Dr. Lauren K. Stewart

Women studying engineering voted Dr. Stewart one of the best professors in the College of Engineering. She received the most votes from undergraduate women asked whom they consider their best engineering professor.

Dr. Stewart was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Georgia Tech.

Faculty members Lauren Stewart and Kari Watkins made the list, along with 13 other women who studied in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. They include women in private practice and public service, entrepreneurs, and rising stars.

Presented at the USACEHQ Structural Workshop in Atlanta on the CEE Structural Engineering and Materials Lab and our force protection research. We also toured ~80 USACE engineers around the lab to show them our research.

We published a new article on the ballistic performance of CLT. This research was a collaboration with West Point and US Army ERDC.

In June, the U.S. National Academies launched “New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine,” comprising 18 early- to midcareer scholars. They will engage in communicating the evidence base for addressing national and global challenges and help diversify the expertise in the National Academies' advisory activities. The New Voices convenes its first meeting this week.

Dr. Stewart and co-PIs receive three research grants totaling $773k. She will work with Yang Wang, Kim Kurtis, and Larry Kahn on projects involving steel diaphragms, UHPC, and massive concrete drilled shafts.

Maria Warren, Genny Pezzola, and Noel Flores joined Dr. Stewart in presenting their research at the Structures Under Shock and Impact 2019 Symposium in Alicante Spain. We presented on new experimental methods for shock, CLT, and composite anchoring.

Drs. Stewart and Rosenstein are headed back to London. This year CEE London will take 18 undergraduate students to London, Edinburgh, and Paris for an immersive experience in structural engineering and communication.

Dr. Stewart received the CEE Excellence in Research Program Development Award for contributions to research program and graduate student development from Interim School Chair Dr. Kim Kurtis at the annual awards lunch.

With 22 million acres of commercially available private timberland—more than any other state—Georgia has an opportunity to leverage the growing interest among progressive designers who are looking to timber as a low-carbon alternative to traditional construction materials. This seminar explored a number of topics associated with the design and construction of mass timber structures.

Drs. Stewart and Gentry received a 2017 Wood Innovations Grant from the United States Forestry Service to expand the Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Market into Temporary Military Construction. Collaborating with US Military Academy, ARL, and ERDC, the team will evaluate CLT for ballistics, blast, environmental, and rapid construction.

Drs. Stewart (PI) and Kurtis (co-PI) were awarded a $175,000 research grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation to study the effects of cover deficiencies on the service life reinforced concrete bridge decks and provide recommendations for contract penalties or incentives.

Dr. Stewart was invited to attend the NSF-sponsored Create Arts of Structural and Civil Engineering Workshop at Princeton to transform introductory structural engineering courses. The new courses emphasize the creativity of the engineer along with the technical content. They demonstrate that engineering design involves “discipline and play”, a term popularized by Professor David Billington, where discipline refers to technical skills, and play refers to creative and aesthetic exploration.

Dr. Stewart and a team of Georgia Tech faculty and graduate students took 31 undergraduates to London as part of the Global Leadership Engineering Minor. The students took two structural engineering classes, attended field trips, and enjoyed cultural activities as part of a five week summer program.

Civil + Structural Engineer magazine has named Lauren Stewart one of the industry’s rising stars.The list of 29 professionals, out this month, recognizes “exceptional technical capability, leadership ability, effective teaching or research, or public service benefiting the civil and structural engineering profession … and society,” editors wrote.

Dr. Stewart and Karagozian and Case were awarded a six-month STTR grant from the Missle Defense Agency to investigate and develop low-cost experimental methods for characterizing material behavior at high loading rates.

Georgia Tech and Karagozian and Case were awarded a Phase II proposal from AFRL Munitions Directorate Fuzes Branch. They team proposed the development of an hydraulic system that is capable of replicating a tail-slap environment in the laboratory.