Civil and Environmental Engineering chair receives Ohio Sea Grant Award

Case School of Engineering's Civil and Environmental Department Engineering department chair Xiong (Bill) Yu, PhD, and his research team have received a 2026 Ohio Sea Grant award titled: “AI-Empowered Smart Sewer Systems for Stormwater Overflow Reduction in the Lake Erie Watershed.” Stormwater overflow poses a significant water quality challenge to the Great Lakes communities, contributing to nutrient pollution, increased pathogen levels and harmful algal blooms. Stormwater Overflow including Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) exacerbate these issues, particularly during extreme weather events which overwhelm the capacity of existing sewer infrastructure.

The proposed smart sewer system framework will be built upon a preliminary framework developed in the dissertation research of Enpei Chen—a PhD student and a member of Yu’s Intelligent Infrastructure and Smart Systems Laboratory—to advance AI-enabled smart sewer systems. In the previous efforts, Chen has led the development of a novel recurrent deep reinforcement learning framework for real-time control of urban drainage systems which effectively mitigate storm overflow with the existing sewer infrastructure. 

With the support from the Ohio Sea Grant, the team plans to integrate AI modeling, predictive analytics and intelligent control strategies to effectively mitigate overflow and demonstrate with community partners in the Lake Erie Watershed. The project will be conducted in collaboration with regional partners, including the City of Rocky River Wastewater Plant, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), and the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District (GCMSD). The outcome of this project will reduce stormwater overflow, improve water quality, and strengthen the resilience of coastal communities in the Lake Erie watershed.