News Stories

  • February

    Senior electrical engineer honored as ‘Modern-Day Technology Leader’

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 19, 2020) – Officials honored a senior electrical engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District as a “Modern-Day Technology Leader” during the 34th Black Engineers of the Year Awards Technology Recognition Luncheon Feb. 14 in Washington, D.C.
  • Engineers Week 2020: Resident Engineer speaks about building a career with USACE

    CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) employees are provided opportunities worldwide to grow with the organization and continue to influence potential future employees of the organization.
  • Mother’s Life Lessons Guide Eller Ever Higher

    Many people struggle to find or recognize their higher purpose in life. Some never come to understand the significance of the minutes, hours and days that make up their life. Tambour Eller is not one of them. From a young age Eller looked to her mother, who raised her alone, for such answers. What she found was an example of how to face life's daily challenges straight on, with faith that hard work and perseverance would reveal all she needed to know. "She taught me that when the going gets tough, it's tough for everyone – people have different ways of handling it. But every day, you get up, be thankful and get to work because you are a part of a larger plan – God's plan."
  • Real Estate Provides Facelift for New Jersey Armed Forces Career Center

    While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has missions planning and designing construction projects, there’s a less-well-known component in the New York District: Providing real estate support for more than 400 U.S. Armed Forces recruiting stations in New York and New Jersey.
  • DOD Moves to Use Data More Effectively in Decision-Making

    The Defense Department is seeking ways to use data better in decision-making on the battlefield and in its business practices, Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Norquist said.
  • Military Sealift Command, Seabees support Operation Deep Freeze

    Military Sealift Command-chartered container ship MV Ocean Giant is currently conducting cargo offloads in one of the most remote and challenging environments on the planet; McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The operation is part of MSC’s annual resupply mission in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the Joint Task Force Support for Antarctica mission to resupply the remote scientific outpost.
  • Corps Engineers participate in West Point STEM event

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District representatives encouraged students to design and build bridges during a West Point Academy Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics event at Stephen M. White Middle School in Carson, California.
  • 4 reasons volunteering for science fairs pays big dividends

    There’s more to being a science fair judge than evaluating student projects. That’s what professionals at the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, continue to discover as they volunteer for science fairs and similar community outreach events.
  • Corps completes new medical center

    Corps completes new medical center, ushers in new era of health care for Fort Bliss military community
  • Landmark guidelines on natural and nature-based features is an international effort

    Nearly four years ago, a team led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and that now includes 189 scientists, engineers and resource managers from 73 worldwide organizations gathered to begin work on a set of international guidelines for utilizing Natural and Nature-Based Features. Today, the project is nearing completion with the publication of “Guidelines on the Use of Natural and Nature-Based Features for Sustainable Coastal and Fluvial Systems” expected in 2020. The guidelines will provide practitioners with the best available information concerning the conceptualization, planning, design, engineering, construction and maintenance of NNBF to support resilience and flood risk reduction for coasts, bays and estuaries, as well as river and freshwater lake systems.

News Releases

  • Houston Ship Channel Expansion Reaches Major Milestone

    GALVESTON, Texas – Yesterday, Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) received a signed Chief of Engineers Report (Chief’s Report) for the proposed Houston Ship Channel Expansion Project. Signed April 23 by Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, USACE Chief of Engineers and Commanding General, the report culminates a four-year, $10 million study conducted by USACE in partnership with Port Houston to identify needed channel improvements, determine economic value to the nation, and complete necessary environmental requirements. The signed report recommends adoption of the plan presented by Galveston District in order to support economic efficiency of commercial navigation throughout the Houston Ship Channel System.
  • General’s visit punctuates engineering efforts converting arena to alternate care site

    Brig. Gen. Thomas Tickner, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Pacific Ocean Division, toured the Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus on Tuesday. A portion of the arena was converted into an alternate care site capable of treating coronavirus patients.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: A Comparison of GenCade,  Pelnard-Considere, and LITPACK

    PURPOSE: The purpose of this Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) is to investigate the basic physics and numerical code of GenCade by running a series of simplified test cases and comparing the results to another numerical shoreline evolution model and an analytical solution. The complementary numerical code is the widely used shoreline evolution model LITPACK. The analytical model is the original solution derived by Pelnard-Considere (1956). The underlying assumption in all three approaches is a beach profile of constant shape so that shoreline change is driven by long-shore transport processes and a combination of independent sediment sources or sinks (e.g., sea level change, subsidence). The CHETN presents a descriptive overview of the theory behind the models followed by an inter-comparison using a set of four test cases involving shoreline change in the vicinity of idealized coastal structures and a beach nourishment. GenCade shows good agreement with LITPACK, and both models compare well to the analytical solution for these idealized cases. The GenCade results indicate that the underlying numerical code and basic physical process are consistent with other widely used shoreline modeling systems.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Cross-Shore Transport Feature for GenCade

    PURPOSE: The purpose of this Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) is to introduce a new cross-shore transport capability in GenCade. The cross-shore transport feature is based on a new empirical algorithm that includes wave velocity skewness to calculate the near-bed sediment flux. Validation of the new algorithm was achieved using shoreline position data collected at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Field Research Facility (FRF) located in Duck, NC. This CHETN presents the theory behind the new cross-shore transport feature and validation using data collected at the FRF. Comparisons with and without the cross-shore feature are presented to demonstrate the improved GenCade performance. The CHETN concludes information that should be considered when using this new feature.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Conspecific Attraction as a Management Tool for Endangered and At-Risk Species on Military Lands

    Abstract: Movements of wildlife species and associated colonization of habitats is often unpredictable, potentially leading to ineffective management and/or interference with military training. Habitat restoration for wildlife management on military lands is a common, yet expensive, response to federal conservation and mitigation mandates, yet viable wildlife populations often fail to become established on restored habitat. Conspecific attraction, using the tendency for individuals of the same species to settle near one another, can be a cost-effective means of attracting animals to newly created or restored habitats. This work demonstrated the use of conspecific attraction as an alternative tool for encouraging colonization of restored habitats by at-risk birds and amphibians. Conspecific attraction was relatively straightforward to employ, but its effectiveness varied among species. We demonstrated clear success in attracting some bird (northern bobwhite; Colinus virginianus) and frog (wood frogs; Lithobates sylvaticus) species into our target areas but other species showed a neutral response. Conspecific attraction presents a cost-effective alternative to current management practices such as translocation or colonization after habitat is created or restored. Only minimal equipment costs (<$300/broad-cast station) and nominal work-hours are required to set up the equipment, and total cost was ~$1,200 per demonstration plot annually.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Use of Convolutional Neural Networks for Semantic Image Segmentation Across Different Computing Systems

    ABSTRACT: The advent of powerful computing platforms coupled with deep learning architectures have resulted in novel approaches to tackle many traditional computer vision problems in order to automate the interpretation of large and complex geospatial data. Such tasks are particularly important as data are widely available and UAS are increasingly being used. This document presents a workflow that leverages the use of CNNs and GPUs to automate pixel-wise segmentation of UAS imagery for faster image processing. GPU-based computing and parallelization is explored on multi-core GPUs to reduce development time, mitigate the need for extensive model training, and facilitate exploitation of mission critical information. VGG-16 model training times are compared among different systems (single, virtual, multi-GPUs) to investigate each platform’s capabilities. CNN results show a precision accuracy of 88% when applied to ground truth data. Coupling the VGG-16 model with GPU-accelerated processing and parallelizing across multiple GPUs decreases model training time while preserving accuracy. This signifies that GPU memory and cores available within a system are critical components in terms of preprocessing and processing speed. This workflow can be leveraged for future segmentation efforts, serve as a baseline to benchmark future CNN, and efficiently support critical image processing tasks for the Military.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Optimized Low Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) Payload for Mapping Interiors and Subterranean on an Unmanned Ground Vehicle

    ABSTRACT: Section 3 of the FY15 Force 2025 Maneuvers Annual Report indicates that in Dense Urban Areas (DUA), specifically in a subsurface, surface, or super-surface structure, the ability to identify threats will be diminished. Most commercially available LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) systems are specifically designed for high-resolution aerial imaging and mapping applications. As a result, they tend to be large, heavy, power-hungry, data bandwidth intensive, and expensive. They also employ lasers that are not typically eye-safe, which limits their overall effectiveness in subterranean and the interiors of subsurface or super-surface structures. However, due to recent advances in the automotive industry, there are new generations of Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) sensors that are eye-safe, making them suitable for use indoors and in subterranean environments. While these tradeoffs limit their effective use to hundreds of meters (compared to kilometers for their more expensive counterparts), they are ideal candidates for use in subterranean and building interiors. While cameras fill this niche to some extent, the volumetric calculations provided by these sensors provide additional intelligence to shape the security of the environment and offer more precision when maneuvering troops. These sensors would provide the warfighter with situational understanding in previously inaccessible locations. Therefore, to aid in the Army’s need to obtain and maintain situational understanding in DUAs, the authors propose utilizing low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) sensors, on a robot platform, for surveying and mapping underground structures and building interiors. Rapid/near real-time data processing is possible by utilizing open-source software and commercial off the shelf (COTS) components. Using the preferred sensor payload autonomously was also explored.
  • Corps to resume Natomas levee work, close Garden Highway on April 23

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will resume major levee improvement construction in the Lower Natomas Basin beginning April 23, 2020, closing a portion of Garden Highway to all traffic.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: The Forefront : A Review of ERDC Publications, Spring 2020

    Abstract: The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is the premier civil works engineering and environmental sciences research and development arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As such, it partners with the Army, Department of Defense (DoD), federal agencies, and civilian organizations to help solve our Nation’s most challenging problems in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, and environmental sciences. A special government knowledge center, ERDC Information Technology Laboratory’s Information Science and Knowledge Management (ISKM) Branch is critical to ERDC’s mission, fulfilling research requirements by offering a variety of editing and library services to advance the creation, dissemination, and curation of ERDC and USACE research knowledge. Serving as the publishing authority for the ERDC, ISKM publishes all ERDC technical publications to the Digital Repository Knowledge Core, sends a copy to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and creates a press release about each publication on the ERDC website. The Forefront seeks to provide an additional mechanism for highlighting some of our technical publications to the ERDC, USACE, Army, and DoD communities. This publication also encourages those outside ERDC to contact us about using ERDC editing services. For more information regarding the reports highlighted in this publications or others that ERDC researchers’ have created, please contact the ISKM virtual reference desk at erdclibrary@ask-a-librarian.info or visit the ISKM’s online repository, Knowledge Core, at https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/ .
  • Vicksburg District to keep boat ramps, nature trails open at Mississippi lakes and provides new boating requirements

    VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District will keep its boat ramps, nature trails and fishing areas at Arkabutla, Enid, Sardis and Grenada lakes open in north Mississippi. Arkabutla, Sardis, Grenada and Enid lakes are not included in the recreation areas that will be reopened through the governor’s April 17 order, which has allowed select state beaches, parks, reservoirs and other areas to reopen on a limited basis. The Vicksburg District’s visitor centers, interpretive centers, museums, field offices and select recreation site attractions, including campgrounds and beaches, across Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas have been closed to the public since March 20. These areas will remain closed until further notice.

Mississippi Valley Division

Institute for Water Resources

South Pacific Division

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