Research, Environment

May 19

The major conference room at the College of Engineering- Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) was christened May 17 in honor of Jacques and Eugene Yeager.

The Jacques and Eugene Yeager Conference Room was named at a ceremony attended by more than 100 luminaries from around southern California representing politics, business and education.

Photos: (top) The dedication of the Yeager Conference Room was celebrated by (l. to r.) Dean Reza Abbaschian, Professor Joseph Norbeck, Mrs. Eugene (Billie) Yeager, Chancellor Timothy White, Eugene Yeager, Jacques Yeager, and Professor Matthew Barth. (below) Nearly 100 well-wishers filled the administration building lobby for the May 17 ceremony.

UCR Chancellor Timothy White led the chorus of praise for the two brothers who were central to the development of the whole region as owners of their family business, the E.L. Yeager Construction Company.

“From family friends, to political figures, all of us are here to honor two men of tremendous vision and generosity,” Chancellor White said. “Both Jacques and Gene are leaders who possessed a vision for their company, a vision for their community, and a vision for this University.”

Educated in civil engineering, the Yeagers have been among the leading philanthropists benefitting UCR, particularly the Bourns College of Engineering and CE-CERT. The Yeager Conference Room was chosen to commemorate the brothers’ support because it is the chief meeting place where industry, government and academic researchers meet to present their work.

Engineering Dean Reza Abbaschian credited the Yeagers for having the vision so see the importance of CE-CERT and making principal contributions allowing the Center to meet the Ford Motor Company challenge grant establishing CE-CERT’s endowment.

“Steeped in the science of engineering, they were impressed with the progressive research on road construction that was taking place in California,” Abbaschian said. “They recognized the importance of future technologies – of sensors, navigation assistance and new ways of designing transportation systems – technologies that formed the founding vision of CE-CERT.”

“None of this could have happened without the vision and the support of individuals like Jacques and Gene Yeager,” said CE-CERT Director Matthew Barth. “The Yeager brothers saw the importance of CE-CERT from the early years. There have been gatherings to honor this extraordinary family on campus before, but this recognition ties directly to their support of environmental issues and I, as CE-CERT director and as Yeager Family Professor of Environmental Engineering, am most honored to be here to play a part in it.”

Read Chancellor White's Friday Letter of May 21.

More News

 

Aerosol Researcher Awarded NSF Fellowship

May 25

Doctoral candidate Anh Nguyen has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.

The NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is highly competitive and is awarded to students who demonstrate high levels of success and strong potential for future contributions to their field.

Nguyen (right), a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, is conducting research in Heejung Jung's Environmental Aerosol Research Laboratory at CE-CERT. Jung, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and David Cocker, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, are her advisors.

Nguyen is one of three Bourns College of Engineering and eight UCR students to win NSF Fellowships - the most-ever for UCR in one year. Shannon Gott, a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering and Daniel Grissom, a graduate student in Computer Science and Engineering also received the fellowships to support their doctoral studies.

Nguyen's research seeks to improve the understanding of the relationship between the chemical composition of emissions from diesel engines and cloud formation in the atmosphere. More News

 

Research Scholarships Offered for Summer Experience at CE-CERT

May 24

The Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CERT) is accepting applications for graduate and undergraduate scholarships for UCR students who are pursuing, or planning to pursue a degree in engineering.

These scholarships, providing research opportunities for the summer of 2010, include:

• The Ford Motor Company Undergraduate Scholarship;
• The Jim Guthrie Research Award;
• The William R. Pierson/Ford Graduate Fellowship;
• The Esther F. Hays Graduate Fellowship.

During 2009, 26 graduate students and 46 undergraduate students worked as part of CE-CERT research programs. The deadline for 2010 applications is 5 p.m. Friday, May 28.

For eligibility/application requrements, please visit www.cert.ucr.edu/opportunities/scholarship.html. More News

CE-CERT Emissions Research Supports International Collaboration to Reduce Sulfur Dioxide from Ocean-Going Ships

April 30

A Hamburg Süd container ship docked at the Port of Houston April 20, completing the first phase of the first study of lower sulfur marine fuels in the Gulf of Mexico that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hopes will reduce air pollution there.

This data-gathering phase was handled by the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology's Emissions and Fuels Group, which has been pioneering port emissions research in California and Asia since 2003. William Welch, Principal Development Engineer, and James Gutierrez, a junior in Environmental Engineering, made the on-board measurements during the voyage from Veracruz, Mexico to Houston.

CE-CERT's research in testing marine engines and various bunker fuel formulations will be instrumental in new EPA regulation of sulfur emissions from ocean-going vessels.

Beginning in 2012, stringent international emission controls will require that lower sulfur fuels be used by ships operating within up to 200 nautical miles of the majority of the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic and Pacific coastal waters, as well as the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Photos: Above, the collaborative team responsible for the gulf emissions testing, including William Welch (second row, center) and James Gutierrez (back row, far right). Below, the Port of Veracruz where the container ship began the voyage. Bottom, William Welch explains the emission sampling apparatus.

“This is the first time EPA will have emission data gathered directly from a commercial cargo ship operating in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Michelle DePass, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs. “Policy makers in the U.S. and Mexico will soon have Gulf-specific emissions data to show reductions achieved from burning lower-sulfur fuels near land in U.S. and Mexican waters. And we have showcased a practice that will help the international shipping industry meet forthcoming sulfur emission standards.”

EPA expects these international regulations to bring important benefits for human health by reducing sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide is an airborne byproduct of burning fossil fuels, and is a substantial public health and marine and terrestrial ecosystems. EPA expects these measures to avoid as many as 14,000 premature deaths annually, provide relief from respiratory symptoms for nearly five million people each year, and provide more than $110 billion in health-related benefits by 2020.

"Establishing the scientific basis for industry and government to make our air healthier is a role we are proud of," said J. Wayne Miller, Adjunct Professor and Associate Director of Emissions and Fuels Research at CE-CERT. "Millions of people live near North American ports so this work will have a direct impact on air quality."

The study is the result of a partnership between the EPA, the Port of Houston Authority and Hamburg Süd, a German-based shipping company with more than 4,700 employees worldwide, and the Mexican federal government. The Fairfax, VA consulting firm of ICF International and CE-CERT are managing the technical elements of the program, including the emission measurements.

For information on sulfur dioxide and particulate matter: www.epa.gov/air/sulfurdioxide and www.epa/gov/oar/particlepollution.

For information on EPA’s efforts to reduce sulfur and other air pollutant emissions from international marine transportation and from ports: www.epa.gov/otaq/oceanvessels.htm and www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/ports.htm.

For information on EPA’s Office of International Affairs: www.epa.gov/international.

More News

 

Environmental Library Dedicated in Memory of CE-CERT 'Guiding Light'

April 20

The Digital Environmental Library at the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology was officially dedicated in honor of Helen O. Petrauskas, the first female Vice President at Ford Motor Company and an early benefactor of the Center.

A group of dignitaries, including her succeeding Ford Vice President Susan Cischke honored her legacy of leadership in transportation health and safety at the dedication ceremony on April 14.

Photos: Above, Ford Motor Company Vice President Susan Cischke (left) and Professor of Environmental Engineering Joseph Norbeck celebrate the dedication of the Petrauskas Environmental Library. Below, Cischke recalled the influence Petrauskas had in the founding of CE-CERT.

Cischke recounted that when Petrauskas encouraged founding CE-CERT Director Joseph Norbeck to leave Ford to join UCR she was looking to the future. CE-CERT “had a clear mission – to become a recognized leader in environmental education, a collaborator with industry and government to improve the technical basis for regulation and policy.”

“It was also to be a creative source for new technology and a contributor towards a greater understanding of environmental impacts,” she continued. “That vision has been achieved. CE-CERT has built what very well may be the best vehicle emissions research facility at any university in this country. The work you do here continues to serve as a bridge between industry and government, between the present and the future. Helen would be proud of all you have accomplished.”

Reza Abbaschian, dean of the Bourns College of Engineering praised Ford’s and Petrauskas’ style of philanthropy which invested in a new idea to create environmental research center which could begin to bring government and industry together at a time when their relationship was adversarial.

Joe Norbeck said Petrauskas visited UCR when the $10 million CE-CERT endowment was made. At that time, she impressed on Norbeck the importance of preparing new generations of environmental scientists, regulators and lawyers. “This is the most important thing I have done in my career,” Norbeck quoted her as saying then. Petrauskas also used her influence with industry colleagues to introduce CE-CERT and its capabilities.

Chancellor Timothy White was in Korea establishing new connections with Asian universities and unable to attend the ceremony. He recorded a video greeting for the ceremony which succinctly captured the spirit of the event. “Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Petrauskas,” the Chancellor said, “but it’s important for us to remember her legacy of working for increased safety and environmental improvement from a seat of power within the auto industry.”

“The Ford Motor Company was the key patron for establishing this place where industry, government and academia have successfully worked on common goals for almost 20 years,” White continued, “and Ms. Petrauskas’ particular concern for educating new generations for this work makes the dedication of the Helen O. Petrauskas Environmental Library . . . a fundamentally appropriate symbol for her life, her work, and her memory.”

Petrauskas died in 2006 at age 61. Friends and colleagues at Ford made contributions to help create the Petrauskas Environmental Library. More News

Jorgensen, Keller, Orbach Honored for CE-CERT Service

April 19

Robert A. Jorgensen, Martin Keller and Raymond Orbach were recognized with 2010 Distinguished Service Awards of the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology. The awards are given to individuals in industry, government and academia who have provided outstanding assistance helping CE-CERT further its agenda of research, teaching and service.

Photos: Raymond Orbach (top), Robert Jorgensen receiving his Distinguished Service Award from Dean Reza Abbaschian and Center Director Matt Barth (middle), Martin Keller delivering the keynote address (bottom).

Orbach, a former UCR Chancellor and the first Under Secretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy is currently director of The University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute . Previous winners from academia include Elizabeth Deakin, William Pierson, Robert Sawyer and Susan Hackwood.

Jorgensen is Executive Director, Product Environmental Management for Cummins, Inc. He also serves on the Center’s Board of Advisors. Previous winners from industry include William Johnson, Samuel Leonard, Kelly Brown and Ben Knight.

Keller is associate lab director for biological and environmental sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who in his previous role as director of the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), worked closely with biofuels researchers at CE-CERT. Previous governmental winners include Ronald Loveridge, Alan Lloyd, Congressman Ken Calvert and Tom Mullen. Charles Wyman, Ford Motor Company Professor at CE-CERT and colleague of Mullen with BESC assisted in the award presentation.

The three awards, which reflect CE-CERT’s mission of uniting government, industry and academia in science to benefit the environment, were announced at the Center’s Board of Advisors meeting April 13. Keller delivered the keynote address that evening. Orbach received his Distinguished Service Award during a Nov. 3 ceremony naming UCR’s Science Library in his honor.

The awards were announced during the annual Awards Dinner of the Center's Board of Advisors held at the Highlander Union Building (HUB) on UCR's campus. More News

 

 

ITS Expertise Lends Leadership to Sustainable Transportation Research

Dec. 2, 2009

CE-CERT is part of a new major research program in Transportation Sustainability funded by the UC Office of the President as part of their Multi-Campus Research Program Initiative.

Called “Sustainable Transport: Technology, Mobility, Infrastructure” this five-year, $6.5 million research program is organized to address transportation issues in California in three major areas: vehicles and fuels, infrastructure investments and system management and land use and mobility planning. The Transportation Sustainability Program includes researchers from more than 30 disciplines on six UC campuses – Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Santa Barbara. Its administrative center is at UC Irvine.

Above Photo: CE-CERT's latest transportation sustainability research, the ECO-ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) Testbed Vehicle was demonstrated at the 2009 International ASHTO Conference last month..

Transportation Sustainability was one of 37 Multi-campus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRPI) selected for funding in the humanities, sciences, and engineering. This transportation sustainability program received the largest amount of funding. Together the research programs are intended to gather together the UC System’s formidable roster of experts to address many of the state’s pressing problems from the economy to demographics, to energy.

“Transportation accounts for a major part of the urban air pollution generated in California,” said Barth, who is also a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering. “The movement of people and goods also accounts for the largest portion of greenhouse gasses,” he added.

The state has mandated significant rollbacks in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as well as improvements in land-use and transportation practices. “The transportation technologies, policies, and strategies to meet those goals still need to be created,” Barth said. “This is a great opportunity to push that agenda forward.” More News