About Us

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TIDC Research Thrusts

TIDC Researchers

Dr. Habib Dagher
Habib Dagher
Bill Davids
Bill Davids
Roberto Lopez-Anido
Roberto Lopez-Anido
Aaron Gallant
Aaron Gallant
Jonathan Rubin
Jonathan Rubin
Kathryn Ballingall
Kathryn Ballingall
Kieth Berube
Keith Berube
Wilhelm Friess
Wilhelm Friess
Per Garder
Per Garder
Douglas Gardner
Douglas Gardner
Andrew Goupee
Andrew Goupee
Hosain Haddad Kolour
Hosain Haddad Kolour
Eric Landis
Eric Landis

Linfei Li
Linfei Li

Ali Shirazi
Ali Shirazi

Ramesh Malla
Ramesh Malla

Institutional Lead

Lesley Frame
Lesley Frame
Alexandra Hain
Alexandra Hain
Song Han
Song Han
Shinae Jang
Shinae Jang
Nalini Ravishanker
Nalini Ravishanker
Jiong Tang
Jiong Tang
Kaye  Wille
Kay Wille
Jin Zhu
Jin Zhu
Wei Zhang
Wei Zhang
Dr. Tzu-Yang Yu
Tzu-Yang Yu

Institutional Lead

Dr. Susan Faraji
Susan Faraji
Farhad Pourkamali Anaraki
Farhad Pourkamali Anaraki
Dr. Xingwei Wang
Xingwei Wang
Jianqiang Wei
Jianqiang Wei
Aaron Bradshaw
Aaron Bradshaw

Institutional Lead

Chris Baxter
Chris Baxter
Rebecca Brown
Rebecca Brown
Sumanta Das
Sumanta Das
Mayrai Gindy
Mayrai Gindy
Joseph Goodwill
Joseph Goodwill
Michael Greenfield
Michael Greenfield
Abdeltawab Hendawi
Abdeltawab Hendawi
Stephen Licht
Stephen Licht
Nicole Martino
Nicole Martino
Vinka Oyanedel-Craver
Vinka Oyanedel-Craver
Paolo Stegagno
Paolo Stegagno
Mendar Dewoolker
Mendar Dewoolkar

Institutional Lead

Dr. Arne Bomblies
Arne Bomblies
Jeff Frolik
Jeff Frolik
Ehsan Ghazanfari
Ehsan Ghazanfari
Eric Hernandez
Eric Hernandez
Dryver Huston
Dryver Huston
John Lens
John Lens
David Novak
David Novak
Hamid R. Ossareh
Hamid R. Ossareh
Donna Rizzo
Donna Rizzo
Dana Rowangould
Dana Rowangould
Gregory Rowangould
Gregory Rowangould
Matthew Scarborough
Matthew Scarborough
James Sullivan
James Sullivan
Kristen Underwood
Kristen Underwood
Tian Xia
Tian Xia
Moochul Shin
Moochul Shin
Changhoon Lee
Changhoon Lee

Member Universities

TIDC consists of 6 member universities in New England. This section includes an overview of the research capabilities of each member university and a link to their website.

UMaine is a Carnegie R1 Research Institution. The leadership of the TIDC resides within the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center(ASCC), a world-leading, interdisciplinary center for research, education, and economic development, encompassing material science, manufacturing, and engineering of composites and structures. The UMaine Composites Center is housed in a 100,000+ ft2ISO 17025-accredited testing laboratory with more than 260 full and part time personnel with expertise in the design and evaluation of multi-scale materials and structures, composite materials analysis and manufacturing, finite element analysis and multi-physics simulation techniques, and the repair and calibration of lab equipment and sensors. The lab includes a 235’ x 80’ reaction floor capable of large-scale bridge testing under static and fatigue loading and a three-story environmental test chamber for the durability evaluation of large structural components under both mechanical and environmental loading. The ASCChas successfully completed more than $240 Million in governmental, industrial and transportation research programs.

The University of Connecticut houses the Structural Engineering and Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composites Laboratories (CEE Department), Dynamics, Sensing, and Control Lab (ME Department), Cyber Physical System Lab (CSE Department), High Performance Computing facilities at Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology (BECAT); UTC Institute of Advanced System Engineering (IASE), facilities at UConn Pratt & Whitney Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center (AMIC), Connecticut Advanced Computing Center (CACC), UConn Storrs HPC clusters, and various lab facilities in the Institute of Materials Science (IMS) and in the Connecticut Institute of Transportation (CTI).

The facilities and resources to perform research within the University of Massachusetts Lowell are the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Electromagnetic Remote Sensing Lab (ERSL) and Non-Destructive Testing / Structural Health Monitoring Lab (NDT/SHML), and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Laboratory of Optics (LOO). The ERSL is equipped with an electromagnetic anechoic chamber, 100-lb capacity biaxial positioner, portable biaxial and uniaxial positioners, and vector network analyzers. The NDT/SHML includes ground penetrating radars, ultrasonic system, impact echo system, half-cell potential sensor, rebound hammer, and thermal infrared camera. The LOO has a Super 35 camera system, Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer (BOTDR), fusion splicer, tunable laser, optical sensing analyzer, nanosecond Laser, distributed temperature sensing, optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR), tensile machine, temperature chamber, 90s+ splicer, and data acquisition system available for use by the UML research team.

The University of Rhode Island has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of civil engineering materials including concrete, asphalt, and soil. Field equipment includes a trailer mounted Cone Penetration Test (CPT) used for subsurface investigations. Dedicated computers and specialized software are available for numerical modeling and simulation. There are several URI labs including the Dependable Cyber-Physical Systems Lab, Rhode Island Transportation Research Center, the Water for the World Environmental Engineering Lab, Robotics Lab, and Marine Geomechanics lab.

The University of Vermont has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of soils, concrete, and recycled materials. Specialty laboratory equipment include fully automated direct and reversal shear, permeability, consolidation and triaxial devices; cyclic triaxial, torsional ring shear, high-pressure-high temperature triaxial devices; fully automated and field hand-held surface permeameters; acoustic sensing devices and accessories; hole erosion and jet erosion devices; miniature piezocone and calibration chambers; X-ray micro-CT; 250 kip reaction frame with two actuators; 150 kip axial testing; concrete compression testing; monotonic and cyclic tension-compression 100 kip Instron; a uniaxial shake table; 6 m long recirculating flume; groundwater flow modeling tank. The fabrication facilities include an extensive machine shop and electronics shops are available to the UVM researchers. Additionally, FabLab for rapid prototyping of designs using 3D printing, laser cutting, and laser engraving is available.

The College of Engineering at Western New England University has several laboratory spaces including the Concrete lab, Soil lab, Environmental Engineering lab, Biomedical Engineering lab, and Mechanical Engineering lab. The laboratory facilities include various equipment such as a backscattered scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, multiple universal testing machines to characterize mechanical properties of various materials, an accelerated corrosion chamber, different types of 3D scanners (structured light scanning and laser) and 3D printers (selective laser sintering, resin, and PLA). In addition, a portable LabSphere Lidar-based reflectometer is available for investigating the surface defects and roughness of transportation structures in the field.

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The Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center (TIDC)
is the 2018 US DOT Region 1 (New England) University Transportation Center (UTC) located at the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center. TIDC’s focus is on extending the life and improving the durability of transportation assets. TIDC has six member Universities within the New England Region.

TIDC Mission Statement

The mission of the Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center (TIDC) is to develop innovative, sustainable, next-generation solutions to improve the durability and extend the lifespan of existing and new transportation assets in New England and beyond.  We are committed to making dramatic impacts in the cost-effectiveness of transportation infrastructure through transformative research, education, outreach, workforce development, and technology transfer through four research thrust areas; 1) monitoring and assessment, 2) new materials for longevity and constructability, 3) new systems for longevity and constructability, and 4) connectivity for enhanced asset and performance management. 

TIDC Research Motive

Our research motive is to help DOTs extend the life of existing infrastructure as well as construct new, longer-lasting assets.  Member universities have an extensive record of accomplishments within the realm of research, education, and technology transfer as it relates to transportation infrastructure. TIDC aims to build upon these successes and continue to support current Region 1 state DOT initiatives while introducing new cutting-edge technology and information that will reduce cost and improve overall health of Region 1 transportation infrastructure with wide applicability throughout the U.S. TIDC is committed to gender and ethnic minority diversity in the composition of students and researchers engaged with this project. Our exclusive focus will make dramatic impacts in the cost-effectiveness of transportation infrastructure through monitoring and assessment, new materials and systems for longevity and constructability, and connectivity for enhanced asset and performance management while promoting workforce development in transportation. 

TIDC Research Thrusts

Thrust Area 1:
Transportation Infrastructure Monitoring and Assessment for Enhanced Life

Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements and foundations. The resulting picture of health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

Thrust Area 2:
New Materials for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area investigates new materials and technologies to improve durability and extend the life of transportation infrastructure. The materials and technologies investigated will improve multi-modal transportation connections. Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements and foundations. The resulting picture of health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

Thrust Area 3:
New Systems for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area focuses on evaluation, development, and application of engineering systems to improve the durability and longevity of new and existing transportation infrastructure.  In these times of economic austerity, New England’s transit networks face challenges related to cold weather, aging, deterioration, evolving load demands, and construction efficiencies. Addressing these issues, applicable to both roadway and railway modes of transit, will alleviate existing and future financial strain on the region.

Thrust Area 4:
Connectivity for Enhanced Asset and Performance Management

The system operational efficiency of transportation infrastructure can be improved by smart technologies that connect the infrastructure to information/management systems, vehicles and roadway users. These emerging, connected technologies, coupled with management systems can improve the durability of existing and new infrastructure. This is essential in the coming age of highly automated, connected vehicles and given the need to improve the performance of the existing infrastructure through more cost-effective and targeted assessments of asset vulnerabilities due to extreme weather events. This will increase system performance, lower the costs of maintenance and provide more timely notification of assets that need immediate repair or replacement. Managing infrastructure for performance, capacity and maintenance with connected technologies will become the standard expectation of the future. This thrust area applies to all forms of infrastructure including highway and railroad bridges and other fixed assets including roadways and ramps.

TIDC Researchers

Dr. Habib Dagher
Habib Dagher
Bill Davids
Bill Davids
Roberto Lopez-Anido
Roberto Lopez-Anido
Aaron Gallant
Aaron Gallant
Jonathan Rubin
Jonathan Rubin
Kathryn Ballingall
Kathryn Ballingall
Kieth Berube
Keith Berube
Wilhelm Friess
Wilhelm Friess
Per Garder
Per Garder
Douglas Gardner
Douglas Gardner
Andrew Goupee
Andrew Goupee
Hosain Haddad Kolour
Hosain Haddad Kolour
Eric Landis
Eric Landis

Linfei Li
Linfei Li

Ali Shirazi
Ali Shirazi

Ramesh Malla
Ramesh Malla

Institutional Lead

Lesley Frame
Lesley Frame
Alexandra Hain
Alexandra Hain
Song Han
Song Han
Shinae Jang
Shinae Jang
Nalini Ravishanker
Nalini Ravishanker
Jiong Tang
Jiong Tang
Kaye  Wille
Kay Wille
Jin Zhu
Jin Zhu
Wei Zhang
Wei Zhang
Dr. Tzu-Yang Yu
Tzu-Yang Yu

Institutional Lead

Dr. Susan Faraji
Susan Faraji
Farhad Pourkamali Anaraki
Farhad Pourkamali Anaraki
Dr. Xingwei Wang
Xingwei Wang
Jianqiang Wei
Jianqiang Wei
Aaron Bradshaw
Aaron Bradshaw

Institutional Lead

Chris Baxter
Chris Baxter
Rebecca Brown
Rebecca Brown
Sumanta Das
Sumanta Das
Mayrai Gindy
Mayrai Gindy
Joseph Goodwill
Joseph Goodwill
Michael Greenfield
Michael Greenfield
Abdeltawab Hendawi
Abdeltawab Hendawi
Stephen Licht
Stephen Licht
Nicole Martino
Nicole Martino
Vinka Oyanedel-Craver
Vinka Oyanedel-Craver
Paolo Stegagno
Paolo Stegagno
Mendar Dewoolker
Mendar Dewoolkar

Institutional Lead

Dr. Arne Bomblies
Arne Bomblies
Jeff Frolik
Jeff Frolik
Ehsan Ghazanfari
Ehsan Ghazanfari
Eric Hernandez
Eric Hernandez
Dryver Huston
Dryver Huston
John Lens
John Lens
David Novak
David Novak
Hamid R. Ossareh
Hamid R. Ossareh
Donna Rizzo
Donna Rizzo
Dana Rowangould
Dana Rowangould
Gregory Rowangould
Gregory Rowangould
Matthew Scarborough
Matthew Scarborough
James Sullivan
James Sullivan
Kristen Underwood
Kristen Underwood
Tian Xia
Tian Xia
Moochul Shin
Moochul Shin
Changhoon Lee
Changhoon Lee

Member Universities

TIDC consists of 6 member universities in New England. This section includes an overview of the research capabilities of each member university and a link to their website.

UMaine is a Carnegie R1 Research Institution. The leadership of the TIDC resides within the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center(ASCC), a world-leading, interdisciplinary center for research, education, and economic development, encompassing material science, manufacturing, and engineering of composites and structures. The UMaine Composites Center is housed in a 100,000+ ft2ISO 17025-accredited testing laboratory with more than 260 full and part time personnel with expertise in the design and evaluation of multi-scale materials and structures, composite materials analysis and manufacturing, finite element analysis and multi-physics simulation techniques, and the repair and calibration of lab equipment and sensors. The lab includes a 235’ x 80’ reaction floor capable of large-scale bridge testing under static and fatigue loading and a three-story environmental test chamber for the durability evaluation of large structural components under both mechanical and environmental loading. The ASCChas successfully completed more than $240 Million in governmental, industrial and transportation research programs.

The University of Connecticut houses the Structural Engineering and Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composites Laboratories (CEE Department), Dynamics, Sensing, and Control Lab (ME Department), Cyber Physical System Lab (CSE Department), High Performance Computing facilities at Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology (BECAT); UTC Institute of Advanced System Engineering (IASE), facilities at UConn Pratt & Whitney Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center (AMIC), Connecticut Advanced Computing Center (CACC), UConn Storrs HPC clusters, and various lab facilities in the Institute of Materials Science (IMS) and in the Connecticut Institute of Transportation (CTI).

The facilities and resources to perform research within the University of Massachusetts Lowell are the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Electromagnetic Remote Sensing Lab (ERSL) and Non-Destructive Testing / Structural Health Monitoring Lab (NDT/SHML), and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Laboratory of Optics (LOO). The ERSL is equipped with an electromagnetic anechoic chamber, 100-lb capacity biaxial positioner, portable biaxial and uniaxial positioners, and vector network analyzers. The NDT/SHML includes ground penetrating radars, ultrasonic system, impact echo system, half-cell potential sensor, rebound hammer, and thermal infrared camera. The LOO has a Super 35 camera system, Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer (BOTDR), fusion splicer, tunable laser, optical sensing analyzer, nanosecond Laser, distributed temperature sensing, optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR), tensile machine, temperature chamber, 90s+ splicer, and data acquisition system available for use by the UML research team.

The University of Rhode Island has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of civil engineering materials including concrete, asphalt, and soil. Field equipment includes a trailer mounted Cone Penetration Test (CPT) used for subsurface investigations. Dedicated computers and specialized software are available for numerical modeling and simulation. There are several URI labs including the Dependable Cyber-Physical Systems Lab, Rhode Island Transportation Research Center, the Water for the World Environmental Engineering Lab, Robotics Lab, and Marine Geomechanics lab.

The University of Vermont has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of soils, concrete, and recycled materials. Specialty laboratory equipment include fully automated direct and reversal shear, permeability, consolidation and triaxial devices; cyclic triaxial, torsional ring shear, high-pressure-high temperature triaxial devices; fully automated and field hand-held surface permeameters; acoustic sensing devices and accessories; hole erosion and jet erosion devices; miniature piezocone and calibration chambers; X-ray micro-CT; 250 kip reaction frame with two actuators; 150 kip axial testing; concrete compression testing; monotonic and cyclic tension-compression 100 kip Instron; a uniaxial shake table; 6 m long recirculating flume; groundwater flow modeling tank. The fabrication facilities include an extensive machine shop and electronics shops are available to the UVM researchers. Additionally, FabLab for rapid prototyping of designs using 3D printing, laser cutting, and laser engraving is available.

The College of Engineering at Western New England University has several laboratory spaces including the Concrete lab, Soil lab, Environmental Engineering lab, Biomedical Engineering lab, and Mechanical Engineering lab. The laboratory facilities include various equipment such as a backscattered scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, multiple universal testing machines to characterize mechanical properties of various materials, an accelerated corrosion chamber, different types of 3D scanners (structured light scanning and laser) and 3D printers (selective laser sintering, resin, and PLA). In addition, a portable LabSphere Lidar-based reflectometer is available for investigating the surface defects and roughness of transportation structures in the field.