There’s still much work to be done before our buildings are smart enough to talk to us. But from a lab located in the most accelerometer-instrumented building in the world, Rodrigo Sarlo is doing his part to get us there.
Sarlo, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, was recently awarded a research fellowship from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing. His work on the intelligent infrastructure project is now underway.
Sarlo’s research for the fellowship has far-reaching implications that could eventually help in designing buildings that are better able to find, analyze, and communicate information about the structure — a first step in making buildings communicate relevant information to their inhabitants.
Sarlo works in the Smart Infrastructure Lab, commonly called VT-SIL. The lab, founded and directed by Pablo Tarazaga, associate professor in mechanical engineering and John R. Jones Faculty Fellow, is located on the third floor of Goodwin Hall — and not by accident, since the building serves as their subject.