EXTREME: Research Topics and Advisors

GAANN Fellows will focus on the following research topics: strengthening/repair of civil infrastructure for extreme loadings; nondestructive evaluation of civil infrastructure; structural health monitoring; computational modeling of civil infrastructure under multi-hazard loading; and advanced materials for civil infrastructure.

The following UIC civil, materials, and environmental engineering faculty members are dedicated to supporting GAANN EXTREME doctoral students throughout their academic program:

Lesley Sneed Heading link

Lesley Sneed

GAANN Project Director
Professor and Director, High Bay Structures Laboratory

Research interests:

  • Reinforced and prestressed concrete structural members and systems
  • Structural models and experimental methods
  • Innovative methods of repair and strengthening of structures subjected to seismic loading or other extreme hazards
  • Evaluation of existing structures
  • Design codes for structural concrete

Farhad Ansari Heading link

Farhad Ansari

Distinguished Professor and Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering

Research interests:

  • Structural health monitoring of bridges and buildings
  • Post-collapse analysis of structures
  • Seismic monitoring of structures
  • Fiber optic sensor instrumentation of large structures including cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges
  • Data-centric, machine-learning-based condition assessment of high-rise buildings and bridges
  • Nondestructive testing of concrete structures with acoustic and optical methods
  • Experimental fracture mechanics by laser speckle metrology

Didem Ozevin Heading link

Didem Ozevin

Professor

Research interests:

  • Integrating structural design and damage-detection methods
  • Structural health monitoring using acoustic methods, especially for bridges and pipelines
  • Materials characterization using linear and nonlinear ultrasonics
  • Structural inspection using drones
  • Manipulating wave propagation in solids using metamaterials
  • MEMS acoustic sensors

Craig Foster Heading link

Craig Foster

Associate Professor

Research interests:

  • Evolving discontinuity methods for capturing fracture, shear banding, and other forms of localized deformation
  • Coupled-physics problems, such as couple mechanics and fluid flow in soil biological tissues, and therm-hydro-mechanics of geothermal heat pumps
  • Computational plasticity, damage and constitutive modeling for geomaterials and soft tissues
  • Finite elements and other computational techniques
  • Structural behavior of earthen structural material such as rammed earth and stabilized soil block
  • Rail geotechnics

Matt Daly Heading link

Matt Daly

Assistant Professor

Research interests:

  • Deformation behavior of advanced materials
  • Mechanics of nanostructured and 2D materials
  • In situ characterization techniques
  • Atomistic modeling of deformation processes
  • Physical metallurgy