NSF Bridge Workshop
NSF Bridge Condition Monitoring and Prognostication Workshop
November 20-21, 2008
Radisson University Hotel
Download final workshop report (15.85 MB PDF)
About the Workshop
As the nation’s infrastructure ages and as the demands on the infrastructure intensify due to increased volumes of traffic and truck loads, while budgets to maintain and replace these systems diminish, it has become increasingly evident that there is an urgent need to be able to accurately assess the health and safety of bridge systems to ensure life safety and to prioritize the allocation of limited resources to retrofit and replace systems.
The objective of the workshop was to provide an interdisciplinary forum for leading researchers in these areas to formulate and advance the next generation research priorities. The outcome of the workshop was the development of clear priorities which can be used as a resource to inform the associated programs at NSF and broader research community of the challenges to be addressed which might guide the associated cross-disciplinary resources required to support the effort.
This workshop, sponsored by the NSF Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) was intended to meet the following objectives:
- To bring together leaders within multiple disciplines to identify the next generation research needs required to advance developments in bridge sensing and prognostication.
- To foster a culture of interdisciplinary approach and to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary research teams in the broader community to address the identified research needs; and to raise awareness among the directorates within NSF of the research areas identified across the disciplines that have a vital role in contributing to the intellectual merit towards this effort.
- To develop a document which will provide a clear list of priorities which can be used as a resource to inform the associated programs at NSF and broader research community of the short and long-term research needs and grand challenges to be addressed which might guide the associated cross-disciplinary resources required to support the effort. The document will identify next generation research directions associated with bridge sensing and prognostication including associated fields of sensors; data acquisition, networking, and communications; data management and interpretation; and decision making, with particular emphasis on the research needs associated with the integration across these major topic areas.
Participants
The workshop was attended by 37 participants, with research specializations in the areas of sensors, networking and communications, and structural engineering. Participants included included researchers from the academic community and federally funded laboratories, practicing engineers from the bridge engineering community represented by engineers from the Departments of Transportation (DOT) in Iowa and Minnesota and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Format for the workshop
The workshop ran over the course of two days, and consisted of a series of keynote presentations, followed by two sets of three parallel breakout sessions and group reassemblies to discuss the topics generated in the breakout sessions. On the afternoon of the second day, breakout session moderators and scribes participated in drafting the final outcomes of the workshop. View the final workshop agenda.
Location
The workshop was held at the Radisson University Hotel (formerly Radisson Metrodome) on the University of Minnesota campus, Minneapolis, MN.
