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  • March

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Environmental Engineer Jesseca Alexander of the Northwest Division’s Kansas City District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.

    Kansas City District’s Jesseca Alexander selected for ERDC University

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Environmental Engineer Jesseca Alexander of the Northwest Division’s Kansas City District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.
  • On Jan. 31, 2022, crews at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Miss., prepare to move the HVS “Titan” to its new, permanent testing location at the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory. The Titan is a critical research tool used to evaluate new materials, design methods and construction techniques that can help optimize new infrastructure facilities. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    ERDC begins testing with world’s largest heavy vehicle simulator

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) completed assembly on the world’s largest heavy vehicle simulator (HVS), the “Titan,” at the end of January. The HVS is a critical research tool used to evaluate new materials, design methods and construction techniques that can help optimize new infrastructure facilities.
  • Brandon Meinert of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Kansas City District was selected for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) University, a detail program in its seventh year that offers partnerships between USACE Division and District participants and relevant ERDC laboratory mentors for six-month research projects.

    Kansas City District’s Brandon Meinert selected for ERDC University

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Building Information Modeling (BIM) Manager Brandon Meinert with the Kansas City District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.
  • Team members at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Information Technology Laboratory test a new set of virtual reality gloves, which allow users to grab and manipulate items within a simulated environment. The gloves are just one step in expanding the augmented and virtual reality research and development capabilities of the lab.

    Virtual reality gloves take ITL to a new level

    As the world of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) continues to rapidly expand, cutting-edge equipment is increasingly vital to remaining relevant. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) AR/VR One Team has stepped up to the plate by acquiring two sets of virtual reality gloves that allow users to grab and manipulate items within a simulated environment.
  • View of exposure tanks immediately after the introduction of fine-grain sediment, as part of an experiment conducted by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Justin Wilkens and Dr. Burton Suedel and the University of Hawaii (UH) at UH’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory February 2021. Middle tank, bottom row, is the control tank, which did not receive sediment. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Justin Wilkens)

    ERDC researchers complete collaborative effort to deliver results to district, stakeholders

    VICKSBURG, Miss. — Since 2019, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Research Biologists Dr. Burton Suedel and Justin Wilkens have been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Honolulu District to answer questions about whether dredging-induced sediment plumes could affect corals.
  • Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Supervisory Environmental Engineer Jennifer Miller, Ph.D., of the Chicago District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.

    Chicago District’s Jennifer Miller selected for ERDC University

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Supervisory Environmental Engineer Jennifer Miller, Ph.D., of the Chicago District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.
  • Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Coastal Engineer Spencer Harper with the South Pacific Division’s San Francisco District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.

    San Francisco District’s Spencer Harper selected for ERDC University

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Coastal Engineer Spencer Harper with the South Pacific Division’s San Francisco District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, which is now in its seventh year.
  • Fulton Carson, a computer scientist at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, speaks to several Alcorn State University students at ERDC Day on February 23, 2022. The event, which featured a mini career fair, exposed Alcorn students to ERDC career opportunities.

    Inaugural ERDC Day held at Alcorn State University

    Recently, Alcorn State University (ASU) hosted a team of personnel from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for a career day. The event—known as ERDC Day— was the first of its kind to be held on the ASU campus in Lorman, Mississippi.
  • Geophysicist Matthew Glover of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District was chosen as a participant for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University, now in its seventh year. The program offers partnerships between USACE Division and District participants and relevant ERDC laboratory mentors for six-month research projects, resulting in technical solutions benefitting their workplace, the Corps and the Nation.

    St. Louis District’s Matthew Glover selected for ERDC University

    Researchers from five U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Districts have been selected for the 2022 session of the Engineer Research and Development Center University (ERDC-U). Geophysicist Matthew Glover of the St. Louis District was chosen as a participant for this detail program, now in its seventh year.
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) researchers will use this 25-acre test site in Defiance, Ohio, to find solutions to non-point source pollution in the Great Lakes Basin. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    ERDC researchers look for solutions to Great Lakes water quality issues

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engneers (USACE) Buffalo District are collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal and state agencies to find solutions to water quality issues in the Great Lakes.

  • February

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) researchers use different graphene concentrations to test graphene’s ability to filter toxins out of water. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    ERDC partners with multiple universities on graphene research

    Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have started working with multiple applications for graphene, from graphene-infused asphalt and concrete to water filtration systems.
  • Research physicist Thad C. Pratt of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory was one of four team members who developed the ISSDOTv2 bedload transport methodology, which earned a U.S. patent in 2021.

    Meet the inventors: Bed-load transport measurement technique

    What did it take for the four-member research team who developed the “ISSDOTv2 bedload transport methodology” to create a U.S. patent-worthy invention? For this team, it was made possible by varied expertise, a combined 86 years of experience, a desire to solve river sediment challenges and helpful friendships.
  • Receiving a patent in July 2021 for “Bedload transport methodology and method of use,” a Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) team at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) discuss their invention. It estimates sediment movement rates by measuring the bathymetric elevations in specific areas of a river multiple times. From left, CHL’s research hydraulic engineer David Abraha, research physicist Tate McAlpin and research physicist Thad Pratt invented these methods to answer river engineers’ challenges.

    Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory invention team receives patent for bed-load transport measurement technique

    Utilizing their combined decades of experience in river mechanics, a four-member team of research physicists and hydraulic engineers with the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) combined their expertise to invent the Integrated Section, Surface Difference Over Time, version 2 (ISSDOTv2) method, which accurately measures the sediment moving on the bed of large sand-bed rivers. The team from ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) received their patent, “Bedload transport methodology and method of use,” in July of 2021.
  • Data analytics

    ERDC researchers help prioritize support for Rhode Island hospitals during omicron surge

    When both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) needed to prioritize hospital support in New England during the COVID-19 omicron variant surge in the beginning of January, they turned to the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Risk and Decision Science Team (RADST) led by Jeff Cegan.
  • David Rogillio, Michael Channell and Mickey Blackmon of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) review plans for containerized medical solutions, a quickly assembled, low-cost method of building airborne infectious isolation rooms using commercially available intermodal container units. In addition to the ERDC personnel, the invention team also included U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center's David Braidich of Manassas, Virginia; Brian Roden of Madison, Alabama; and Bryan Merry of Huntsville, Alabama.

    ERDC receives patent for portable medical units

    The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers met the challenge to provide additional hospital rooms for COVID-19 patients by inventing portable medical units created at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Relieving overcrowded hospital facilities, these prefabricated containers were modified as medical isolation rooms and received U. S. Patent 11103406, titled “Airborne infectious disease isolation units and method of making using prefabricated containers.” The patent was issued in August 2021 for the six-member invention team at ERDC’s Installation Operations Command (IOC) Installation Support Division.
  • Joshua Humberston works to facilitate validation efforts of environmental remote sensing systems and numerical models that have shed new light on the spatial complexity of phenomena such as winds and ocean currents.

    ERDC researchers awarded SEED grants

    Two researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) have been awarded funds through the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholar Seed Grant (SEED) Program.

  • January

    Detection and elimination of munitions are important for both humans and wildlife. Gurtowski explained that his system includes a container with an amine-functionalized chitin (AFC) compound to interact with a water sample. The AFC compound produces a color change correlated with the presence and concentration of munitions. With detection of at least a one part per million (ppm) concentration of NTO, DNAN or TNT, a solid pale-yellow organic nitrogen compound used chiefly as an explosive, the munitions are absorbed by the AFC compound, and a filter captures and removes the environmentally harmful particles.

    Environmental Laboratory patent can eliminate environmentally-harmful munitions

    A multi-faceted compound that not only produces color changes when added to various Military munition concentrations is also capable of absorbing these dangerous participles for removal, thanks to precise processes invented by the Environmental Laboratory (EL) team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).
  • Officials from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) cut the ribbon for two new Supercomputing Research Center facilities at the Information Technology Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on January 20, 2021. The official party, from left to right, included retired ITL Director Patti Duett, ERDC Deputy Director Dr. Beth Fleming, Entergy Mississippi President and CEO Haley Fisackerly, ERDC Director Dr. David Pittman, ITL Director Dr. David Horner, ITL Deputy Director Dr. Jackie Pettway, ERDC Director Emeritus Dr. Jeff Holland, Supercomputing Research Center Director Bobby Hunter, retired ITL Director Dr. Reed Mosher and ERDC Commander Col. Teresa Schlosser.

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center opens new Supercomputing Research Facility

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Information Technology Lab (ITL) held a ribbon cutting for two new, state-of-the-art Supercomputing Research Center (SRC) facilities in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Thursday, January 20, 2022.
  • Bartley Durst, director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL), has been named winner of the 2022 Laboratory Director of the Year award by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, a national network of federal laboratories, agencies and research centers that fosters commercialization best practice strategies and opportunities for accelerating federal technologies from the labs into the marketplace.

    ERDC’s Durst honored as Federal Laboratory Consortium’s Laboratory Director of the Year

    Mr. Bartley Durst, director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL), has been chosen for the 2022 Laboratory Director of the Year award by the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) for Technology Transfer.

  • December

    Valentino Floyd, an Enterprise Industrial Control System operator at the Shore Operations Center at the Washington Navy Yard, uses a SmartGrid system to monitor energy usage in area buildings. Operators and analysts at the center maintain command and control of energy usage at the base through a secure network, allowing for more efficient power usage to enable mission readiness and lower operating costs. (U.S. Navy photo by Shawn Miller/Released)

    USACE researching tools to combat cyber-energy threats

    Given the growing number of domestic cyber attacks and disruptions, determining how to combat these attacks has increased in importance and urgency.