Welcome to the online home of the Fahnestock Research Group within CEE at Illinois. Led by Prof. Larry Fahnestock, and collaborating with colleagues at Illinois and other universities, the group conducts research broadly related to behavior, design and performance of large-scale structural systems. We employ laboratory and field testing in conjunction with analytical and numerical models to illuminate critical aspects of behavior that inform advances in system configurations and design methods, ultimately leading to superior performance that contributes to infrastructure resiliency and sustainability. Research topics span across buildings and bridges, moderate and high seismic design, low and high ductility response, service and extreme load conditions. Current projects are sponsored by the National Science Foundation, American Institute of Steel Construction and Illinois Center for Transportation. This site provides a brief overview of the group activities, so please inquire for more details about anything posted here.
Shi Presents at NHERI Computational Symposium
Congratulations to Shitao Shi for presenting a lightning talk, “Innovative Research Workflow for Seismic Design Provisions Development,” at the NHERI Computational Symposium! This talk highlighted a computational framework that Shitao has developed to support his Ph.D. research on seismic stability, which is partially funded by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Science Foundation.

Shitao Shi at the NHERI Computational Symposium.
Agarwal Defends Dissertation
Congratulations to Aradhana Agarwal for defending her Ph.D. dissertation! Aradhana’s doctoral research, Seismic Design and Performance of Multitiered Ordinary Concentrically Braced Frames, was supervised by Larry Fahnestock and partially funded by the American Institute of Steel Construction.

Aradhana Agarwal with doctoral committee (Frank Lombardo, Larry Fahnestock and Jim LaFave; Ahmed Elbanna not pictured) after defense.
AISC Scholarships
New Paper on MT-OCBF
A new paper that documents a portion of Aradhana Agarwal’s Ph.D. research is now published in the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering. Congratulations Aradhana!
Agarwal, A. and Fahnestock, L. “Seismic Collapse Performance of Multitiered Ordinary Concentrically-Braced Frames,” Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, 2025, 151 (3): 04025008. https://doi.org/10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-13635
Shi Passes Prelim
2025 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference
Registration is now open for the 2025 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference, which will be held Thursday, April 17, 2025 at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL.
https://structures.cee.illinois.edu/2025-illinois-structural-engineering-conference
Miller Receives Award for Excellence
For the second time (first was in 2022), Marissa Miller, CEE Office Manager, received the CEE Staff Award for Excellence. Marissa joined CEE in spring of 2018, and since that time, she has provided outstanding support to the Structures Group. Congratulations Marissa!
New ICT Report
An interim report on Illinois Center for Transportation Project R27-225 is now available online:
Schissler, L.R., Ahershinge, S., Ibrahim, A.E., Fahnestock, L.A., LaFave, J.M. and Elbanna, A.E. “Report on Agency Survey and National Bridge Inventory Analysis for Damaged Steel Girders,” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Research Report No. FHWA-ICT-24-021, Illinois Center for Transportation, November 2024. https://doi.org/10.36501/0197-9191/24-024
New ASCE JBE Paper
Congratulations to Prof. Siang (Sunny) Zhou on a new paper, Parametric Study of Skewed Steel I-Girder Bridge Truck Live Load Response, based on her PhD research and now published in the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering! Sunny is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Hajjar Delivers Newmark Lecture
Last week Jerome Hajjar, University Distinguished Professor, CDM Smith Professor, and Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University, delivered the 2024 Newmark Distinguished Lecture, “Urban Engineering: New Strategies for a Resilient and Sustainable Future.” Congratulations to Jerry!

Prof. Jerry Hajjar with CEE Structures Faculty.