Podcast: The Infrastructure Show

Digital twins are virtual representations of real systems used to test designs and operating policies in safe environments prior to implementation or offline. Applications include a variety of public and private facilities, notably airports and operating systems such as water supply and manufacturing processes. Much of the work is centered in architectural and engineering firms, with its foundation in Building Information Modeling (BIM).To understand digital twins and their infrastructure applications, we talk with Howard Shotz, a Vice President at Arora Engineers, where he leads the Global Smart Infrastructure practice. A graduate in architecture from Temple University, Howard is former Director of the Digital Twin and Digital Advisory Practice at Parsons Corporation

Dam failures are frightening, and they can become disasters. Just how common – or uncommon – are the failures of dams in the U.S.? What are the contributing factors and are there ways we mitigate them?To learn the facts about dam failures, we talk with John Roche, who is Chief of the Dam Safety Permits Division of the Maryland Department of the Environment. John’s work on dams includes emergency preparedness and response, public safety strategy, policy development, hydrology and hydraulics, and natural resources management. John earned his BS in Civil Engineering and MS in Geotechnical Engineering from University of New Hampshire. He’s a registered Professional Engineer in multiple states and is currently Secretary and Board Member of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

The Eads Bridge, opened in 1874, is the oldest functioning bridge across the Mississippi River. This St. Louis crossing, named after its designer/builder, James Eads, pioneered the use of steel, then a new material; the construction of long-span arches without falsework; and deep underwater foundations. Eads himself led the creation of an elaborate international financing scheme to pay for the bridge and promising large profits for its investors. Today the Eads Bridge carries 4 lanes of road traffic and the Metrolink light rail line.Bringing us the history of this National Historic Landmark is John K. Brown, whose recent book, Spanning the Gilded Age; James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge, presents this story in detail, addressing financing of the economic expansion of the post-Civil War United States; the self-dealing and conflicting interests of the banking, railroad, construction, and materials industries of the time; as well the beginning of an integrated, standardized U.S. rail network. John is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia. He earned three degrees in history: a BA from Emory and MA and PhD degrees from University of Virginia.

Intercity bus terminals are key links in the national bus network. We’re losing some these terminals due to pressures for more lucrative land uses. The announced closing of Chicago’s downtown Greyhound station will be impactful because about half a million passengers pass through it annually. How important are these terminals, not just locally, but in the national intercity bus network? Is there a need for public intervention to save them?To explore the contributing factors, the implications of closures, and potential interventions, we talk with Professor Joseph Schwieterman of DePaul University in Chicago. Joe is Founding Director of DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, and the foremost scholar on intercity bus transportation in the U.S. He has a BS degree from Purdue, an MS in Transportation from Northwestern, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Chicago

Scientific research needs supporting infrastructure – some small, some big, but rarely simple. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment – DUNE – will study the neutrino, one of the smallest atomic particles that is a fundamental building block of the universe. DUNE will send neutrinos generated at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility near Chicago 800 miles though the earth to a massive detector in South Dakota, 1500 meters underground, that will collect data for scientists around the world.To explain the experiment itself, the infrastructure that will make it possible, and how that infrastructure is being built, we’re talking with Ron Ray, Particle Physicist at Fermilab and Deputy Project Director of the LBNF/DUNE project team, to join us. Ron earned his Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of California-Irvine and worked as a scientific researcher at Northwestern University

Bridge inspectors like to get up close and personal to detect small defects that could grow into disasters. The configuration of bridges – their size, height, and locations – can make the job difficult and dangerous. But rapid advances in aerial drones are making it possible to inspect difficult-to-access areas of bridges quickly and safely, reducing inspection costs and supporting better bridge maintenance.To update us on recent applications of drones for bridge inspection, we’re talking with Barritt Lovelace, who is Director of Unmanned Aerial Systems, Artificial Intelligence and Reality Modeling at Collins Engineers in St. Paul, Minnesota

GPS, the Global Positioning System, is now half a century old. This extraordinary technological advance routinely guides planes, ships, trains, automobiles, bikers and pedestrians with high precision. A Defense Department technology, GPS became widely available to the public in 1990. It has displaced and replaced some older navigation systems and brought revolutionary change to location and timing tasks.To review some of the benefits GPS has brought, we talk with Michael Gallaher, of RTI International, who is co-author of a study of the benefits of GPS for the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Almost every major system we rely on seems to be vulnerable to cyberattacks from scammers, criminals, and nation states threatening our national security. Reports of cyberattacks disrupting and even destroying critical infrastructure systems are increasingly common.To understand the cyber risks that threaten our essential service systems and how we can defend against them, we talk with Gregory Falco, Assistant Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University and Director of the Aerospace ADVERSARY Laboratory, which designs and develops next-generation autonomous, secure and resilient space infrastructure

Energy from wind and solar sources is available when nature permits, but the demand for energy is based on the cyclical needs of people and their activities. To make renewable energy work, and to manage the normal daily mismatches between supply and demand, we need to shift energy in time from when it is available to when it is needed. That calls for grid-scale storage.To explain large-scale energy storage strategies, we talk with Nate Blair, group manager of distributed systems and storage analysis at the USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado

In very cold places, like Alaska, Northern parts of Canada and Europe, building infrastructure means building on permafrost, perennially frozen ground. Permafrost provides reliable foundations for buildings and highways as long as it remains frozen. But warming temperatures driven by climate change may threaten existing and new infrastructure founded on permafrost.To help us understand the problems and potential solutions in this dynamic risk environment, we talk with Billy Connor, Director of the Arctic Infrastructure Development Center at the University of Alaska