Dominion Foundation Gift Provides Needed Equipment for Renovated Lab
When renovations on the Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering Teaching Laboratory are completed in the summer of 2012, a Universal Testing Machine (UTM) will offer new research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students in the Volgenau School of Engineering. The machine will be a centerpiece of the facility, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Dominion Educational Foundation.
The UTM is designed to characterize the strength and bending behavior of various materials, including steel, iron, carbon fiber used in prosthetic limbs, geosynthetics used in soil reinforcement, and bamboo, the fastest self-replenishing building material. Students working on class projects and independent studies will use the machine to measure and learn more about the properties of traditional, new, and emerging engineering materials and their response to stress.
Beginning in the fall 2012 semester, the UTM will be ready for demonstrations in two undergraduate engineering courses. Over the next year, the machine will assist in student projects and be fully integrated into the undergraduate engineering curriculum and into graduate research. The student chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Engineers for International Development will also have access to the UTM for extra-curricular design projects.
For their generosity, the Dominion Foundation will be recognized on the Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering donor wall as well as with special acknowledgment once the laboratory opens this fall.
Pictured above, from the left: Tim Sargeant, manager of Dominion's State and Local Affairs division; Dr. Deborah Goodings, chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering; and Carolyn Moss, managing director for the Mid-Atlantic region for Dominion's State and Local Affairs division.
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