Research & Scholarly Activity

• Engineering Leadership Pathway Scholars Program
  

  National Science Foundation, DUE-0965899 & DUE-1356422, 2009-2019
  The Engineering Leadership Pathway Scholars (ELPS) project at San José State University awarded annual renewable scholarships to academically talented, financially needy undergraduate engineering students. The program generated more than 80 future engineering leaders who serve as role models for other students and as leaders in the 21st century workforce. Scholarship recipients engaged in personal leadership development activities in parallel with their academic development. With the support faculty and peers mentors and student-led Leadership Teams, ELPS scholars developed their own visions of leadership and emerged with personal and professional goals that enabled them to make the best of their own talents as well as be prepared to tackle the challenges that face the nation's technical leaders. 
• The Golden Gate Bridge as an Informal Science Education Resource
  National Science Foundation, DRL-0840185, 2009-2016
  The Golden Gate Bridge Highway Transportation District (GGBHTD), in collaboration with the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE), and in partnership with Princeton University, Stanford University, San Jose State University, the Sciencenter (Ithaca, NY), the Exploratorium (San Francisco), Eyethink, West Wind Laboratory, EHDD Architects, the American Public Works Association, and the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, conducted a multi-faceted project focused on the science and engineering of the Golden Gate Bridge and how public works facilities around the country can potentially become sites for public understanding of and engagement with science and engineering. GGBHTD, which operates and maintains the bridge, ferries and buses, hosts over 10-million visitors annually to their current visitor center at the south end of the bridge (San Francisco), serves an additional 2-million users of their ferries, and hosts a popular web site (goldengatebridge.org/). 
  

• Co-Leader Education, Outreach, and Training NEES
  

  National Science Foundation, CMMI-0927178, 2009-2014
  The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) provided the earthquake and tsunami hazard mitigation communities with a research infrastructure to make discoveries, translate discoveries to engineering demonstrations, develop innovative technologies, and transition technology advances to industry, engineering practice, and seismic design provisions. NEES provided for the integration of research findings and activities with education, outreach, and training, thus enabling the smooth transition of ideas from conception to education to practice. NEESacademy provided a community resource for educational materials, on-line learning, and outreach across the age spectrum as well as supporting outreach to the profession. From 2009 to 2014 the NEES EOT program developed 83 published NEESacademy articles (web pages) and 236 Learning Objects with more than 570,000 views and downloads. 

• REU Site: NEESreu-Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation: Reducing Seismic Vulnerability
  National Science Foundation, CMMI-1005054 & CMMI-1263155, 2009-2014
  The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) provided a unique combination of research and educational experiences designed to promote reduction in earthquake vulnerability. NEESreu students engaged in state-of-the-art experiments using large-scale test facilities involving physical models, computational models, and data analysis to generate new knowledge that advances earthquake and tsunami risk mitigation. Students collaborated on active NEES research projects, which tackled a breadth of high priority earthquake mitigation issues ranging from performance of the nation's infrastructure (bridges, ports, pipelines, and levees) to innovative strategies for reducing damage and losses to buildings to the interaction of structures and tsunamis. From 2009 to 2014 the NEES EOT program trained 157 REU students. 
  
• Mitigation of Collapse Risk in Vulnerable Concrete Buildings (web site)
  National Science Foundation,CMMI-0618804, 2007-2013

  This Grand Challenge project studied the collapse potential of older nonductile concrete buildings, which are pervasive and high risk, to improve and disseminate effective engineering assessment and retrofit tools, and to define appropriate incentive or policy measures to mitigate the risk. An inventory of older concrete buildings in the City of Los Angeles was critical in the development of mitigation regulations.

• Integrating Sustainability into Lower Division Core Engineering Courses
  National Science Foundation, EEC-0935162, 2009-2011

  This project was part of a major initiative of the college of engineering to promote, coordinate and facilitate research, curriculum and activities related to the development and implementation of green and sustainable engineering practices. The outcome of the project was teaching modules covering the topics of renewable and non-renewable energy sources, energy conversion and efficiency, energy and water, and product life cycle analysis.

• Building a Network: Civil Engineers & Science Museums

  National Science Foundation, DRL-0529213, 2005-2007

  The goal of this project was to begin establishing a Network linking the science museum/science center community and the civil engineering community to enhance the way the public learns about civil engineering. The project conducted a survey of current practice among science museums/science centers to compile a preliminary catalog. The Project held a workshop to present plans and obtain critical input from the science center community to finalize the Network design and recruit charter members. 

• An Educational Strategic Plan For NEES

  National Science Foundation, CMMI 0337808, 2003-2006

  The award provided funding to the NEES Consortium, Inc., to develop a strategic plan for education, outreach, training, and assessment activities for the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). NEES was an NSF-funded Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) project under construction during FY 2000 - FY 2004 that operated from 2004 to 2014.

• Collaborative Research: A Demonstration of NEES

  National Science Foundation, CMMI 0324662, 2003-2006

  This collaborative research project aimed to demonstrate the NEES System for Studying Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction. The project involved eighteen researchers from ten universities and provided an opportunity for demonstrating and challenging the new NEES model for conducting research. It also addressed one a critical need in earthquake engineering: improved knowledge of soil-foundation-structure interaction (SFSI).

• Partnership for Students Success in Science (PS³)

  National Science Foundation, DRL-0953069, 2003-2008

  The Partnership consisting of nine Silicon Valley school districts and SJSU's Colleges of Engineering and Education took a regional approach to improving science education by building institutional capacity, instructional quality, and student achievement in a major urban region. Sustainable institutional changes were created to support high quality science education. Science teaching and learning, grades K-8, was improved through a continuum of university preservice preparation, new teacher induction, ongoing inservice and leadership development for over 1300 preservice students and inservice teachers.