The INSPIRE UTC hosted a virtual annual meeting on August 3-4, 2020.  Activities included technical research presentations by major university member principal investigators and an INSPIRE UTC executive business meeting.  Highlighted topics included the new Educational Module Lecture Series on each completed research topic presented by Major university members at the City College of New York, Georgia Institute of Technology, Missouri S&T, University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the University of Nevada at Reno for undergraduate students from community colleges. This initiative is targeted as a pipeline of workforce development in the area of transportation infrastructure inspection.  Other topics included were updates on recent developments with the seven-state pooled-fund study and a virtual graduate poster session.

Technical Program

The 2020 Annual Meeting included the following presentations:

SENSING AND NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION

• IN-LINE LONG PERIOD GRATING AND BRILLOUIN SCATTERING FIBER OPTIC SENSORS FOR STRAIN, TEMPERATURE, CHLORIDE CONCENTRATION, AND STEEL MASS LOSS MEASUREMENT IN BRIDGE APPLICATIONS, Dr. Chuanrui Guo, Missouri S&T

• 3D MICROWAVE CAMERA FOR CONCRETE DELAMINATION AND STEEL CORROSION DETECTION, Dr. Reza Zoughi, Iowa State

• HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGE ANALYSIS FOR MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE AND STEEL SURFACES,

  Dr. Genda Chen, Missouri S&T

• AUTONOMOUS ULTRASONIC THICKNESS MEASUREMENT BY A MAGNET-WHEELED ROBOT, Dr. Yang Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology

 INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE

• QUANTITATIVE BRIDGE INSPECTION RATINGS USING AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC SYSTEMS, Dr. Anil Agrawal, The City College of New York

AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS

• MOBILE-MANIPULATING UAVS FOR SENSOR INSTALLATION, BRIDGE INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE, Dr. Paul Oh, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• CLIMBING ROBOTS WITH AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT OF SENSORS AND NDE DEVICES FOR STEEL BRIDGE INSPECTION, Dr. Hung La, University of Nevada, Reno

• AUTONOMOUS WALL-CLIMBING ROBOTS FOR INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF CONCRETE BRIDGES, Dr. Jizhong Xiao, The City College of New York

• BRIDGE INSPECTION ROBOT DEPLOYMENT SYSTEMS (BIRDS), Dr. Bo Shang, Missouri S&T

 WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

• A TRAINING FRAMEWORK OF ROBOTIC OPERATION AND IMAGE ANALYSIS FOR DECISION-MAKING IN BRIDGE INSPECTION AND PRESERVATION, Dr. Ruwen Qin, Missouri S&T

• DEVELOPING A ROBOTIC SIMULATOR AND VIDEO GAMES FOR PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC TRAINING, Dr. Sushil Louis, University of Nevada, Reno

RETROFIT AND RESILIENCE

• BRIDGE RESILIENCE ASSESSMENT WITH INSPIRE DATA, Dr. Iris Tien, Georgia Institute of Technology

More Information

Graduate Student Poster Session

INSPIRE graduate students from all consortium institutions attended the annual meeting.  Participating students interacted with transportation professionals from the government and industry sector.  A Graduate Student Poster Session was held, and offers students the opportunity to showcase their research, communicate results to other students, faculty and staff, engage with representatives from the transportation industry, and facilitate interdisciplinary work by exchanging knowledge and ideas between individuals from multiple disciplines.

Poster Session Guidelines

 - Poster Session Award Winners -

The INSPIRE UTC External Advisory Committee members attending the annual meeting served as judges for the poster competition.  First, second and third place awards were presented to the following students:

1st Place

Haibin Zhang and Genda Chen, Missouri S&T

“UAV-based Smart Rock Localization for Determination of Bridge Scour Depth”

2nd Place

Muhammad Monjurul Karim and Ruwen Qin, Missouri S&T

“Bridge Inspection Video Data Analysis for Data-Driven Asset Management”

3rd Place

Yu Otsuki and Yang Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology

“Autonomous Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement of Steel Bridge Members using Mobile Sensors”