HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY • OFFICE FOR RESEARCH & SPONSORED PROGRAMS
The
SPRING 2022 ISSUE 9
GRANT Seeker
A spotlight on excellence in grant development by a Hofstra University employee
Edward “Ted” Segal By Karissa Lago
Edward “Ted” Segal
Edward “Ted” Segal is an assistant professor of engineering in Hofstra’s Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science. Ted explained how his love of engineering began: “When I was younger, I liked playing with Legos a lot, and my grandfather had a woodshop, so I spent a lot of time with him, and that was a big influence for me.” In high school, he began taking architecture classes, until he realized he was more interested in making sure he put enough lines on the page so that the floor would stand up. This was the start of his journey in engineering.
patterns created by clay drying and cracking. It was a major project and took the help of many of his students as well as other engineers, architects, and artists to complete it. The finished product – Cast & Place – resulted in a beautifully patterned pavilion that you wouldn’t get using conventional building methods. His current research focuses on rapidly deployable footbridges, which Ted and his group have been working on since 2019. In fact, several students worked on this project with Ted, and two students collaborated with him on a journal article. Ted explained that the deployable bridge project is one of his favorite projects because it evolved out of some of the work he did while he was a graduate student. He is developing ways to use polyester rope, which is both light and durable, to reduce the weight of footbridges so that they can be used in disaster situations,
Ted has a background in structural engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell and a master’s and PhD from Princeton. Ted’s research focuses on utilizing unconventional materials to create structures. When we think about common building materials, we think about materials such as steel, concrete, and wood. However, Ted has been using cast aluminum, polyester, acrylic, and other polymers. One recent structure is a pavilion that was temporarily installed on Governors Island. Aluminum was cast into unique
Photo credit: Edward Segal
e.g., floods or other natural disasters. Ted received a few grants to develop a method for rapidly deploying these footbridges when only one side of a crossing is initially accessible. His team uses a drone to fly an initial rope to the far side of the crossing. The drone is flown around a tree, which can serve as an anchorage for the bridge, and then returns to the initial side. After this rope is in position, the team completes a choreographed sequence of moves to pull the bridge into place. The longest bridge they have deployed using this method is 30 feet. They are currently developing a more versatile set of bridge designs that can meet the demands of a variety of real-life emergency situations. Ted is working on an educational project in collaboration with Dan Bergsagel of schlaich bergermann partner (sbp) and Scale Rule, and it will be made possible by the SEI Futures Fund in collaboration with the ASCE Foundation – www.asce.org/SEI. This spring, Ted and Dan, in conjunction with a group of engineers from sbp and architects from Grimshaw Architects, will host a series of workshops on campus for high school students. The students will participate in designing a small-scale structure. These students will be put in groups and paired with a Hofstra engineering student and a young practicing engineer or architect. At the end of the workshop, one of the structures will be selected for construction on Hofstra’s campus in late summer. Ted explained that nothing gets him more excited than sharing his love of engineering. Now he gets to do that with the next generation of engineers as they start their own journey.
Hofstra thanks you!
Your scholarly achievements enhance Hofstra’s reputation as a leading educational institution. If you are interested in pursuing a grant opportunity or have any questions, please contact ORSP at 516-463-6810.