Pittman told Trembanis’ graduate students that ERDC is like “Disney World for engineers. But at ERDC the magic is real.”

ERDC includes those with expertise in just about every kind of engineering and science, he said, from the physical sciences to computer science and data science.

The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for every navigation channel in the nation and does extensive work related to water resources and environmental recovery. It designs and builds and refines and repairs many kinds of facilities and structures. It has map makers, navigational experts, robotics, computer modeling expertise “and a lot of people who blow things up,” Pittman told Trembanis’ students, in order to study the effects of blasts and weapons on various structures.

The challenges are great, frequent travel is often part of the bargain, and “you’ll be working with some of the best in the field,” Pittman said. ERDC offers good pay, leadership development and covers the cost of master’s degrees and doctorates to ensure the growth of employees’ expertise.

After the signing ceremony, a career panel with ERDC scientists provided further information, advice and insiders’ perspective on the work culture.

Among the panelists was Brandon Lafferty, a soil chemist for ERDC who earned his doctorate at UD and was mentored by Donald Sparks, the world-renowned environmental soil scientist who retired this year after 45 years on the UD faculty. Lafferty said he knew nothing about ERDC until a fellow student went to work there and urged him to check it out. Lafferty took that advice and has been there for about 14 years.

Expanding research opportunities

UD researchers collaborated on about $11 million worth of research and development with ERDC from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2024, Pittman said.

The center recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to researchers in UD’s Department of Applied Economics and Statistics for a new project to help the U.S. Army Corps assess the economic value of its environmental projects.

This new Education Partnership Agreement offers further expansion as collaborative connections are made.

During the two-day event, dozens of UD scientists and engineers met one-on-one with scientists from ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory, Information Technology Laboratory and Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory to explore possible collaborative projects.

Pittman, Russo and others also toured several UD facilities to learn about research projects underway and see some of the labs.

For example, Senior Scientist Joseph Deitzel provided guests with a fascinating tour of the Center for Composite Materials (CCM), which develops, tests and characterizes composites for all kinds of purposes. CCM works on many projects with the Department of Defense — from body armor components to hoods for M35 trucks to monitoring the health of bridges, and modeling and testing fibers and interfaces.

The work is exacting, precise — and essential.

“We want to understand failures — when they happen, where they happen, the order in which they happen and the scale in which they happen,” Deitzel said.

At UD’s Pearson Hall Makerspace, Mark Mirotznik, professor and interim chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate director of CCM, showed off the exquisite qualities of TuFF (Tailored universal Feedstock for Forming) materials invented at UD. These materials provide a low-cost, sustainable alternative to existing materials, superior mechanical performance  and highly flexible manufacturing, facilitating a myriad of application possibilities. Part of Mirotznik’s work has been to alter the electromagnetic properties of materials by changing their geometry instead of their chemistry, allowing for creative placements of radar, communication and other electronics within the “skin” of military vehicles.

Karen Gartley, director of UD’s Soil Testing Program, met with ERDC visitors at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Worrilow Hall.

And graduate students discussed their research during a poster session that followed the career panel.

For example, doctoral student Jiaye Zhang showed details of a project aimed at improving predictions of the dynamics at work in shallow surf zones, specifically fluid dynamics and their effects on soil sediment and the topography of coastal areas. He and his collaborators were assessing the differences between two modeling methods.

Farida Ahmed, a fourth-year mechanical engineering doctoral student from Bangladesh, has been studying the failure of high-friction steel parts in fuel pumps. She and her collaborators have developed new methods and instruments to see what causes the degradation known as “scuffing.”

The encounters were worthwhile and productive, many said.

ERDC wetlands scientist Jacob Berkowitz said he was intrigued by Wei-Jun Cai’s work on carbon export in marshes. Cai, an expert in marine chemistry, associate dean for research and the Mary A.S. Lighthipe Professor in UD’s School of Marine Science and Policy, has developed analytical techniques Berkowitz wants to know more about.

Berkowitz said he also met with economics faculty — “which was a whole new world for me.”

And that was part of the reason for these encounters.

“As faculty learn our capabilities, they’ll propose collaborative research with us,” he said. “And it’s a two-way street all the way.”

ERDC research biologist Alan Kennedy said he was interested in the research UD doctoral student Siamak Yousefi was doing on the characteristics of a kind of clay called kaolinite, especially the changes that are likely as sea levels rise. Yousefi said many factors and variables must be explored.