Associate Professor Mira Olson, PhD and the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) Department recently received a three-year U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) award. This award will support a select number of highly qualified graduate students to obtain doctoral degrees in the CAEE Department. The objective of the “Drexel University GAANN Fellowships in (Appropriate) Research Management in the Urban Environment” program is to train civil, architectural, and environmental engineers to incorporate resource recovery, resource protection, energy efficiency, and appropriate resource management of the built environment into both their engineering professions and future academic curricula through guided research and teaching opportunities.
This GAANN award will support tuition and stipend for four CAEE students on an annual basis, starting in fall 2015. The three major objectives of this award are to: 1) Enable greater numbers of U.S. students, in particular students from traditionally underrepresented groups, to pursue and complete doctoral studies in civil, architectural, or environmental engineering; 2) Prepare GAANN fellows to pursue careers in civil, architectural, or environmental engineering where they will advocate for and/or implement appropriate urban resource management through multi-disciplinary course work, cutting edge research experiences, and opportunities to engage in dialogue with the stakeholders, utilities, and non-technical communities that utilize and manage resources in the urban environment; and 3) Prepare GAANN fellows to be effective educators capable of disseminating critical information to the next generation of urban resource managers and engineers.
“Modern society places increasing demands on urban infrastructure and resources. Engineers cannot continue to use business-as-usual tactics to solve problems that are the result of this intensive demand,” states PI Mira Olson. “The next generation of engineers will need to employ creative solutions to tackle the challenges of aging infrastructure, resource depletion, building energy use, and managing excessive waste. Our Department is committed to effectively training future engineers to employ feasible and effective solutions to remediate and sustain the urban environment. The students that we train must then be able to disseminate their knowledge and catalyze change within engineering professions and academic curricula. This GAANN award will enhance the Department’s capacity to support highly qualified doctoral students and provide them with the resources needed to succeed.”