Holiday cheermeisters brighten spirits with Winter Open House

‘Twas the evening of the Winter Open House and all of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering students, staff and faculty packed Illinois Center for Transportation’s house.

The Dec. 3 holiday hoopla was a hit for all thanks to Dave Lippert’s, ICT’s senior sustainability implementation engineer, grill mastery and a buffet of endless goodies.

In fact, that was Punit Singhvi’s, UIUC doctoral student, favorite part.

“Amazing barbeque by Dave Lippert,” he said. “This year we had a new addition ― the peach cobbler — and it was great!”

Homemade ice cream was a hoot for the dozens in attendance as well, but more than anything the UIUC CEE students enjoyed the opportunity to relax and bond right before finals.

“(It) reinforces collaboration and promote(s) networking,” UIUC doctoral student Jordan Ouellett said.

For Aravind Ramakrishnan, UIUC master’s student, the holiday open house is simply a great way to visit with the entire transportation department.

“It gives me a chance to interact with other graduate students outside of our group and (get to) know about their research,” he said.

José Rivera-Perez, UIUC doctoral student, couldn’t agree more, indicating that such events are “so needed.”

“Sometimes we get involved so much in work during the semester and we forget the sense of community and family that we are at the CEE departments,” he said. “Events like this helps us meet new people, distract (us) a bit from work and helps us to be a better community.”

Speaking of community, Siqi Wang, UIUC doctoral student, sees events like these as excellent outreach opportunities.

“(It) ties up the bonding between us, especially with people outside transportation,” he said. “People are more than welcome to visit our lab or seek collaborations with us.”

But a holiday event wouldn’t be complete without a visit from the big guy ― Santa Claus.

Dubbing as Santa for the evening was an absolute thrill for Javier Jesús García Mainieri, UIUC master’s student.

In fact, that was Ouellet’s favorite part ― “being able to meet the real Santa!”

García Mainieri passed out candy canes to all on the man in red’s nice list and just like that, the holiday fanfare was over in a flash.

Thank you to all of the hardworking UIUC CEE students and staff who helped make this a successful holiday bash!