IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering
IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering is a world-renowned center for education, research, and public service focusing on hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics. Based in the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, a five-story red brick building on the banks of the Iowa River, IIHR is a unit of the University of Iowa’s College of Engineering. At IIHR, students, faculty members, and research engineers work together to understand and manage one of the world’s greatest resources-water. Students from around the world benefit from IIHR’s comprehensive multidisciplinary approach, which includes basic fluid mechanics, laboratory experimentation, and computational approaches.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Research institute
- Industry Type:
- Water and Wastewater
- Market Focus:
- Internationally (various countries)
About Us
Students gain hands-on experience through close cooperation with faculty members on research projects funded by industry, government, and other organizations. Though IIHR is a relatively small organization, it continues to claim a major role in the worldwide effort to understand and utilize water and its flow.
Mission & Vision
Mission
IIHR’s mission is to be a leader in fluids-related fundamental and applied research; to provide interdisciplinary education for future leaders in science and engineering; and to advance knowledge in support of sustainable natural and engineered systems.
Vision
IIHR’s vision is to be an international leader among academic institutions in hydroscience and engineering research recognized for integrating laboratory, field, and simulation-based experimentation and participatory interdisciplinary education.
Goal 1 — Institutional Vitality
Foster an academic research environment for students and staff to work at the forefront of their disciplines and collaboratively on large, multidisciplinary research initiatives.
Goal 2 — Research
Enhance international recognition for excellence in research while integrating laboratory, field, and simulation-based experimentation in both fundamental and applied engineering research programs.
Goal 3 — Education
Develop and maintain educational programs built on rigorous foundational courses and enhanced with broad interdisciplinary electives and participatory research experiences.
Goal 4 — Service
Increase IIHR’s value to society through leadership in professional and governmental organizations, and outreach to communities.
History
Situated on the Iowa River in Iowa City, Iowa, IIHR seeks to be a leader in hydroscience and engineering research, and to educate students to be future leaders in these areas. The education IIHR provides in the theoretical and computational aspects of fluid flow, combined with hands-on engineering practice, attracts a vibrant international mix of students with a rich variety of interests.
Research activities, funded by grants, agreements, and contracts with a variety of private organizations and governmental agencies, extend well beyond the Midwest into the international domain.
Modest Beginnings
Today’s complex efforts had simple beginnings. In 1920, a small brick cubicle above a flume next to the Iowa River became the first hydraulics laboratory at the University of Iowa. This laboratory provided the setting for Iowa’s first research and classes in hydraulics.
The laboratory’s first researcher and director, Floyd Nagler, vigorously developed a program of river surveys and small-scale hydraulic modeling. To more firmly establish and broaden the research program, Nagler formally founded IIHR (Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research) in 1931. By 1932, he had overseen the building of the present hydraulics laboratory structure, which boasted more than 50 times as much floor space as the original laboratory.