Professor Rabi Mishalani receives a NSF CAREER award to address the problem of deteriorating transportation infrastructure systems.

Networks of roadways, bridges, railways, and airstrips wear down over time. Daily use and exposure to the elements eventually cause such facilities to crumble if not maintained properly. Sponsored under his NSF CAREER award, Professor Mishalani is developing mathematical models and methods that will help engineers and managers inspect infrastructure systems more effectively and make sound maintenance decisions. His statistical models will describe how facilities deteriorate over time, how their deterioration varies from one location to another, how this deterioration is influenced by design and construction standards, and how they respond to maintenance activities. His operations research-based decision making methods, which employ these models, will assist managers in using their budget more effectively to monitor and maintain infrastructure facilities such that they provide good service continuously. By promoting a systems approach to managing transportation infrastructure facilities, Professor Mishalani hopes to instill a shift in the thinking of engineers, managers, and policy makers from the typically reactive approach where action is taken when a crisis occurs to the more cost-effective proactive approach where problems are anticipated and actions are taken to avoid them or limit their negative consequences.