U-M CEE: Civil and Environmental Engineering

The answer to last week's trivia question is B! Ian Fiero works with CEE Professor Nancy Love to use the peony garden at Nichols Arboretum as a test bed for urine-derived fertilizer (UDF), which contains the same essential nutrients found in conventional synthetic fertilizer.

We're heading out to the Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum for this week's round of CEE Trivia! CEE Master's student Ian Fiero is counting flower buds to test a fertilizer made from what?

A. Fish waste
B. Human urine
C. Food scraps from the Campus Farm
D. Seaweed sludge

Check back on Thursday for the answer!

The answer to last week's trivia question is C! This shielded non-thermal plasma flow reactor helps researchers like CEE PhD student Emily Hong investigate ways to reduce the environmental, health, and economic impacts of airborne aerosols to limit the spread of avian influenza and other zoonotic diseases.

It's another week of CEE trivia summer! What do you think this device in CEE Professor Herek Clack's lab is designed to study?

A) 3D printed metals
B) Battery performance in electric vehicles
C) Airborne viruses and aerosols
D) Water filtration membranes

Check back on Thursday for the answer!

The answer to Tuesday's trivia questions is B!

Steel fibers help bridge cracks and improve the tensile strength, ductility, toughness, and energy absorption of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). Here, CEE visiting research fellow Min Chang Kang adds steel fibers to a UHPC mixture in the Structural Laboratory to examine how they influence the concrete's behavior while developing more practical and cost-effective UHPC mixtures.

It's time for another summer of CEE trivia! Researchers at U-M CEE are looking for ways to improve the durability of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). This tiny object protruding from a UHPC block is actually...

A) A piece of wire
B) A steel fiber
C) A splinter
D) A pin used for testing

Check back on Thursday for the answer!

Have news to share? We want to hear from you!

U-M CEE alumni are making an impact around the world. Earning awards, publishing research, leading major projects, launching companies, receiving promotions, and serving their communities. We’d love to celebrate your achievements and share them with the Michigan CEE community.

Send your alumni updates, recognitions, and milestones to [email protected].

Go Blue!

Congratulations to Dr. Jay Zhou (MSE 1984, Ph.D. 1987), a U-M CEE structural engineering alumnus, on being named the 2026 recipient of the SAE International Medal of Honor!
Created in 1986, the SAE Medal of Honor annually recognizes an individual who has demonstrated unwavering commitment to SAE International’s mission of advancing mobility solutions for the benefit of humanity.

Dr. Zhou’s distinguished career with Ford Motor Company spans more than 30 years, including recent leadership roles as Vice President of Ford China Quality and New Model Launch for Ford China and Ford Asia Pacific. Through his leadership at Ford and his longstanding contributions to SAE International, Dr. Zhou has made a direct and lasting impact on SAE and the mobility industry.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zhou on this outstanding achievement!

CEE students celebrated the end of the winter semester and took a break from studying for finals to grab some ice cream from the student services office. Thanks to everyone who showed up! We wish you the best of luck during finals week.