Congratulations to Utkarsh Kode (MS, 2019) for his new position at Horner & Shifrin in St. Louis, Missouri!  Utkarsh contributed to several bridge research projects during his graduate studies in CEE at Illinois and is a co-author on the recent paper:

LaFave, J.M., Brambila, G., Kode, U., Liu, G. and Fahnestock, L.A. “Field Behavior of Integral Abutment Bridges under Thermal Loading,” Journal of Bridge Engineering, ASCE, April 2021, 26 (4): 04021013. dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0001677

Best wishes to Utkarsh as he begins his professional career in bridge engineering!

Congratulations to Zhuoqi Tao on passing the structural engineering qualifying exam and being admitted to candidacy in the PhD program!  Zhuoqi is studying innovative methods for seismic stability and damage control in steel building systems as part of the NSF-funded project Collaborative Research: Frame-Spine System for Seismic-Resilient Building Performance.  His recent work contributed to a unique full-scale four-story building test that was conducted at E-Defense in December 2020.

The bridge instrumentation systems on two new Mattis Avenue bridges in Champaign, over I-74 and I-57, are now installed and collecting data.  Monitoring over the next several years will provide new knowledge about behavior under daily traffic loading and longer-term structural response due to seasonal temperature changes.  This field data collection program is part of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) Project R27-194: Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures, which was recently featured online by ICT and CEE.  Thanks to Sunny Zhou (Ph.D. student and lead graduate research assistant) and the dedicated research team for their hard work over the last few months to reach this major milestone!

This week – as part of the NSF-funded project “Collaborative Research: Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections for Low-Damage Seismic-Resilient Buildings” –  researchers from the University of Illinois, Lehigh University, Oregon State University, Kyoto University, Hokkaido University and E-Defense conducted full-scale building earthquake simulations on the shake table at the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center (E-Defense).  The four-story building employed a novel low-damage structural system and the building was furnished with hospital fixtures and equipment to evaluate protection of occupants and building contents.  The testing program concluded on December 17 with an earthquake simulation using an input acceleration record from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake (100% JMA Kobe video linked).  Due to the pandemic, researchers from the U.S. could not visit Japan for the tests, but with excellent communication and dedicated colleagues in Japan, the program was completed successfully!

Prof. Kurata (Kyoto University), Prof. Okazaki (Hokkaido University) and Dr. Kawamata (E-Defense) with Four-Story Test Building at E-Defense

As part of Project R27-194: Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures, sponsored by the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT), instrumentation is currently being installed on two new bridges on Mattis Avenue in Champaign, over I-74 and I-57.  Subsequent monitoring over several years will provide new knowledge about behavior under daily traffic loading and longer-term structural response due to seasonal temperature changes.  This four-year grant is being led by Larry Fahnestock (PI), Jim LaFave (Co-PI) and Ph.D. student Sunny Zhou.

Strain Gage Installation at Regal Industrial Corporation

Placement of Instrumented Girders for Mattis Avenue Bridge over I-57

Instrumentation Installation at Mattis Avenue Bridge over I-57

Congratulations to Josh Steelman (PhD, 2013) for his recent promotion to Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln!  Prof. Steelman’s areas of professional and research interest include: structural risk and reliability at the component, structure, and regional levels; response of structures to extreme events and innovative methods for structural protection; experimental investigation of structural response; performance-based evaluation and design of structures.  He is involved with the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility and is the PI for a new NCHRP project related to railing collision loads.