Planning Visit for Developing New International Collaborations

此次规划之行的重点是在美国研究人员和剑桥大学新成立的智能基础设施与建设创新与知识中心(IKC)的研究人员之间开展国际合作。教授们。西北大学的理查德·芬诺、康奈尔大学的托马斯·奥鲁尔克和麻省理工学院的安德鲁·惠特尔以及五名博士生将前往英国剑桥大学会见佐贺健一教授和最近成立的IKC的其他成员。这次访问的目的是找到促进在地下基础设施的开发、维护和管理方面开展国际合作的机制和战略。对于美国研究人员来说，存在着一个独特的机会，可以将他们的经验和专业知识与ICK的研究人员的经验和专业知识结合起来。这种伙伴关系将利用美国和英国双方的能力，拓宽基础设施改善的研究议程，并催化通过学术专家的合作而产生的创新，这些专家在地下技术方面是国际公认的。美国和英国的研究小组一直专注于地下基础设施的先进建设、适应性管理和监测。他们开发了预测、监测和控制施工期间地面运动的技术，监测和控制城市交通、能源输送和供水设施的无线传感器网络，以及保护地理上分散的基础设施系统免受地震和其他自然灾害影响的地理信息系统(GIS)和网络分析。美国参与者工作的一个独特方面是他们对真实系统的长期参与，这些系统被用作全面实验室，以了解复杂的土壤-结构相互作用，并了解组件行为对整个系统性能的影响。这次规划访问预计将产生的合作研究项目将产生以下成果：(1)制定一种更安全、更高效和更经济的地下空间和基础设施设计和施工程序的综合方法，(2)在岩土场地特征、施工监测和数据管理方面取得重大进展，(3)开发新型地下建筑计算模型，(4)制定地下结构和地下基础设施的长期监测、维护和保护措施，以及5)改进研究生和本科生教育。这笔规划拨款将使研究团队能够结合美国和英国的最佳实践和最新研究进展，开发和推广高效、成本效益和无害环境的地下基础设施使用和维护技术，以满足城市地区对可持续空间和服务日益增长的需求。这项研究将针对提高拥挤的城市和郊区中心的生活质量的技术，并将可持续发展原则纳入地下空间的开发和更新。这项研究集中在将“智能”融入地下基础设施建设和运营的技术上。该团队将专注于传感器、无线数据传输、为传感器系统供电的电力清理、数据管理和挖掘、基础设施的地理信息系统可视化以及空间变量关系等新兴技术。该奖项由土木工程、机械和制造创新部和国际科学与工程办公室联合资助。

This planning trip focuses on developing an international collaboration between US researchers and researchers at the new Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (IKC) at the University of Cambridge. Profs. Richard Finno of Northwestern University, Thomas O?Rourke of Cornell University and Andrew Whittle of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with and five PhD students, will travel to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to meet with Professor Kenichi Soga and other members of the recently-established IKC. The purpose of this visit is to find mechanisms and strategies for catalyzing an international collaboration regarding development, maintenance and management of underground infrastructure. A unique opportunity exists for US researchers to combine their experience and expertise with those of researchers at the ICK. Such a partnership will leverage the capabilities of both the US and UK sides to broaden the research agenda for infrastructure improvements and catalyze innovations derived from the collaboration of academic experts, who are internationally recognized in underground technology. The research groups in the US and UK have focused on advanced construction, adaptive management, and monitoring of underground infrastructure. They have developed techniques to predict, monitor, and control ground movements during construction, wireless sensor networks to monitor and control urban transportation, energy delivery, and water supply facilities, and geographical information systems (GIS) and network analyses to protect geographically distributed infrastructure systems from the effects of earthquakes and other natural disasters. A unique aspect of the work of the US participants is their long-term involvement with real systems, which are used as full scale laboratories to learn about complex soil-structure interaction and understand the implications of component behavior on system-wide performance. The anticipated collaborative research projects that will result from this planning visit will have outcomes that result in: (1) the development of an integrated approach to safer, more efficient and more economical designs and construction procedures of underground space and infrastructure, (2) significant advances in geotechnical site characterization, construction monitoring and data management, (3) development of novel computational models for underground construction, (4) development of long-term monitoring, maintenance and protection measures for underground structures and underground infrastructure, and 5) improved graduate and undergraduate education. This planning grant will allow the research team to incorporate best practices and recent research advances in the US and UK to develop and promote technologies for the efficient, cost effective and environmentally sound use and maintenance of underground infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for sustainable space and services in urban areas. The research will target technologies to enhance quality of life in congested urban and suburban centers, and incorporate sustainability principles in the development and renewal of underground space. The research concentrates on technologies that integrate "intelligence?into the construction and operation of underground infrastructure. The team will focus on emerging technologies in sensors, wireless transmission of data, power scavenging to energize sensor systems, data management and mining, GIS visualization of infrastructure and spatially variable relations. This award is jointly funded by the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation and the Office of International Science and Engineering.