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.
Ibrahim Defends Dissertation
Congratulations to Ahmed Ibrahim for defending his Ph.D. dissertation last week! Ahmed’s doctoral research, Automated Inspection and Assessment of Damaged Steel Girders Using Computer Vision and Machine Learning, was supervised by Ahmed Elbanna, Larry Fahnestock and Jim LaFave. Ahmed’s research was part of the project Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders, which is funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation.
Ahmed Ibrahim with doctoral committee (Jim LaFave, Ahmed Elbanna, Larry Fahnestock and Mohamad Alipour) after defense.
New Paper on Point Cloud Processing for Damage Characterization
Congratulations to Limo Schissler on leading the publication of a new journal paper:
This paper documents a portion of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) project R27-225 (“Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders”).
New Paper on Damaged Girder Capacity Prediction
Congratulations to Ahmed Ibrahim on leading the publication of a new journal paper:
This paper documents a portion of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) project R27-225 (“Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders”).
New Research Report
A new research report, which partially documents a multi-year research project that included bridge field monitoring and numerical simulations of live load and thermal effects, is now published online. This work is funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation. Sunny Zhou and Ricardo Dorado, the Ph.D. students on the project, are recognized for their essential roles executing this complex campaign! Volumes II and III will be published in the next few months.
2026 NASCC Registration Open
2026 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference
Registration is now open for the 2026 Illinois Structural Engineering Conference, which will be held Thursday, April 9, 2026 at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL.
https://structures.cee.illinois.edu/illinois-structural-engineering-conference
Fahnestock Delivers Dexter Lecture
Last month Larry Fahnestock delivered a Dexter Memorial Lecture, part of the Warren Distinguished Lecture Series, in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. The Dexter Memorial Lecture is held to honor the legacy of Prof. Robert Dexter (1956-2004). Robert is remembered for his technical expertise and contributions in steel fatigue and fracture, and for his humility, kindness, generosity and encouragement that touched so many people.
New Undergraduate Researchers
Welcome to Eve Kim and Camila Marden, who have been selected for the CEE-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program during the Fall 2025 semester! Eve has joined the project “Estimation of the Load Rating of Existing Highway Bridges Based on Bridge Weigh-In-Motion Data” led by PI Prof. Alipour and Co-PI Prof. Fahnestock, and Camila has joined the project “Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders” led by PI Prof. Fahnestock and Co-PIs Prof. LaFave and Prof. Elbanna.
New Paper on Bridge Strikes
Congratulations to Limo Schissler on leading the publication of a new journal paper:
This paper documents a portion of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) project R27-225 (“Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders”).