LSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

05/14/2026

CEE PhD Candidates Honored with Recitation Mentorship Excellence Awards

PhD candidates from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) were recently recognized for their outstanding contributions to student learning and mentorship.

At an event hosted by the Student and Faculty Development Office of the College of Engineering, Ahmad Jamil Abdelrahim Aljaafreh, Mahdi Arjmandazar Varjovi, and Reza Falsafizadeh Haghighi were named among the top recitation instructors within the college. The honorees received Outstanding Mentor, Leader, and Coach Awards in recognition of their excellence in instruction, leadership, and dedication to student success.

These awards highlight the CEE department’s strong commitment to high-quality teaching and mentorship, as well as the impactful role graduate students play in enhancing undergraduate education.

04/28/2026

From the Chairman, Dr, George Voyiadjis:
It is my pleasure to inform you that the recommendation for the promotion to the rank of Full Professor for Drs. Chao Sun & Shengli Chen has been approved effective August 15th, 2026. Please accept my congratulations on your academic achievements and my sincere thanks for your contributions.

04/21/2026

Last week we sent 6 teams (27 students) to the 36th WERC Environmental Design Contest in Las Cruces, NM. This is LSU’s 30th entry into the contest dating back to 1995.

Our teams won 3 of the 6 tasks and 8 total trophies competing against Washington University-St Louis, University of Pennsylvania, University of Idaho, California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo, Michigan Tech, New Mexico State and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, among others. Teams submitted a written paper, made an oral presentation, a short business-focused Flash talk, made a poster presentation and bench-scale presentation to practitioner judges from across the southwest.

Task winners were:

Task 3 Bioinspired Critical Mineral Recovery (sponsored by Freeport-McMoran)—these students designed a composite sodium alginate bead containing biochar and Gracilaria gracilis, a red algae with specific sorptive capacity for rare earth elements Yttrium and Lanthanum. This team was the only team to recover these elements from the Freeport raffinate waste stream.

Task 4 (Survive the Night Logistical Challenge (sponsored by NASA)—these students designed a new cargo container for the Artemis mission that could withstand the extreme cold of the dark lunar poles. This team beat 5 other teams including chemical engineering teams from Idaho and Ohio University in this task.

Task 6 (Open source Environmental Monitor) (sponsored by Sinclair). These students designed a we bulb globe temperature monitor to help mitigate heat stress from urban heat islands, They designed the monitor and the dashboard logging system using AI, producing a fully functional sensor network in collaboration with St Mary’s catholic schooling NOLA, one of the oldest black Catholic schools in the US. The judges rewarded this all girl team (self-dubbed the Geaux Girl Group) with 4 total trophies— including best bench scale, 3rd in the flash talk and a peer award from the other student teams, the first LSU team to win 4 trophies in one WERC competition.

Other winners include a first place bench scale for advanced tech for Team 7B who designed a passive system for measuring Vibrio in coastal waters. This team also finished 2nd in the flash pitch competition. The Task 5 (sponsored by Chevron and NGL) team won a special recognition award from the judges for their surfactant based evaporation strategy for Task 5.

Pictured below is our top team Task 6 GGG

03/26/2026

This year, the LSU ASCE Steel Bridge team placed third in their competition. LSU ASCE Vice President Charlee Palma said joining ASCE is the best way to meet with other civil engineering students who share similar interests.

03/25/2026

This year at the 2026 ASCE Gulf Coast Student Symposium, the LSU concrete canoe team participated led by Senior William Latiolais. After unofficially competing at the 2025 Symposium, the team spent months planning, practicing, and building the “Quack-Crete Canoe”. Through many iterations, the team created a competitive canoe that would make waves at the symposium and be LSU’s first submission in about 3 years. After ensuring the canoe reached Tuscaloosa, the team tested, presented, and raced the Quack-crete canoe at the competition. This resulted in a third-place overall in the region, the highest placement for LSU in about 20 years. The team wants to thank all the sponsors, professors, students, and faculty who made this project possible, and we hope to continue to improve at future symposiums.

03/13/2026

03/04/2026

View Ara Arman's complete obituary, share memories, and explore 10 tribute posts from the community.

03/04/2026

Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Civil Engineering (PBC-CE)

The Online PBC program in Civil Engineering offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Louisiana State University aims at bridging the gap between students who are interested in the MS Civil Engineering degree and do not hold an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. The program also aims to train qualified workforce to meet the high need for civil engineering professionals to engage in upgrading the deteriorating infrastructures in Louisiana and the Nation.
The program will enable students who seek to get a degree or have a career in civil engineering but lacking background in civil engineering to study the main core courses in civil engineering (e.g., statics, geotechnical engineering, mechanics of materials, structural analysis, fluid mechanics, surveying, principles of highway and traffic engineering, and principles of reinforced concrete). This will enable them also to meet the prerequisite to pursue a master’s degree in civil engineering.

02/23/2026

From The Chairman, Dr. Voyiadjis:
It is with profound sadness that I inform you of the passing away of Ara Arman. Arman started his career at LSU as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering in 1963. In 1976, he became the Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering. Following that, in 1980, he became Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at LSU. Arman also participated in the establishment of the Louisiana Transportation Research Center and served as its director until 1989. Arman is a member of the inaugural class of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Hall of Distinction and served on the CEE External Advisory Board.
Ara Arman made a tremendous impact on the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department during and after his career.

CEE HALL OF DISTINCTION: 2001