Ralph Keeney, research professor of decision sciences at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, will discuss how decision analysis is concerned with helping businesses, government organizations, and individuals make better decisions. The presentation begins with a succinct outline of the concepts and techniques necessary for systematic thinking about and analysis of important decisions. It then goes on to present summaries of the application of these concepts and techniques to important decisions. The event takes place on Monday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the McArthur Engineering Annex, room MCA202.

Today, humans perform visual inspections every two years of most of the nation’s older bridges. But with a scarcity of inspectors and tens of thousands of bridges, that process can be long and laborious.

Bridge work: Antonio Nanni, center, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, monitors real-time data transmitted by sensors on Miami’s Grove Isle Bridge. With him are graduate students Rosella Ferraro and Felipe Mejia.

While newer bridges have monitoring devices already incorporated into their design, there are thousands of bridges erected during the 1960s and ’70s, when much of the nation’s infrastructure was built, that lack such technology.

To address this issue, a team of University of Miami College of Engineering researchers is implementing a self-powered monitoring system for bridges that can continuously check their condition using wireless sensors that “harvest” power from structural vibration and wind energy.

“Just as when someone goes to see a doctor and gets all sorts of tests done to see how healthy they are and how long they’ll live, we’re doing the same with bridges,” says Antonio Nanni, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and lead investigator of the nearly $14 million project.

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Marco A. Pravia, section lead at Advanced Information Technologies, a standalone operational subsidiary of BAE Systems, delivers a seminar on “Information Fusion and Object Tracking Algorithms and Technologies,” in McArthur Annex, room 202, on Monday, April 13 at 3:30 p.m. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call 305-284-3352.

The 14th Annual College of Engineering Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, April 17 at the Miccosukee Golf and Country Club located on 6401 Kendale Lakes Drive. The proceeds of this golf tournament benefit the engineering students at the University of Miami through the M. Lewis and Louise M. Temares Endowed Student Assistance Fund. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call 305-284-2908.