OGDENSBURG -- The Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge will be part of Clarkson University’s bridge monitoring research.

Clarkson and the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority will be working together in three main areas: establishing collaborative research and development of technologies for bridge monitoring and sensor data to suggest improvements in the performance of the international bridge; advancing cross-border Internet and communication technologies; and small business development.

"The Authority and Clarkson will work collaboratively on research, technology transfer, education and training projects mutually beneficial for the North Country," said Authority Executive Director Wade A. Davis. "This includes identifying funding for research, technology transfer, education, and training projects."

"This research will not only have an immediate real benefit to bridge users on both sides of the border, but it could also provide additional small business opportunities in our region, as well as infrastructure innovations statewide and nationally,” said Clarkson University President Tony Collins. “This connection between university research, infrastructure and industry is one of the cornerstones of the innovation economy."

The long-term operation and management strategy for the bridge requires high-tech monitoring tools.

"These can start with bridge structural health monitoring and extend to traffic monitoring and homeland security applications," says Clarkson University Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor and Executive Officer Kerop D. Janoyan. "The sensors can also be applied to Seaway water and air quality monitoring. We plan to work on sensor requisition, acquisition, and deployment as well as in-house sensor development and design."

"This partnership can enhance research activities we are currently carrying out on signature bridges' vibration dynamics, control, and health monitoring," says Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Professor Pier Marzocca.

Janoyan and Marzocca have significant experience in bridge monitoring, modeling and data fusion analysis.

Janoyan has been involved in a series of national and international advanced transportation infrastructure and bridge engineering projects. The emphasis of the work is on the development and deployment of dense low-cost sensors coupled with wireless sensor networks to obtain real-time measurements from bridges. This provides valuable knowledge on the behavior of the structure, its response to service and environmental loading, and its deterioration condition.

Marzocca has also been involved in a number of projects dealing with advanced aeroelastic behavior of civil and aero-mechanical systems. Recently, he has worked on the development of computational tools for sensing data-fusion and modeling aspects directly applicable to the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge.

An established small business might be able to address the bridge monitoring and data analysis of the measurements from the sensors. The business could be housed at the Authority's Commerce Park, under guidance and mentorship from Clarkson's Shipley Center for Innovation and the Council for International Trade, Technology, Education and Communication (CITEC).