This is a past event.

Civil Engineering Graduate Seminar

Hyungchul Yoon, PhD
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Michigan Technological University

Abstract: The concept of Smart Cities has been introduced to categorize a vast area of activities to enhance the life quality of its citizens.  A central feature of these activities is the pervasive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), helping cities to make better use of their limited resources. Indeed, the ASCE Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 portends a future where engineers will rely on and leverage real-time access to living database, sensors, diagnostic tools, and other advanced technologies to ensure informed decisions are made.  However, these advances technologies are against a backdrop of our infrastructure deterioration and natural and human-made disasters. Moreover, recent events constantly remind us of the tremendous devastation that natural and human-made disasters can wreak on society.  As such, emergency response and resilience are among the crucial dimensions of any Smart City. The Department Homeland Security (DHS) has recently launched plans to invest $50 million to develop cutting-edge emergency response technologies for Smart Cities.  Furthermore, after significant disasters, it is imperative that emergency facilities and evacuation routes, including bridges and highways, be assessed for safety. The objective of this research is to provide new framework using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices such as smartphones, digital cameras, and unmanned aerial vehicles for enhancing the functionality of Smart Cities, especially with respect to emergency response and civil infrastructure monitoring/assessment.  To achieve this objective, this research focuses on the post-disaster victim localization and assessment, first responders tracking and event localization, vision-based structural monitoring/assessment, including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This research constitutes a significant step toward realization of Smart City Resilience.