intern Tag

A National Comparison to Washington D.C.’s Infrastructure

17 Oct 2023, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

When our Founding Fathers picked ten square miles of swampland on the Northern bank of the Potomac River to house the budding nation’s capital, none of them could imagine what it would look like today. Washington D.C. currently sits as an urban jewel that for some marks the border between…

Preparing Infrastructure for a New Kind of Natural Disaster: Solar Storms

31 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

Severe natural disasters are increasing in frequency –at least as measured by cost impact – in the United States, costing billions of dollars to infrastructure and property every year. Roads in the U.S. need more investment to stand up to floods and earthquakes, and insurance for natural disasters are becoming unaffordable…

The Role of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling in Sustainability

26 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

Just over a month ago, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $2 million investment in Lithium-ion battery recycling. You can find these batteries in almost anything that is rechargeable – power tools, phones, laptops, electric vehicles, and more. But what makes recycling them such a big deal and, according…

Water and Irrigation in the Western U.S.

24 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

The western United States needs more water. The 2022-2023 winter season brought record amounts of snowpack and has filled reservoirs across the west, but it is a temporary respite from a problem that has plagued settlers since the 19th century. Two-thirds of agricultural irrigation in the U.S. is in the…

Is Climate Throwing the Housing Market into a Frenzy?

20 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

At any given moment the United States is facing an unparalleled number of crises. While there’s much debate over which ones are actual threats to the American well-being, and which may actually be existential, two that are undeniably impacting the average American are ongoing climate issues and housing crises. With…

How Smart Vehicles Can Change Our Roads

18 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

As technology and connectivity continue to improve, many things around us continue to become “smarter” – smartphones, smart watches, smart TVs, and even smart refrigerators. All of these devices and machines are tied to what we call the Internet of Things, or IoT, a phrase first coined by Kevin Ashton…

Federal Government Push Away from Diesel Buses

07 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

The Department of Transportation under the Biden administration recently announced $1.7 billion in federal grants will be awarded to regional transit agencies so that they can improve their local public transportation services. The grants are coming from programs established by Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Law that are meant for assisting local…

How 3D Printing Can Change Infrastructure Construction

06 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

3D printing has come a long way over the past few decades, with the first iterations patented in the 1980s. Since then, the technology has evolved to be useful in a variety of industries including furniture, toys, tools, and more. But one of the most intriguing of the modern uses…

21st Century Mining and the Renewable Energy Transition

05 Jul 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

Much of the developed world is undergoing an energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable and technology-based natural energy sources. To date, 96 countries representing almost 80 percent of carbon emissions have made net-zero pledges. Besides a massive investment in renewable energy sources and an increase in overall power production,…

Cleaning Up Clean Energy and Handling Renewable Waste

28 Jun 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

In the past decade, wind and solar have made massive strides in our energy economy. As of 2022, they account for 13.6 percent of the U.S. energy sector’s total electricity generation. As this share of the U.S. energy production mix continues to grow, it is crucial to think about what happens to…

The Infrastructure of the Physical Internet

27 Jun 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

The Internet has become so entrenched in our daily lives that most people never reflect on the technological feats that allow it to happen. Around 85 percent of Americans report using the Internet daily, and millions of people rely on internet functions for their livelihood. Our economy is dependent upon…

America’s Attitude Towards Nuclear Energy

26 Jun 2023, Posted by Andrew Jefferis in All Posts, Blog Posts

Nuclear energy tends to get a bad rap in modern politics. Past accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have scarred the minds of those who were alive to witness the catastrophes and have made it difficult for even newer generations to trust nuclear capabilities. Much of the fear surrounding nuclear…

Water Batteries and the Renewable Energy Revolution

22 Jun 2023, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

In 2013, wind and solar power combined to produce less than 5 percent of all U.S. utility-scale electricity. In 2022, that number was 13.6 percent. Renewable energy sources are expected to make up at least 33 percent of all U.S. power generation by 2030 without major changes to energy policy….

Carbon Capture to Reduce Emissions from Fossil Fuels

20 Jun 2023, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

As climate and energy policy continues to evolve, the EPA recently released a new proposed rule  for environmental standards regarding emissions from coal and natural gas-fired power plants. An integral part of the proposal is reducing CO2 emissions through a process called carbon capture. First used as early as 1972,…

How the I-95 Collapse Could Affect Passenger Rail

16 Jun 2023, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

On Sunday, June 11th, 2023, at 6:20am a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline crashed underneath a raised portion of I-95 in Northern Philadelphia, sparking a fire and explosion that caused the bridge to collapse. While the incident is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB),…