November 18, 2009 –
Engineering professor and CALIT2 academic affiliate Maria Feng has been recognized by UCI’s Academic Senate with its 2009-10 Distinguished Mid-Career Award for Research.
Feng, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is one of seven faculty members to be honored at this year’s awards ceremony, scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 3 at the University Club.
Her research focuses on using advanced sensors – smaller, lighter and more resilient to weather – along with data-processing techniques, to determine the structural performance of civil infrastructures like buildings, bridges and underground pipes.
This approach not only can provide early warning of impending failures, but also offers real-time, remote, post-event damage assessment, she says. Feng has outfitted several buildings and bridges – including the CALIT2 Building in Irvine – with a variety of sensors.
“As our built environment ages and grows in size and density, along with increasing threats of natural disasters due to global warming, this research continues to be not only interesting and challenging, but truly important to protect the integrity of our civil infrastructure and the safety of the general public,” she said.
In the months following the catastrophic 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, news outlets around the country sought interviews with Feng. She appeared on NBC News, KFWB and KPCC radio, KOCE television, the Orange County Register and the San Diego Union Tribune.
Feng, who has been on the UCI faculty since 1992, has amassed a notable collection of awards, including the NSF Early Faculty Career Award, three awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, The Collingwood Prize, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize and the Alfred Noble Prize presented by the combined American engineering societies. “However,” she said, “nothing compares to the joy and honor of being recognized by my colleagues at UCI.”
