Intelligent Structural Health Management of Aerospace, Mechanical and Civil Structures

The Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention is currently seeking undergraduate students at Northwestern University working in the fields of engineering and the physical sciences that have an interest in ISHM and working on research projects abroad. Students enrolled in the eight-week program may be eligible for independent study credits. Program details and application can be found at http://www.cqe.northwestern.edu/pire-undergraduate.html

Dr. John Aldrin from Computational Tools (http://www.computationaltools.com/) will be at the Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention (Catalysis Building Rm. 322) on March 25, 2009 at 1:00pm presenting his work titled “Model-assisted Probability of Detection (POD) Evaluation for Reliability Assessment of Nondestructive Evaluation Techniques”.
All are invited to attend.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) has a call for abstracts for their “Developing a Research Agenda for Transportation Infrastructure Preservation and Renewal” fall conference. The abstracts are due March 27, 2009 and the conference will be held on November 12-13 in Washington, DC. Details can be found at:
http://www.trb.org/conferences/2009/Infrastructure/Call.pdf

ASCE has released Americas Infrastructure Report Card for 2009 at:
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
this year's GPA is 1.0 (which is a D on a 4 point system)
Here is the breakdown:
Aviation= D
Bridges= C
Dams= D
Drinking Water= D-
Energy= D+
Hazardous Waste= D
Inland Waterways= D-
Levees= D-
Public Parks & Recreation= C-
Rail= C-
Roads= D-
School= D
Solid Waste= C+
Transit= D
Wastewater= D-

36th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) will be held July 26 through July 31, 2009 at the University of Rhode Island– Kingston.

*Call For Papers*
ABSTRACTS DUE FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009

More Information can be found at:
http://www.cnde.iastate.edu/qnde/qnde.html

There will be a Symposium on Structural Health Management at the ICCES 2009 meeting to be held in Phuket, Thailand, April 8-13th, 2009.
Information about ICCES 2009 can be found at www.icces.org
Deadline for abstract submission is January 01, 2009!

I was reviewing some travel notes and would like to mention that on September 05, 2008 I was invited as a guest lecturer to present at The World Institute of Technology (WIT) in Gurgaon by Dr. J.M. Mahajan and the director (Dr. Puri) of the Institute. It was a fascinating experience as it was teacher’s day in India so there were many celebrations on campus. The institute itself is only three years old so it was also exciting to see an institute in its inaugural years. This was an opportunity to assist the WIT facility in initiating a research program at the institute.

I have spent the last week at IIT- Madras working on the ISHM project. It has been a great opportunity to see how this university in India operates differently than those in the United States. I have been impressed by the lab facilities and equipment that is available to conduct research here.

While in India two projects have been initiated and work distribution has been established. Working relationships with CNDE personnel has been established. Some possible future technical collaborations may include:
Eddytherm Infrared Inspection System
Nonlinear acoustics

Check the condition and last inspection dates of more than 100,000 bridges in the United States using an interactive format courtesy of msnbc’s “Bridge Tracker”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21840954

An overhead cantilever type highway sign collapsed in Tennessee. Prolonged wind loading from passing tractor trailers is suspected to have cause metal fatigue on the main support. TDOT is currently investigating cause. See full story at:
http://www.wsmv.com/news/16813368/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news