The AESA NY-NJ Section hosted a lecture on April 17th, 2014 at Columbia University entitled “If Bridges Could Talk” presented by Professor Kerop Janoyan. Dr. Janoyan described his current research endeavors in the field of bridge health monitoring technologies. He has developed a system of data collection and analysis that can be used to understand the behavior of structures under load. The main application of this system has been on highway bridges and he presented a few case studies in Upstate New York where he has employed this technology. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/us/01bridge.html) With various types of sensors placed along a bridge at specific locations, the static and dynamic response of the bridge can be measured. With this information civil-bridge engineers can make informed decisions on the condition of a bridge and decide whether additional inspections, repair or even replacement of certain members are required.
Professor Janoyan has been a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY since 2002. He is currently the Executive Officer and Associate Professor of the Department and he serves as the Director of Distance Learning in the Office of the Provost and as co-Director of the Center for the Evaluation of Clean Energy Technology (CeCeT) Blade Testing Facility. He received his B.S, M.S and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles.