We are proud to announce that Diane Moug, an assistant professor who teaches geotechnical engineering at Portland State University, has received a five-year CAREER grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER grants are the NSF’s most prestigious awards for early-career faculty. Recipients lead advances in their fields and are academic role models in research and education.
Moug’s work provides civil engineers with a framework for investigating the properties of soil in the field. These soil properties are needed to design foundations of buildings, bridges and other infrastructure. Her work improves the interpretability of the data gathered during site investigation by (1) estimating advanced engineering parameters from cone penetration test data, and (2) quantifying uncertainties associated with site investigation data, so that engineers can evaluate the value of additional data. The CAREER project integrates research with an education and outreach program for community college transfer students, that includes events at local community colleges, organization of an annual transfer student workshop, including research lab tours and outreach demonstrations, and hosting students in research intern positions.
Moug is the sixth CAREER grant recipient in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science since 2020.
Watch her talk about soil research in a video with PSU Associate Professor Arash Khosravifar.
Building on a strong foundation
Remember the old warning to not build your house on sand? Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Diane Moug is gathering the data to build on sand, clay, or any other foundation material. She has recently been awarded a five-year CAREER grant for her project Advanced and Uncertainty-Informed Site Investigation. The National Science Foundation’s prestigious award for early career researchers honors Moug’s leadership in research and education.
Moug’s work focuses on what lies beneath the surface of our cities and highways. Their safety, cost-efficiency, and resilience depend on a crucial step: investigating the ground. Before construction can begin (or even be planned), civil engineers conduct soil tests up to hundreds of feet below the surface in order to ensure that the building plans are suited for the site conditions. For one of these tests, the Cone Penetration Test (CPT), a metal rod is inserted into the soil and multiple measurements, such as resistance, water pressure in the soil, and seismic wave velocities, are taken. These test results give engineers an understanding of what is happening below the surface.
Despite conducting tests like these, uncertainty about the ground that engineers are building upon remains. Unexpected conditions can lead to unplanned extra expenses and delays. Moug’s recent work is invaluable in this context: it provides frameworks to extract more information from the measurement data and to quantify the remaining uncertainty. Civil engineers now are better able to predict the performance of their project and to decide if more tests are needed.
Moug’s project is not solely focused on research; it also includes a pivotal community-building aspect. An education and outreach program for community college transfer students is a component, involving events at local community colleges, an annual transfer student workshop, research lab tours and outreach demonstrations, and hosting students in research intern positions.