Page 5 - CEGE Spring 2024

Directors
Carol Shield was the Director for over ten years while the Lab was part of NEES. As part of the NEES collabora- tive, the lab needed to be available to researchers who were awarded an NSF grant to use the laboratory. Through that time, MAST was occupied at 100% capacity.
The large projects at MAST take a great amount of time, from planning to con- structing a specimen, testing, and then de-constructing the “dead” specimen. Once a specimen is built, it can take a month before it is ready to test. Some of the more time-consuming tasks include setting sensors and moving a large specimen into the MAST test bay. At each step, meticulous monitoring and documentation is needed.
An important part of Shield’s legacy was the establishment of best practices for managing and sharing this unique testing facility. Shield had set up a similar process for CEGE’s Theodore V. Galambos Structural Laboratory, which is located within the Civil Engineering Building. The NSF NEES Network adopted the model developed by Shield to manage and coordinate the other facilities.
Arturo Schultz took over as Director of MAST for a short period following the NEES era, during his time MAST’s hybrid testing capabilities were upgraded.
Catherine French took the reins from 2018 to 2023. During her time as director, the hybrid testing capabilities were further upgraded by MTS and now include cascade control, which can be used to test very stiff specimens where small imposed displacements could induce very large forces. French worked to keep the MAST Lab continuously occupied through contract testing and sponsored projects research.
This year, French is transitioning into retirement, and Lauren Linderman has taken over as the Director of
Front: Director Lauren Lindernan.
Back row: First MAST Director Carol Shield, new faculty Pedram Mortazavi and Ben Worsfold, Lab Manager and Research Associate Steve Barbachyn, and Outgoing Director Catherine French.
the MAST and Galambos structural laboratories. Linderman’s research
is focused on developing effective monitoring and control strategies to sustain the long-term performance of civil structures under routine operation and extreme events. Her primary areas of interest include structural monitoring, vibration mitigation strategies, wireless sensor systems, and data acquisition techniques. These research efforts combine lab-scale experiments and field studies with fundamental concepts in control theory, structural behavior, and wireless systems.
Research Faculty
Three recent hires were drawn to UMN by the power of the MAST Lab: a new laboratory manager/research associate and two new faculty with expertise in large-scale structural testing.
Steven Barbachyn (Ph.D., Notre Dame), Lab Manager and Research Associate, had been a client at MAST before joining the University staff. In 2023, Barbachyn led a project for GE that involved testing a large, 3D-printed concrete structure.
Pedram Mortazavi (Ph.D., University of Toronto) had worked in large structural testing and hybrid simulation at the University of Toronto. He, like most researchers active in large-scale testing, was aware of the MAST Lab. His thesis adviser had visited the MAST Lab and told Mortazavi it would be a great place for him as a large-scale testing expert. But Mortazavi was not prepared for what he saw when he walked into MAST. “Words, pictures, and videos do not do it justice. It is hard to fully grasp how
big it is until you walk in here,” he said. Mortazavi is excited for the opportunity to leverage the capabilities of the MAST Lab to further advance his research.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 5