SUE: 2007 Seed Grant Competition

Sustainable Urban Engineering @ UC

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2008 Seed Grant Competition

In 2005, the program of Environmental Engineering and Science (EES) within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in the College of Engineering underwent an external review of its graduate program. The outcome of this review was favorable, and UC elected to invest $400,000 of new funds over a period of five years to stimulate the growth of the program. These funds were matched with graduate research stipends from the College of Engineering and are being used to stimulate multi-disciplinary research collaborations across UC.

The second annual Seed Grant Competition was hosted by SUE in 2008 and again provided more than $200,000 in financial support for a diverse portfolio of research projects described below. If you would like to become involved in any of these research efforts, or if you have additional ideas for research thrusts within SUE, please contact us via email

SUE encompasses four research thrust areas, including:

1. Transportation Infrastructure and Sustainable Metropolitan Development: Understanding the relationship between transportation infrastructure and regional economic development and patterns of growth. Investigating how individual-level decisions and interactions lead to emergent macro-level phenomena such as urban sprawl and formation of second cities, through development of urban growth models.

Ali Minai, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, “Computational Models for the Emergence of Metropolitan Spatial Organization (Part II)” with collaborators ), James G. Uber (Civil & Environmental Eng), Michael Romanos (School of Planning), Carla Chifos (School of Planning), Lin Liu (Geography)

2. Human Ecology and Health in Urban Areas: Understanding the increasing impact on human health of high density development and interactions between people and urban infrastructure. For example, measuring different health impacts associated with different transportation modes (automobile, light-rail, bike), variability in street-level atmospheric pollution resulting from automobile emissions within urban "canyons," and transmission and amplification of enteric viruses through drinking water - community transmission - sewer systems.

Sergey A. Grinshpun, Department of Environmental Health, "Exposure of school children to traffic-associated particular matter in an urban area with intense highway traffic” with collaborators Henry Spitz (College of Engineering), P.H. Ryan (College of Medicine), G.K. LeMasters (College of Medicine), and S. Glover (College of Engineering)

Heng Wei, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, “Bridge Environmental Health with Transportation Network Planning Deficiency and Mobility-Sourced Toxic Pollution in Urban Areas” with collaborators Mingming Lu (Engineering), Tiina Reponen (Medicine), Carla Chifos (DAAP)

3. Sustainability Metrics and Urban Monitoring: Measuring and analyzing sustainability through metrics applied at various spatial scales, from neighborhood to regional. Development of unique data related to economic and environmental sustainability, through the use of traditional and novel instruments (e.g., census and transportation data as well as data from survey instruments and cellular phone use to track individual movements).

Colleen McTague, Department of Geography, “Pilot Study for the Creation of an Over-The-Rhine Housing Monitoring Informational System” with collaborators Christopher Auffrey (School of Planning), and the City of Cincinnati

4. Transformation, Transport, and Cycling of Contaminants in the Urban Environment: While major, acute environmental insults such as oils spills are obvious threats to human and environmental health; the long term, chronic exposure to sub-lethal doses of pollutants in the urban environment (e.g., particulates from burning of diesel engines, indoor air pollution, nanopollutants in personal care products, and discharge of pharmaceuticals to drinking water supplies) are poorly understood. In particular, the analytical capacity to measure low level exposure is absent, and the science to integrate low contaminant levels with a biologic response is non-existent. The worst case scenario is for mixtures of environmental micropollutants which can demonstrate additive and synergistic impacts. Developing technology to track and technology to treat emerging pollutants of potential concern is critical for SUE.

Jodi Shann, Department of Biology, “Microfluidic Model of Pollutant Diffusion in Brownfield Soil” with collaborators Ian Papautsky (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

5. Additional Research Projects Related to SUE: The four major research thrusts identified above represent the first generation of activities proposed to be undertaken as part of SUE. In addition the Center will solicit, identify, and support high risk, high return activities in critical areas of metropolitan sustainability. Two additional research projects focusing on alternative energy have been selected to receive SUE sponsorship during the first year of SEED grants.

Joo Youp Lee, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, “Biomass Utilization for Urban/Suburban Sustainability Dual Use of Sensory Technology to Sustain Urban Infrastructure Health and Security” with collaborators Jagjit S. Yadav (College of Medicine), and Mingming Lu (College of Engineering)

Questions? Contact Center for Sustainable Urban Engineering.
Room 765 Baldwin Hall; P.O. Box 210071
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0071, USA
(513) 556-3685; (513) 556-2599 (fax)