Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The MSc course in Water Management sees students spending one term at Newcastle Unversity and the rest of their degree at universities in Germany, France, Spain and Hungary.

At the end of the course, which is supported by funding from the European Union, students will graduate with a joint degree.

The international nature of the course has seen students from 20 countries around the world signing up for its first year, with people coming from as far afield as South America, Africa and Japan.

see the Journal newspaper article

Pan-European Euro Aquae MSc in Hydroinformatics and Water Management

Vedrana Kutija

june 06
At a ceremony held in Brussels on 16 June, members of the pan-European Euro-Aquae Consortium formally signed the Memorandum of Understanding which forms the foundation of the Erasmus Mundus supported joint MSc in Hydroinformatics and Water Management. The memorandum was signed for the University by Dr Bryn Jones, Dean of Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, in the presence of Jan Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism.

Students taking the MSc in Hydroinformatics and Water Management spend at least one semester in Newcastle during their two year, four semester, programme and also study in at least two other institutions from within the Euro Aquae consortium: Brandenburg University of Technology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the Technical University of Catalonia and the University of Nice–Sophia Antipolis. On successful completion of the programme, graduates are awarded a joint MSc by all member institutions.

On signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Dr Jones stated that the Euro Aquae programme was a good example of the innovative curriculum developments being supported by Newcastle University and that, having attracted students from some 20 European and non-European countries, the programme added value both to the students taking it and to the universities hosting it.

These sentiments are echoed by Dr Vedrana Kutija, Degree Programme Director for the Newcastle component of the Euro Aquae programme. Dr Kutija stresses that Newcastle’s successful collaboration within the prestigious Erasmus Mundus programme has raised the University’s profile in European higher education. Dr Kutija also notes that the high quality of the Euro Aquae programme builds upon, and extends, Newcastle’s worldwide reputation for advanced teaching in water related science and engineering.

The Euro Aquae web site
Commissioner Figel’s web site

CeG 5-a-side football tournament 2006

june 06
The CeG Staff Friendly 5-a-side Football Tournament 2006 was held on Thursday 29th June at the new University Sports Centre. A total of nine teams entered, including lecturers, laboratory technicians, researchers, PhD students, and MSc students from across the School. A big thanks to everyone that played. Congratulations to the winners of the winners cup, Transport’s Terriers.

Commiserations to the joint ‘winners’ of the losers medal, Wattengmatics and Nadezhda’s Team. A grand total of £179.96 was raised for the Mbarara Project (Established in 2004 by CeG Civil Engineering students to build a community education centre in South West Uganda)

www.students.ncl.ac.uk/mbarara.project

sustainable transport technologies for developing countries

John Nelson

june 06
The EPSRC funded research programme on sustainable technologies for developing environments envisages the conduct of three seminars followed by a two day conference to evolve guidelines for application of sustainable technologies as well as strengthen the human resource capabilities in the transport sector through the development of training and research activities in the developing countries. This work is led jointly by Prof John Nelson (CeG) and Prof Anil Sharma (School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and Visiting Professor, CeG)

Full details, including a Call for Papers, from:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/sustrans.php

where climate is made in a greenhouse world

Tom Wagner

Where climate is made in a greenhouse world
New scientific results for the Late Cretaceous greenhouse indicate radically different climatic mechanisms operating about 75-90 million years ago compared to the ones that control today’s climate (see recent publication in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol. 235 by Sascha Floegel, IFM-GEOMAR, Germany and Thomas Wagner, University of Newcastle).

Using marine geological records and data from global paleoclimate simulations the study identifies a previously unrecognized link between higher latitude climate dynamics and tropical African climate, the latter leading to exceptionally high burial of organic carbon in the deep tropical Atlantic. By varying one of Earth’s orbital parameters, the precession of the equinoxes, the modelling setup provides new insights to the dynamics of global climate during past greenhouse conditions. Accordingly, strongest variations in atmospheric pressure occurred above the South Atlantic at mid-southern latitudes between 25–55°S. Establishment of an atmospheric teleconnection between this area and tropical Africa, however, was limited to one specific orbital configuration, which lasted for about 5 thousand years and caused strongest climate contrasts in a seasonal cycle.

These new results challenge current notions on role of the tropics as main driver of Cretaceous climate. They rather support the conclusion that tropical climate in a greenhouse world is ultimately triggered by climate change at mid-southern latitudes, with precipitation and river discharge being the transport mechanisms. The broader implications support substantial interaction between the water cycle and atmospheric circulation on regional and hemispheric scales during times of global warmth. As evident from this study we probably still do not realise all the relevant processes that drive future global warming. Knowing them, however, is critical to get prepared and mitigate the effects for society and ecosystems.

Shell Exploration and Production approved three internships

Tom Wagner

Shell Exploration and Production approve three internship positions to current MSc Students in Petroleum Geochemistry.

Good news and excellent professional perspectives for three ambitious students in Petroleum Geochemistry! Antony Melton, William Pendergast and Lawrence Gill will start their 6-month internship programme at Rijswijk, The Netherlands, right after the end of their MSc programme in September 2006.

Trained by geologists and exploration experts at Shell and co-supervised by staff from CEGS the new 'Newcastle Dream Team' will work on Genetic Trends of World Class Source Rocks throughout the Phanerozoic Eon. Based on compilation and evaluation of source rock data they set out to develop an integrated depositional model for the studied Phanerozoic source rock intervals. Decoding mechanisms, which resulted in black shale deposition, has become increasingly important within Shell and its future Exploration efforts. As such it is anticipated that this project will contribute to Shell’s ongoing efforts in evaluating and assessing new exploration frontiers.

Good luck!

CeG awarded three prestigious RCUK fellowships

The School of Civil engineering and Geosciences has been awarded three of the six prestigious fellowships given to the University of Newcastle in the latest round of the Research Council UK academic fellowship scheme.

The Research Council UK Fellowship Awards are designed to nurture young academic talent within universities and are worth £125,000 each over five years. The key criteria for the award is a strong record of research and in the development younger staff in exciting areas.

The Schools initiative in the area of Earth systems Science and Engineering Management identified three research areas (The Global Water Mass Balance, Biodiversity-function relationships in Earth systems and Pollution fate and control) which would be significantly strengthened by the appointment of RCUK academic fellowships.

Mbarara project

This summer see’s the 3rd year of the School of Civil Engineering students trip to Uganda. The trip is part of a five year project to build a community development centre for the Yesu Ahuriire Christian Community. Each year sees a team of students raise in the region of £20,000 to purchase building equipment, and then flying out to the community to assist in construction.

The first two years’ progress can be seen on the students web pages.
This year will see the completion of the main building, the core work involved will be walling, plastering, plumbing, fitting windows and getting the building ready for use.

So far, around £15,000 has been raised through a combination of fundraising drives and corporate sponsorship. Generous benefactors include the Lady Leech Foundation, who kindly gave £5,000, the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, The Gordon Foundation and Fauber Maunsell.

The students have also had several fundraising activities including a sponsored abseil from the Tyne Bridge, a virtual race evening, a band night, several cake stalls and ran a tuck shop in the student common room for the second term.

They are currently having a final fundraising drive in the hope of securing another £5,000 before early June. If you would like to support this project please email martin.eddleston@ncl.ac.uk

vacation scholarships 2006

Congratulations to David Booker (BSc Hons Surveying and Mapping Science, CeG) and Aidan Mark Smith (Bsc Hons Environmental Science, AFRD), who have been awarded Vacation Scholarships over the summer period.

David will be working on a research project entitled: ‘Centrimetric Survey of Wydon Farm Flood Bank and Reverting Wetland Fields for Flood Management and Wetland Habitat Recreation’, under the direction of Dr Vedrana Kutija and Mr Philip James in CeG.

Aidan will be working on a research project entitled: ‘Do the Antioxidants in Soils Reflect the Antioxidants in the Vegetation Above?’, under the direction of Dr David Rimmer, CeG.

bursaries offered to undergraduates for 2006

The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences recognises and wishes to encourage excellent achievement prior to entry to the University, and because of this offers a number of bursaries to new undergraduate students on entry. Some of the bursaries awarded are also linked with external donors, which is an indication of the excellent links between ourselves and industry. Details of the bursaries awarded in 2005/6 are as follows:

Civil Engineering Bursary

£1,000 for the first year of study for civil engineering students with entrance grades of AAA or above (or equivalent) at intake.

In 2005/2006 a Civil Engineering Bursary was awarded to:
Ed Byers, Alison Caldwell, Kieran Cooke, Holly Cottrell, Aaron Keys, Ben Marshall, Nicholas Matheson, Ben Shaw, Michael Shkurka

Geomatics Bursary

£1,000 for the first year of study for geomatics students with entrance grades of AAA or above (or equivalent) at intake.

In 2005/2006 a Geomatics Bursary was awarded to:
Iain Bramwell. Matthew Goode. Nik Hanafi

Frank Pounder Industrial Bursary

The Frank Pounder Industrial Bursaries are awarded annually to new entrants to the Surveying and Mapping Science (H244) and Geographic Information Science (F862) degree programmes. The bursaries, worth £500, are designed to assist new students in setting themselves up with texts and other materials for their first year of study.

To be eligible the students need to have accepted our School as their first choice and to have met the grades specified.

In 2005/2006 a Frank Pounder Burssary was awarded to:
Iain Bramwell, Adrian Garlick, Gavin Henderson, Jessica Hill, Stephen Imeson, Alex Jones, Michael Linden, Craig Waller, David Bower, Matthew Coe, Matthew Goode, Tim Lowry

PhD studentships awarded for 2006

Following interviews, the School has now decided upon nominations for the "quota" PhD studentships supported by NERC and EPSRC for autumn 2006
entry.

We look forward to welcoming these students as part of the new PhD intake in September:

Sarah Hale, currently studying for an MRes in Clean Chemical
Technology at York, to work on "Reducing the bio-uptake of sediment pollutants at the base of the food chain" with David Werner and Martin Jones.
Simon Heslop, who has an MSc in Transport Engineering from Napier and is currently working for a transport engineering consultancy, to study " Exposure of the extreme sportsman as a risky driver" with Neil Thorpe and Corinne Mulley.
Alison McAnena, currently on our MSc in Petroleum Geochemistry, to work on "Reactivity and isotopic fractionation of iron oxides in sulphidic environments" with Simon Poulton and Andy Aplin.
Carolyn Mills, currently studying for an MSc by research in Physical Geography at Durham, to work on "Field study of spatial variability in sediment delivery along a rural river system, River Eden, Cumbria" with James Bathurst and Paul Quinn.
Liz Petrie, who has an MSc in Hydrographic Surveying from UCL and is currently working offshore, to study "Seasonal and secular global water balance from GRACE, tide gauges and altimetry" with Philip Moore, Matt King, and Nigel Penna.
James Shorter, currently in the final year of our MEng Civil
Engineering degree, to study "Drinking water in developing countries" with Charlotte Paterson, Paul Younger, and Paul Sallis.

As usual, there were more good applicants than funded places, so we
regretfully had to turn away some capable people. There are a few tied studentships (linked to particular projects) still available and projects open to self-funded students.

innovative micro-scale work supported by NERC

David Werner and Russell Davenport

Congratulations to two of the Schools younger researchers Drs Werner and Davenport, who have been awarded a NERC Small Grant to investigate the association of pollutants and pollutant degraders with microscopy. The project merges the Schools’ in-house physicochemical and microbiological expertise. David and Russell hope to develop a new tool for the investigation of polluted sites and bioremediation technologies. Petroleum hydrocarbon degradation is an active field of research in the School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences and at the IRES.

The collaboration came about when David volunteered as a guinea pig for a Molecular Microbiology Workshop organised by Russell Davenport (a School Research Fellow) and colleagues, and supported by EPSRC Platform funding. Follow-on discussions from that first meeting led to this grant award. It is hoped that this approach will give new insight into the heterogeneous environment of polluted soils or sediments. David believes it will help to eliminate some common obstacles to pollutant bioremediation. Besides, the images alone are beautiful (see above); almost works of art!

good news for international postgraduate students

The Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme, which allows international students to work in the UK for one year after the completion of their postgraduate studies, has been extended to postgraduate students who successfully complete a Master's degree or PhD in any subject. This extended scheme will be relevant to any international student beginning an MSc or PhD in Civil Engineering and Geosciences in September 2006.

Details of the scheme are available from the UK Home Office web site.

Newcastle graduates already enjoy success in finding employment. Your Newcastle degree, and the new Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme, now give you a great opportunity to extend your experience in the UK.

fellowship: Japan society for the promotion of science

Maggie White, a Research Associate in Geosciences, has been awarded a fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science on the 2006 JSPS Summer Program. This JSPS fellowship award provides opportunities for young researchers from North America and Europe to pursue research at host Japanese universities and research institutes over a two month period during the summer, with ten fellowships being awarded to young scientists in the UK each year. The JSPS Summer Program is one of six fellowship programs offered by the JSPS and together, these programs are intended to encourage highly qualified international researchers to visit Japan and conduct joint research activities with colleagues at Japanese universities and research institutes, with the ultimate goal of promoting international scientific cooperation.

Maggie's host in Japan will be Professor Satoru Nakashima, Professor of Physical Geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Space Science at Osaka University. Here, Maggie will be carrying out a research project that she proposed with Professors David Manning (CeG) and Satoru Nakashima (Osaka University) which will investigate the catalytic effect of minerals on the degradation of organic compounds in composite samples. For example, how organic contaminants degrade in landfill sites, or in soils, when they are in close proximity to reactive minerals, under different temperature and environmental conditions/extremes. Maggie is hoping to obtain new data sets for various composite materials that have not previously been characterised using the novel piece of analytical equipment (in-situ infra-red microspectrometer with heating stages) in Professor Nakashima's world-class laboratory, which will provide critical insights into the thermal behaviour of organic structures on the micro-scale. This in-situ microspectroscopic technique is not available in the UK so the opportunity to carry out this research in Japan is invaluable, and the work will also be highly complimentary to research already carried out at Newcastle University. Whilst in Japan, Maggie will present a paper on her PhD research at the International Mineralogical Association Conference 2006 (IMA2006), which is hosted in Kobe, not far from Osaka.

Maggie’s fellowship is a great opportunity to carry out some innovative research, gain first-hand experience of Japanese research systems and also experience some Japanese culture! Maggie hopes that outcomes from the research visit will not only include journal publications but also build the foundations for longer term collaboration.

RSPSoc 2006 Annual student meeting

april 06
On 10 and 11 April, the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences played host to the 2006 Annual Student Meeting of the UK Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc).

This event enables postgraduate research students to present their work to an audience of their peers, make valuable contacts, and aims to encourage future participation in the Society. With 40 students from across the UK registered, the 2006 Meeting turned out to be one of the largest and most diverse of recent years. An engaging variety of oral and poster presentations were on offer, and the all-round standard proved to be very high, with fierce competition for several enticing prizes! With student contributions, keynote presentations and some relaxing socialising on the Monday evening, the Newcastle event proved very enjoyable, with much anticipation already building for next year's Meeting.

See http:\\www.rspsoc.org for further details.

DTI invests £0.75M in development project led by north-east based company

As part of its campaign to support businesses to take new ideas and technologies from the laboratory to the market, the DTI are to co-fund a £1.5m project that will be headed by Newcastle based company, Electrokinetic Limited.

The project will aim to bring to market and commercialise the application of the company’s core technology, electrokinetic geosynthetics (EKG), in the area of sewage, sludge and waste minimisation.

Electrokinetic beat off strong competition to win this award with 130 initial applicants being ultimately narrowed down to the 18 successful candidates approved by a panel of experts in the waste field. The funding will contribute 50% of the costs of the project over the next 3 years. Electrokinetic’s partners in the project include major mining and water companies including Rio Tinto, Severn Trent Water and Yorkshire Water. Newcastle University will be the academic partner to the project.

Spun-out from the University of Newcastle three years ago, Electrokinetic is developing the pioneering technology of EKG which is based on harnessing the power of electrokinetic phenomena through the development of electrodes that have a range of functions over and above simply conducting electricity. This means that EKG can drive water from materials that are difficult or impossible to dewater by traditional hydraulic means.

For Newcastle University, David Parker, Head of School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, said “It is excellent to witness the success of Electrokinetic since spinning out form the school. Even more encouraging is how our two organisations are continuing to work hand in hand to further the development of this core technology bringing employment potential to the North East and waste minimisation solutions across the world”.Waste minimisation represents a major commercial opportunity for the application of EKG technology. Electrokinetic is also planning to exploit its potential in complementary areas such as construction, civil engineering and sports turf. For example, EKG can potentially be applied to sports stadia, where it can be used to control the performance and reliability of grass sports pitches; alternatively it can be used to stabilise embankments and slopes thus safeguarding critical infrastructure components which will face increasing risk from the effect of climate change.

more...

For more information about Electrokinetic Limited, call 0191 243 0685 or email info@electrokinetic.co.uk.

school's PGT programmes gain approval from the professions

Steve Scott

The majority of the School's Master and Diploma programmes have recently been approved by the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Structural Engineers and the Institution of Highways and Transportation for a period of Further Learning. This means that students who already have an accredited BEng degree and who then take and pass one of these programmes will have fulfilled the academic requirements to become a Chartered Engineer. For graduates who have not got an MEng degree, these programmes clearly fill an important need.