RESEARCH
Measuring the Impact of
Two UF civil engineering professors teamed up with Feld Entertainment to research the impact of oversized motor vehicles on venue floors in an event called Monster Jam. Monster Jam is the largest motorsport event that tours globally throughout arenas and stadiums. Funded by a grant from Feld, Jennifer Bridge, Ph.D., and Christopher Ferraro, Ph.D., visited Marlins Park, a baseball stadium in Miami, and TIAA Bank Field, a football stadium in Jacksonville, to log and analyze the events taking place. “We’re hoping to measure the loads that various equipment and monster
Monster Jam
trucks impart on the venue in which an event is being held,” Dr. Bridge said. Bridge, who is principal investigator, is measuring to see if the events are detrimental to venue flooring by evaluating load pressures produced by the vehicles. Vehicles include monster trucks, dump trucks, skidsteer loaders, front-loader washers, excavators, forklifts and flatbed tractors.
they plan to provide specific pressureloading data regarding all phases of Monster Jam, including floor protection installation, track construction, pit party, event performances and clean up. Bridge and Ferraro hope that this research can show an innovative use to civil engineering.
“As civil engineers, we need to understand the loads on the soil and various equipment so that we can design them appropriately, so they’re safe,” she added.
“Any time we can gain understanding, it’s a good thing,” Bridge said. “Not only are we measuring monster trucks, but construction equipment. If we can understand the loads imparted by all these pieces of equipment, we can use it as a standard.”
After they finish conducting the study,
by Reba Liddy Hernandez
Bringing Engineering Methods to Medical Research Civil and Coastal Engineering professor Alex Sheremet, Ph.D., is collaborating with the UF College of Medicine and the McKnight Brain Institute on two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to apply his knowledge in nonlinear dynamics to advance medical science. Driven by common interests, Dr. Sheremet started working with Drs. Andrew Maurer and Sara Burke as an informal cross-disciplinary group focused on the study of brain activity. The experimental research conducted by Drs. Maurer and Burke examine hippocampal activity in rats with
the goal of understanding its role in information processing, short-time memory, advanced age decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Sheremet’s expertise in nonlinear waves, modeling and analysis of nonlinear-system dynamics is essential for developing data analysis approaches and constructing theoretical and numerical models for simulating the complex physics of brain activity. Current research efforts focus on the analysis and interpretation of macroscopic measurements of activity, such electroencephalogram
(EEG) records, and the development of a thermodynamic description of macroscopic neural activity. “Physics is the basis of anything the brain does. Dr. Maurer coined the phrase ‘physics of cognition’. We are trying to create a mathematical and physical formulation to understand the connection between these two words,” Dr. Sheremet explained. The research provides a different perspective of brain processes that could advance treatments for memory and learning impairment. by Reba Liddy Hernandez
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