Recent Videos posted to Civil and Environmental Engineering on MIT Video

Groundwater Hydrology - Diffusion Sampling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:08:40 GMT

Q&A with Denis Leblanc: Sample collection, diffusion sampling, contaminant storage, water lifting, multi-level samplers, contaminant plume cleanup.

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Active Mass Transfer

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:53 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Adsorption: Graphing Over Time

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Ashumit Pond Introduction

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Pond formation history, groundwater flow-through ponds, phosphorous contamination.

Groundwater Hydrology - Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Differential head monometer test.

Groundwater Hydrology - Seepage Meter 1

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Measuring flux, seepage meters.

Groundwater Discharge - Iron and Manganese Presence

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Pond description and background; groundwater discharge into lake, dissolved iron and manganese contamination.

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Advection with Dispersion

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Cranberry Bog

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Growing and harvesting cranberries in the Cape Cod cranberry marshes, locating plume discharges.

Groundwater Hydrology - Water Sampling and Pumping

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Water sampling and pumping basics at the sewage disposal beds.

Groundwater Hydrology: Animations: Diffusive Mass Transfer

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:28 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology: Manual Well Drilling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:28 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Large-scale Aquifer Sampling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Multi-level samplers (15,000 sampling points), bromide tracer injection.Multi-level samplers (15,000 sampling points), bromide tracer injection.

Groundwater Hydrology: Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Multi-level sampler, Henry sampler, plume discharge, solute movement in the pond, neutralization of contaminants, sampling and monitoring devices.

Groundwater Hydrology: Seepage Meter 2

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Results of seepage meter test (after 10 minutes), water collection, nutrient outflow tests.

Modeling and Simulation for Future Urban Mobility

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:30:46 GMT

Seminar led by Moshe Ben-Akiva, the Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Recorded March 1, 2013

Sallie "Penny" Chisholm: National Medal of Science profile

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:05:44 GMT

Learn more about the civil and environmental engineer who has contributed to the discovery and understanding of the dominant photosynthetic organisms in the ocean.

Spider silk makes music

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:06:05 GMT

An ear for music, it turns out, might be a key to making structural improvements in synthetic materials.

How nutrients spread in a turbulent sea

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:30:12 GMT

A computer simulation shows the way a patch of nutrient material is pulled apart into swirling filaments by turbulence in the water, eventually dissolving away completely.

Buehler: Engineered Spider Silk - Taking Cues from Biological Materials

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Markus J. Buehler
Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Center for Computational Engineering
Group Leader, Mechanics and Materials in CEE
Director, MIT-Germany Program
Co-Director, MIT Computation for Design and Optimization Program

Read more: http://web.mit.edu/mbuehler/www/

Buehler: Examining Failure to Test Limits of Materials Function

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Buehler: Materials Simulation Through Computation and Predictive Models

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Buehler: Using Computation to Validate Predictability of Materials Models

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Buehler: Why Industry Comes to MIT

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

The role of U.S. airports in disease epidemics

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:41:40 GMT

Researchers at MIT are using a new mathematical model to better understand how contagious diseases are spread by air travel.

Putting it all together: Steel Bridge Competition

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:03:35 GMT

Go behind the scenes as MIT sends a team to compete in a steel bridge building contest.

Complex Sociotechnical Systems: The Case for a New Field of Study

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:02:38 GMT

The Annual Charles L. Miller Lecture (recorded on 4/25/12), with Interim ESD Director Joseph Sussman

2012 Freeman Lecture: "Climate Change and Water Resources: Characterizing Uncertainties for Decision Makers"

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:30:09 GMT

Richard N. Palmer, Ph.D.
Department Head and Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Recorded 4/23/12

Scientific evidence tells us that global climate is changing. However, precise impacts on natural and man-made systems are less certain. Estimating climate change impact on river flow, water supply reliability, and ecosystem response requires careful application of global or regional circulation models, hydrologic models, and ecosystem response models. This presentation addresses each type of model, but focuses on characterizing climate information uncertainty when advising large-scale, public decision making. We begin by describing forecasted impacts of climate change on the US. Next, techniques to translate these broad climate shifts to the watershed scale in a fashion useful for decision making are described. We then address how best to frame this information for decision makers.

The presentation contains examples of the use of general circulation model output in past water resources studies. The examples highlight how stakeholder engagement in evaluating potential climate change impacts significantly improves the understanding of uncertainty, increasing the likelihood that the results will be used in real decision making. The presentation concludes by discussing limits of these techniques and suggests how such limits may be overcome by the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Daily Patterns of Human Activities in the City

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:30:11 GMT

This is an animation visualizing the movement and activities (differentiated by nine colors in the legend) of the surveyed individuals in the Chicago metropolitan area for an average weekday in 2008.

Data source: Chicago Travel Tracker Household Travel Inventory (2008).
Reference: Jiang, S., J. Ferreira, and M. González. 2012. Clustering Daily Patterns of Human Activities in the City. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. (Forthcoming)

EAPS in Brief: Atmospheric Chemist Colette Heald

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:03:18 GMT

Atmospheric chemist Professor Colette Heald joined MIT this spring as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in EAPS and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

She received her BS in Engineering Physcs from Queen's Universityin Kingston, Ontario (she is originally Canadian), in 2000, and a PhD (2005) in Earth and Planetary Science from Harvard where she worked with Professor Daniel J. Jacob on the use of satellite observations of atmospheric composition to quantify the sources and intercontinental export of pollutants. Most recently, after spending two years at the University California Berkeley as a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow where she focused on the sources and climate sensitivity of organic aerosols, Heald was an assistant professor in the Atmospheric Science Department at Colorado State.

Heald is interested in global atmospheric composition and chemistry, and interactions of these with the biosphere and climate system,including the study of both particles and gases in the troposphere, their sources, sinks, transformations, long range transport and environmental impacts. Using observations of the atmosphere at all scales: from ground stations, aircraft campaigns and satellite sensors with global models of chemistry and climate, she works at the intersection of modeling and observational analysis, with a strong emphasis on the integration of the two.

In this short video, Heald talks about the research questions she is working on and the techniques she uses.

You can read more about her work at Atmospheric Chemistry and Composition @ MIT

Simulating Bus Rapid Transit Scenarios in Chicago, IL

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:03:18 GMT

Simulating Bus Rapid Transit Scenarios on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL.

Modeled by Shan Jiang and recorded by Shan Jiang and Mikel Murga in 2007.

The Buckliball

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:30:08 GMT

Inspired by a toy, the ‘buckliball’ — a collapsible structure fabricated from a single piece of material — represents a new class of 3-D, origami-like structures.

Carbon Capture & Storage: Greenhouse Gas Can Find a Home Underground

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:30:07 GMT

A new study by researchers at MIT shows that there is enough capacity in deep saline aquifers in the United States to store at least a century's worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the nation's coal-fired powerplants.

Global Leadership Lecture Series: The Impact of the Panama Canal on Global Shipping

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:30:07 GMT

Global Leadership Lecture Series: The Impact of the Panama Canal on Global Shipping
Alberto Aleman Zubieta, CEO, Panama Canal Authority
03/15/2012 | 11:30 am | Room E51-345

The expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled to open in 2014, is an incredibly large and complex civil engineering mega-project. While the expansion will certainly improve the economy of Panama as well as shift global shipping patterns, it will also position the Republic as a leading logistics hub in Latin America. This session will address the impact that the expansion will have on the Canal and on the growth of Panama into a logitics and global trade hub.

MIT Environmental Research Forum - MIT Creates: A New Approach to Environmental Engagement

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

MIT Environmental Research Forum - Dara Entekhabi, Ernest Moniz, and James Yoder

Oceans

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

MIT Environmental Research Forum

Oceans - John Marshall, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography, Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, MIT

DES4: "From Network Science to Human Dynamics"

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:18:00 GMT

The first of the CEE Distinguished Engineering and Science Speaker Seminar Series, presented Oct. 26, 2011
by Dr. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Center for Complex Networks Research
Northeastern University
Department of Medicine and CCSB
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Scratch test on paraffin wax

Thu, 26 May 2011 18:29:18 GMT

This video shows a laboratory experiment of a scratch test on paraffin wax. For more information on this research performed by Professors Franz-Josef Ulm and Pedro Reis and graduate student Ange-Therese Akono, please visit the CEE website: http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2011/fracture-test Video / Ange-Therese Akono and Pedro Reis

Bacteria and Turbulence

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:44:02 GMT

Elongated Microbes Align With Turbulent Flow

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:10:35 GMT

This is a culture flask being shaken in front of a video camera. The dark whorls are actually light backscattering off elongated microbes locally aligned with the turbulent flow. Video / Marcos, Seymour, Luhar, Durham, Mitchell, Macke and Stocker from the paper, "Microbial alignment in flow changes ocean light climate," PNAS Early Online Edition, Feb. 21, 2011. Read a news story about this at http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2011/microbial-alignment

Experiment (100x slower)

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:10:40 GMT

The researchers needed to be able to change a cat's lapping speed in order to test their theory. So they developed a robotic version of a cat's tongue -- a mechanical column with a 1-inch glass disk at the tip. This device allowed the researchers to study the liquid column for different lapping speeds using a high-speed digital camera.

Cutta Cutta (12x slower)

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:09:46 GMT

Cutta Cutta drinking Cat fanciers appreciate the gravity-defying grace and exquisite balance of their feline friends. But do they know that those traits extend even to the way cats lap milk? Researchers analyzed the way domestic and big cats lap and found that felines of all sizes take advantage of a perfect balance between two physical forces.

H-bond cooperation in proteins

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:34:40 GMT

The strength of a protein-based materials like spider silk lies in the specific geometric configuration of structural proteins, which have small clusters of weak hydrogen bonds that work cooperatively to resist force and dissipate energy. This video shows the failure of a beta-sheet model system under shear loading. As the middle strand is pulled with a constant speed, the rupture of hydrogen bonds in clusters leads to failure of the beta-sheet assembly. To read about this research by Professor Markus Buehler and Sinan Keten, visit this page http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2008/protein . Video / Sinan Keten

Infochemicals in the Ocean

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:01:10 GMT

Marine microbes -- though invisible to the naked eye -- perform functions that are vital for the health of the ocean. With no vision or hearing, they navigate their environment by following chemical signals. One of these chemicals, DMSP, elicits attraction among several marine microorganisms. The movies, taken in microfluidic channels, show the predator Oxyrrhis marina responding rapidly to a patch of DMSP, then retaining position within the patch. To read a news release about this research, visit this page http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2010/dmsp . Movie created by Roman Stocker, Tanvir Ahmed, Rafel Simo' and Justin Seymour.

Energy-Efficient Salps

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:46:44 GMT

Energy-efficient salps swim and forage. To find out more, read a news release at http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2010/salp . Video courtesy of Roman Stocker of the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Kelly Rakow Sutherland and Larry Madin of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Coupling simulation-based and analytical traffic models to mitigate urban congestion.

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:16:58 GMT

Presentation given by Carolina Osorio on May 4, 2010

2010 Freeman Lecture: "Rubbish, Stink & Death"

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:14:36 GMT

The Historical Evolution, Present State and Future Direction of Water-Quality Management and Modeling
Steve Chapra, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University

2008 Freeman Lecture: "Singapore's Marina Barrage"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:42:37 GMT

Brendan M. Harley, Senior Vice President, Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. "Singapore's Marina Barrage: Design, Evolution and Construction of a Multi-Purpose Urban Reservoir"

2007 Freeman Lecture: "Cape Cod's Billion Dollar Ground-Water Cleanup: The Hydrologic Story"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:40:41 GMT

Denis R. LeBlanc, U.S. Geological Survey: "Cape Cod's Billion Dollar Ground-Water Cleanup: The Hydrologic Story"

2006 Freeman Lecture: "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Midst of Chaos and Caducity: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:37:54 GMT

Eugene Z. Stakhiv, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Midst of Chaos and Caducity: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"

2005 Freeman Lecture: "Global Water Crises: Myth or Reality?"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:35:19 GMT

Peter Rogers of Harvard University

Underground methane

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:36:24 GMT

This video shows underground methane gas invading fine-grain sediment (shown in yellow) by creating a fracture, as predicted by Jain and Juanes' grain scale model. Blue circles represent pore spaces where the gas has invaded. The maroon lines indicate compressive forces between sediment grains. The video shows that the network of compressive forces changes drastically with the evolution of the fracture. The green lines indicate tension between grains, caused by capillary forces that hold the grains together. The network of tension forces also changes with time, as the gas invades the sediment.

1.961 - Lecture 1 - The Origin of Diffusion

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:09:20 GMT