Announcements:
Currently, there are NO graduate student openings at this time.

Updates:

Last update was made in March 2018. This may not be up to date.
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Presentation by the Cather Pound demolition research team at the February University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faculty Connector.  Had a very diverse audience from various college faculties and an discussion afterwards.  Thanks for my collaborators of Drs. Christine E. Wittich and Daniel G. Linzell as well as Mr. Larry Shippen from UNL Housing. 
Aligned and edited video from the presentation from various UAS flights (watch in youtube for 4K view)
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Cather and Pound  residence hall demolition on December 22, 2017 at UNL.  The collapse sequence and load redistribution was monitored using a total of 32 accelerometers are placed in both buildings.  
Demolition sequence UAS flight (watch in youtube for 4K view)
Pre-demolition UAS flight (watch in youtube for 4K view)
Post-demolition UAS flight textured mesh (dedicated link)
Pre-demolition UAS flight textured mesh (dedicated link)
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Followup Hurricane Harvey detailed reconassiance.  Efforts were focused in Rockport, Port Aransas, and Aransas Pass, Texas.  Reconassiance was supported by the National Science Foundation award to West Texas A&M University.  Deployed equipment from UNL included ground-based lidar scanner, Inspire 2 unmanned aerial system, and the GPS-RTK platform.  

Group photo following a day long data collection at the Cove Harbor Marina and Dry Stacks in Rockport, Texas.  Group members from left-to-right: Prof. J. Arn Womble (WTAMU), Peter Hughes (WTAMU Undergraduate Student), M. Ebrahim Mohammadi (UNL PhD student), and Prof. Richard L. Wood (UNL). (October 2017)
Wood Research Group's unmanned aerial system in its final descent following an aerial survey of the Dry Stacks at Rockport, Texas. (October 2017)
Unmanned aerial system (UAS) photo at the Rockport VFW building in Texas.  (October 2017)
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UNL workshop for a special session relating to UAS for Structural Inspections within the Bridging Big Data 2017 Workshop in Omaha, Nebraska.  Thanks for the invited speakers for their visit and the active discussion. Session was funded by the University of Nebraska System Science Planning and Seed Grant. 
Group before their UAS specific presentations, left-to-right: Prof. Fernando Moreu (University of New Mexico), Prof. Richard L. Wood (UNL), and Prof. Kostas Alexis (University of Nevada-Reno). (October 2017)
Prof. Fernando Moreu (University of New Mexico) presenting his work. (October 2017)
Prof. Kostas Alexis (University of Nevada-Reno) presenting his work. (October 2017)
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Visual assessment and remote sensing following the 2017 Hurricane Harvey along the Texas coast near Corpus Christi.  Joined NSF-funded GEER Team 1 to be the first team to examine wind-related effects on various structures in collaboration with Notre Dame University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass), Louisiana State University, and University of South Alabama.  Report and additional details posted here: http://www.geerassociation.org

Team members assessing damage at the Aransas County Airport located in Rockport, Texas: (from left to right): Richard L. Wood (UNL), Kara D. Peterman (UMass), Yijun Liao (UNL PhD student). (September 2017) 
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UNL representation at the 2017 International Highway Engineering Exchange Program (HEEP) Conference in Covington, KY. 
Yijun Liao (UNL PhD student) awarded the thrid place prize for presentation related to  point clouds of distributed civil networks - specifically gravel roads. (September 2017)
 
Yijun Liao (UNL PhD student) presenting her work related to point clouds of distributed civil networks - specifically gravel roads. (September 2017)
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Research group representation at the 2017 International Workshop for Structural Health Monitoring in Stanford, CA to discuss ongoing point cloud algorithm development. 
M. Ebrahim Mohammadi (UNL PhD student) presenting his work related to point clouds and objective structural asssessments. (September 2017)
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Two research group representatives at the 2017 Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference in San Diego, CA. 
Richard L. Wood presenting point cloud related assessments using aerial systems. (June 2017)

M. Ebrahim Mohammadi (UNL PhD student) presenting his work related to point clouds and objective structural measurements. (June 2017)
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Research group collaborations between UNL and West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) to structurally characterize the damage to the west-bound Texas i-40 interchange bridges over Bushland Road.  Team utilized two lidar scanners and wired accelerometers to noncontactlly quantify damage and perform structural identification. 

Team members posing for a photo after data collection, from left to right: Richard L. Wood (UNL), Christine E. Wittich (UNL), and J. Arn Womble (WTAMU). (May 2017)
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Research dissemination at the 2017 Structures Congress in Denver, Colorado.  A presentation on the data intrepretation and assessment of point clouds from post-tornado data sets. 

Richard. L. Wood presenting on the "Data Intrepretation" within Reality Capture for Tornado Damage to Structures at 2017 Structures Congress.  (April 2017)
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Richard L. Wood is award a 2017 Parents' Recognition Award  for providing support to students. Awards are presented to encourage good student and faculty relationships and provide recognition in an area often overlooked in the formal rewards system. Award quoted, "Dr. Wood inspired my soon to bo beyojnd his expectations in Structural Engineering."

Richard L. Wood receiving a certificate at the on-campus ceremony.  (February 2017)
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Research group field assessment of inverted tee bridges.  In this example, three team members help instrument and collect lidar data of an east-bound i-80 interstate bridge for system identification and damage assessment, respectively.  Project support is by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Nebraska Department of Transportation. 
Team members installed and confirming placement on a wireless accelerometer on the interior shoulder of an i-80 bridge near Waverly, NE.  From left-to-right: Yijun Liao (UNL PhD student), Garrett Martindale (UNL MS student), and Richard. L Wood. (October 2016) 

Team members, Richard L. Wood and Yijun Liao (left-to-right), confirm setup of the wireless accelerometer system on the right shoulder at Waverly, NE. (October 2016)
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Research collaboration and second trip to Kathmandu, Nepal.  Additional damage assessment studies were conducted using lidar and accelerometers to characterize the structural response following the 2015 Gorka Earthquake.  Research was done in collaboration with SUNY Buffalo (UB, Andreas Stavridis) with support from USGS and USaid. 

Team members in Kathmandu (left-to-right): Andreas Stavridis (UB), our local driver and escort, Richard L. Wood (UNL), Yijun Liao (UNL PhD student), and Wen Yu Chang (UB MS student).  (September 2016)
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A nationally featured research segment on the Big Ten Network (LiveBIG Segment) featuring damage assessment from point clouds in the the aftermath of natural disasters (earthquake engineering and wind loading). Video features Richard Wood as well as PhD students Ebrahim Mohammadi and Yijun Liao (Research Group). Prominently shown data includes the Imperial Cabinets Building in El Centro, California (2014), Wiser-Pilger Middle School following the 2014 Pilger Tornado, and Bungamati, Nepal following the 2015 Gorka (Nepal) Earthquake.  These data sets are being used to objectively detect structural damage such as cracks, spalling, and localized collapsed zones.  


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Remote sensing of structural damage characterization at the Halliburton Oilfield Services plant after a late season EF-3 Pampa Tornado (Texas) November 2015.  This was remotely investigated to improve techniques to estimate wind speeds within tornadoes and other wind storms from engineered structures in collaboration with West Texas A&M (WTAMU) and Texas Tech Universities (TTU).

Team members in Pampa, Texas (from left to right):  J. Arn Womble (WTAMU), Brandon Bugarin (WTAMU undergraduate student), Richard L. Wood (UNL), and M. Ebrahim Mohammadi (UNL graduate student).  (December 2015) 


Team members (Richard L. Wood (UNL), and M. Ebrahim Mohammadi (UNL graduate student)) assessing a damaged center pivot irrigation system damaged after the tornado. (December 2015)

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Additional ongoing research collaboration with SUNY-Buffalo and Tufts University.  Here a field test is conducted in El Centro, California during November 2014 with portable shaker from UCLA.  The purpose of this test series is to develop finite element model updating techniques for damaged reinforced concrete-masonry infill buildings. 
 

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Current ongoing research collaboration on  structural damage characterization following the 2015 Gorkha (Nepal) Earthquake was featured in a PEER webinar.  My collaborative work here included LiDAR scanning, unmanned aerial system (UAS) flights, and system identification using ambient vibration.  Details are linked here


Team members in Kathmandu, Nepal (from left to right): Supratik Bose (SUNY Buffalo PhD Student), Patrick Burns (Oregon State MS Student), Richard L. Wood (UNL), and Andre Barbosa (Oregon State).  (June 2015) 

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Previous research relating to the 2014 Pilger Tornado was featured in the Omaha KETV news in May 2015. Richard Wood as well as PhD student, Ebrahim Mohammadi, is also included in this interview. Link is here.


Discussion about the point cloud data obtained in the aftermath of the 2014 Pilger Tornado.