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VCASE Research Symposium Addresses Resilience in Engineering

Rob Traver moderates the VCASE symposiums panel discussion.
Rob Traver moderates the VCASE symposiums panel discussion.

On September 9, 2016, the 裡橖眻畦 Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering (VCASE) hosted its second annual research symposium. Nearly 100 people from industry, government, and academia registered for the half-day event, which included a panel discussion and breakout sessions on the topic Resilience in Engineering Design or Practice.

The morning began with an introduction and VCASE overview by Director Robert Traver, PhD, PE, D.WRE, F.EWRI, F.ASCE, the Edward A. Daylor Chair in Civil Engineering and director of the 裡橖眻畦 Urban Stormwater Partnership. He was followed by Christine Knapp, director of the Office of Sustainability, City of Philadelphia, who presented on Views of Resilience from the Citys Perspective.  Dr. Traver noted that attendees were impressed by the citys leadership in sustainability.

Participating in the symposiums panel discussion on the days topic were representatives of the Federal Highway Administration, Aqua America, Comcast Corporation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Breakout sessions were hosted by 裡橖眻畦 College of Engineering faculty who spoke on alternative and renewable energy, biomass utilization, stormwater control measures, contaminant remediation, and sustainability research in structural engineering. We received many comments that the attendees enjoyed the synergy across the diverse engineering areas, said Dr. Traver.

The day concluded with a networking reception and student poster session.  Dr. Traver appreciated the students participation: I enjoyed seeing the high level of research being conducted across the engineering departments, especially the student posters.

Sponsors for this years event were O'Brien & Gere (OBG) and Urban Engineers. The next VCASE research symposium is planned for fall 2017.