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University of Cincinnati Infrastructure Institute (UCII)

The University of Cincinnati Infrastructure Institute (UCII), formed in 1989, is focused on the development of nondestructive testing and evaluation technologies for the purposes of condition assessment and health monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. UCII consists of an integrated, multi-disciplinary team of Civil, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, and Materials engineers from a broad cross-section of the faculty at the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering. 

In addition, UCII draws on a wide variety of laboratory and analytic facilities at the University as well as a number of full-scale field research sites located off-campus. Since its inception, UCII has been involved in the testing and evaluation of several structures including more than 60 bridges in the state of Ohio. UCII has developed and applied a number of unique experimental and analytic tools in the evaluation of both laboratory model and full-scale civil infrastructure systems including: modal testing, truckload testing, and field calibrated finite element modeling.

A major thrust of UCII research has been to conduct a comprehensive scientific study of critical bridge responses and their corresponding causative effects (including traffic, the environment, and damage, deterioration, and defects) during fabrication and construction, through in-service use, and up to old age. Such objective, quantitative information and assessments will provide a critical understanding of overall life cycle behavior, performance, and cost of these important links in our transportation system. This understanding will permit more efficient and improved designs for new structures, as well as better management of the large numbers existing structures in our current inventories.

The work of UCII has been funded and supported by numerous agencies including the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Science Foundation, and NASA, and several companies.

Faculty

Headshot of Arthur J Helmicki

Arthur J Helmicki

Professor, CEAS - Electrical and Computer Engineeri

820 Rhodes Hall

513-556-6069

The focus of my research and teaching have been in the core area of Systems/Controls, with specialization in the development and application of practical, nondestructive evaluation techniques for damage identification, system identification and parameter estimation, condition assessment, health monitoring, remote monitoring/sensing, and associated information technologies. This includes the development of all necessary hardware, software, and algorithms for instrumentation, signal processing and data interpretation. I have worked on extensive application of these techniques in the areas of civil infrastructure systems, biomedicine, and aerospace.