CTR Symposium Breakout Session 1:
Bridges and Transportation Structures
Panel Members:
- Robert Owens (Design Supervisor Branch B, Bridge Division, TxDOT)
- Steven Austin (Field Operations Section Director, Bridge Division, TxDOT)
- Todd Helwig (UT)
- Matt Hebdon (UT)
Presentations:
Time, Title & Presenter
by Esteban Zecchin
by Dr. Sunghyun Park
by Xiaoyi Chen
by Aidan Bjelland
by Dr. Matt Hebdon
by Zhenghao Zhang
by Dr. Ozzie Bayrak and Greg Hunsiker – Deputy Director of CBEI
Esteban Zecchin, originally from Cordoba, Argentina, is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. His research project focuses on developing design recommendations that, by introducing internal redundancy, will allow steel box straddle caps to be reclassified as non-Fracture Critical. Esteban graduated with his BS in Civil Engineering from the National University of Cordoba in 2015 and his MS in Structural Engineering from UT Austin in 2019.
Dr. Sunghyun Park is a postdoctoral researcher in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in architectural engineering in South Korea. And he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. His research focuses on steel structures, and he is currently involved in the NCHRP 12-113 steel bridge project.
Xiaoyi Chen is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Structural Engineering at UT Austin. She received her bachelor’s from Shandong University and master’s in civil engineering from Tongji University, China. Her research interests include reinforced concrete structural behavior and design, computational modeling, and structural testing. She has also had experiences with structural vibration control and digital image correlation.
Aidan Bjelland is from Arizona where he got his M.S. in structural engineering at ASU. He is currently working towards his PhD in structural engineering while working under Dr. Helwig, Dr. Engelhardt, Dr. Williamson, and Dr. Hebdon on TxDOT Project 0-7093: development of refined design methods for lean-on bracing.
Zhenghao Zhang, originally from Shanghai, China, is a current PhD student of UT Austin. He is engaging in the TxDOT research project investigating the behavior of shear connectors with tall haunches and developing the corresponding design guidelines. In 2017, Zhenghao received B.Eng. in the major of Port, Waterway, and Coastal Engineering in Shanghai Maritime University. Then he pursued a master’s degree in Structural Engineering in Virginia Tech and graduated in 2019 with M.S.