Vancouver. He has 15 years of experience in engineering materials and manufacturing. His research area includes materials processing, structural integrity improvement, and hybrid composite manufacturing. He has been very active in pedagogical research and undergraduate research projects, and his research interests include manufacturing laboratory pedagogy and writing pedagogy.

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This grant supported coursework and laboratory development and expanded research capacity, promoting (a) innovative learning activities that expose students to cutting-edge methods of bridge structural health and behavior monitoring and (b) research by our growing group of graduate students using developing technologies (specifically, shake tables and iPods with on-board accelerometers). As transportation infrastructure reaches and exceeds its design life, engineering efforts are turning to evaluation, rehabilitation and repair. Accurately assessing structures to determine their future performance and remaining life is becoming a primary job function for many civil engineers. As part of this project, graduate students worked with the PI to develop course modules that employed iPods in the laboratory and classroom to introduce concepts of vibrations, dynamic evaluation methods, structural health monitoring, and damage detection. Learning gains as a result of the module were assessed with both direct and indirect methods. While learning gains appeared stronger for students who participated in the hands-on component of the laboratory, due to the small class size there were no statistically significant differences between using iPods in a hands-on laboratory versus a purely computational laboratory. However, students indicated that iPods and hands-on laboratories were their preferred experience. The team also investigated laboratory and field applications, as well as effectiveness, of iPods to study structural dynamics and structural health monitoring methods, specifically for area bridges and other transportation structures. Sensor networks and mobile device-based accelerometers are beginning to be recognized as a valid means for conducting structural evaluations. The equipment purchased with this grant allowed for a new laboratory to be developed at Oregon Tech to support multiple undergraduate and graduate elective courses including Bridge Rating, Bridge Design, Transportation Structures, and Structural Dynamics. The Structural Health and Kinetic Evaluation (SHAKE) Laboratory and the associated equipment will support education and research efforts at Oregon Tech well into the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe project team would like to acknowledge the generous support of NITC for the work documented in this report. The development of the laboratory and curriculum in the area of transportation and infrastructure health, as well as the increased capacity for applied research at Oregon Tech, would not have been possible without the institute's assistance. DISCLAIMERThe contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the material and information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The contents do not necessarily reflect the ...

Dr. Riley has been teaching mechanics concepts for over 10 years and has been honored with both the ASCE ExCEEd New Faculty Excellence in Civil Engineering Education Award (2012) and the Beer and Johnston Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award (2013). While he teaches freshman to graduatelevel courses across the civil engineering curriculum, his focus is on engineering mechanics. He implements classroom demonstrations at every opportunity as part of a complete instructional strategy that seeks to overcome issues of student conceptual understanding.

Sleep received his Bachelors degree in Geological Engineering from the University of Mississippi. After working for the USACE and private consulting, Matthew returned to graduate school at Virginia Tech receiving a Masters and PhD in Civil Engineering. His research and consulting focus is in Geotechnical Engineering with and emphasis on dam and levee projects. He is currently an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at Oregon Institute of Technology.