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Civil & Environmental Engineering News

Stock image of a rainstorm
October 20, 2025

Wright leading UW-Madison team in multidisciplinary storm impact research center

Daniel Wright, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is adding his expertise in extreme storm prediction research to the new Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms (CIRCS). Wright is the University of…

Image of flooded area
October 15, 2025

New computer model predicts rising flood threats in Lower Mississippi River Basin

A historic flood swept down the Lower Mississippi River in May 2011. Along the way, the river swelled to record levels at the cities of Vicksburg and Natchez, both in Mississippi, while nearing records in…

Soren Goldsmith checks on his camera in the field in Massachusetts
September 15, 2025

Undergrad’s amphibious imaging system captures unseen beauty in New England salt marshes

Soren Goldsmith knows most people don’t think about salt marshes that often—but with the help of an innovative amphibious enclosed camera, he’s creating connections to those lands through photos of the wildlife that live in…

UW Crest with engineering background
September 8, 2025

New project bringing sustainability education to all undergrad engineering students

A new initiative to introduce sustainability into the College of Engineering’s curriculum aims to ensure that every undergraduate engineering student learns about sustainability in a manner relevant to their major while they’re at the University…

PhD students Ali Milani and Kaitylyn Gruber working in the lab
September 8, 2025

Through weather and water, PFAS will pollute Lake Superior

University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental engineers are tracking the myriad ways in which “forever chemicals” get into Lake Superior. Civil and environmental engineering PhD student Ali Milani and chemistry PhD student Kaitlyn Gruber are leading projects…

Nimish Pujara and a student set up a small camera outside of a wave tank
September 8, 2025

Wave goodbye: Research yields new knowledge about how ocean action carves icebergs from ice sheets

An interdisciplinary team’s research may deepen our understanding of how ocean waves wear away massive ice sheets—and how that activity can influence climate around the world. Nimish Pujara, an assistant professor of civil and environmental…

Xiaopeng Li
August 4, 2025

Ask an expert: Li explains autonomous vehicle advances

Xiaopeng Li is a leader in connected and autonomous vehicle research. Li, the Harvey D. Spangler Professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studies how emerging technologies will influence the development…

Smoke stacks
April 14, 2025

Capturing attention

An ambitious startup company emerging from the college is poised to pull carbon out of the atmosphere while producing more sustainable cement. Bu Wang didn’t necessarily set out to launch…

UW-Madison civil and environmental engineering PhD student Wei Han demonstrates a virtual reality system his group is using to research how drones affect construction worker safety on work sites
March 12, 2025

In virtual reality, new study explores safe drone use on construction sites

The buzz of drones on construction sites is becoming ever more common, enabling crews to scan or inspect their work from above. At the same time, those drones can distract…

Professor Haoran Wei, left, and PhD student Hanwei Wang work in a lab
February 13, 2025

For at-home tap water test under development, seeing red means no lead

A group of civil and environmental engineering graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is designing an affordable, easy-to-use test that will allow residents to identify lead in their tap water. For the students, it’s…