ESR 12: SUstainable ROad Management through Low cost techniques!

Hi guys, It's been a little while since my last post as I went home for a much needed break for Summer and its been hectic the past few weeks with work and organizing for a few dissemination and training activities which are next on the timeline! I'm actually writing this post from Rome before I present at the International Congress on Transport Infrastructure and Systems in a changing World, TIS Roma 2019, but I will talk about that in my next post! Before Summer I got the opportunity to go to South Korea for the International Conference on Smart Cities in Seoul. I went with one of my good friends and coworkers Konstantinos, ESR 10( http://smartietn.eu/research/smarti-guidelines/esr10/ ). We were there to present a joint piece of research where we utilized Life Cycle Assessment techniques, used in his project, to look at the sustainability of implementing the 3D modelling techniques of my project. In our paper we found very good results showing that the techniques not onl...

Hi Guys, It’s been a very long time since my last post as I’ve been busy trying to work out the kinks of the project, carrying out surveys and analysis and trying to figure out where next to take my research. I have been involved in several research papers and as a result, my time has been spent at the pc doing analysis and writing papers to disseminate the results. So now I want to give a quick update on the project, my plans, and some activities I have been a part of as part of the SMARTI ETN network! First up! - After publishing my first paper, ‘Image-based 3D reconstruction using traditional and UAV datasets for analysis of road pavement distress’ (available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.10.010 ), the next step in the process was trying to establish the accuracy of the methods using mobile devices and then to figure out anomalies within the models that can be used for recognition and analysis.  To this point, I have been able to carry out analysis and sur...

Hi Guys, It’s been a while since my last post but I wanted to give an update on the project and some training and dissemination activities I have been a part of here in Palermo.  First up! - My first paper from the project was accepted and published in Automation in Construction! Its title is ‘Image-based 3D reconstruction using traditional and UAV datasets for analysis of road pavement distress’ and it is available online for free at https://t.co/dp188dA9iP until December 7! It is a pretty good feeling to receive that acceptance email from the journal and then an even greater feeling seeing your name as an author on something you've worked hard on.  😊😊😊 The paper is based on work carried out with my professors, Prof. Laura Inzerillo and Prof. Gaetano Di Mino. The particulars of the paper involve carrying out a pavement distress survey on a distressed pavement within the University of Palermo and it aims at validating the use of innovative and low-cost Struc...

Hi Guys, It’s been a while since my last post but I just wanted to give you a quick update on a great networking and training event I got to be a part of. As part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie family I was given the opportunity to enter a contest to win a spot in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Satellite event on Communication skills in Toulouse, France . I was happy to submit my entry and lucky enough I won one of the 30 spots up for grabs! The idea behind this event was helping us to tell our stories. This is just one of the great opportunities as part of this amazing network. The Event was held in the beautiful city of Toulouse over a weekend in June. I arrived on Friday just as France was winning their quarter-final match and was charging on their way to the championship. Being in the city when the game was on was quite an experience as you could feel the support for the team and excitement knowing their team was one step closer to the top. After ...

Hi Guys,  Thanks for the feedback on the first post! Now that you know a little bit about me and how I got here let's talk about the project! As I mentioned before, the name of the project is Su stainable Ro ad Ma nagement through Low Cost techniques   but to make it easier we just call it SuRoMa ! The first word in that sentence is Sustainable and this really is key. It's a word that is used a lot in today's world but what exactly is it? Simply put, it is about doing things that will not only work now but that will continue to do so in the future without damaging our resources for the future.  However as with most things in life, we need money to achieve goals and this is the same for road authorities worldwide. Road agencies usually have limited budgets and are faced with difficult decisions on how to manage the roads to produce efficient and useful networks. It can be irritating being a driver or pedestrian using a road full of cracks and po...