Dr. Jerry Wekezer joined the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 1994 as Department Chair, after serving as Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Alaska Anchorage for four years. During his 10-year tenure as chair, the department launched the highly successfully B.S. program at FSU’s Panama City campus, and began the Ph.D. program at the FAMU-FSU campus in Tallahassee.

Senior Ariana Morales Rapallo has dealt with some difficult challenges during her college career, but she’s confronted and conquered them on her way to earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Florida State University.

Rapallo grew up in Venezuela where political upheaval created an economic crisis and caused dramatic changes to the education system, which restricted access to universities.

Garit Poire, a civil engineering graduate student at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, was recently selected as one of four recipients of the 2018 Graduate Student Leadership Award. Awarded each year by FSU’s Graduate School and Congress of Graduate Students, according to the school’s website the Leadership Award “recognizes outstanding graduate student leaders who are making a positive difference in their scholarly/creative work, campus and wider communities.”

Lisa Spainhour, Ph.D., P.E., has been appointed Chair of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). Lisa has served as interim chair for the past two years. “Lisa demonstrated her excellent leadership skills as interim chair, and I am looking forward to working with her to grow the department’s impact in the coming years,” said J. Murray Gibson, dean of the college.

FAMU-FSU Engineering graduate Simeng Li recently accepted a position at the civil engineering department at California State Polytechnic University Pomona as an assistant professor. Li received his doctorate from the college through FSU and is involved in collaborative research at Cal Poly Pomona and FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. He credits his success to the support of the faculty at his alma mater and the experience he got teaching undergraduate courses while there.

The Seminole 100 list for 2020 was released yesterday and four FAMU-FSU Engineering alumni businesses are among the honorees. Three of the businesses are repeat awardees for the honor. The list recognizes the fastest-growing businesses owned or managed by Florida State University alumni, some of whom are responsible for some of the most innovative and profitable companies in America. The official ceremony will be held in February 2020 to honor graduates.

Sarajeen Saima Hoque is a civil/environmental engineer from Bangladesh. She came to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the South Asian country. Traveling to Florida on her own, Saima Hoque ventured to the opposite hemisphere of the globe to reach the next level of her education through the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. After hearing of the college through a friend enrolled in graduate studies here, Saima Hoque applied and was fully funded as a graduate student and research assistant.

The Seminole 100 Celebration recently revealed a list of the hundred fastest-growing businesses in the U.S. owned by Florida State University alumni. The list included six businesses owned or managed by graduates of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. 

My team has discovered another use for microwave ovens that will surprise you.

Biosolids – primarily dead bacteria – from sewage plants are usually dumped into landfills. However, they are rich in nutrients and can potentially be used as fertilizers. But farmers can’t just replace the normal fertilizers they use on agricultural soil with these biosolids. The reason is that they are often contaminated with toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium from industry. But dumping them in the landfills is wasting precious resources. So, what is the solution?

If you have lived in Tallahassee for some time you have probably had the chance to see some of the work by Kever-McKee Engineering. Locally, the company has worked on Capital Health Plan building located on Thomasville Road at I-10 and the Proof Brewery Renovation on South Monroe, as well as many other notable projects. Patrick McKee started the firm in 2015 and Brian Kever came on board soon after. Both entrepreneurs graduated from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering through FSU.