The Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure (CSI) and the Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA) recently convened industry leaders and researchers for the FOSA 2025 mid-year meeting on June 3-4, 2025, at the UC Berkeley campus and Richmond Field Station. The FOSA mid-year meeting is held annually at different sites around the world to provide a forum for leading organizations, academic researchers, and industry pioneers to share work that features the benefits of using advanced optical fiber-based sensing technologies.
On June 3, Caltrans, EBMUD, and PG&E each presented operating and maintenance cost-saving innovations and opportunities using advanced technology to systematically review bridges, pavements, traffic systems, pipeline integrity, seismic faults, and underground power monitoring.
Academic researchers from Graz University of Technology in Austria, Rice University, University of Washington, Stanford, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and UC Berkeley each shared information about instrumented use cases including aging infrastructure, geothermal applications, vehicle traffic flow, earthquake detection, offshore wind farms, and long-term energy system monitoring.
Discussion amongst the infrastructure organizations, researchers, and industry leaders from instrumentation manufacturing, distribution, and implementation sectors aimed to identify key challenges, opportunities, and future applications, with the goal to streamline state-of-the-art technologies to real-world applications.
A tour of the CSI facility was conducted on June 4, highlighting the research and testing lab apparatuses that enable researchers and industry partners to validate, improve upon, and test solutions for infrastructure systems.
Kenichi Soga, CSI PI and host of the meeting, noted that “this FOSA meeting was significant for CSI researchers as it provided insights into the broader impact of their academic research. It helped us understand the challenges related to technology adaptation for creating a smart infrastructure market. Additionally, the meeting offered CSI researchers the opportunity to participate in the activities of the FOSA technical committee.”
For additional information please refer to this FOSA summary.
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Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA) is a non-profit organization with the mission of educating industry, government, and the public on the benefits of using advanced optical fiber-based sensing technologies. Through webinars, videos, white papers, public presentations and public policy advocacy, the organization provides information on the use of fiber optic sensing to secure critical facilities, enhance public safety and protect the environment. Find out more at https://fiberopticsensing.org/.
The Center for Smart Infrastructure (CSI) is an interdisciplinary hub for infrastructure research and innovation to address the most pressing and challenging issues facing infrastructure systems, operators, and communities. CSI develops and tests emerging technologies such as intelligent systems and networks, remote sensing and monitoring, and data analytics for decision-making. It houses a large-scale testing facility to develop intelligent infrastructure system components and test and assess smart construction and maintenance methods using remote monitoring and robotics technologies. The center also has a computer simulation and data analytics facility to examine the resiliency of infrastructure systems in terms of aging, energy management, climate change and cascading failures using the state-of-the art big data and AI tools. Find out more at https://smartinfrastructure.berkeley.edu.
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Media Contacts: Professor Kenichi Soga, soga@berkeley.edu; Grace Kang, g.kang@berkeley.edu