Advancing the Strategic Plan 2020 - Spring 2018

SUSTAINABLE URBAN COMMUNITIES
“UTA will foster sustainable urban communities through a focus on the natural, built, economic,
cultural, and social environments. Learning from the past and present to ensure a sustainable
future, UTA will understand and interpret demographic change and the broad spectrum of
human capital.”
SLOWING SETTLE-
MENT : Anand
Puppala and Xinbao
Yu are using giant
lightweight geofoam
blocks to bolster the
earth between roads
and bridges and slow
its settling.
MANAGING AIR
TRAFFIC: Yan Wan
is developing ways
to model and control
tasks in large-scale
dynamic networks
and cyber-physical
systems, with applications
to air traffic
management and airborne
networking.
MONITORING
TRACKS: A team
from Civil Engineering
and UTARI is
using unmanned aerial
vehicles to collect
data on the condition
of railroad tracks and
crossings.
CROWDSOURCING
FLOODS: D.J. Seo
launched a cellphone
app to encourage the
public to report flooding
on streets, helping
to increase the safety of
motorists during flash
flooding.
HELPING CITIES:
Steve Mattingly is
developing ways to
help local governments
improve safety, health,
air quality, and access
in their regional transportation
plans.
REINFORCING ROADS:
Sahadat Hossain is using
modified moisture barriers
to improve sub-base
repair of roads and reduce
cracking, as well as recycled
plastic pins to stop
shifting in retaining walls
along highways.
WARMING
BRIDGES: Xinbao Yu
is testing concepts
to use geothermal
energy to make Texas
bridges and overpasses
safer during
winter weather.
TESTING PIPES: Ali
Abolmaali is testing
fiber-reinforced concrete
pipes used in culverts
in highway projects in
Texas and Florida to see
how they work in wetdry
conditions.
PLANNING AND POLICY
Building a sustainable urban megacity starts with a cogent, livable
plan that ensures quality of life issues are secured. Led by Director
Shima Hamidi, researchers in the Center for Transportation, Equity,
Decisions, and Dollars (CTEDD) are creating an innovation index,
building transportation policies that encourage electric vehicle
adoption, and testing and developing an RFID system for effective
maintenance of existing transportation infrastructure. Additionally,
through a CTEDD grant, Diane Jones Allen, director of UTA’s landscape
architecture program, and Arne Winguth, earth and environmental
sciences professor, are assessing transit desert communities after
extreme weather events. The two will build a vulnerability assessment
that combines storm surge and extreme rainfall projections with transit
deserts. Their work can be seen at CTEDD’s website, ctedd.uta.edu.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON