Upcoming Webinar
Upcoming Webinar
The Transportation Infrastructure Precast Innovation Center (TRANS-IPIC) is proud to host Research Highlights Webinars each month to showcase the exciting research conducted by teams from five universities as we seek to address the U.S.'s transportation infrastructure durability challenges by focusing on Precast Concrete (PC)-related technologies.
Register for TRANS-IPIC next Research Highlights Webinar below!
Wednesday, 05/21/2025
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (CST)
Topic 1:
Optimizing the Planning of Precast Concrete Bridge Construction Methods to Maximize Durability, Safety, and Sustainability
Abstract
This study focuses on developing novel ML models to predict cost and durability of conventional and PC bridges; creating a practical DST to compare durability, safety, mobility, and cost of conventional and PC bridges; and developing optimization model to maximize bridge durability, and safety while minimizing its cost.
Project PI
Khaled A El-Rayes
Khaled El-Rayes is a Professor of Construction Engineering and Management and Associate Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has more than 30 years of professional experience in academia and the construction industry. El-Rayes has supervised the research work of 38 Ph.D. students, including 28 former Ph.D. students who are currently holding leadership positions in academia, industry, and government. The outcome of his research work has been recognized nationally and internationally, receiving numerous research awards, and was published in more than 117 top-tier journal papers.
Topic 2:
Gaze-directed UAV-UGV Coordination Framework for On-site Quality Inspection of Precast Bridge Construction
Abstract
This presentation will introduce a new gaze-directed UAV-UGV coordination framework for onsite quality inspection of precast bridge construction. A prototype was developed and tested in simulation and controlled environment. The system offers a unified and intuitive remote control interface for multirobot coordination, enabling efficient data collection and analysis for onsite inspection.
Project PI
Jiannan Cai
Dr. Jiannan Cai is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Her research interests include creating innovative sensing, artificial intelligence, and robotics (particularly human-robot collaboration) methods to enhance construction automation and robotics, civil infrastructure and building management, and community smartness and resilience. Her research has received fundings from various agencies, including National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University Transportation Center (UTC) – Tran-SET and TRANS-IPIC, among others.