Jennifer A. Bridge, PhD, University Term Associate Professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment (ESSIE), has been named a Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World Faculty Fellow.
This prestigious endowed position is awarded to select faculty members at the University of Florida in recognition of outstanding service within the Institute in research, education, workforce development, broadening participation, or other outreach activities, relevant to the mission of the institute.
Dr. Bridge’s research centers around IoT-Driven Infrastructure Health Monitoring:
“My group develops sensors and IoT solutions with a focus on improving the performance of civil infrastructure (buildings, bridges, etc.) to improve public safety and reduce operating costs. Since the Champlain Tower collapse in Surfside, Florida, I’ve been evaluating the current methods used to assess the condition of aging coastal buildings (funded by the Florida Building Commission). Through this ongoing work, I see tremendous opportunities to enhance infrastructure assessment and maintenance decision support through the IoT-driven solutions. The fellowship will enable me to pursue new research opportunities in emerging building assessment technologies.”
— Dr. Jennifer Bridge
As a Nelms Faculty Fellow, Dr. Bridge hopes to continue to pursue IoT-Driven Infrastructure Health Monitoring:
Jennifer Bridge is an Associate Professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure at the University of Florida. She is the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Experimental Facility at UF and heads the Smart Infrastructure Management Laboratory. Dr. Bridge’s research is focused on advancing technological and analytical strategies to enable effective monitoring and management of civil infrastructure. Her primary interests include the development and application of smart sensor networks for structural health monitoring (SHM), improvement of structural sustainability through advanced monitoring and control, and wind hazard mitigation. She strives to improve infrastructure assessment and performance by utilizing a multidisciplinary approach based on novel laboratory and field experiments. Her research has been funded by NSF, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Florida Department of Transportation. Dr. Bridge received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award to study the impact of severe storms on coastal bridges and develop cyberinfrastructure tools for the observation of extreme events. Dr. Bridge received her B.S. degree from Texas Tech University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.