Category Archives: News

New Research Reports Published

Posted on by

Two new research reports, which document multi-year research projects funded by the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) are now published.

Evaluation of Steel Bridge Girders Damaged by Over-height Vehicle Strikes Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Machine Learning is the final report for the project ICT R27-225 Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders.

Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures (Vol. III): Investigation of Skew and Abutment Influence on Steel I-Girder Bridge Performance under Live Load and Long-Term Thermal Effects through Field Data and Parametric Studies is the last volume of the final report for the project ICT R27-194 Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures.

Special thanks to the Ph.D. students – Ahmed Ibrahim, Limo Schissler, Sunny Zhou, and Ricardo Dorado – whose significant contributions made these major research projects possible!

Vintimilla Joins Group

Posted on by

Welcome to Xavier Vintimilla, as he begins the Ph.D. program in structural engineering advised by Prof. Larry Fahnestock! Xavier received a M.S. in Civil Engineering at Illinois in May 2026, and at the recent 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (13NCEE) he presented his M.S. research conducted with Prof. Bill Spencer. Xavier completed undergraduate studies at the University of Cuenca, and he subsequently worked in structural engineering consulting for a year before coming to Illinois as a Fulbright Scholar.

Xavier Vintimilla presenting at 13NCEE.

New Report Published

Posted on by

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! Volume I was published earlier this year and Volume III will be published next month.

Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures (Vol. II): Evaluation of Skewed Steel I-Girder Bridge Behavior under Deck Placement and Live Load through Field Monitoring and Numerical Simulation

Tao Passes Prelim

Posted on by

Congratulations to Zhuoqi Tao on passing the Ph.D. preliminary exam last week! Zhuoqi’s research on steel moment resisting frames with spines and force-limiting connections for enhanced seismic performance is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

Ibrahim Defends Dissertation

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

Congratulations to Limo Schissler on leading the publication of a new journal paper:

Schissler, L., LaFave, J., Elbanna, E. and Fahnestock, L. “Point Cloud Processing for Damage Characterization of Steel I-Sections,” Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, 2026, 152 (6): 04026055.

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

Posted on by

Congratulations to Ahmed Ibrahim on leading the publication of a new journal paper:

Ibrahim, A.E., Fahnestock, L.A., LaFave, J.M. and Elbanna, A.E. “Explainable machine learning for predicting the load-carrying capacity of damaged steel girders after over-height vehicle strikes, Engineering Structures, 357 (2026) 122517.

This paper documents a portion of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) project R27-225 (“Strength and Serviceability of Damaged Steel Girders”).

New Research Report

Posted on by

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.

Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures (Vol. I): Agency Survey and Preliminary Numerical Modeling of Skewed Steel I-Girder Bridges for Field Instrumentation