ASCE Taps 15 Innovators For Grand Challenge

by BEN WALPOLE, associate editor, ASCE News | March 17, 2016

The first ASCE Innovation Contest drew entries from around the world, with practitioners, project managers, educators, researchers, and students attracted to the challenge of developing and submitting their most creative and innovative ideas for reshaping infrastructure.

From dozens of submissions, a judges panel of 22 experts from across the civil engineering industry named 15 winners. The ASCE Industry Leaders Council developed the ("crowd") contest as part of the society’s Grand Challenge, which seeks to achieve significant reductions in infrastructure life-cycle costs over the next several years.

Four proposals were honored with special awards:

• GREATEST IMPACT ON ACHIEVING THE GRAND CHALLENGE – “Rise of the Drones: How Unmanned Surveying Can Help Make Our Coasts Resilient” by Jason Matthew Magalen, P.E., M.ASCE, HDR Engineering Inc., Beaverton, OR;

• BEST NEW CONCEPT – “Big Picture Resilience via Ocean Forests” by ASCE Los Angeles Section, Sustainability Committee, Alhambra, CA;

• BEST STUDENT INNOVATION (tie) – “Advanced Drone Technology to Handle Disaster in Underground Construction and Mining Sites” by Purushottam Gupta, School of Electronics Engineering (SENSE) at VIT University, Chennai, India;

• BEST STUDENT INNOVATION (tie) – “Capitalizing on the Internet of Things to Promote Water Conservation” by Morgan Dicarlo, S.M.ASCE, Stony Brook University, Thiells, NY.

“Innovation is essential for transforming our profession and meeting the Grand Challenge,” said Bob Prieto, the contest's chief judge and CEO of Strategic Program Management LLC. “This first-ever ASCE Innovation Contest met its goal of stimulating interest and providing a platform for ideas to be brought forward. We will use this year’s experience to broaden our reach and solicit ever more impactful innovations. Together, our profession can make a difference.”

“Innovation is essential for transforming our profession and meeting the grand challenge... Together, our profession can make a difference”

— Bob Prieto, former chair, Parsons Brinckerhoff

Contest entries fit four categories – innovative business models and technologies, Internet of Things, green engineering, and resilience – each sponsored by top engineering-related firms. In the coming months, industry leaders from Walt Disney Imagineering, Hatch Mott MacDonald, KCI Technologies Inc., and Pennoni Associates Inc., will host the winners for special events.

The category winners:

GREEN ENGINEERING

MOST INNOVATIVE – “Hybrid Energy Harvesting and Battery-less Wireless Sensing and Monitoring System for the Next Generation Smart Transportation Infrastructures” by Samer Hassan Dessouky, D.Eng., P.E., M.ASCE, University of Texas at San Antonio (lead), Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Southwest Research Institute (contributing organizations);
MOST EFFICIENT – “Confined Aggregate Concrete” by Samuel G. Bonasso, P.E., F.ASCE, Reinforced Aggregates Company, Morgantown, WV;
BEST VALUE – “StifPipe: A Green-Sustainable Solution for Repair and Construction of Pipelines” by Mohammad Reza Ehsani, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, QuakeWrap Inc., Tucson, AZ.

INNOVATIVE BUSINESS MODELS & TECH

Most Innovative – “BridgeView: A Low-Cost, Non-contact, Camera-Based Infrastructure Monitor” by Jenna L. Johns, RDI Technologies, Knoxville, TN;
Most Efficient – “Innovative Software for Optimal Long-Term, System-Level Preservation Planning of Bridges” by Mahmoud M. Rashad Halfawy, P.Eng., M.ASCE, Infrastructure Data Solutions Inc., Regina, SK, Canada;
Best Value – “An Expanded Water Network for Economic Vitality” by Maury Gaston, A.M. ASCE, American Cast Iron Pipe, Birmingham, AL.

INTERNET OF THINGS

Most Innovative – “Smartline” by M. Voorma, MSc., Arcadis, Assen, Netherlands;
Most Efficient – “Rise of the Drones: How Unmanned Surveying Can Help Make Our Coasts Resilient” by Jason Matthew Magalen, P.E., M.ASCE, HDR Engineering Inc., Beaverton, OR;
Best Value – “Advanced Drone Technology to Handle Disaster in Underground Construction and Mining Sites” by Purushottam Gupta, School of Electronics Engineering (SENSE) at VIT University, Chennai India.

RESILIENCE

Most Efficient – “Improving the Resilience of Sheathed, Unbonded Mono-Strand Post-Tensioned Construction”, D. Matthew Stuart, P.E., S.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, Pennoni Associates Inc., Hamilton, NJ;
Best Value – “Rise of the Drones: How Unmanned Surveying Can Help Make Our Coasts Resilient” by Jason Matthew Magalen, P.E., M.ASCE, HDR Engineering Inc., Beaverton, OR.