This award is to support a "US-Egypt Workshop on Innovations in Materials and Design of Civil Infrastructures to be held in Cairo, Egypt in December 28-29 2005. The organizers are Dr. Tarek Rizk, Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and Dr. Omaima Salah El Din, Housing and Building Research Center (HBRC), in Cairo, Egypt.
Intellectual merit: This is a travel grant to assist 12 U.S. and four Middle East scientists to participate in a workshop in an area of interest to NSF and also to other US Government agencies, both at the federal and states level. Egypt is similarly interested in this research area because of the potential applications in building the country's infrastructure. The Workshop is planned for two days. The first day will be devoted to innovations in the applications of advanced composite materials and fiber reinforced polymers in civil Infrastructure in repair, reinforcing, prestressing, and in new structures. On the second day, the participants will focus on innovations, including those in delivery of infrastructure projects and innovations in civil infrastructure materials (spun concrete, ultra high-strength concrete, etc). Participants will come from the U.S. and several Middle East countries, in addition to participants from the host country, Egypt. The presentations will be made available to all participants prior to the meeting. The Steering Committee will provide a report that will summarize the research contributions and that will identify areas for future research. A web site was developed for the workshop to allow for electronic submission of papers and abstracts. The proceedings will be made available free of charge on the web site www.EgyptComposites.com. The discussions, additional contributions, and recommendations will be included in the Workshop Proceedings and on the Workshop's web site. These will also be made available at professional meetings and conferences.
Broader impacts: The backbone of any country's economy consists of assets of constructed facilities that include public buildings, airports, highways, bridges etc. Many of the constructed facilities in the U.S. are suffering from deterioration at a rate faster than our ability to renovate them. In the U.S., $1.6 trillion should be spent over the next five years to alleviate potential problems with the nation's infrastructure. Transportation alone requires $94 billion in annual spending based on the 2005 infrastructure report by ASCE. The problem is even more severe in developing countries including Egypt. Therefore, research is needed to find innovative techniques to build, deliver, and maintain the civil infrastructure. The supported US delegation includes three junior scientists and one graduate student who will have the opportunity to interact with scientists from Egypt during the workshop. The workshop is likely to lead to collaborative research in the area of materials engineering, design and civil engineering sciences that can benefit the two countries. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these joint scientific activities.
