Upcoming Events
Past Events
SEPTEMBER 2022
21st EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS CONFERENCE: SEPTEMBER 23
On Friday, September 23, 2022 on the campus of Missouri S&T, the 21st Expanding Your Horizons conference featured hands-on workshops and activities to nurture the minds of young women interested in STEM fields. This year's workshop taught students how to design traffic signals and do city planning to reduce traffic congestion.
JUNE 2022
INSPIRE Webinar: Intelligent Human-Infrastructure Interfaces for Inspectors and Decision-Makers
On June 21, 2022 at 10:00AM CST, Dr. Fernando Moreu, of University of New Mexico, presented "Intelligent Human-Infrastructure Interfaces for Inspectors and Decision-Makers". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/20/
MARCH 2022
INSPIRE Webinar: Toward Dexterous Aerial Manipulation Using Embodied Human-Intelligence For Bridge Inspection and Maintenance
On March 16, 2022 at 10:00AM CST, Dr. Dongbin Kim, of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, presented "Toward Dexterous Aerial Manipulation Using Embodied Human-Intelligence For Bridge Inspection and Maintenance". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/19/
December 2021
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Hyperspectral Imaging and Data Analytics For Civil Infrastructure Inspection : December 14
On December 14, 2021 at 10:00AM CST, Dr. Ghenda Chen, of Missouri S&T, presented "Hyperspectral Imaging and Data Analytics for Civil Infrastructure Inspection". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/18/.
September 2021
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Image-Based Bridge Defect Detection and Monitoring Technologies : September 14
On September 14, 2021 at 10:00AM CST, Dr. Jian Zhang, Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Engineering Mechanics at Southeast University, China, presented "Image-Based Bridge Defect Detection and Monitoring Technologies". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/17/.
AUGUST 2021
INSPIRE UTC ANNUAL MEETING: AUGUST 10-11
The INSPIRE UTC hosted a virtual annual meeting on August 10-11, 2021. Activities included technical research presentations by major university member principal investigators and an INSPIRE UTC executive business meeting. Highlighted topics included were updates on recent developments with the seven-state pooled-fund study and a virtual graduate poster session.
June 2021
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Fiber Optic Sensor Based Corrosion Assessment In Reinforced Concrete Bridge Elements and Metal Pipelines : June 16
On June 16, 2021 at 10:00AM CST, Dr. Genda Chen, Professor and Robert W. Abbett Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering, Director of the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and Director of the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure at Missouri S&T, presented "Fiber Optic Sensor Based Corrosion Assessment In Reinforced Concrete Bridge Elements and Metal Pipelines". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/16/.
FEBRUARY 2021
KALEIDOSCOPE DISCOVERY CENTER: MISSOURI FUTURE CITY COMPETITION: FEBRUARY 27
The Kaleidoscope Discovery Center will be participating in the Missouri Future City Competition. This year the competition theme is Living on the Moon. Due to Covid-19, Missouri's regional final will be held remotely on Saturday, February 27, 2021. The finals are scheduled for April 2021. For more information visit: https://thekaleidoscope.org/2020/10/16/missouri-future-city-competition/.
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS PRE-COLLEGE INITIATIVE: FEBRUARY 19-20
The INSPIRE UTC will participate in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative (PCI). It will be held on February 19-20, 2021 on the Missouri S&T campus. This year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event will be held virtually. The PCI program supports high school students that may be considering a future career in science, technology, engineering, or math. Through information sessions and hands-on workshops students have a chance to explore career options and gain a better understanding of what college life is all about. PCI is sponsored by S&T's student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Student Diversity Initiatives Department.
December 2020
Mid-American Transportation Center Presentation: December 8
On December 8, 2020 at 2:00PM CST, MATC presented A free webinar to discuss research funded by the US Department of Transportation titled "Reducing Flammability for Bakken Crude Oil for Train Transport". Presented by Dr. Albert Ratner, and Mr. Sazzad Parveg.
Inspire Webinar: Artificial Intelligence-Empowered Civil Engineer: December 8
On December 8, 2020 at 9:00AM CST, Dr. Hui Li, Changjiang Scholar and Professor in Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Harbin Institute of Technology, presented "Artificial Intelligence-Empowered Civil Engineer". View the webinar at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire_webinars/14/.
September 2020
INSPIRE WEBINAR: UAV-ENABLED MEASUREMENT FOR SPATIAL MAGNETIC FIELD OF SMART ROCKS IN BRIDGE SCOUR MONITORING: September 14
On September 14, 2020, Dr. Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director, presented "UAV-Enabled Measurement for Spatial Magnetic Field of Smart Rocks in Bridge Scour Monitoring". View the webinar at https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2020/.
August 2020
INSPIRE UTC Annual Meeting: August 3-4
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.
July 2020
Dr. Genda Chen delivers EuroStruct Talk on Infrastructure Management: July 9
Dr. Genda Chen presented a EuroStruct Talk titled "Future Infrastructure Management using the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology," on July 9, 2020.
JUNE 2020
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Mobile Manipulation Drones: June 17
On June 17, 2020, Dr. Paul Oh, Professor of Unmanned Aerial Systems, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, presented "Mobile Manipulating Drones". View the webinar at: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2020/.
CUTC Summer Meeting: June 9-10
The INSPIRE UTC attended the 2020 Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Summer Meeting hosted by the the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R). The meeting was held virtually as an online session in place of the summer meeting www.sptc.org/cutc.
MARCH 2020
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Non-Contact Air-Coupled Sensing For Rapid Evaluation Of Bridge Decks: March 12
On March 12, 2020, Dr. Jinying Zhu, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska, Lincoln presented "Non-Contact Air-Coupled Sensing For Rapid Evaluation Of Bridge Decks". View the webinar at: inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars.
FEBRUARY 2020
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS PRE-COLLEGE INITIATIVE: FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 1
The INSPIRE UTC participated in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative (PCI) Weekend, on the Missouri S&T campus. PCI is an on-campus visit program for African-American students who may be considering a future career in math, science, computing or engineering. PCI is sponsored by S&T's student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Student Diversity Initiatives Department. Through information sessions and hands-on workshops, students explored a variety of career options and gain a better understanding of college life.
FLL JUNIOR EXPO: FEBRUARY 23
The INSPIRE UTC provided support for the FLL Junior Expo hosted by the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center on the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla, MO. For more information about First Robotics, visit: https://thekaleidoscope.org/robotics/.
JANUARY 2020
TRB Annual Metting: January 13-16
The INSPIRE UTC attended the 2020 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting January 13-16, 2020 in Washington, D.C. This program attracts more than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world, including researchers from the INSPIRE UTC. For more information, visit: https://tradeshowz.com/trb.
INSPIRE UTC Attends Consumer Electronics Show: January 10
The INSPIRE UTC attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 10, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES is the largest technology show in the world, attracting more than 4,500 exhibitors each year. This year, the U.S. Department of Transportation hosted an exhibition booth dedicated to highlighting transportation technologies developed by University Transportation Centers. The Advanced Robotics Laboratory (ARA) team led by Dr. Hung La of the University of Nevada, Reno, successfully demonstrated automated steel inspection robots can climb on multiple-steel assemblages and collect visual and eddy current data in real-time. The demonstration attracted more than 150 attendees.
DECEMBER 2019
INSPIRE WEBINAR: Simulation Training and Route Optimization for Bridge Inspection: December 4
On December 4, 2019, Dr. Sushil Louis, Professor of Computer Science, University of Nevada, Reno, presented "Simulation Training and Route Optimization for Bridge Inspection". View the webinar at: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2019/.
NOVEMBER 2019
20TH ANNUAL EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS CONFERENCE: NOVEMBER 15
On Friday, November 15, 2019 on the campus of Missouri S&T, the 20th annual EYH conference featured hands-on workshops and activities to nurture the minds of young women interested in STEM fields and keynote speaker Major General Donna W. Martin. MG Martin is the Commanding General of the United States Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood.
SEPTEMBER 2019
INSPIRE Webinar: Data To Risk-Informed Decisions Through Bridge Model Updating: September 25
On September 25, 2019, Dr. Iris Tien, Assistant Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, presented "Data to Risk-Informed Decisions through Bridge Model Updating". View the webinar at: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2019.
AUGUST 2019
INSPIRE UTC Annual Meeting: August 4-7
The INSPIRE UTC held its annual meeting August 4-7, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency At the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. Activities included technical research presentations by invited keynote speakers and distinguished guests; plenary and concurrent technical sessions; an INSPIRE UTC executive business meeting; a panel discussion with practitioners, researchers, and industry representatives; bridge test demonstrations on the Stan Musial I-70 bridge; and the Graduate Student Poster Session and awards ceremony.
JUNE 2019
CUTC SUMMER MEETING: JUNE 24-26
The INSPIRE UTC attended the 2019 Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Summer Meeting hosted by the University of Oklahoma and the Southern Plains Transportation Center. The meeting was held at the National Weather Center, located on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
MAY 2019
HEAMES 2019: MAY 23-24
Dr. Iris Tien, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and INSPIRE UTC Principal Investigator, delivered an invited presentation titled "Data to Risk-Informed Decisions through Bridge Model Updating" at the 2nd International Conference on Health Monitoring of Civil and Maritime Structures (HeaMES 2019) in Glasgow, UK.
MARCH 2019
GRAPHENE TECHNOLOGY 2019: MARCH 27-30
Dr. Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director, delivered a keynote presentation titled “Exploring Graphene Growth from Soybean Oil and its Application in Fiber Optic Corrosion Sensors” at the Global Conference on Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Technologies (Graphene Technology 2019) conference in Milan, Italy on March 27-30, 2019.
TECHNICAL WRITING SEMINAR SERIES: (II) GENERAL GUIDES TO PUBLISH WELL-WRITTEN TECHNICAL PAPERS: MARCH 22
The INSPIRE UTC co-sponsored a technical writing seminar titled General Guides to Publish Well-Written Technical Papers on March 22, 2019. The seminar was presented by Jie Han, Ph.D., PE, Glenn L. Parker Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, F. ASCE, the University of Kansas, and moderated by Jenny Liu, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Missouri S&T.
TECHNICAL WRITING SEMINAR SERIES: (I) SIX KEY ELEMENTS OF HIGH-QUALITY TECHNICAL WRITING: MARCH 8
The INSPIRE UTC co-sponsored a technical writing seminar titled Six Key Elements of High Quality Technical Writing on March 8, 2019. The seminar was presented by Xianming Shi, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Washington State University, and moderated by Jenny Liu, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Missouri S&T.
SPIE SMART STRUCTURES + NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION: MARCH 3-7
INSPIRE UTC Director, Dr. Genda Chen, delivered a keynote presentation titled “Emerging Roles of Autonomous Systems, Structural Health Monitoring and Nondestructive Evaluation in Bridge Inspection and Maintenance” at the SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation conference in Denver, Colorado.
INSPIRE WEBINAR: BATTERY-FREE WIRELESS STRAIN MEASUREMENT USING AN ANTENNA SENSOR: MARCH 6
Dr. Yang Wang, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, presented "Battery-Free Wireless Strain Measurement Using an Antenna Sensor" on March 6, 2019. To view the archived webinar, visit: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2019/.
FEBRUARY 2019
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS PRE-COLLEGE INITIATIVE: FEBRUARY 23
The INSPIRE UTC participated in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative (PCI) Weekend, on the Missouri S&T campus. PCI is an on-campus visit program for African-American students who may be considering a future career in math, science, computing or engineering. PCI is sponsored by S&T's student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Student Diversity Initiatives Department. Through information sessions and hands-on workshops, students explored a variety of career options and gained a better understanding of college life.
FLL JUNIOR EXPO: FEBRUARY 24
The INSPIRE UTC provided support for the FLL Junior Expo hosted by the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center on the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla, MO. For more information about First Robotics, visit: https://thekaleidoscope.org/robotics/.
JANUARY 2019
INSPIRE WEBINAR: ASSISTIVE INTELLIGENCE (AI): INTELLIGENT DATA ANALYTICS ALGORITHMS TO ASSIST HUMAN EXPERTS: JANUARY 30
On January 30, 2019, Dr. Zhaozheng Yin, Associate Professor and St. Clair Fellow, Department of Computer Science, Missouri S&T, presented "Assistive Intelligence (AI): Intelligent Data Analytics Algorithms to Assist Human Experts". View the archived webinar at: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2019/.
MISSOURI STATE FUTURE CITY COMPETITION: JANUARY 26
The INSPIRE UTC participated in the Missouri State Future City Competition hosted by the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center in Rolla, MO and Future City Competition- Missouri. Future City is a cross-curricular, educational program that gives students the opportunity to do what engineers do- identify problems; brainstorm ideas; design solutions; test; retest and build; and share their results. The INSPIRE UTC’s participation in this event helped raise awareness among the participants, ages 11-14, of the UTC activities and the advanced technologies that can be used to help preserve our nation’s aging transportation infrastructure. For more information visit the following websites https://www.facebook.com/kaleidoscopediscoverycenter/, https://futurecity.org/
TRB ANNUAL MEETING: JANUARY 13-17
The INSPIRE UTC attended the 2019 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting January 13-17, 2019 in Washington, D.C. This program attracts more than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world, including researchers from the INSPIRE UTC. For more information, visit: https://tradeshowz.com/trb
NOVEMBER 2018
5th International Conference on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: November 22-24
Dr. Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director, delivered a presentation titled, "Robot-assisted Bridge Inspection and Maintenance" and served as Program Co-Chair at the 5th International Conference on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (ICRAI 2019) in Singapore.
OCTOBER 2018
2018 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SENSOR NETWORKS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING: OCTOBER 28-31
Dr. Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director, delivered a keynote presentation on “Short-time Continuous Wavelet Transform of the Response of Time-varying Systems” at the 2018 International Conference on Sensor Networks and Signal Processing, Xi'an, China.
5TH WORLD CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON CONSTRUCTION AND STEEL STRUCTURE: OCTOBER 5-6
Dr. Genda Chen, INSPIRE UTC Director, delivered a keynote presentation on “Sensor-enhanced Analysis and Behavior of Steel Beams in Fire” at the 5th World Congress and Exhibition on Construction and Steel Structure in Los Angeles, CA.
EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS WORKSHOP: OCTOBER 5
The INSPIRE UTC and Mid America Transportation Center (MATC) co-hosted two hands-on transportation engineering workshops during the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Conference on the Missouri S&T campus. The EYH conference is an annual conference for 7th and 8th grade girls. It is designed to help participants better understand some of the many career choices they can explore in S.T.E.M. areas. This year, the INSPIRE UTC and MATC hosted Traffic Jam!, a hands-on workshop that engages students in transportation computer games that demonstrated how to design traffic signals and do city planning to reduce traffic congestions. The workshop was presented by Dr. Xianbiao Hu, Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering at Missouri S&T.
SEPTEMBER 2018
INSPIRE UTC WEBINAR: SEPTEMBER 19
Toward Autonomous Wall-climbing Robots for Inspection of Concrete Bridges and Tunnels was presented by Dr. Jizhong Xiao, Professor of Electrical Engineering at The City College of New York. To view the archived webinar, visit: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2018/.
2018 U.S. FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING SYMPOSIUM: SEPTEMBER 5-7
Dr. Iris Tien, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Principal Investigator with the INSPIRE UTC, co-chaired the “Resilient and Reliable Infrastructure" session at the 2018 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in Lexington, MA. The Frontiers of Engineering Symposium brings together the nation’s best engineers from academia, national labs, and industry to explore interdisciplinary ideas to address some of engineering's grand challenges. For more information, visit: https://www.naefrontiers.org/Symposia/USFOE/17105/56883.aspx
AUGUST 2018
SMT AND NDT-CE 2018: AUGUST 27-29
NDE/NDT for Highway and Bridges: Structural Materials Technology (SMT 2018) and the International Symposium Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE 2018)- This joint conference is the one event in 2018 where international researchers, manufacturers, service providers, owners of structures and those active in training, validation and standardization of nondestructive evaluation for civil infrastructure will discuss state-of-the-art as well as innovative NDE technologies, advanced modeling and best practices. For more information or to submit an abstract, visit: https://www.asnt.org/MajorSiteSections/Events/Upcoming_Events/Bridges_2018.aspx
INSPIRE UTC ANNUAL MEETING: AUGUST 14-15
The INSPIRE UTC held its 2018 Annual Meeting on the Missouri S&T campus August 14-15, 2018. Activities included technical research presentations by the INSPIRE UTC faculty, an executive meeting and panel discussion with the INSPIRE UTC External Advisory Committee, a Graduate Student Poster Session and awards ceremony, and a Pedestrian Bridge Test Demonstration. For more information, visit https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire-meetings/2018_meeting/.
JULY 2018
2018 IEEE CONGRESS ON EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION: JULY 8-13
INSPIRE UTC Associate Director, Dr. Hung La, and INSPIRE UTC PI, Dr. Sushil Louis presented A Genetic Algorithm for Convolutional Network Structure Optimization for Concrete Crack Detection at the 2018 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
US-JAPAN WORKSHOP: JULY 16-17
INSPIRE UTC Director, Dr. Genda Chen, and INSPIRE UTC Associate Director, Dr. Anil Agrawal participated by invitation in the 31st US-Japan Bridge Engineering Workshop in Los Angeles, CA. Sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, the workshop series brought together bridge engineers from the US and Japan to discuss common issues in bridge engineering. This particular workshop focused on the four technical topics:
- Bridges Designed for Enhanced Durability,
- Bridge Instrumentation and Health Monitoring,
- Guidelines and Use of Refined Calculations for Design and Bridge Assessment, and
- Innovative Materials for Bridge Design and Construction.
MODOT TRANSPORTATION CAMP: JULY 17
The INSPIRE UTC hosted a one-day transportation camp on the Missouri S&T campus, as part of MoDOT's annual Youth Transportation Conference. Each summer MoDOT selects 30 students from across the state to participate in the camp exposing them to numerous career opportunities in the field of transportation. Attendees spent a full day visiting S&T and exploring a variety of topics related to transportation.
JUNE 2018
COMPUTER VISION AND PATTERN RECOGNITION CONFERENCE: JUNE 22
Dr. Jizhong Xiao, INSPIRE UTC PI, and his associates presented Semantic Metric 3D Reconstruction for Concrete Inspection at the International Workshop on Visual Odometry and Computer Vision Applications Based on Location Clues in conjunction with Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR2018), Salt Lake City, UT.
CUTC SUMMER MEETING: JUNE 4-6
The INSPIRE UTC attended the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Summer Meeting, on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, MN. For more information visit: https://www.cts.umn.edu/node/5271.
MAY 2018
ICIEA 2018: MAY 31
Dr. Jizhong Xiao, Principal Investigator with the INSPIRE UTC and Director of the CCNT Robotics Lab, and his associates delivered a distinguished lecture on Mobile Robots Against Gravity for Non-destructive Inspection of Infrastructures at the 13th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA 2018) to be held in Wuhan, China. http://www.ieeeiciea.org/2018/ , http://www.ieeeiciea.org/2018/DIL3.html
APRIL 2018
VISITING SCHOLARS SEMINAR: APRIL 25
Dr. Gian Paolo Cimellaro presented a seminar on the Missouri S&T campus as part of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department's Visiting Scholars Seminar Series.
Topic: The Impact of Human Behavior During Emergencies on Civil Infrastructures
Dr. Cimellaro is a faculty member in the Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy. He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 2014-2016. He obtained his M.S. degree in 2005 and Ph.D. degree in 2008 from the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He graduated with a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2001. Currently he chairs the ISHMII Committee on Resilient Structures and Infrastructure (CORSI).
VISITING SCHOLARS SEMINAR: APRIL 19
Dr. Anil Agrawal presented a seminar on the Missouri S&T campus as part of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department's Visiting Scholars Seminar Series.
Topic: Reuse of Foundations of Existing Bridges
Dr. Anil Agrawal is a Professor of Civil Engineering at The City College of New York, and an Associate Director of the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, led by Missouri S&T. Dr. Agrawal is the Chief Editor of the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering. He has been the past-chair of ASCE Committee on Bridge Inspection, Rehabilitation and Monitoring. He is also an Associate Director of the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, led by Missouri S&T. His research interests include inspection and deterioration of bridge elements, robotic inspection of bridge components, post-hazard assessment using drones, behavior of bridges during extreme hazards such as earthquakes, blast, fire, and vehicular impacts on highway bridges, redundancy of long span cable supported bridges and advanced geophysical methods on foundation characterization.
MARCH 2018
INSPIRE UTC WEBINAR: MARCH 15
Microwave Materials Characterization and Imaging for Structural Health Monitoring was presented by Dr. Reza Zoughi, Schlumberger Endowed Professor, Electical and Computer Engineering, Missouri S&T. To view past webinars, visit: https://inspire-utc.mst.edu/webinars/pastwebinars/2018/.
FEBRUARY 2018
UM SYSTEM 2018 LEGISLATIVE DAY SHOWCASE: FEBRUARY 28
The INSPIRE UTC and Missouri S&T MinerFly Team participated in the inaugural University of Missouri System 2018 Legislative Day Showcase in Jefferson City, Missouri on February 28, 2018. For more information, visit: https://www.umsystem.edu/ums/gr/legislative_day.
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS PRE-COLLEGE INITIATIVE: FEBRUARY 24
The INSPIRE UTC participated in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative (PCI) Weekend, which took place on the Missouri S&T campus February 22-25, 2018. PCI is an on-campus visit program for African-American students who may be considering a future career in math, science, computing or engineering. PCI is sponsored by S&T's student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Student Diversity Initiatives Department. Through information sessions and hands-on workshops, students explored a variety of career options and gained a better understanding of college life.
JANUARY 2018
TRB ANNUAL MEETING: JANUARY 7-11
The INSPIRE UTC attended the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 97th Annual Meeting January 7–11, 2018 in Washington, D.C. This program attracted more than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world, including researchers from the INSPIRE UTC. For more information, visit: http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting/AnnualMeeting.aspx
MISSOURI STATE FUTURE CITY COMPETITION: JANUARY 13
The INSPIRE UTC participated in the Missouri State Future City Competition, hosted by the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center in Rolla, MO and Future City Competition- Missouri. The event was held Saturday, January 13, 2018 in the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building on the Missouri S&T campus.
Future City is a cross-curricular, educational program that gives students the opportunity to do what engineers do- identify problems; brainstorm ideas; design solutions; test; retest and build; and share their results. Future City is an engaging way to build 21st century skills in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students allowing them to imagine, research, design and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. The 2017-2018 theme was The Age-Friendly City. Teams identified an age-related challenge that exists in today’s urban environments and engineered two innovative solutions to this challenge.
The INSPIRE UTC’s participation in this event helped to raise awareness among the participants, ages 11-14, of the UTC activities and the advanced technologies that can be used to help preserve our nation’s aging transportation infrastructure. For more information visit the following websites https://www.facebook.com/kaleidoscopediscoverycenter/, https://futurecity.org/.
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