What civil engineers are reading this week

• Taking an easy-to-understand approach, author stresses infrastructure’s importance

  Average citizens don’t spend much time thinking of our built environment. The Infrastructure Book makes its criticality clear, even for nonexperts. How can civil engineers use the book as a tool?

• New Jersey’s new home for fossils is fossil-fuel free

  Climate-sensitive approaches, including mass timber and geothermal energy, come together to create a beautiful and sustainable building for the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum at Rowan University.

• The 10 US states best positioned to power AI data center boom

  Tech giants, from Google to Meta to OpenAI, are leading an artificial intelligence data center boom. These states’ electricity grids are best set to meet their massive power needs.

• Why flash flooding is getting worse across the US and how to stay safe

  As flash floods intensify across the U.S. from Texas to New Jersey, here’s why the risk is escalating and how to protect yourself.

• NASA deflected an asteroid – that unleashed a swarm of space boulders

  A surprising burst of rocky debris released during the DART mission carried three times more momentum than the spacecraft, a new insight that will improve future planetary defense strategies.

• Lidar sensors pave way to more connected, safer roads

  The technology has become more affordable, opening new avenues of research that could yield real safety improvements, especially for pedestrians. What advantages does it hold over traditional methods?