ARC’s latest Research Highlights features CIES Dr Mehri Makki Alamdari

Congratulations to CIES researcher and RIIS Chief Investigator  whose research on innovative structural health assessments of bridges is one of only nine ARC-funded projects featured by the ARC in their 2022-2023 Annual Report as a Research Highlight.

Through an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), Dr Makki Alamdari is working with her team at UNSW and partners at Kyoto University in Japan to develop a vehicle-mounted sensing system that can build a snapshot of a bridge’s structural condition. 

‘I am aiming to develop a low-cost and robust bridge monitoring framework through advanced data analytics, solely based on the response of a moving vehicle passing over the bridge,’ Dr Alamdari said. 

Their work could revolutionise structural assessment of the condition of thousands of bridges across Australia. 

‘In the laboratory, we have proven that we can monitor the health status of the bridge using this technology,’ Dr Alamdari says. 

‘But in the field, it’s always a different story because, from my experience working on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I know there are a lot of unexpected challenges. 

‘To get it to the required level involves a lot of work in terms of advancing and tuning the parameters of your algorithm and increasing the sensitivity of your sensors. All those things need to be just right to ensure the technology works in the way we intend. 

‘But we are definitely on the right track.’ 

Congratulations to Mehri.

See more about Mehri’s work at: ARC News, ARC Social media and UNSW Newsroom