UMTC Affiliate Researchers to Present at Transportation Innovation Conference
Dr. Danjue Chen is currently working as an Assistant Professor, UMass Lowell. The focus of Dr. Chen’s research is on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), traffic flow theory and simulation and traffic-environment interaction.
During the MassDOT Transportation Innovation Conference, Dr. Chen will present on “Part 2 - Developing & Deploying Advanced UAS Applications: The Case for Collaboration among Government, Industry and Academia”. Her presentation will discuss on UAS (UAS) and the increase of their applications in surface transportation, including highway traffic accident reconstruction, incident situational awareness, and post-disaster transportation system damage assessment. She will also discuss the temporal and spatial distribution of historical highway incidents and natural disasters in Massachusetts, and aims to identify optimal locations for deploying UAS to promptly respond to highway incidents and natural disasters. This research recognizes the challenge to quantitatively consider all factors that may affect the optimality of UAS locations.
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Dr. Chengbo Ai is currently working as an Assistant Professor, UMass Amherst. The focus of Dr. Ai’s interdisciplinary research focuses on developing computational models, automated algorithms and hardware systems using remote sensing technologies and spatial analysis techniques as they are applied in the fields of transportation asset management, geometry design and roadway safety, pavement preservation and maintenance, and many other critical transportation applications.
During the MassDOT Transportation Innovation Conference, Dr. Ai will share the outcomes of the ongoing MassDOT research project on "Improving Pedestrian Infrastructure Inventory in Massachusetts using Mobile LiDAR." The corridor of State Route 9 is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed mobile LiDAR-based method in supporting efficient inventory update and condition assessment of the pedestrian infrastructure at MassDOT.
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Dr. Simos Gerasimidis is currently working as an Assistant Professor, UMass Amherst. Dr. Gerasimidis’s research focuses on infrastructure Resilience, specifically, structural response of critical infrastructure systems subjected to extreme-loading events, resilience-oriented structural design, damage propagation, structural response of damaged structures, structural robustness - progressive collapse, structural stability, stability-induced collapse modes, energy structures - wind turbines, blast-induced and fire-induced collapse of structures.
During the MassDOT Transportation Innovation Conference, Dr. Gerasimidis will present work that investigates the effect of beams end corrosion to the capacity of steel girder bridges. The first part of this research is initiated by collecting data by MassDOT inspection reports. The most common shapes and locations of corrosion topologies are identified and quantified making use of inspection reports across the state of Massachusetts. Second, loading tests are performed to three full-scale specimens obtained by bridge undergoing deconstruction, with natural corrosion. The effects of initial deformation, web and flange holes are investigated. The ultimate strength and post buckling behavior of the system are presented. Numerical models are developed and calibrated using the experimental data. Finally, the ongoing effort for new load rating procedures development which could be incorporated in the Massachusetts Bridge Manual, is presented.
The MassDOT Transportation Innovation Conference takes place on April 9 & 10, 2019 from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM at the DCU Center, 50 Foster St., Worcester, Massachusetts. For more information on the conference visit www.MassDOTInnovation.com.