SUMMARY OF SERVICE ACTIVITIES

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Tarek Abichou, Ph.D., P.E.

I have served on Faculty Search, ABET, Laboratory, Undergraduate, and Graduate department committees. I also serve on the Florida State University Fulbright committee. I have served as the faculty advisor for the Student Chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers and our Student Chapter for Engineers Without Borders (EWB). I have traveled to Peru twice with EWB to provide 400 families with potable drinking water and construct latrines. Because of my service with EWB, I received the Faculty Advisor of the Year Award from Florida State University. In addition to serving as a reviewer for several journals, I am an Editor for Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering and a member of the Editorial Board for Geomechanics and Engineering. I have chaired technical sessions in Global Waste Symposiums, Geo-Institute annual meetings served on their technical board. Professionally, I am a registered Professional Engineer and serve on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-environmental Engineering committee for new standard review and on the American Society for Testing and Materials committees (ASTM D18 Soil and Rock Committee,
and D18.04 Hydrologic Properties and Hydraulic Barriers.)

Community Impact

(i)      Training and Development:

My team also had undergraduates getting research experience and few of them had decided to become MS students. Three high school students and a high school teacher have gotten research experience with my research team.

The students on my projects are all learning to conduct field work, conduct laboratory analyses, data analyses, geo-statistics, and are obtaining writing skills. The more advanced students teach the younger ones and gain teaching skills one-on-one. I also participated in the FSU Young Scholars Program which placed a high school student in my lab. For the high school students we hired, their experience with us was their first real paying job, as they had both recently just turned 16 when they joined our team for a summer.

(ii)    Outreach Activities:

I also have made overtures to the local community of people who live in the neighborhood surrounding the local landfill and have added a local environmental activist to one of the advisory group for one of my projects.  Our project has received coverage in the local newspaper and local nightly news. I explained in the newspaper story how our work can reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere.  I also have visited the Leon County science advisory board and informed them of our project. Presentations have been given to the Florida Center for solid and hazardous waste advisory board, the Florida Fish and Game Agency, and the Florida DEP.