INSPIRE Newsletter Spring 2023

TIER 1 UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION CENTER (UTC)

Sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology in the U.S. Department of Transportation

INSPECTING AND PRESERVING INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH ROBOTIC EXPLORATION

Director’s Message

In this issue:

Director's Message News

Field Application Research Technology Transfer Outreach

Upcoming Events

Awarded in December of 2016 by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the five-year INSPIRE UTC is a Tier 1 University Transportation Center with a research priority of preserving the existing transportation system as part of the UTC Program (https://www. transportation.gov/utc/2016-utc-grantees) that was authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

CONSORTIUM MEMBERS

Greetings colleagues and friends! Since our last newsletter, the INSPIRE University Transportation Center (UTC) has hosted various virtual and in-person events for additional interest and outreach. This edition will celebrate the achievements of INSPIRE UTC's administrative center, the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII) that is supported by Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). CII faculty members have been supporting administrative, outreach, and technical programs executed at the INSPIRE UTC. Their achievements have demonstrated the interdisciplinary nature and strength of the CII (and INSPIRE UTC) at Missouri S&T.

This issue will highlight both incoming and graduating undergraduate research students. The center has recruited six undergraduates in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science as well as celebrated the graduation of four undergraduates in mechanical engineering. Each student participated in research related to unmanned systems, augmented reality concepts, and administrative duties at the INSPIRE UTC. One center graduate, Derek Edwards, was ‘inspired’ to host Missouri S&T’s 1st on-campus multirotor race with a professional drone racing league pilot, “AMARI.”

Other highlights include an update of the Pooled-Fund Study on the Traffic Disruption-Free Bridge Inspection Initiative with Robotic Systems in collaboration with seven state Department of Transportation members. The pooledfund study represents one of the technology transfer activities initiated by the INSPIRE UTC. This edition also features a video script on the “Frontier in Infrastructure Research and Education (F.I.R.E.)” series, which summarizes INSPIRE UTC's key contributions to Autonomous Infrastructure Robots (AIR) that are interactive to bridges or other infrastructure. Featured outreach will include Kaleidoscope Discovery Center’s FIRST Lego League and Missouri Future City Competition attended by the Missouri State Governor, as well as workshops and camps with local middle-school students in STEM Education and Diversity hosted by the Kummer Center or STEM Education. Also featured is Missouri S&T’s participation in a pilot Manufacturing Academy which seeks to build a curriculum by broadening incoming student perspective on manufacturing engineering.

The Center continues to host webinars on a quarterly basis which serve to highlight collaborative opportunities and research being conducted at the INSPIRE UTC. The upcoming webinar being presented by Dr. Iris Tien from the Georgia Institute of Technology, “Accurate and Efficient Updating of Bridge Risk Assessments Based on Inspection Data,” will present analytical fragility functions integrating the impacts of corrosion and scour inspection data.

We hope you enjoy the featured articles and news at the INSPIRE UTC and invite you to visit our website at https://inspire-utc.mst.edu for additional information about upcoming events and webinars.

Genda Chen, Ph.D., P.E., F. ASCE, F. SEI, F. ISHMII,

F.SPIE

Director, INSPIRE University Transportation Center Director, the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure

Chen Awarded by ISHMII & SPIE

Dr. Genda Chen, the Robert W. Abbett Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering and Director of CII, recently received the 2022 Editorial Excellence Award from the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (ISHMII). Chen was also named a 2023 Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics.

The Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (JCSHM) publishes five issues a year with articles to advance the understanding and the application of health monitoring methods for the condition assessment and management of civil infrastructure systems. These systems include, but are not limited to, highways, bridges, buildings, airports, seaports, railroads, water resources systems, and oil and gas pipelines. The focus of the published papers is on the application of principles.

Dr. Genda Chen was also upgraded to the Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers or International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE) in March 2023. SPIE Fellows are members of distinction with significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. About 10% of the overall membership or a total of more than 1,700 SPIE members have become Fellows since the Society's inception in 1955. Dr. Chen was recognized for his research contributions and professional leaderships in the field of smart structures, particularly for the engineering applications of grating- and scattering-based fiber optic sensing technologies. To date, Dr. Chen has published journal papers in the broad area of adaptive data analysis and system identification (18 total), neural network and deep learning (11 total), and sensors and sensing systems (64 total).

University of Nevada-Las Vegas Partner Awarded Best Paper in Robotics and Computer Vision

Dr. Paul Oh’s group from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas presented a paper entitled "Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Warehouse Monitoring Tasks" at the 2023 IEEE 13th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC) in March 2023. The paper was awarded the “Best Paper in Robotics and Computer Vision” during the conference. The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars from different disciplines and advance the research in the fields of Computing and Communication. The conference provided a virtual forum for researchers, educators, and students to discuss and exchange ideas on issues, trends, and developments in Computing and Communication. It also promoted an academia-industry dialogue with the intent to bridge the gap between academic research, industry initiatives, and governmental policies. The academia was exposed to state-of-practice and results from trials and interoperability experiments. The industry in turn benefited from exposure to leading-edge research and the opportunity to share practical problems that require further research.

DEAN OF CEC MESSAGE

The College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) at Missouri S&T is the leading engineering college in our state and is among the top in the U.S. in terms of ROI and value. Our mission is to (1) provide our students with a transformative education that inspires them to shape the future, and (2) to lead the way in improving our world through research and innovation.

Dr. Chen’s INSPIRE UTC exemplifies our mission through its innovation and societal impact. The novel ideas and approaches developed by INSPIRE not only advance research on our campus but have been transformative in how we educate and prepare our students for future careers.

The CEC has nearly doubled its research output over the last five years, and we intend to do it again over the next five. This growth has only been possible by having a razorsharp focus on research that is societally relevant and impactful. Centers like INSPIRE are helping us keep our focus on “impact” while leading the way for research innovation on our campus. I’m excited about where things are headed in the CEC and can’t wait to see the next big ideas generated by INSPIRE.

Dr. David Borrok Dean of the College of Enginnering and Computing (CEC)

CII Abbett Seminar Focused on Smart Cities

Dr. Andrew Smyth presented a talk titled, “Smart Cities Frontier – From Sensor Monitoring of the Physical Infrastructure Layer to An Integrated Digital Layer,” on Thursday, April 27, in the Computer Science Building on the campus of Missouri S&T.

Smyth is the Robert A.W. and Christine S. Carleton Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University in New York and the director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes. His presentation will trace the research path from infrastructure monitoring to vehicle fleet monitoring to broader use of urban sensor data in enhancing performance of infrastructure systems, culminating in a new initiative – the NSF Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes.

The Abbett Distinguished Lecture Series is hosted by the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure, Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies and the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering.

Das Named Curators’ Distinguished Professor

A founding member of CII, Dr. Sajal Das, Professor and Daniel St. Clair Endowed Chair of Computer Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been named a Curators’ Distinguished Professor.

The University of Missouri Board of Curators bestows the Curators’ Distinguished Professor title upon outstanding scholars with established reputations in their field of study. Das is a leader in cyber-physical systems and smart environments.

In a current research project, Das worked with other researchers to develop infrastructure for smart and connected farms to improve timely data sharing so that communities can better respond to production threats that expand beyond individual farm boundaries. The work is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

He is developing a communication infrastructure using drones and Wi-Fi-enabled farm machinery to monitor large areas of land and improve real-time data collection. The network can also monitor water, pesticide and fertilizer needs, saving farmers time and money by informing them which sections of land need additional irrigation, suffer from pests or require fertilizer so that they don’t treat entire fields unnecessarily.

Sedigh Sarvestani Appointed S&T’s Ombuds

Provost Colin Potts appointed Dr. Sahra Sedigh Sarvestani, a founding member of CII, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as S&T’s ombuds, a new part-time position created through the S&T ADVANCE program to provide confidential and information assistance to faculty.

“I’m delighted that Sahra has accepted this position,” says Potts. “She is discreet, honorable, and a staunch advocate for the faculty, and I can’t think of a better person.”

The ombuds acts as a source of information and referral, aids in answering faculty questions, and assists in the resolution of concerns. The ombuds does not replace the existing resources for formal conflict resolution.

While maintaining confidentiality, the ombuds may prepare reports for the provost to demonstrate trends in the reporting of problem areas in policies and practices.

Sedigh Sarvestani will begin the role June 1 and complete training through the International Ombuds Association. She will report to Dr. Daniel Forciniti, associate provost of faculty affairs.

Sedigh Sarvestani served as president for S&T’s Faculty Senate August 2017 through July 2018. She holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and her master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

Original Version Posted January 3, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection Original Version Posted March 23, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Researchers Present at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting

The Transportation Research Board’s 102nd Annual Meeting was held January 8-12, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Dr. Jenny Liu and Dr. Xiong Zhang, founding members of CII and James A. Heidman Professors in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and their research groups gave multiple presentations in both podium and poster forms in transportation infrastructure related topics. The podium and poster presentations include “Comprehensive Evaluation of Important Aspects of Triaxial Testing Using a PhotogrammetryBased Method,” “Evaluation of Thermal and Rheological Properties of Phase Change Material Incorporated Asphalt Mastic with Porous Fillers,” and “A Lowcost Photogrammetric Method for Measuring and Tracking the Continuous 3D Full-Field Deformations of Geosynthetics During Tensile Tests.”

Original Version Posted March 7, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Madria Awarded for Developing a Military Information-Sharing Platform

In May 2022, a founding CII member Madria delivered software for a secure information-sharing platform to the Air Force Research Laboratory. The program, which was funded by a $500,000 grant, combined machine leaning with a secure platform that allows members of the military to quickly share photos and highly accurate captions with authorized viewers.

The platform sets specific roles and missions for members of the military and can gauge who in the chain of command is most likely to need shared information. Photos can also be set by category based on what the machine learning platform determines they include.

“An important part of this program is that it allows users to quickly determine who they want to see the photos, as the photos are encrypted for specific users with their attribute-based keys,” Madria says. “Then, if their access needs to be revoked, specific photos can be re-encrypted with the touch of a button dynamically in the battlefield without affecting others.”

Madria says this technology will also help battlefield leaders more quickly understand events as they unfold and disseminate them to allow leaders to make more informed decisions securely. Its attribute-based security policy will also allow mission interests to be updated for personnel as battlefield situations change, ensuring the transmitted data is as up-to-date as possible.

Original Version Posted March 7, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Ma Leads $2 million DOE Project to Curb Climate Change, Critical Minerals Crisis

Dr. Hongyan Ma, a founding member of CII, Francisco Benavides Scholar and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, was recently tapped by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to lead a $2 million grant project related to critical minerals and clean energy.

“Our work for this project will be a game-changer,” says Ma, “The aim of our research is to use a carbon mineralization reaction to improve the yield of energy-relevant critical minerals we recover from silicate materials.”

Since the silicate materials, which will primarily come from mine waste, are carbon-reactive, Ma’s team will be able to use them for carbon capture and storage purposes as well.

The project’s funding is part of ARPA-E’s Mining Innovations for Negative Emissions Resource Recovery (MINER) program, which is focused on developing technologies that can immediately help the U.S. increase its supply of critical minerals that are necessary for the country’s transition to clean energy.

The U.S. Geological Survey says 50 of the elements used for manufacturing count as critical minerals. Ma’s work will focus on nickel and cobalt are the two critical minerals that will be the focus of Ma’s work.

Original Version Posted April 4, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Zhang Presented at ASCE Geo-Congress in Los Angeles

Dr. Xiong Zhang, James A. Heidman Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, attended the American Society of Civil Engineers Geo-Congress 2023 held March 26-29 in Los Angeles. Zhang, along with Dr. Laureano Hoyos, professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, and Dr. Sanchez Marcelo, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Texas A&M University, taught a short course titled “Simple methods to rapidly characterize and model unsaturated soil behavior.”

Zhang chaired a technical session on “Soil Properties” with Dr. Cassandra Rutherford, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at Iowa State University. He also gave two poster presentations, titled “Efficient and Accurate Coded Target Decoding for 3-D Reconstruction of Soil Specimen in Triaxial Test” and “Measurement of Volumetric Deformation, Strain Localization, and Shear Band Characterization During Triaxial Testing Using a Photogrammetry-Based method.”

Original Version Posted May 2, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Liu Elected President of International Association of Chinese Infrastructure Professionals

Dr. Jenny Liu, a founding member of CII and James A. Heidman Professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, was elected to serve as the new president of International Association of Chinese Infrastructure Professionals (IACIP).

IACIP is a US-registered non-profit professional organization with its members working or studying in the fields of civil infrastructure and systems (CIS) and related areas who are interested in CIS development and related issues. IACIP aims to facilitate the advancement of knowledge and technology in the areas of CIS through education, technology transfer and research at an international level.

Original Version Posted March 7, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

CII Undergraduate Student Ssesanga Competed in Steel Bridge Design

Eric Ssesanga competed with the Missouri S&T Steel Bridge Design Team and won first place at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Mid-America Student Symposium for the fifth consecutive time. The competition was held at Kansas State University April 13-15.

The Steel Bridge Design Team designs and builds a one-tenth scale model bridge according to a realworld problem set by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). This year teams had to design a bridge that could handle everything from pedestrians to service vehicles in the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. Teams are judged in categories including construction speed, efficiency and the weight of the bridge.

“It was almost a full sweep,” says Krysta Swartz, a senior in civil engineering and project manager for the team. “We placed first in aesthetics, stiffness, cost estimation, construction speed, construction economy, and structural efficiency, and placed second in lightness.”

The team, advised by Dr. Nicolas Libre, associate teaching professor of civil, architectural, and environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, hopes to put their bridge engineering and construction skills to the test at the national competition June 2-3 at the University of California-San Diego. And they’ll be both defending champions and hosts next year, when the regional 2024 Mid-America Student Symposium takes place at Missouri S&T.

Original Version Posted April 25, 2023 - Missouri S&T eConnection

Researchers Join CII & INSPIRE UTC at Missouri S&T

Collin Brockman is a junior in Mechanical Engineering. He is an INSPIRE UTC Undergraduate Research Assistant. He is currently working on a linear motion calibration apparatus for drone mounted inspection equipment. He is also involved on campus with the Combat Robotics Design Team, acting as the current Chief Technical Officer.

Joshua Ghilino transferred in 2022 from Johnson County Community College and is currently a junior in Computer Science. Joshua joined INSPIRE UTC as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. Joshua comes from an experienced background in virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies and software development and is currently involved on campus in Association for Computing Machinery Game Development and Missouri S&T Spectrum.

Nithya Kalepalli is a sophomore in Computer Science, who works to improve the INSPIRE UTC/CII center database BridgeNet's website. On campus, she is involved with the Student Union Board (SUB), the Asian American Association (AAA), and Kummer Vanguard Scholars (KVS).

Eliot Kimmel transferred last fall from Missouri Western State University and is currently a junior in Computer Science. He is experienced in Unity/C# development. This experience translates directly into his work on the augmented reality aided bridge inspection software for the INSPIRE UTC and CII, which is Unity-based. Aside from involvement at the CII, he is a member of the competitive programming team at Missouri S&T.

Hoa Nguyen is a sophomore double majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His position as an INSPIRE UTC Undergraduate Research Assistant, working on the ImpactEcho project. His task is to implement microphones able to collect frequency data of a generated collusion area of an object with a rod using Arduino board, and to analyze the internal support structure of objects like bridges. He is a member of multirotor design team and IEEE.

Woubishet Taffese is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII) at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Turku, Finland, where part of his research was carried out at Aalto University, Finland. The focus of his doctoral research was on applied machine learning for durability assessment of reinforced concrete structures. He also received an M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the Dresden University of Technology, Germany.

Rowan Torbitzky-Lane is a junior studying computer science. He is in various clubs and organizations such as Orchestra, music fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi, social fraternity Sigma Chi, and a member of the student council. He has experience with machine vision and maintaining codebases. In addition, he maintains Sigma Chi's website and runs a personal server that he built to host games and train personal neural networks. He was hired as a student research member to maintain and improve the training process of BridgeNet, the bridge database at INSPIRE UTC and CII.

CII Undergraduate Research Students Graduated from Missouri S&T

Andrew Rawlings graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in December 2022. While working at INSPIRE, Drew worked on Treefrog, and the augmented reality bring inspection project. While working on the Treefrog project, Drew helped design, simulate, and code the motion of the robot to be able to climb down the side of concrete pillars. With the augmented reality bring inspection project, Drew worked in Unity Engine helping design the application to be used for augmented reality bridge inspection. He was offered and accepted his position as a Research and Development Engineer at The H-J Family of companies in High Ridge Missouri. There he works on developing new products a s well as improving production of current products.

Joseph Ressel graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in December 2022. While at CII, Joseph worked on the treefrog project to develop and demonstrate the preliminary motion profile of a drone to scan bridge columns and deploy a sonar below the water level to measure erosion of the riverbed around the column. Joseph also worked with hyperspectral imaging to design and build testing equipment to simulate a drone flying with a hyperspectral camera for the purpose of testing and calibration. This involved designing a system to move the camera at the flying speed of the drone while securely holding the camera in position that allowed it to accurately capture the target surface with little vibration. He collaborated with AirTrac Transportation LLC to design, prototype, analyze, and test of a 1/8th scale version of the next generation green energy public transportation for intra- and inter-city travel. This involved the analysis the current design as well as design and analysis of a new configuration for the purpose of increasing stability and structural integrity. After graduation, Joseph was employed by Boeing in Hazelwood, MO as a Mechanical Systems Design Engineer.

Derek Edwards graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 2023. While at INSPIRE UTC and CII, Derek began working as an administrative assistant helping to compile federal reports, newsletters, and day-to-day operations. In Fall 2022, he began transitioning to work on research projects. Since then, Derek has worked on the BridgeBot drone improving the flight stability and mechanical design, designed and fabricated a ceiling drone to stabilize against the bottom of a bridge deck for inspection, designed an impact echo sounding device to evaluate concrete structures, and improved the lab equipment including constructing and maintaining a large plastic Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printer. He has also been involved on campus with the Formula SAE Racing Team as both a steering and ergonomics project engineer and suspension project engineer. He also served on the Multirotor Design Team as the racing team director. While serving as director, Derek brought in a host for the first on-campus drone race at Missouri S&T. The race allowed the Multirotor team to make connections in the drone racing community as well as assist in making Missouri S&T known in the local drone racing community. Derek also led the team to qualify for and attend the team's first national collegiate racing competition in Atlanta, Georgia at the Collegiate Drone Racing Championship. Derek will move to Michigan to work at General Motors in the Design Engineering TRACK rotational program to pursue his interests in the automotive industry.

Dawson Jobe graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 2023. He joined the research team in May 2022 and worked on the Treefrog sonar deployment project designing new parts and solving existing movement issues. During his time with the center, he was able to create a new suction cup design that allowed treefrog to work successfully in climbing walls. This uncovered a new issue regarding the vertical motor which he was able to obtain a lower geared replacement to allow for vertical movement. The largest design change Dawson made was repurposing Treefrog to remove the sonar system because the system would be optimal in a fixed mounting structure. This discovery enabled Treefrog to carry a GPR system to conduct bridge pier inspections. Dawson will begin a career with Burns & McDonnell in June 2023 working as an Mechanical Engineer in the Energy division.

Delivery Robots Arrive on Missouri S&T Campus

Starship’s fleet of 16 autonomous, on-demand robots will deliver from all campus eateries. S&T’s students, faculty and staff can now use the Starship app (iOS and Android) to order food and drinks from local retailers to be delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes. The service works in conjunction with the student meal plan.

“I’m really excited for these robots,” says S&T student Olivia Romisch, a junior in civil engineering from Overland Park, Kansas. “Having the ability to get breakfast delivered right to my door simply with my meal plan will be a lifesaver for early classes and long days.”

Starship provides these services to campuses across the country, including Bowling Green State University, the University of Utah and University of Idaho. Since launch, all campuses have increased the number of robots, dining options and hours of operation to meet demand for the service.

To get started, users open the Starship Deliveries app, choose from a range of their food or drink items, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. They can then watch as the robot makes its journey to them, via an interactive map. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app. The delivery usually takes just a matter of minutes, depending on the menu items ordered and the distance the robot must travel. Each robot can carry the equivalent of about three shopping bags of goods.

“We’re looking forward to serving the Missouri S&T campus community,” says Chris Neider, director of business development at Starship Technologies. “We know these students appreciate tech so we think it will be a great experience for them to interact with our robots every day. Plus, we can’t wait to hire some of them for valuable real-world training.”

Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its zero-emission robots have made more than 4 million autonomous deliveries, traveled millions of miles and make more than 140,000 road crossings every day. The robots use a combination of sophisticated machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensors to travel on sidewalks and navigate around obstacles. The computer vision-based navigation helps the robots to map their environment to the nearest inch. The robots can cross streets, climb curbs, travel at night and operate in rain and snow. A team of humans can also monitor their progress remotely and can provide assistance if needed.

Starship Technologies rolled out its robot food delivery service on Missouri S&T’s campus.

The Starship food delivery robots are provided by Starship Technologies in partnership with Missouri S&T Dining Services, part of Compass Group. No university funds were used.

INSPIRE UTC Undergraduate Research Member Hosted 1st On-campus

Multirotor Race with Professional DRL Pilot AMARI

On March 11th, 2023 the first on-campus drone race at the Missouri University of Science and Technology was held in the Gale-Bullman Multipurpose Building. The race was coordinated by Derek Edwards, the racing team director at the Missouri S&T Multirotor Design team and Undergraduate Research Assistant for INSPIRE UTC, and directed by Shawn Ames, a drone racing pilot from Moberly, Missouri and director of the Heart of America chapter of MultiGP. The race brought in 14 pilots from across Missouri and adjacent states despite being announced on short notice. Pilots included five students from the Missouri S&T Multirotor Racing Team, an alumni of the Multirotor Racing Team and a professional Drone Racing League pilot. The track was a series of LED lit gates and flags in the dimly lit two-story recreation gym that the pilots must navigate through. The drones were spec series TinyTrainer drones flying with 3” diameter propellers and weighing 160 grams. Pilots raced in heats to set their fastest qualifying times to be placed into a professional or intermediate bracket. Pilots then raced head-to-head in the double elimination brackets. Winning the Professional bracket was Christian “AMARI” Van Sloun, in second Shawn “ShamesFPV” Ames, and in third Ryan “PilotInCommand” Robinson. Winning the intermediate bracket was Kalli “KaliFPV” Ames, in second Missouri S&T’s Hoa “BillyBobStuff” Nguyen, and in third Missouri S&T’s Isaac “Fire Hazard” Brown. The race gave Missouri S&T’s Multirotor Racing Team pilots a valuable and memorable experience in drone racing and for most of them it was their first drone race. The race also had many students and families already touring the campus stop by to see and learn more about drone racing. The Gale-Bullman gym and central location in Missouri was noted as a favorite by many pilots, showing interest in returning to Missouri S&T.

Pictured Above, Left to Right: Hoa Nguyen, Jesse Lynch, Derek Edwards, Isaac Brown, Austin Frazier.

View of the track set up in the GaleBullman Multipurpose Building Recreation Gym.

Pictured Above, Left to Right: Shawn “ShamesFPV” Ames, Christian “AMARI” Van Sloun, and Ryan “PilotInCommand” Robinson.

Pictured Above, Left to right: Isaac “Fire Hazard” Brown, Nicholas “TreeFPV” Gardner, Hoa “BillyBobStuff” Nguyen all from Missouri S&T

2019-2024 POOLED-FUND STUDY #TPF-5(395) ON TRAFFIC DISRUPTIONFREE BRIDGE INSPECTION INITIATIVE WITH ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Activities in the Last Six Months

Last fall, the three-member inspection team from the INSPIRE University Transportation Center (UTC) used various Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment Systems (BIRDS) – a mobile platform, to help inspect nine bridges in each of the five states: Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Since then, the team has been processing representative data sets collected from each state. The team has also started to prepare the mid-term report of this study, covering the technical details of three phases: pre-inspection, during-inspection, and postinspection. The pre-inspection phase discusses flight crew requirements, flight mission planning, and an in-flight emergency plan. The during-inspection phase mainly deals with both imaging and inspection guidelines. The post-inspection phase conducts data processing of representative bridges in each participating state. At the same time, the team tested and received a new DJI M600 drone ready for field inspection of bridges. This drone is equipped with a LiDAR scanner and a 4K Sony camera, enabling the high-resolution photogrammetry of bridges.

Complete Inspection of Highway Bridges

To fully inspect a highway bridge, a Skydio2 drone flew along the bridge for side and above-deck views and an Elios2 drone flew underneath the bridge deck between girders for underside deck and girder views in confined spaces. Next, a DJI M600 drone flew along the bridge to acquire thermographic images to detect potential subsurface delamination above the bridge deck and take hyperspectral images to identify chemical species on the surface of bridge elements. Lastly, a Nikon camera was used to document drone-inaccessible areas and unsuitable flying conditions, such as extreme weather conditions.

Following is a presentation of representative data collected from a highway bridge using different drones and sensing devices. The quality of data is compared. The complementary nature of the collected data and information is discussed.

Results from a Representative Highway Bridge

A five-steel-girder bridge was inspected in great detail using a multimodal remote sensing system. The bridge consists of three simply-supported spans, supporting twolane traffic in two ways. The bridge is approximately 185

ft long and 42 ft wide, spanning over a creek with moving water. The bridge superstructure skewed 45º rests on twointermediate bents and two abutments. Each intermediate bent consists of a reinforced concrete pier cap and four reinforced concrete columns.

Figs. 1-4 show RGB views of the bridge from different perspectives. Fig. 1 provides an overview of the concrete deck for the entire bridge. It clearly displays the four construction joints of three bridge spans and asphalt pavement at the two ends of the bridge.

Fig. 1 Top view taken from the Skydio2 drone

Fig. 2 indicates significant corrosion and deterioration taken place on the exterior steel girder at the support of an intermediate bent. The coating on the surface of the girder was breached and the steel surface was oxidized to show accumulative rusts. Fig. 3 presents the details of the intermediate joint and the sign of corrosion due to water leakage through the construction joint as indicated by the down flow water marks remained on the concrete cap beam. Fig. 4 shows the end of a steel girder. Once again, it confirms significant corrosion taken place on this bridge.

Fig. 2 Side view taken from the Skydio2 drone

Figs. 5 and 6 present the thermal and hyperspectral images of the bridge deck and its nearby environment. The thermography in Fig. 5 indicates that the asphalt pavement on the roadway traps more heat than the concrete deck does. This is likely because the dark asphalt reflects less heat than the light concrete and thus attracts more heat. In addition, unlike the bridge deck, the road on ground does not have any air circulation path. Fig. 6 clearly shows different levels of reflectance from multiple points on the top of the bridge deck versus asphalt pavement, roadway versus shoulder, and deck/roadway versus surrounding environment. Insights on the use of different materials (asphalt, concrete, lane mark paint, vegetation, etc.) can be gained from the reflectance spectrum. Specifically, the spectrum suddenly increases near 720 nm in the vegetation area at point 1, from 680 nm to 800 nm in the rusty area of the guardrail support at point 6, and around 540 nm in the yellow road center marker at point 4. It shows the highest reflectance starting

from 460 nm in the white lane marker at point 5. The dark asphalt (point 2) shows lower reflectance than the light concrete area (point 3). The spectrum for the bluish guard rail at point 7 decreases gradually from 460 nm to 1,000 nm.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Led by Dr. Genda Chen, Professor and Abbett Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, this study was led by the Missouri Department of Transportation (DOT) and supported by seven DOTs in the state of New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, and California. Progress will be reported in this series of newsletters as it becomes available and overall results and findings will be summarized in a final report. For more information on this project, please contact Dr. Chen at inspire-utc@mst.edu or (573) 341-6114.

Fig. 3 Underside view taken from the Elios2 drone

Fig. 4 End-of-bridge abutment view taken from the Nikon camera due to inaccessibility of drones

Fig. 5 Thermal image taken from the FLIR infrared camera around noon

Fig. 6 Hyperspectral images taken from the NanoHyperspec@ camera

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

FRONTIER IN INFRASTRUCTURE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (FIRE) SERIES

Autonomous Infrastructure Robotics (AIR)

Part 1 Introduction

Civil infrastructure is the foundation of any society for human wellbeing, economic development, and national security. It is aging at an alarming rate and subjected to more dramatic climate changes and associated extreme events. It is stressed to the degree that has never been tested before and thus required to be inspected and maintained more frequently. The current practice of visual inspection is cost-ineffective as its operation setup and equipment transport constitute a major portion of the overall cost.

Part 2 Introduction to Autonomous Infrastructure Robotics

In this episode of a video series on Frontiers in Infrastructure Research and Education (or F-I-R-E), we are demonstrating the capabilities of innovative robots that are interactive with structural elements during bridge inspection and maintenance. This mobile platform of robots overcomes the transportability, accessibility, and safety challenges of the current practices for elevated structures.

To respond to this imperative need, the INSPIRE University Transportation Center acquired and/or developed more than ten types of drones and structural crawlers. The Center Partner, University of Nevada-Reno, invented a series of structural crawlers. As an example, a bicycle-like crawler consists of two magnetic wheels, visualinertial odometry, an onboard computer, and an iPad robot controller. The crawler is about 2.2 kg and can swiftly maneuver around different shapes of steel members. The crawler is equipped with a Martlet wireless device provided by another Center Partner, Georgia Tech. The device contains an ultrasonic transducer for metal thickness measurement. To perform each ultrasonic measurement, a miniature pump applies couplant gel on the surface of a steel member to ensure the transducer is firmly attached on the surface. The robotic system was deployed on an interstate highway bridge in Georgia for the thickness measurement of steel girder components.

The INSPIRE Center Partner, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, invented a series of drones that can help clean surfaces (e.g., wash bearings), drill holes on wood boards, seal cracks, and turn valves during infrastructure maintenance. As an example, a water hosing quadcopter is composed of a remote controller, a planar frame in a square grid, four motors, four U-shaped tube supports, and a water hose. The drone is 22 kg in overall weight, including 15 kg frame, 2 kg cameras/sensors, and 5 kg actuated hose payload which can generate 3,000 psi pressure to clean muds on walls. When water exits the hose, the drone experiences

a significant kickback force. This technical challenge is overcome by optimizing the control design and the use of an unbalanced drone weight in the direction of the water hose.

As the lead of the INSPIRE Center, Missouri S&T invented a hybrid unmanned vehicle called BridgeBot that is designed to enable a close-distance underside inspection of girder bridges, which constitutes about 60% of the U.S. bridges in deck area. The BridgeBot can fly to the underside of a bridge deck, grab a steel or concrete girder, and traverse along the girder while taking various measurements in high quality. It has two driving systems for flying like a quadcopter and traversing like a ground vehicle. It is approximately 30 lbs in weight and able to support a payload of 20 lbs. It overcomes the commercial drone challenges in platform vibration during measurement, limited tasks for closedistance inspection, and limited flight time as the BridgeBot can fly for about 10 minutes only but traverse for over 360 minutes.

Part 3 Concluding Statement

Drones that are interactive to infrastructure are unique products of the INSPIRE Center. They will enable cost-effective, high-quality, rapid and safe inspection and maintenance of infrastructure in the years to come.

Part 4 Acknowledgement

Financial support for the INSPIRE UTC projects is provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (USDOT/OST-R) under Grant No. 69A3551747126 through INSPIRE University Transportation Center (https://inspire-utc.mst.edu) led by Missouri University of Science and Technology. The views, opinions, findings and conclusions reflected in this video production are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official policy or position of the USDOT or any State or other entity.

Upcoming Keynote Presentations

Chen Invited to Deliver two Plenary Keynote Presentations at Premier Professional Conferences

Engineering Mechanics Role in Robot-Enabled Infrastructure Preservation

June 6 - 9, 2023

INSPIRE UTC and CII Director Genda Chen will deliver a keynote presentation at the June 6-9, 2023 Engineering Mechanics Institute Annual Conference, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The design life of more than 42% of over 617,000 U.S. bridges are 50 years or older. It is thus imperative to meet more frequent and rigorous preservation needs to ensure that the aging infrastructure is safe during everyday operations and resilient to catastrophic events. Drones and structural crawlers, or robots in general, are efficient and effective platforms that can be rapidly deployed to support sensor installation, visual inspection, nondestructive evaluation, and preventive maintenance of bridges. This presentation will provide an overview of engineering mechanics problems and solutions to platform dynamics, the probability of deterioration detection, aerial testing and evaluation, and machine learning for datadriven asset management enabled by the INSPIRE University Transportation Center partners. For example, control design equations of structural crawlers and/or drones with robotic arms will be established and solved to support bridge inspection and maintenance tasks. Given k robots, an Np-hard min-max k-Chinese postman problem will be formulated to generate optimal inspection routes using generic algorithms. Aerial impact-echo tests for delamination detection and/ or ultrasonic metal thickness measurement will show their superior performance that is comparable to ground-based nondestructive tests. Mathematically rigorous approaches to evaluate the level of deterioration based on the data taken from in-situ sensors will be presented to shed light on the unconservative nature of traditional statistical analysis. Explainable artificial intelligence will engage inspectors at two levels: (1) inspectors-in-the-loop during training and testing of semi-supervised deep learning algorithms and (2) sensitivity analysis to understand the effect of individual key factors to a desirable prediction from neural additive models. This presentation will conclude with a few key challenges and research opportunities in robot-enabled infrastructure preservation.

Implications and Values of Digital Twin in Infrastructure Asset Management

September 12 - 14, 2023

INSPIRE UTC and CII Director Genda Chen will also deliver a keynote presentation at the September 12-14, 2023 biennial International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (IWSHM), organized by Stanford University. A digital twin is a multifunctional, value-added, effectively indistinguishable digital representation of an intended or actual real-world physical asset, system, or process - a physical twin in the built environment. Presented in the form of simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance, it is intertwined and corroborated through two-way digital threads with a lifecycle of planning, designing, constructing, operating/preserving, and decommissioning its represented physical infrastructure. In a physical-to-digital thread, the sensing data and information obtained from a physical twin can be used to update and improve its digital representation. In a digital-to-physical thread, the practice and optimization of intervening strategies on a digital twin enable scenario studies to understand the outcomes of multi-faceted decision-making. In this presentation, an example digital twin of the Missouri S&T campus using updated data from in-situ sensors, remote sensing, and satellite images will be developed to envision the implications of digital twin in infrastructure asset management. This study aims to develop a rapidly implementable digital twin methodology for a university campus-like environment, enable a twin representation of realworld construction with spatiotemporal analysis in multiple scales, integrate computational and informational models into a cyber-physical system for seamless decision-making from design through construction to operation phases, and evaluate and validate the structural responses and engineering values of the digital twin infrastructure. Potential values include but are not limited to understanding student aggregation, traffic flow, structural stability and constructability of partially-erected buildings, building inspection, and damage/cost scenario analysis of the existing and new infrastructure in the wake of a postulated earthquake.

INSPECTING AND PRESERVING INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH ROBOTIC EXPLORATION | inspire-utc.mst.edu

INSPIRE WEBINARS

UPCOMING WEBINARS RECENT WEBINARS

ACCURATE AND EFFICIENT UPDATING OF BRIDGE RISK ASSESSMENTS BASED ON INSPECTION DATA

Present: June 13, 2023, 12:00 PM-1:00 PM (CST)

Speaker: Dr. Iris Tien

Associate Professor Georgia Tech, Atlanta Register: inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars

Analytical fragility functions provide a way to quantify the risk of a structure. One method to construct seismic fragility curves is to perform a series of nonlinear dynamic analyses of the structure. As structural inspection data is increasing, updating fragility functions based on these measurements provides a way to translate collected data into risk-based decision-making support. However, the high computational cost in running and re-running analyses over the full finite-element model can be prohibitive. In this talk, Dr. Tien will describe new methodologies to efficiently and accurately update analytical fragility curves. The reduction in computational cost from both reducing the number of analyses required and simplifying the structural complexity are investigated. The method is applied to update calculations of seismic bridge fragilities accounting for varying levels of measured corrosion. Results comparing updated fragility curves obtained from using the proposed approach versus using the full set of dynamic analyses show that the proposed method achieves accurate, stable, and more quickly converging fragility calculations. In addition to this work on the impacts of corrosion on bridge risk, further work on integrating scour inspection data into updated assessments of bridge risk will also be discussed.

PROBAB ILITY OF DETECTION IN STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING

Presented: March 22, 2023, 10:00 AM-11:00 AM (CST)

Speaker: Dr. Genda Chen Professor Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla

STRUCTURAL INSPECTION AUTOMATION: RESEARCH CHALLENGES AND 3D MACHINE VISION TECHNIQUES

Presented: December 13, 2022, 11:00AM-12:00 PM (CST)

Speaker: Dr. ZhiQiang Chen Associate Professor University of Missouri, Kansas City

12th International Conferences on Structural Health Monitoring for Intelligent Infrastructures

(SHMII-12)

Hosted by Zhejiang University, in Hangzhou, China

This conference is devoted to recent research advances on technologies related with the health monitoring for the condition assessment and management of civil infrastructure systems, artificial intelligent and machine learning, smart and intelligent structures, innovative material and construction technologies, and addressing the climate change challenges for resilient and sustainable built environment, where structural health monitoring takes important roles.

Events:

• Keynote & Invited Lectures

• Panel Discussions

• Technical Presentation

• Exhibitions

Important Dates:

Deadline Full Paper/Ext. Abstracts: June 15, 2023

Notification of reviewer's comments: July 15, 2023

Final Papers/Extended Abstracts submission: August 15, 2023

CONFERENCE: October 19 - 22, 2023

www.shmii-12.com

Kaleidoscope Discovery Center Outreach Report for UTC Grant

FIRST Alumni; and Erich Baur, Entrepreneur/EWB Consulting.

The Kaleidoscope received additional grant funding from AmeriCorps for summer robotics outreach support which will include the return to summer rural library programs with robotics build kits. The center will also be returning to the 4-H Clover Camp this year to provide hands-on STEM activities. It is the Kaleidoscope’s goal to reach 1,000 students with robotics programming in Summer 2023. Thanks to the INSPIRE UTC’s added upgraded robots, the group is well on their way to this accomplishment.

As of April 19, the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center has supported robotics and engineering programming in the local region and across the state which has reached over 2,100 students in the five county service area and across the State through the FIRST Lego League and the Missouri Future City Competition. Continuing this level of outreach and engagement could not be possible without the generous support from the INSPIRE UTC grant. The past six-months have demonstrated solid program growth in robotics opportunities and considerable expansion with the statewide Future City program including seven teams from Arkansas this year.

The Kaleidoscope recently completed its 11th FIRST Lego League Explore Expo bringing 1st-4th grade students from around the Rolla, Missouri area to celebrate and show off their creative designs at the Kaleidoscope’s downtown location on March 11, 2023. The Lego League Challenge group which reaches 4th-8th grade students expanded from three competition-ready teams to five competition-ready teams plus two exposition teams, which is a sizeable increase over last year partly due to returning students aging up and the rebuilding of the center's volunteer network post pandemic. One of these five teams was also invited to the state competition. Additionally, through the assistance of the UTC grant, robots for this older class were updated from EV3's to Spike Primes allowing the rural area students to use the most current technology available for this level competition.

The "Super Charged" theme this year dealt with the globally relevant topic of energy generation. This event required students to consider not only how to generate more usable energy but also to evaluate how they use energy and how systems and individuals waste energy.

Volunteers for the event included members of the Kaleidoscope staff, the Rolla Robotics teams, and Missouri S&T FIRST Alumni. The three judges included: Jill Fahrenholtz, Robotics Consultant/ Kaleidoscope Discovery Center; Elizabeth Edwards, Missouri S&T

The Missouri Future City competition was held on January 21st on the Missouri S&T campus. Teams of five-10 students ranging from 6th-8th graders presented their visions of the Climate Change Challenge of the future to judges from across the state. Each team was tasked with researching the current year’s theme and create a solution which was presented orally, in writing, and through the visual representation of a 50”x25”x20” model containing at least one moving part, generally with a battery-powered robot mechanism. Kael Gruenestadt, a member of the Missouri team from St. Clair Middle School, was named the Missouri state winner and competed at the international competition in Washington, D.C. during National Engineers Week in February. The Missouri team was awarded the Ceramic Engineering Society’s award for creative use of glass in a climate change solution. Additionally, this year saw a record increase in the number of students participating in this engineering competition, with over 2,000 students from across the state as well as Arkansas. While the first-place team competed in D.C., the second-place team showed off their model during STEM Day at the Capitol on March 2nd.

The center is delighted to see this growth in interest and expanded programming for rural students as well as students across the state.

CII Participation in Out of This World STEM Event

On May 4th, the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII) of Missouri S&T hosted an engaging and mind opening outreach event for approximately 75 K-5th students seeking to participate in a space-themed engineering adventure. In partnership with the Kummer Center for STEM Education at S&T, the event hosted five sessions with three main activities. The program began with a powerpoint presentation of representative activities undertaken by the center, a tour of the three state-of-the-art lab facilities, and ended with two hands-on interaction activities for the students. The center showcased diverse research activities ranging from bridge inspection using various drones (Tello drone, Headwall, Phantom4 drone, Skydio2 Pro drone, Elios2 etc), augmented reality (AR) interaction with virtual bridges, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and state-of-the-art robots under development by the center. The student interest varied from distinguishing AR from virtual reality (VR) headsets, piloting the drones intelligently to flip as well as manually control within the drone net, interactively motioning and resizing the virtual bridge in the AR headset, seeking to understand concepts such as bridge inspection, bridge inspectors, whether the participants could have the drones, if they could break a virtual bridge model, make parts printable using a 3D printer, view the magnetic climbing robots, and the use of suction cups by treefrog to traverse surfaces. The two demos involving the Tello drones and Hololens 2 seemed to captivate the students and some participants promised to revisit the center as well as join the university following high school. A team of two CII members (ZhenHua Shi, research engineer and Joel Runji, postdoctoral fellow) guided the students throughout the activities while enjoying the enthusiasm of curious young brains and hearts, enabled by center director Dr. Genda Chen.

Celebrating Diversity in STEM

On February 10, the INSPIRE UTC at Missouri S&T held an outreach event to celebrate diversity in STEM for approximately 60 students, attending in groups of 20. The participants were primarily from the Saint Louis, Missouri area as members of Black Girls Do STEM, Men of Code, and Vitendo 4 Africa. The center had the opportunity to showcase diverse research activities ranging from bridge inspection using various drones (Tello drone, Phantom4 drone, Skydio2 Pro drone, Elios2 etc), augmented reality (AR) interaction with virtual bridges, additive manufacturing (3D printing) and state-of-the-art robots and infrastructure created by the center and its members. The students were eager during the hands-on events using the Tello drones and Hololens 2 glasses with some seeking to revisit the activities as much as time allowed. The center put their best feet forward in addressing diversity from all possible aspects including gender, age, race as well as engineering applications with a keynote speech and presentation made by center director Dr. Genda Chen.

STEM Enrichment with Project Lead the Way

On April 11, the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII) of Missouri S&T held an inspiring outreach event for 30 middle school students seeking to expand their understanding of STEM-related careers and training. In partnership with Project Lead the Way (PLTW) at S&T, the CII team held a single session with three main activities. The event began with a powerpoint presentation of some of the activities undertaken by the center, a tour of the three state-of-the-art lab facilities, and ended with hands-on interaction activities for the students. The center showcased diverse research activities ranging from bridge inspection using various drones (Tello drone, Headwall, Phantom4 drone, Skydio2 Pro drone, Elios2 etc), augmented reality (AR) interaction with virtual bridges, additive manufacturing (3D printing) and state-of-the-art robots under the center development. The student interests varied from the licensing requirements to pilot the aerial drones, the physical application of interactive virtual bridges, the specifications of the Alienware computers in the center's Visual Inspection Research and Training Using Augmented Learning (VIRTUAL) lab and whether the center may commercialize developed AR software solutions. The three demos involved the driving simulator, Hololens 2 and Tello drones captivated the students, and increased interest which may translate to pursuing a career in the STEM field. A team of three CII members (Eric Ssesanga undergraduate research assistant, ZhenHua Shi and Joel Runji) guided the students through these activities and enjoyed being inspired by the fresh energy of young minds.

CII Participation in the Pilot Missouri S&T Manufacturing Academy

On April 4, the Centre for Intelligent Infrastructure (CII) of Missouri S&T held an exciting outreach event as part of a pilot manufacturing academy program for approximately 30 middle school students attending in two groups. This program seeks to build a usable curriculum for area schools, by broadening their perspective on manufacturing engineering as being more than working as factory line workers. The two sessions covered a powerpoint presentation of some of the activities undertaken by the center, a tour of three lab facilities, and ended with hands-on interaction activities for the students. The center showcased diverse research activities ranging from bridge inspection using various drones (Tello drone, Phantom4 drone, Skydio2 Pro drone, Elios2 etc), augmented reality (AR) interaction with virtual bridges, additive manufacturing (3D printing) and state-of-the-art robots and infrastructure developed by the center. The students demonstrated curiosity of the various engineering disciplines required to undertake center tasks, remaining interested with the hands-on demos involving AR using the Hololens 2, the driving simulator and Tello drones. Specifically, some were surprised to lose sight of the interactive virtual bridge, while others were landing the drones on the girders and other students tried to outpace themselves on the driving simulator. A team of four center members (undergraduate research assistants Elizabeth Rozhanskiy and Brandyss Sherman-Hall; ZhenHua Shi and Joel Runji) guided the students through these activities.

INSPIRE University Transportation Center

Missouri University of Science and Technology

112 Engineering Research Laboratory, 500 W. 16th St. Rolla, MO 65409

Connect with INSPIRE UTC:

• FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/inspireutc

• TWITTER: www.twitter.com/inspire_utc

Connect with CII:

• FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/MSTCII

• TWITTER: www.twitter.com/MST_CII

Newsletter Editors

Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director

Sean Boland, INSPIRE UTC Administrative Assistant

Contact Us

Phone: 573-341-6114 | Email: inspire-utc@mst.edu | Web: inspire-utc.mst.edu Visit our website to follow us on social media

Joshua Ghilino, INSPIRE UTC Research Assistant

Lisa Winstead, INSPIRE UTC Program/Project Support Coordinator

UPCOMING EVENTS

June 6-9, 2023

ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference Atlanta, GA

https://www.emi-conference.org/

June 13, 2023

Webinar: Accurate and Efficient Updating of Bridge Risk Assessments Based on Inspection Data

https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars

June 20-22, 2023

CUTC Meeting

Miami, FL

https://mycutc.org/events/2023-summer-meeting/

August 9-10, 2023 (Tentative)

INSPIRE UTC Annual Meeting

https://inspire-utc.mst.edu

September 12-14, 2023

The 14th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (IWSHM 2023)

Stanford University, CA

https://iwshm2023.stanford.edu

inspire-utc.mst.edu/events