Arthur R. Schmidt Home | Arthur R. Schmidt, Publications

Title:	Research Assistant Professor
Address:	Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Illinois 2535a Hydrosystems Lab, MC-250 205 N. Matthews Ave Urbana, IL 61801	Home Address:	916 County Road 1000 E. Tolono, IL 61880-9750
Phone:	(217) 333-4934	Phone:	(217) 485-3943 or
Fax:	(217) 333-0687		(217) 485-5863
Web Site:	http://cee.uiuc.edu/people/aschmidt	E-mail:	aschmidt@uiuc.edu

Education:

B.S., Civil Engineering-Water Resources, University of Illinois	1983
M.S., Civil Engineering-Water Resources,University of Illinois	1984
Ph.D., Civil Engineering-Water Resources,University of Illinois Thesis advisors: Professors B.C. Yen and M.H. Garcia	2002

My university-level course work comprises a comprehensive background in environmental hydraulics and hydrology and related topics including numerical methods, operations research, statistics, and water quality. In addition, I have completed many other courses offered through the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Weather Service, and university-extension programs. Courses relevant to my technical background include courses on four dynamic (unsteady-flow) hydraulic models (FEQ, BRANCH, DAMBRK, DYNHYD), one hydrologic model (HSPF), three solute transport and water-quality models (QUAL-2E/Qual-II-UNCAS, WASP, BLTM), two courses on water-quality processes, a course on probability and statistics for hydrologic data analysis, and several courses on technical writing, reviewing, and editing. Courses relevant to my professional interests include several courses on development of project proposals, project management, management and supervisory training. I also have participated in several workshops on teaching and learning skills.

Professional Experience:

Engineer’s Surveying and Calculating, Mt. Prospect, IL	intermittant 1975-1981
Continental Engineers, Hoffman Estates, IL	intermittant, 1977-1981
Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign, IL	part time, 1981
Engineering Dept., Village of Mt. Prospect, IL	summer, 1982
U.S. Geological Survey, Urbana, IL (see detailed table)	1982-1994
HydroScience, Ltd., Seffner, FL (see detailed table)	1994-1999
Arthur R. Schmidt, P.E. (self employed, see table)	1999 – present
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Illinois (see table)	2000 - present

Professional Registration and Licenses:

Registered Professional Engineer— Illinois P.E. No. 062-044049

Registered Professional Engineer—Florida P.E. No. 54534

Licensed private pilot, single-engine land aircraft

Professional Memberships:

American Society of Civil Engineers

International Association for Hydraulic Research

Honor Societies:

Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honor Society

Honors and Awards:

Special Achievement Award, U.S. Geological Survey, March, 1984

Special Acievement Award, U.S. Geological Survey, October, 1987

U.S. Army Commander’s Award for Special Service, July, 1992

Special Act Service Award, U.S. Geological Survey, September, 1992

Universities Council on Water Resources 2003 Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Natural Science and Engineering

Community Service:

Champaign Church of Christ (1984 – present)—I have been actively involved leading and teaching bible-study groups; marriage, parenting, and other relationship groups and classes; providing one-on-one peer counseling in a wide variety of areas; and teaching classes for children from preschool through high-school.

HOPE Worldwide (1991 – present)—I actively volunteer and serve in many different roles for a wide variety of community-service events, including distributing materials for different child-wellness programs, gift and clothing drives for foster children, home-maintenance for the elderly, community clean-up programs, and volunteer programs at a Children's Home in Champaign, Illinois.

Research and Teaching Interest:

My general research interest is the study of surface-water hydraulics and hydrology, especially focusing on methods to provide improved measurement and quantitative description of flows and also on reliability analysis applications in water-resources and environmental engineering. My current research involves a critical review of stage-discharge relations from a fluid-mechanics perspective. Results of this research demonstrated that stage-discharge ratings for open-channels could be developed theoretically, rather than empirically, significantly reducing the number of flow measurements needed to develop these ratings. This research was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (Award No. 0098835) from a grant that I wrote under the direction of Professor B.C. Yen.

My career objective is to attain a tenure-track faculty position. I have a strong interest in research to better understand and describe the basic physical processes controlling water-resources systems and to apply this understanding to address engineering problems. My professional experience over twenty years has provided me with extensive first-hand understanding of problems commonly encountered by practicing engineers, the approaches used to address those problems, and the shortcomings of those approaches. This experience, in the environment of a research institution, has potential to lead to a successful research program and to compliment the research of my colleagues.

My Ph.D. research topic has strong potential to generate interest and funding for additional research to examine other fundamental questions related to this topic. These questions include relating point measurements to cross-section mean flow properties, the effect of compound and composite channels, the effect of nonhomogeneous fluids, and the effect of sediment transport on the basic principles examined in my Ph.D research.

I also would like to pursue research that builds on the experience and training I’ve had with reliability analysis and apply this to water-resources engineering and related civil engineering problems. For example, recent efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Research Council Committee on Risk-Based Analyses for Flood Damage Reduction have indictated the need for research in this area. In addition to flood damage reduction, I would like to apply my professional and academic experience to pursue research related to storm drainage problems. This research would incorporate parts of my Ph.D. research, recently developed tools for analysis of hydraulic capacity, and some of the reliability analysis tools and apply them to stormwater drainage.

In addition to basic research, I would like to apply understanding of physical processes to practical engineering problems. One of the primary ways this can be accomplished is through teaching. A hallmark of civil engineering problems is that each project is unique and thus a successful engineer needs to be able to appropriately apply basic physical principles to unique and widely varying conditions. In my professional experience I regularly encountered situations of this type, where ‘standard’ approaches would not be appropriate. This professional experience provides a broad foundation from which to teach students both the fundamental physics of water resources engineering and how to appropriately apply these fundamentals to real-world problems. I have had several opportunities to teach University and professional courses, including two courses I have been solely responsible for, several opportunities to guest lecture on different topics, and opportunities to develop and teach short training sessions for practicing professionals. These opportunities have reinforced my desire to pursue a career in academics.

I taught CEE255, ‘Introduction to HydroSystems Engineering,’ which is a junior/senior level civil engineering core course, in the Fall 2001 semester. I taught CEE 356, “Hydraulics of Surface Drainage,” in Spring 2002 and am teaching this course in the Spring 2003 semester. This is a senior/graduate advanced technical elective and also an integrated design course. In addition to teaching these topics, I would like to apply my professional experience to teach courses in hydrometry and possibly surveying. I envision these courses as going beyond basic field methods and instrumentation to include experimental design, quality assurance, and data analysis methods. I suspect that a well-designed hydrometry program (course and research) could receive support from scientific agencies and from manufacturers of hydrometric instruments. I also would like, as time permits, to teach courses in water resources systems and in reliability analysis as applied to water-resources engineering. I am also interested in applying instructional technology to enhance classroom instruction and have developed internet-based asynchronous learning sites for the courses I have taught. In addition to my interest in teaching technical aspects of water resources engineering, I also would like to apply my training and experience to teach writing skills in this discipline.

Details of Professional Experience Related to Water-Resources Engineering

Note—The first eight items were all for the same employer at the same address. These items simply reflect promotions to different position classifications, different project assignments, or different supervisors.

Employeer	Dates	Description of experience
Computer Clerk U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	October 19, 1982 – December, 1982	Data Entry, software development
Hydrologic Technician U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	January, 1983 – Spring, 1983	Data entry, software development, data analysis under direct supervision of others
Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	Spring, 1983 – Summer, 1984	Developed, ran, and reported results from water-quality models for analysis of wastewater impacts on receiving waters. Developed stream-reaeration function that would be used for model study.
Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	Summer, 1984 – Fall, 1986	Part of two-person team that developed and successfully implemented study of waste-water, combined sewer overflows, and non-point runoff impacts on two receiving streams. Designed sampling programs and strategies, developed and analyzed water-quality models, developed techniques and software to perform error analysis of model results. Presented results to State regulatory agency and authored reports presenting results. Desiged, planned, and successfully implemented field-measurement program for stream reaeration to maximize information with limited budget. As part of this, I performed over 90 measurements of traveltime, dispersion, and reaeration using dye-tracer methods.
Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	Fall, 1986 – January, 1991	Geographic information system (GIS) coordinator for the Illinois District of the U.S. Geological Survey. In this role, I helped to develop and implement GIS capability for the Illinois District of the U.S. Geological Survey. Developed software, protocols, quality-assurance tests, and data-documentation procedures, and supervised entry of Illinois’ entire watershed map file (over 1,000 7.5-minute quadrangle maps) to digital files. Developed procedures to use GIS data base for other data analysis and modeling studies.
Hydrologist--continued U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	Fall, 1986 – January, 1991	Project chief of a study for the Illinois Department of Transportation that investigated relations among physical watershed characteristics and runoff model parameters. I developed methods to determine impervious area and soil permeability from drainage divide, soil type, and land use data in the GIS data base. Developed a method to incorporate data that varied in time and space (rainfall records) into the GIS database and from these data estimate antecedent moisture for runoff models. Proposed, developed, and implemented a study of long-term trends in streamflow observed at gauging station in Illinois. Developed analytical and data presentation procedures for this investigation. Helped to develop and successfully implement a field test designed to provide data to verify one-dimensional unsteady-flow hydraulic models. Directly supervised a major facet of the field test (using a soluble dye tracer to verify the capability of the model to work with a transport model) and developed analytical procedures used for the data analysis. Served as “Surface-Water Model Coordinator” for the Illinois District. This position was essentially being the consultant on the various surface-water hydraulic, hydrologic, and transport models used for various studies in the District. In addition to providing consulting and assistance with application of these models, I presented a short training session for District personnel on the numerical techniques used in several of the commonly used models.
Supervisory Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	January, 1991 – April 4, 1994	Project Chief for the 11,000 square mile Upper Illinois River Basin study of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. Supervised five professionals and several support staff doing field measurements of streamflow, water-chemistry, sediment chemistry, and biology. Supervised same staff in analysis and reporting of results from different aspects of the study. Organized liaison committee meetings of all parties involved in Illinois River management (including Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois State Water Survey, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago) and presented study results. Directly supervised and reviewed interpretive results and conclusions that were included in final reports. During this period I also developed and presented a training course for Illinois District personnel on land-surveying principles and practices as related to the mission of the District. This was limited to principles and procedures of leveling and topographic surveys. This training emphasized proper use of the equipment available in the District, including optical levels and transits, electronic distance meters (EDMs), total stations, and differential global positioning system (GPS) receivers.
Supervisory Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	April,1992 – May, 1992	Provided emergency assistance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the flood in the Chicago Freight Tunnels. I planned, supervised, and implemented a program of dye injection, sampling, and modeling to test for leaks in the plugs in the tunnels. I developed a computer model (computer code and necessary data sets) to provide near-real-time information about rates of leakage through the plugs. This work identified leaks in one of the plugs and allowed the Corps to successfully plug the leak within 12 hours of its discovery.
Supervisory Hydrologist U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division	July – August, 1993	Provided emergency assistance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Illinois State Water Survey to measure the streamflow and sediment load of the Mississippi River during the record flood of 1993. I supervised a crew that used a state-of-the-art broadband acoustic Doppler current profiler(ADCP), as well as optical surveying and global positioning system (GPS) to provide near-real-time flow information to the Corps of Engineers to update their models for predicting the flood peak; to provide information on the flow and scour near bridge piers; and to collect data for a study of the effects of flood-plains and levees on water levels and sediment transport.
Technical Operations Director HydroScience Water Resource Consultants Ltd., Inc. (HWRC)	April 4, 1994 – July 31, 1999	Provided technical oversight and supervision for small (6-person) consulting firm. Developed or reviewed all project proposals, measurement methods, experimental designs, sampling strategies, and procedures; authored or reviewed all technical analyses and reports. Developed, implemented, reviewed all internal and externally-approved quality-assurance plans for firm. The following is a partial list of projects that I have personally performed or directly supervised. Developed methodology and provided technical oversight for flow and bathymetric measurements near submerged water-control structures (spur dykes, closing dams, chutes) for calibration of two-dimensional hydraulic models. I developed procedures to incorporate real-time differential global positioning system (DGPS) data with the ADCP measurements to improve the precision of the measurements. I later developed a training class taught to personnel of the South Florida Water Management District and the Bureau of Reclamation to incorporate real-time DGPS positioning with ADCP measurements. I developed software to incorporate the real-time DGPS data with the ADCP measurements to correct for error from the moving alluvial bed. I also developed the software to determine the horizontal flow vectors for selected ranges of the depth and to output these in both graphical format and a format suitable for the two-dimensional model.
Technical Operations Director--continued HydroScience Water Resource Consultants Ltd., Inc. (HWRC)	April 4, 1994 – July 31, 1999	I developed the datalogger programming and designed and built much of the instrument mounting equipment to install, instrument, and operate a network of 22 flow-monitoring stations in the tidal St. Johns river and the Indian River Lagoon estuary in eastern Florida. This included six state-of-the-art stations that incorporated acoustic flow meters and satellite telemetry to provide near-real-time data acquisition. I also developed the software to manage and analyze these data. I developed the procedures and provided technical oversight for HWRC’s extensive program of support for sugar cane growers monitoring of phosphorus loads in discharge from farms in the Everglades Agricultural Area in south Florida. This included hundreds of dye-dilution measurements to calibrate pumps and structures for the South Florida Water Management District and for several private agricultural clients in south Florida. I developed sampling protocols, designed and built much of the necessary equipment, and developed software to automate the data-collection and analysis process. Upon invitation from the south Florida Water Management District, I was part of a 10-person committee that developed new guidelines for calibrating agricultural pumps in the Everglades Agricultural Area. I developed software software for dataloggers to improve and automate monitoring of phosphorus loads from sugar farms. This software automated collection of phosphorus samples and integrated the sample collection with monitoring of pumpage (pump speed and headwater and tailwater stages) to accurately determine the phosphorus load discharged from the farms. I developed and implemented flow measurements at control gates for Locks and Dams 6, 8, 9, 10, and 26 on the upper Mississippi River to develop rating equations for these gates for use in determining operation plans for these dams.
Technical Operations Director--continued HydroScience Water Resource Consultants Ltd., Inc. (HWRC)	April 4, 1994 – July 31, 1999	I supervised (on-site) hydrographic surveys of Hennepin Canal in north-western Illinois and 80 miles of the Missouri River in South Dakota. I supervised study to determine factors causing significant differences between measured and rated flows at tidal water-control structures operated by the South Florida Water Management District. I personnaly conducted the data analysis and wrote the final project report.
Self-employed: Arthur R. Schmidt, P.E.	September, 1998 – present	Served as the “flow-measurement expert” on the three-man committee selected by Chicago District of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This committee is responsible to review all the measurements, analyses, and conclusions for the U.S. Supreme-Court-mandated Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting, and to make recommendations as to revisions and improvements that should be made in the measurement and analytical methods. As part of this committee, I reviewed and carried out error analysis for flow measurements and discharge calculations done with a wide variety of methods and instruments, including standard current-meters, acoustic Doppler current profilers, acoustic velocity meters, venturi meters, and a wide variety of stage and pressure sensors. The flow calculations included open-channels using stage-discharge ratings and index-velocity ratings, and closed-conduit flows using pressure-differential and momentum meters. I authored a significant portion of the Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting Technical Review Committee’s report, and reviewed and provided some of the analyses for the portions of the review that addressed hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of the diverted Lake Michigan and the Des Plaines River watersheds. Provided technical oversight and data analysis for water-quality monitoring at locks and dams on Ohio River. Developed protocols and quality-assurance plan for the field sampling. Developed database, analyzed data and adjusted to instrument calibrations, and produced interim and final data reports. Applied the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers HEC-2 and HEC-RAS one-dimensional, steady-state hydraulic models to Copper Slough near Champaign Illinois and to the Sangamon River near Mahomet Illinois for flood-plain permitting studies. I provided thechnical review of denied permit requests that resulted in the denied permits being approved with no further analysis required. I am currently (January, 2003) serving as technical advisor to the Chairman of the Fifth Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting Technical Review Committee. In this role I will assist the Chairman with technical review of the materials that will be included in the final report and with preparation of this report.
Graduate Research Assistant Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	August, 2000 to December, 2001	Worked under the direct supervison of Professor B.C. Yen to examine the relationship of stage versus discharge in open channels based on the fundamental hydrodynamics of unsteady nonuniform flow. This research is partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 0098835.
Graduate Research Assistant Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	May, 2002 to December, 2002	Worked under the direct supervison of Professor M.H. Garcia on a study of the hydraulic performance of ultraviolet disinfection units at the Sanitary District of Decatur’s wastewater treatment facility. I designed and supervised the field measurements, performed the analysis of the hydraulic performance and head-loss coefficients, and co-authored the final project report.
Teaching Assistant Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	January 2001 – May 2001	Assisted Professor B.C. Yen with the class Hydraulics of Surface Drainage (CEE 356). This class is a graduate and upper-level undergraduate design course that is intended to draw together all the principles learned in earlier courses in a design project. My primary responsibility was to develop the design projects, provide assistance to the students as they worked on these projects, and grade the projects. I also performed similar functions with homework assignments.
Teaching Assistant Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	August – December, 2001	I taught the course Introduction to Hydrosystems Engineering (CEE255), which is the first course in Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering (EHHE). This course provides a foundation for future, more specialized courses for those students that continue in this field and provides a basic understanding of the principles and methods used in water resources engineering for students from other engineering disciplines. In addition to preparing the course and lecture notes, homework assignments and examinations, presenting the lectures, and other activities associated with teaching a course, I developed a Web-based asynchronous learning site for this course.
Teaching Assistant Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	January – May, 2002	I taught the course Hydraulics of Surface Drainage (CEE 356). This class is a graduate and upper-level undergraduate design course that is intended to draw together all the principles learned in earlier courses in a design project. In addition to preparing the course and lecture notes, homework assignments and examinations, presenting the lectures, and other activities associated with teaching a course, I developed a Web-based asynchronous learning site for this course.
Lecturer Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	January – May, 2003	I am teaching the course Hydraulics of Surface Drainage (CEE 356) and updating and improving the Web-based asynchronous learning site for this course.

Details of other Significant Related Professional Experience

Employeer	Dates	Description of experience
Engineer’s Surveying and Calculating Service Mount Prospect, Illinos	Intermittant, 1975 - 1981	This company was my father’s sole proprietorship that focused on spcialized civil engineering and surveying projects in the several midwest states in which he was a registered professional engineer and land surveryor. This afforded me the unique opportunity to work with him as a rod man and assistant from when I was quite young. By the time I entered high school I was experienced with the range of instruments (precision levels and theodolites and EDM’s, in addition to the support equipment) and procedures used for a wide variety of surveys. By the time I received my driver’s license I was both a field-crew chief and also regularly doing the calculations and other office work to produce the final survey. By the time I finished my undergraduate degree and started work with the U.S. Geological Survey, I had experience in all aspects of the business. In addition to the field procedures, this included adjustment of vertical and horizontal control surveys, records searches, drafting, planning and bidding jobs, and billing for work that was done. Although we would do bounday and layout surveys, my father focused on control surveys. His company did all the photo-control surveys for the Sidwell Company, and Sidwell regularly would have their new surveyors work with us for a period of several months as part of their training. He also was the only surveyor in the Chicago area with the equipment and experience to perform high-accuracy (1^st-order) levels and traverse, and thus we did the resurvey of the control points for O’Hare airport. We also did specialized surveys, such as hydrographic surveys for the Corps of Engineers and Illinois State Water Survey. I would estimate that the breakdown of work was about 60 percent control surveys, 15 percent boundary and topographic surveys, 15 percent site layout and construction oversight, and 10 percent other specialized surveys.
Continental Engineers, Hoffman Estates, IL	intermittant, 1977-1981	This company specialized in land development and planning. My father’s company ended up being the only surveyor that they used, and as the profesional relationship grew, employees of each company would work for the other as the workload demanded. My work for them was primarily as a crew chief supervising topographic surveys, site layout and staking, and percolation tests. I also would train new employees (technicians) in the use and care of the equipment and the procedures for the different surveys and measurements that were done.
Engineering Dept., Village of Mt. Prospect, IL	summer, 1982	Worked as an engineering intern under the direction of the Village Engineer. Work included compiling information to identify properties in flood-prone areas, drafting maps and construction documents, preparing a bid package for sidewalk construction, inspection of the construction of a new pedestrian bridge, and general field surveying activities.