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Professor engineers the integration of outreach teaching and research By Kerry A. Newman
For more than 25 years, Dr. Arthur C. Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has taught continuing education courses for Penn State. “The times are changing ... With that also comes the expectations of the engineering profession, because you are technically more advanced, you are expected to perform at a much higher level. To keep our engineers current with new methods and changing technology, continuing and distance education is always going to be important.” — Dr. Arthur C. Miller Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering	Water is an element essential for the survival of all living things. Quite fittingly, Dr. Arthur C. Miller, professor of civil and environmental engineering, specializes in hydrosystems engineering — a subdiscipline of civil engineering that focuses on water and fluid flow processes.   For the past 28 years, Miller has been a lifeblood of the College of Engineering as he works to make life better for Penn State engineering students and professional engineers from across the United States. He not only teaches resident instruction courses and advises students on their future career paths, but also has impacted practicing engineers by conducting continuing professional education programs. This combination helps inform Miller about what skills are needed for new engineers entering the field and what current practitioners need to stay current.   “I enjoy teaching,” Miller said. His perception of teaching, however, is not limited to instructing undergraduate and graduate students. Rather, Miller believes that teaching is a fully integrated process that combines traditional teaching with research and outreach. His research, and mentoring graduate students engaged in research, is a fundamental element of teaching, as is his work in continuing education. His continuing education programs immerse Miller into the profession and help keep him in touch with professionals and current industry practices. The combination of the three elements helps make Miller an effective teacher and an experienced mentor who is knowledgeable about both the educational and professional aspects of civil engineering.   The desire to move back east and closer to his family in Massachusetts brought Miller to Penn State in 1972, shortly after he earned his Ph.D. from Colorado State University. He attributes strong guidance and the mentorship of a fluid mechanics teacher to his decision to pursue doctoral studies in civil engineering.   At Penn State, Miller specializes in hydrosystems engineering, a civil engineering subgroup that addresses the physical processes that cause and result from the flow of fluid. It is an important field that addresses the ever-changing relationship between human beings and water — a relationship that is constantly being impacted by a growing world population and rising global industrialization. Topic areas such as hydraulic engineering, surface water hydrology, environmental fluid mechanics and contaminant transport are covered in the discipline. The applications of the field are widespread: flood control, water supply, drainage, transport of sediment and pollutants and the construction of dams, levees and culverts are just a few examples of its uses.   Miller has developed and taught continuing education courses over the entire course of his Penn State career. In the early 1970s, the goal of his continuing education endeavor was to develop computer-modeling programs and teach them to professional engineers. Instead, Miller formed partnerships to teach the computer modeling programs already developed by the federal government. In 1972, two factors showed the immediacy of the need for the programming and were influential in driving his efforts forward. Hurricane Agnes and its devastating floods made the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a disaster area and later resulted in the creation of the National Flood Insurance Program, which was administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Miller took the opportunity to write a grant, and, under his tutelage, Penn State became one of three universities — including the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Davis — certified to teach courses in water resources management to professional engineers.   “We developed about seven different one-week short courses that had to do with water resources,” Miller said. “The most popular one was the water surface profile with bridge hydraulics and culvert hydraulics. We have been teaching that ever since.”   His most recent programs, HEC-RAS and Advanced HEC-RAS, are short courses about the river analysis system. The program combines theoretical lecture and hands-on work with the HEC-RAS computer program to teach civil engineers about hydrologic models. The short course is named after the computer modeling software developed by Gary Brunner, senior hydraulic engineer at the Hydrologic Engineering Center in Davis, Calif., and a former Penn State student of Miller’s. The program title is an acronym that combines the name of the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) and the topic of river analysis system (RAS). Additionally, Miller currently is developing course materials and will teach HEC-HMS, a short course about the hydrologic modeling systems in the fall.   As an office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Hydrologic Engineering Center aims to support the nation’s water resources management initiatives and educate the Corps of Engineers about the latest advances in hydrologic engineering.   Miller described the courses as inclusive, because they combine theory and hands-on applications with the computer software. “The combination of the theory and practical application makes it strong,” he said.   Attendance for the one-week courses is limited to 30 professional engineers to ensure one-on-one instruction, if needed. Miller profiled the students as “doers” from government and private industry ranging in age from 21 to over 50, with the average age of a participant being 30.   The basic HEC-RAS course focuses on the fundamentals of computing one-dimensional water surface profiles and modeling bridges, culverts and other structures in river systems. Engineers, planners and land developers that deal with floodway management and measure floodway encroachments can use the program.   The advanced program provides experienced users of the HEC-RAS software an opportunity to practice more complex functions and incorporate technologies like geographic information systems (GIS) into the models.   The HEC-HMS is a program for rainfall-runoff analysis that uses a graphical user interface (GUI) to specify watershed components. The software provides precipitation-runoff simulation and flow forecasting techniques that can use grid-based, spatially distributed rainfall data.   Miller professed that Penn State has become renowned for its hydraulic engineering programs over the past 20-plus years.   “If you travel around the country,” he said, “I think you will find that people will relate to Penn State and its water resource program.”   Miller reflected that the capabilities of the HEC-RAS program will continue to increase as new technologies emerge and computer functions grow. For instance, one new component may be the further integration of GIS technologies into the modeling.   “The times are changing in the sense of the computer technology,” Miller said. “With that also comes the expectations of the engineering profession, because you are technically more advanced, you are expected to perform at a much higher level. To keep our engineers current with new methods and changing technology, continuing and distance education is always going to be important.”   In addition to his continuing education work, Miller teaches programs for the National Highway Institute and is actively involved with research and advising students at Penn State. Among his research interests are the topics of sediment transport, unsteady flow in open channels and hydraulic structures.   Miller and a team of graduate students recently finished work on a project for NASA. Their work focused on using a GIS database as a tool for creating hydrologic models. On the local level, Miller also provided advice to Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant about the drainage of Lake Perez, as preparations were made to upgrade the lake’s dam.   In addition, he serves as the faculty adviser to the Penn State chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and has chaperoned students participating in the concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions held at Penn State and other locations.   His multiple contributions to the University were recognized when he was awarded Penn State’s George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000, and in 1999 the Penn State Engineering Society honored him with the Premier Teaching Award. The award is granted to faculty members of outstanding merit who show continuous excellence in the classroom.   “I’ve always thought of myself as a teacher first,” Miller said. For more information about the basic and advanced HEC-RAS programs or HEC-HMS, visit the program Web site: www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/HECRAS/.
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu