University of Virginia’s Devin K. Harris
September 26, 2024
The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences hosted a Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Devin K. Harris, a professor and department chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia. His seminar was titled “Adapting Infrastructure for the Future: Digital Twinning of our Aging Infrastructure.” The seminar was held at the Watt Family Innovation Center on September 26, 2024.
Professor Harris is chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia. He is also a member of the Link Lab, UVA’s collaborative cyber-physical systems laboratory. He completed his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Florida and his graduate training (M.S. and Ph.D.) at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests focus on large scale infrastructure systems with a primary focus on condition monitoring and system performance. His research leverages image-based measurement techniques, simulation, visualization, and data analytics with applications in the areas of structural health monitoring, smart cities, and digital twins. Additional areas of focus include reinforced and prestressed concrete behavior, applications of innovative materials in civil infrastructure, and non-destructive evaluation. Dr. Harris’ research approach often utilizes a combination of laboratory and/or field investigations coupled with simulations.
Dr. Harris is an active member of in the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the Transportation Research Board (TRB), International Digital Image Correlation Society (IDICS), and the American Society of Engineering Education. He is also the former Director of the Center for Transportation Studies (CTS), as well as the former Faculty Director of the UVA Clark Scholars Program.
Seminar Abstract:
Our infrastructure systems in the United States were built in an era where competition amongst national priorities was not as great and since the 1970s has seen a steady decline in investment as a fraction of our GDP. This underinvestment is at odds with the overall global standing and leadership of the U.S., with our infrastructure receiving a global ranking of 13th when compared to other countries. Despite this sustained underinvestment, these systems to continue to remain operational, but do so in less-than-optimal conditions and with increased vulnerability. With such a vast and expansive infrastructure network, strategies are needed to ensure these systems are robust, functional, and maintained over their long operational service lives; these strategies need to be cost effective and also limit disruption of services.
This seminar will describe ongoing work within the Infrastructure Simulation, Sensing and Evaluation (I-S2EE) Laboratory emphasizing new strategies for assessment with artificial intelligence-informed digital twins. These strategies are built around the concept that digital representations of real systems with a two-way feedback loop provide strategic evaluation techniques to inform decision-making. This seminar will describe ongoing research that explores the development of asset level digital twins of structural systems and highlight how these approaches fit into a larger performance assessment framework of the future. The seminar will also highlight early-stage activities in the classroom that aim to integrate these emerging digital technologies in learning process, demonstrating a synergy between fundamental and education research.
