Four talented UMKC SCE women graduate students have been selected to receive UMKC Women’s Council Graduate Assistant Fund (GAF) Awards. These competitive awards are based on the merits of their proposed projects and/or scholarly activities. Lean more about how their efforts will be making a difference.
Tag Archives: Deb O’Bannon
Student Researchers Measure Stormwater Runoff
UMKC SCE student researchers Josh Arnold, Mike Scott and Yanan Ma have been hard at work helping Dr. Deb O’Bannon complete the field and lab work that is being used to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of urban raingardens in reducing stormwater runoff. During the spring of 2013, ending July 1, 2013, hydraulic and water quality monitoring was conducted for the raingarden installation located between 75th St, 79th St, Troost and the Paseo. Eight raingardens were monitored to measure their ability to absorb storm water. Continue reading
Jason Regina Awarded Summer Research Fellowship at NIST
Jason Regina, a SCE civil engineering student, has been notified of his acceptance to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) in the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD which is near Washington, DC. The eleven week summer program provides students the opportunity to work” elbow to elbow with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the world’s leading research organizations and home to four Nobel Prize winners” and “Gain valuable hands-on experience, working with cutting-edge technology . . .” Jason attributes the help and encouragement of SCE faculty Dr. John Kevern and Dr. Deb O’Bannon, his advisor, to his successfully applying for the NIST SURF.
CE Masters Student Yanan Ma Will Present Research Poster At ASCE Conference
SCE civil engineering masters student Yanan Ma will be presenting her research poster, Watershed-level Analysis of Urban Raingarden Performance, at the ASCE Environment and Water Resources national conference in Cincinnati this May. Her research, conducted with her faculty advisor, Dr. Deb O’Bannon, examines how well raingardens can reduce urban flooding and improve water quality by reducing pollution in storm water. Yanan received two competitive awards, the Zonta Club of Kansas City, Missouri II Award and the Eleanor Brantley Schwartz Award, administered by the UMKC Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Fund (GAF). The awards will fund Yanan’s expenses to present her research at the ASCE conference.
MO-Delta Receives Membership Award At Tau Beta Pi National Convention
UMKC’s Tau Beta Pi chapter, called MO-Delta, received a Tau Beta Pi Membership Award for excellence in conducting a chapter’s primary mission, membership. MO-Delta’s President Kelsey, attending the Sept. 27-29, 2012 Tau Beta Pi National Convention in Lexington, KY as UMKC’s voting delegate, accepted the award. The convention provided leadership training to the student delegates attending and an opportunity for delegates from all parts of the country to meet and socialize with each other. Chapter representatives are afforded a special opportunity to meet with National Officials and to learn first-hand about problems, solutions, and opinions on the role of TBP on the nation’s campuses [from convention website]. Dr. Deb O’Bannon is MO-Delta’s faculty advisor.
Tau Beta Pi is the only engineering honor society representing the entire engineering profession. It is the nation’s second-oldest honor society, founded at Lehigh University in 1885 to mark in a fitting manner those who have conferred honor upon their Alma Mater by distinguished scholarship and exemplary character as students in engineering, or by their attainments as alumni in the field of engineering, and to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering colleges. There are now collegiate chapters at 238 US colleges and universities, active alumnus chapters in 16 districts across the country, and a total initiated membership of 535,605.
Yanan Ma is the Wu Scholarship Recipient
Civil Engineering master’s student Yanan Ma has been awarded the 2012-2013 Wu Scholarship, a competitive $1000 scholarship administered by UMKC’s Center for International Academic Programs. One year the Wu Scholarship is awarded for a Chinese student to study here, the next year for an American student to study in China. The scholarship committee was particularly impressed with Yanan’s passion and clear vision for the future. Congratulations Yanan! Yanan’s research is focused on Water Resources and she is a research assistant on the Kansas City Rain Garden Project in which her advisor Dr. Deb O’Bannon is involved. Yanan is contributing to the project currently by collecting and analyzing water quantity data from rain gardens. Later, she will analyze the water quality as well. She intends to return to China to help her country with its urban flooding problems.
Regarding the significance of the rain garden project and her research Yanan advised, “Last year, many big cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Wuhan, etc.) suffered from urban floods and it caused a lot of economic lost for the society. What we are doing now in China is to build one pipe only for rain underground which costs a lot of money and a lot of time. The rain garden project has its own advantages on solving urban flood problems, for example it is cheaper, easy to install and repair and so on. So that is why I am so sure the rain garden project can be introduced into our China to help us solve this problem in the future. I know it will be difficult; however I am sure I can find people who are interested in this project and can help me with it. You will never know what you can do until you try, that is what I always believe.”
Tau Beta Pi Fellowship Awarded to Civil Engineering Student Kyle Dunning
Kyle Dunning, a SCE civil engineering student graduating with his BSCE from SCE on May 4, 2012, was recently awarded a $10,000 2012-2013 Tau Beta Pi Felllowship for full-time graduate study. Kyle will be attending the structures graduate program at the University of Texas Austin next year. This competitive and prestigious award, only 35 were awarded nationally in 2011, is given to Tau Beta Pi (TBP) members for “high scholarship, strong faculty recommendations, definite extracurricular contributions, unusual promise of substantial achievement through a definite plan or purpose, and a program through which accomplishment will advance the interest of the engineering profession”. The $10,000 award stipend can be used to defray tuition, books and living expenses. Kyle has been a Tau Beta Pi member since 2011. The SCE TBP honor society chapter faculty advisor is Dr. Deb O’Bannon.