Professor Emeritus Ed Burdette was recently honored with a commemorative chalkboard encased behind glass on the fourth floor of the John D. Tickle building. The lesson displayed represents the second lecture from an introductory class on reinforced concrete, which he would have taught after stress-strain curves, basic ideas and simplifying assumptions. The work on the board is exactly consistent with the requirements of recent American Concrete Institute Building Codes: ACI 318-02 through ACI 318-14. The left hand board develops a method to calculate bending capacity; the right hand board shows an illustrative problem.
The blackboard was rescued from Perkins Hall, where the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was located for 60 years before it moved the John D. Tickle building in 2013 which has dry erase boards.
“I think it appropriate that the part of our departmental history symbolized by the black slate chalkboards be somehow recognized and honored in the new departmental home in the John D. Tickle Building,” said Burdette. “I am flattered and honored that I was selected to be a part of that recognition.”