News

The 6th GeoSystems Engineering Annual Research Symposium was held on Friday, November 18th, 2022. Ph.D. Candidate, Bodhinanda (Nanda) Chandra, of the Soga Research Group, presented his work in a keynote lecture. Nanda showed his research on MPM with the title: “Improving accuracy and efficiency in material point method (MPM) for both single and multi-phase continua”. Besides Nanda, another fourteen members of the Soga Research Group… Read More »The SRG in the 6th Annual GeoSymposium

The SRG’s recent work in fiber optic installation and measurement is featured in an article posted by The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET). Members of the SRG, Yaobin and Sumeet, attached a fiber optic cable to the pipes in each borehole to measure temperature. This measured data results in a more accurate understanding of the conductivity of the bedrock to help inform Eversource’s design (Eversource is a business &… Read More »Measuring Temperature with Fiber Optic Cables – the SRG’s recent work in Massachusetts

As a new activity by the Center for Smart Infrastructure (CSI), Professor Kenichi Soga, Won-jun Cha, Shih-Hung Chiu, and East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) subject-matter experts, led by Clifford Chan (General Manager) and David Katzev, opened a new undergraduate course for Fall 2022: Water & Wastewater Systems Design and Operation (CE112). The course covers a variety of topics in the water industry, including design… Read More »CE 112: Water & Wastewater Systems Design and Operation

Michael was a speaker at the 2022 PEER Researchers’ Workshop. The workshop was held on September 19-20, 2022 at the Richmond Field Station. His presentation was entitled “Performance Based Economic Loss Assessment Due to a Hypothetical Large Southern California Earthquake Based on the Disruption and Recovery of Port of Los Angeles Freight Traffic”. In this work, Michael and Barbaros Cetiner, a collaborator formerly from UCLA,… Read More »Michael presented at the PEER Researchers’ Workshop

Prof. Kenichi Soga recently wrote an article in ASCE GeoStrata magazine entitled “Whole Life Sensing for In-service Performance and Life Extension”. The article discusses the importance of monitoring in the long-term resiliency of infrastructure systems and its current challenges. Read more on GeoStrata online page.

John was a speaker at The VI Congreso Internacional de Ingenieria (6th International Congress of Engineering) at the Escuela Militar de Cadetes (ESMIC) General José María Córdova. ESMIC is the military academy of the Colombian Army. The conference was held on 7 October 2022 on the ESMIC campus in Bogota, Colombia. His presentation title was “Modelling Suffusion Internal Erosion with the MPM”. In the presentation,… Read More »John presented to the ESMIC in Bogota, Colombia

On Wednesday, October 12th, delegates from Shell (Marwa Al-Ansary, Leonardo Spanu, and Andreas Matzakos) visited the Center for Smart Infrastructure. It was great to see Marwa, who was with Professor Soga during her PhD at Cambridge. Our visitors saw our large-scale testing facilities and interacted with drones, artificial reality and virtual reality devices, distributed fiber optic sensors, smart pavement and mobile robots, and other technologies… Read More »Shell’s visit to the Center for Smart Infrastructure

Two biaxial tension tests were conducted on August 31st and September 28th by the Center of Smart Infrastructure (CSI) group at Davis Hall. The TR-XTREME ductile iron pipes manufactured by U.S. Pipe, designed to maintain the full-service life after seismic events, were tested. The experiment aims to test the capability of the joint of the pipe under different locking segment configurations while subjected to vertical… Read More »CSI group conducted two biaxial tension tests for the ductile iron pipe

Students of CE 170A (Infrastructure Sensing and Modeling, taught by Professor Soga, Professor Kayen, and Professor Zekkos) had a lot of fun on September 14th. Model bridge tests were conducted as part of the Infrastructure Sensing module of the course, led by Jaewon and Shih-Hung. Three different bridges (single-angle, double-angle, double-angle with defect) were instrumented with distributed fiber optic sensors (put on by our students!), linear… Read More »Model Bridge Tests for CE 170A (Infrastructure Sensing and Modeling)

On September 2nd and Sepember 21st, two Thermal Conductivity Tests were conducted through the U-bend looping pipe grouted in a 400-feet-deep borehole near the University House on campus. Fiber optic sensors were installed both inside and outside the looping pipe to monitor the temperature distribution along the depth and temperature variation with time. In the two tests, BOTDA and BOTDR analyzers provided two different methods… Read More »Thermal Conductivity Tests in 400-ft-deep Borehole on Campus