The UIUC student group formerly known as the Illinois Pavement Society has changed its name to the Society of Pavement Engineers (SPE) with the hope that the organization will become nationwide.
The goals of the Society are to promote interaction and knowledge exchange about pavement systems among students, researchers, and practitioners, propose collaborative work, and at the same time create a strong network of current and past students working in the area of pavement engineering. The Illinois Chapter, advised by ICT Director Imad Al-Qadi, is the first such society in the entire country.
The chapter organized three events in 2009. The most recent event was a seminar on warm mix asphalt technology presented by Mr. Tim Murphy of Murphy Pavement Technology. The group hosted two workshops earlier in 2009. The first was on the Principles of Bailey Method of Mix Design, conducted by Mr. Bill Pine from the Heritage Research Group. The second workshop was on the MATLAB computing environment, which was conducted by the student members of SPE and was attended by more than 40 students from various engineering backgrounds.
The group is encouraging other universities to start similar chapters so the network can include pavement engineers throughout the country.
If you are a practitioner interested in presenting to the Society or an affiliate of another University who would like to start a new chapter, please contact the group’s President Deb Mishra at dmishra2@illinois.edu.