VERMONT: UVM, UMaine, VTC Win $4 Million NSF Grant to Create Next Gen Sensor Networks for Infrastructure Monitoring
Researchers at the University of VERMONT, the University of MAINE and VERMONT Technical College have received a $4M grant from NSF to develop and test new technologies that could make monitoring the safety and performance of infrastructure less expensive, more accurate and more widespread, resulting in more dependable, durable structures in the future.
The project also addresses human infrastructure through engaging a group of faculty, grad students and undergrad at the three schools to create a trained workforce that could design and manufacture the new technologies the research project will develop and make use of. K-12 students will also participate.
“These advanced technologies are a game-changer; they will leap-frog the legacy equipment we currently use to measure the performance of infrastructure and allow us to much more effectively monitor the safety of many more structures in the future,” said Dryver Huston, principal investigator and professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Vermont. “There is a real need for these technologies nationally and globally, and real potential for Vermont and Maine to take the lead in developing a manufacturing sector to serve it.”
“This will indeed be transformative,” said co-principal investigator Eric Landis, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maine. “Sensing and data analysis capabilities are advancing at a very fast pace. This project will accelerate field implementation of the new technologies in a way that will benefit the public.”