Welcome !
Welcome to the Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab) at the University of New Mexico (UNM)! Our research group aims to develop the use of next-generation smart sensing technologies and strategies towards safer, cost-effective, resilient and sustainable structures. We are interested in monitoring and assessing structures subjected to dynamic loading and hazards, unusual stress levels, and extreme loading events. Our research topics involve wireless smart sensing, structural health monitoring, cost-effective prioritization of assets, augmented reality, structural modeling and validation, existing structure field monitoring and assessment, and laboratory testing and validation of structural systems under dynamic loading.
July 9th 2020
There was great attendance at the First Smart Management of Infrastructure Webinar! Organized by Roya Nasimi and Jiaqi Xu with help from Elijah Wyckoff, the event drew 110 attendees from many states and six different countries joined an intense 2 hours of research updates from SMILab senior researchers. Dean Christodoulou introduced the event and congratulated the organizers and attendees for their leadership, and emphasized the collaboration of UNM with the National Laboratories in the state of New Mexico. Later, the dean introduced the city of Albuquerque Director of Innovation and Technology Brian Osterloh who encouraged industry and research to work together. Brian Osterloh asked some ideas during the presentations for applications in the City of Albuquerque. Then the seven presenters shared their various projects with research and industry and responded questions in the chat (thank you everyone for participating!). Professor Fierro concluded the Webinar with the state of robotics. At the end of the event Elijah raffled two drones using Matlab as a tribute to the famous software being originated in UNM by Cleve Moler, another surprise to our large audience. The winners of the drones were Andy Shearrer from Kansas and Walter Smith from California. Congratulations and enjoy those flights!
We are looking forward to our 2021 Smart Management of Infrastructure Webinar, stay tuned…
Check our latest news on our TRB NAS Rail SAFETY IDEA Project here
We are working hard in getting our 1DOF Shake Table fixed and ready for larger dynamic experiments. Thanks Ted and Nick Schroeder! Albuquerque will have serious earthquakes in 2020.
NEWS
Fall Semester 2020 Updates
All of us wish you a Great and Happy Holidays! This semester we have been doing lots of progress in SMILab, and we wanted to share many great updates from our group: First, congratulations to Angela Montoya and Roya Nasimi for successfully passing their respective comprehensive PhD exams and moving forward with their PhDs.
Marlon Aguero graduated with his MS in Civil Engineering and will continue graduate studies pursuing a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UNM, congratulations Marlon!
Jason Aldaz is graduating with a Masters and Odey Yousef with a Bachelors, both in Civil Engineering. Jason continues his career as engineer in Albuquerque, and Odey Yousef will become a graduate student in SMILab. Congrats and welcome to graduate school Odey!
Maimuna accepted a fulltime job as an engineer in California, and will continue the rest of her PhD part time in SMILab, congratulations on your career Maimuna!
Last November 11th we were lucky to host and invite Bill Henry, who gave a great talk on ethics to the Civil Engineering Department and all of us. Bill reminded us the importance to prevent and fight against corruption in engineering. All of us learned from a very important topic and superb speaker, which comes by no surprise as Bill has served as leader in engineering in many organizations, including as former ASCE president (2005-2006.) Bill thank you for your commitment to the profession and UNM, and looking forward to you visiting SMILab in person in a not so distant future.
Finally, we recently hosted our 2020 wrap up ONR meeting with Dr. Michael Simpson and are getting ready for a new cybersecurity year 2: stay tuned! If you are an undergraduate student in UNM and you are interested to study and program cybersecurity in our cybersecurity program, be sure to contact fmoreu@unm.edu. We are still hiring more 2021 Undergraduates! https://cyberphysicalsystems.unm.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ONR_ROTC_Cyber_Agenda_November_6.pdf
August 15 2020
SMILab Summer 2020 Researchers Farewell
Two researchers completed their days at SMILab this summer: Xiang Xu successfully run safely numerous experiments with many types of trains crossing railroad bridges in the laboratory, great work! Xiang will complete his Master’s Thesis in structural engineering in Yangzhou University, China; Shuang Yang will continue his PhD Thesis in Computer Science in UNM, and he contributed exploring AR connections with sensors. We thank them for their hard work in SMILab, and wish them all the best in completing their degrees! We were able to give a surprise Zoom farewell to Xiang, wish him safe trip, and we hope to stay in touch!
July 20th 2020
Angela Montoya was accepted into Sandia National Laboratories’ Critical Skills Part-Time Program. The Critical Skills programs at Sandia are designed for both recruitment and retention of talented individuals with skills in technical areas needed to support Sandia’s national security mission.
July 9th 2020
SMILab researchers conducted the first ever SMIWeb workshop to showcase their unique projects and contributions to the engineering field.
June 15th 2020
Eric Robbins started his summer internship with Sandia National Laboratories. The title of his project is “Nonlinear Normal Mode Force Appropriation Techniques to Investigate Wing-Pylon Assembly.” Click here for more information https://www.sandia.gov/careers/students_postdocs/internships/institutes/nomad.html
May 27th 2020
Congratulations Roya Nasimi for 2nd place in the Annual ASCE/EMI SHMC student paper competition. Roya’s paper was titled “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Equipped with Lasers, Cameras, and Algorithms Measuring Bridges Condition under Trains.” Co-authors of the paper were Dr. Moreu, Nicolas Cobo, and Jorshua Diaz, great job team!
Link to ASCE EMI
May 19th 2020
Maimuna Hossain and Elijah Wyckoff have started their summer scholar program with The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program. More information here https://afrlscholars.usra.edu/
May 18th 2020
Kickoff meeting with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) project entitled “Engaging University of New Mexico ROTC Cadets in Cybersecurity Research”. This project develops a capable and trained workforce with the skills to defend against emergent cyber and electronic warfare threats.
May 15th 2020
Congratulations to our SMILab Graduates this May:
Maimuna Hossain: MS Mechanical Engineering May 2020 UNM, Maimuna continues with SMILab pursuing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering working on MIMO and experimental dynamics for complex systems.
Elijah Wyckoff: BS Mechanical Engineering May 2020 ASU, Elijah continues with SMILab pursuing a MS in Mechanical Engineering working on human-structures interfaces with AR and vibrations.
Somie Chavez: BS Civil Engineering May 2020 UNM, Somie is now working for LANL as a structural engineer, best wishes for your engineering career Somie!
Ben Narushof: BS Civil Engineering May 2020 UNM, Ben is now working as a civil engineer in Horrocks Engineering, best wishes for your engineering career Ben!
November 20, 2019
Check our latest news on our TRB NAS Rail SAFETY IDEA Project here
![IMG_2618[3154]](http://smilab.unm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_26183154-150x150.jpg)
November 11, 2019
Dilendra Maharjan defended his MS thesis on November 11th and already had a full time job as structural engineer! Great job Dilendra and best wishes for your career!
October 2, 2019
Multiscale Sensing and Monitoring for Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Civil Infrastructure presentation by Jian Li: Associate Professor Department of Civil, Environment and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas
Source: Multiscale Sensing and Monitoring for Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Civil Infrastructure
August 23, 2019
TRB IDEA RAIL SAFETY 2018-2020, stage I experiment: SMILab researchers Roya Nasimi, James Woodall, Nicolas Yepes, Dr Zhang and Dr Moreu conducted various experiments for The National Academy Science. For the implementation of this new TRB IDEA RAIL SAFETY project, the research team focused on creating a new wireless laser that they added to the untethered UAS, and programming a total displacement algorithm using both laser and computer vision. Wonderful site for serious UAS-laser research. Looking forward to improving rail safety with NAS, TRB, and the railroads partnering in this effort.
August 23 2019
TRB IDEA RAIL SAFETY 2018-2020, stage I experiment: SMILab researchers Roya Nasimi, James Woodall, Nicolas Yepes, Dr Zhang and Dr Moreu conducted various experiments for The National Academy Science. For the implementation of this new TRB IDEA RAIL SAFETY project, the research team focused on creating a new wireless laser that they added to the untethered UAS, and programming a total displacement algorithm using both laser and computer vision. Wonderful site for serious UAS-laser research. Looking forward to improving rail safety with NAS, TRB, and the railroads partnering in this effort.
August 2019
SMILab Summer 2019 Researchers Farewell
Many researchers completed their days at SMILab this summer: best of luck Rafa Cardona (graduated with MS in structural engineering from UCLM, Ciudad Real, Spain); Jorshua Diaz (will graduate in 2020 with BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ana G. Mendez University at Gurabo, Puerto Rico); Nicolas Yepes (will complete his PhD in 2020 in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus); Elijah Wyckoff (will complete his BS in 2020 in Mechanical Engineering at Arizona State University); Morgan Tubb (will complete his BS in 2020 in Mechanical Engineering at University of Dallas); and Can Zhu (graduated with MS in structural engineering from Yangzhou University, China.) We will miss them and all their hard work, and wish them well in their new careers and completing their degrees!
June 28th, 2019
Bridge monitoring with LEWIS and experts in dance engineering 
SMILab researchers installed nine LEWIS sensors in the duck pond bridge and conducted a bridge monitoring campaign to quantify dance quality in Collaboration with the School of Engineering, Unite Program, the Summer Transportation Institute, and Structures as Sensors Group from the Carnegie Mellon University. The conducted various experiments with and without music measuring coordination using sensors. The goal of their research is to use non-invasive sensors to quantify human activities, with the ultimate aim of sensing human decisions. Looking forward to more multidisciplinary, collaborative research with high school students around the state!
January 2018
Albuquerque, University of New Mexico
Professor Sungmoon Jung from the Joint College of Engineering by Florida A&M University and Florida State University is visiting UNM this month to discuss research, collaborations, and ideas for a safer infrastructure. Professor Sungmoon Jung is an associate professor at a joint college of engineering by Florida A&M University and Florida State University, department of civil and environmental engineering. Before joining the college, he worked for Caterpillar (2006-08) after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004). His research interests include wind engineering, wind energy, and vehicle safety. He is visiting SMILab in a sabbatical leave at the department of civil engineering. Welcome professor Jung! He will give a seminar at the EERI student chapter on Friday January 26th from 4 to 5pm, open to everyone interested! Come and learn about “Mitigation of Wind and Impact Effects on Structures.”
Saturday November 11th , 2017
Albuquerque, NM
Supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) and as part of “Structural Performance Monitoring Using Wireless Sensors (WSW) for Cost-Efficient Management and Development of Commercial Space Vehicles”, SMILab builds wireless smart sensors to monitor rocket launch activities in collaboration with the Albuquerque Rocket Society (ARS). A great team effort taken to heaven! Thanks ARS for your strong support!
Friday November 3rd , 2017
Albuquerque Foothills, NM
Tramway general manager George Boyden gave SMILab and CE410 structural engineering design students a lecture on the design and construction of the Tramway, and led a dedicated tour of the control room; finally students measured the vibrations on the ride to the top of the mountain using sensors. Thank you Mr. Boyden for an elevated structural engineering class at 10,300 ft altitude for UNM engineering students!
November 2nd , 2017
Albuquerque, NM
Dr. Moreu and Ronny Moreano visited UNM alumni Professor Mojgan Madandar at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnique Institute (SIPI). They introduced the students on smart sensing technologies and structural engineering, and encouraged them to apply to UNM Engineering. It was a great interaction and we thank Professor Madandar and SIPI for this great opportunity!
October 27, 2017
Dr. Mascarenas discusses with SMILab and UNM his research
about artificial personality using a
Jungian based framework he programmed. Thanks Dr. Mechler
and the OIA/IDI Colloquium for hosting this successful event.
Monday October 23rd, 2017
Albuquerque, NM
CNM students with Professor Natalie Marie Villwock-Witte attended one seminar from SMILab on smart structures at UNM, and received exposure to UNM’s structural engineering laboratory and engineering studies. In the picture, visiting scholar Ronny Moreano explains the data collecting and processing at Centennial Engineering Center. It was a great interaction between CNM and UNM. Thanks Professor Vilwock-Witte and CNM for the opportunity!
Friday October 20th, 2017
Albuquerque, NM
Dr. Scott Ouellette from LANL visited our laboratory, met with students and faculty, and gave a very interesting seminar on energy harvesting systems for autonomously powered sensor networks. In the picture with Dr. Moreu and Michael Shugh at the seminar.
October 17th, 2017
Albuquerque, NM
Ronny Moreano, visiting scholar from ESPE (College of the Ecuadorian Army) will be working with SMILab for nine weeks on total displacements measurements during extreme events such as earthquakes, tornados, or train crossing events. Welcome, Ronny!
October 7 ,2017
SMILab welcomes inquiring students and families to the Engineering Open House with HoloLens technology and shake table demos.
October 4, 2017
Omaha, Nebraska
Fernando Moreu, SMILab director presents as keynote speaker at the Bridging Big Data (BBD) 2017 Workshop, supported by NSF BD Spokes: PLANNING: MIDWEST: Big Data Innovations for Bridge Health
October 3, 2017
UNM students learn how to design and analyze railroad timber bridges in the structural design class at UNM. Their project was to build a timber trestle that they designed.
September 29, 2017
Jack Noren from Shore Western visits SMILab for the large shake table installation and introduces earthquake engineering testing and design concepts to the architecture and landscape graduate students of Professor Mark Stone. Great questions from a great class!
September 22, 2017
Dr. Takehiko Asai, from the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba (Japan), visited SMILab for three days and presented the seminar “Potential Applications of Tuned Inertial Mass Electromagnetic Transducers”, at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Student Chapter (President Drew Hirdman, SMILab member)
September 21, 2017
Bridge Engineer Kathy Crowell from the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) teaching bridge engineering to UNM engineers at CE410 structural engineering design and visits SMILab
September 20, 2017
Dr. Ali Ozdagli, post-doc fellow at SMILab, presented his research to UNM graduate students at the graduate seminar class from Dr. John Stormont. Dr. Ali gave advice to graduate students about how to find a job after school.
September 20, 2017: Salt Lake City, UT
New Mexico Tech Dr. Don Ryu (SMILab collaborator) and Dr. Bideng Liu at the Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS). Dr. Liu chaired one session and presented one paper on reference-free displacement sensors. Great place and company for a research meeting!
September 19, 2017: Indianapolis, IN
SMILab members presented two papers at AREMA 2017. In this picture, SMILab reunion: Dr. Moreu, Dr. Ali, and Jose Gomez (SMILab MS 2017, now working for Heuristic Actions, Inc. at Las Vegas, NV). Great feedback from the railway engineering community to both papers!
September 13, 2017: Palo Alto, California
LANL’s Dr. David Mascarenas (SMILab collaborator) and Dr. Moreu presented one paper on augmented reality, one poster on confined sensing underground, and competed for “SHM in Action” at the International Workshop for Structural Health Monitoring (IWSHM) at Stanford, CA. Great feedback from the IWSHM participants.
September 5, 2017
Augmenting Realities with Menaul School’s two hundred students! Great pool of future engineers!!
September 1, 2017: Santa Fe, NM
Teaching structural engineering outside the classroom: Loretto Chapel Miraculous Staircase and wood engineering (with Richard Lindsey); Biocultura and masonry engineering (with UNM Professor Andrea Polli); NM bridges design (with NMDOT bridge engineer Kathy Crowell)
August 25, 2017
Measuring reference-free displacements with a laser carried by Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Transportation Research Board (TRB) SAFETY IDEA Project (National Academy of Science)
August 22, 2017
Patrick Hughes (PhD student with Professor Gilberto Mosqueda at UCSD) presented “Pounding of Base-Isolated Buildings to Bumper-Protected Moat Walls” with the EERI Chapter (president Drew Harding, SMILab member)
February 11, 2017
Shreya Vemuganti wins 2nd place in UNM STEM research symposium
January 29, 2017
Dr. Fernando Moreu and Piyush Garg presented three papers from SMILab at XXXV IMAC
January 27, 2017
Tom Paez visits Department of Civil Engineering and SMILab
January 26, 2017
SMILab member Jose Alberto Gomez is going to defend his Master's Thesis on February 16, 2017 in room CENT 3031 at 11 AM. He has been offered a civil engineering position in 'Heuristic Actions'.
January 25, 2017
Charles Farrar visits Department of Civil Engineering and SMILab. Also presents in seminar and structural dynamics class.
January 24, 2017
National Academy of Sciences grant will fund research for railroad bridge safety
September-December, 2016
SMILab graduate student member Piyush Garg is a visiting researcher at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China
November 1, 2016
Shreya Vemuganti passes Ph.D. qualifying exam.
September 22, 2016
Learning "How-to" Design Structures Under the Bridge. Click here for more in formation and pictures.
September 28 – 30, 2016
SMILab director, Dr. Fernando Moreu, to deliver a presentation in the Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems.
August 28 – 30, 2016
SMILab director and members attended the AREMA 2016 Annual Conference and Exposition in Orlando, Florida.
July 29, 2016
The NOMAD institute has concluded. Poster presentation at Sandia delivered.
July 26, 2016
High school mentees presented their work towards the end of the SMILab summer camp.
July 5,2016
Shreya Vemuganti has been awarded doctoral conference program award by the office of graduate studies of UNM.
June 20 - July 29, 2016
SMILab members to participate in the Non Linear Dynamics and Mechanics (NOMAD) institute at Sandia National Laboratory this Summer.
May 19, 2016
SMILab to mentor high school students in different engineering related projects this summer.
April 28, 2016
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Student Chapter at UNM.
April 28, 2016
Smilab director, Dr. Fernando Moreu presented at the New Mexico 2016 ASCE meeting at Socorro.
April 25, 2016
Educational field trip visit to BNSF, one of the largest railroads in North America in Belen, NM.
April 20, 2016
STEM class completed. Video of this class can be found here.
April 15, 2016; 3 - 4 pm, Kansas University
SMILab director, Dr. Fernando Moreu to present at KU.
Click here for abstract about presentation and biography of Dr. Fernando Moreu.
June 14-16, 2016, University of Illinois
SMILAB member and PhD student Shreya Vemuganti to present at UIUC. She has also been awarded CE travel grant for academic performance and the importance of the research being conducted.
Click here for abstract
Click here for conference details
March 25, 2016; 3:30 - 4:30 pm, MECH 218
SMILab director, Dr. Fernando Moreu presented in Mechanical Department, UNM.
Click here for information about Department of Mechanical Engineering, UNM
Click here for abstract
March 23 - April 20, 2016; 2 - 3 pm; Wednesday
‘Shake It Up in Engineering’ Wednesday Bonanza ! A collaborative effort by SMILab and STEM UNM.
March 15 – 17, 2016
SMILab director, Dr. Moreu, has been selected the New Mexico Section lead representative for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Click here for Legislative Fly-in program
March 2, 2016
Rebecca Wingate presented at UNM about Replacing a railway bridge: From inspection to construction.
For information about Rebecca Wingate,
Click here for company information
Click here for Chicago's Society of Women Engineers
February 26, 2016
SMILab presented a poster at The NMCRDC Unmanned Aerial Systems and Remote Sensing Workshop.
Click here for more information