When Kevin McMullen was just a child, a 100-foot span of the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich, Connecticut in the U.S. collapsed. The incident caused 3 casualties, 3 serious injuries, and 2 plunged cars and 2 tractor-trailers into the river 70 feet below.
In the investigation, it was discovered that an undetected fatigue cracked caused the collapse.
Now that Kevin is a structural engineering Ph.D. student at University of Connecticut, he developed a device that could have prevented the bridge failure. Almost a score too late.
Photo via PB Works
Under his own company NexGen Infrastructure, Kevin designed a bridge-safety monitoring device which uses force-sensing pads, able to be installed in new and being repaired bridges. The device ultimately enables a warning for engineers if the bridge is overstressed.
While the system acts as a warning device, it still won’t replace human inspection. It will only act as a supplement in bridge monitoring, especially in a nation where 1 in 10 bridges is structurally deficient.
He said, “Our hope is that if something is going drastically wrong with a bridge, engineers would be alerted that the bridge needs to be inspected right away.
“We are anticipating that the federal government and state departments of transportation will feel it is a worthwhile investment.’’
Kevin McMullen. Photo by UConn
He added that there is little change in infrastructure over the last few decades, and it’s only recently that new technologies are being developed for infrastructure and civil engineering.
“This push towards innovation makes me know I’m in the right field,” Kevin said.
Kevin also graduated from UConn in 2015 for his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Now he is specializing in structural engineering for his Ph.D. degree, with much focus on bridges.
“When I decided what to study at UConn, civil engineering was the choice for me. And for some reason, I’ve just always loved bridges,” he said.
The bridge-safety monitoring device that Kevin developed is part of his Ph.D. thesis which is about a new, streamlined bridge-repair process that would be more cost-effective and minimize traffic disruptions.
For his ingenuity, Kevin was awarded a $40,000 grant from the UConn School of Engineering in partnership with Connecticut Innovations. The grant, ironically called the Third Bridge Grant, is awarded to engineering students with innovative ideas but without funding.
Source: University of Connecticut
