State-of-the-Art Methods for Design of Integral Bridge Abutments, HR-227, 1981

The routine use of integral abutments to tie bridge superstructures to foundation piling began in this country about 30 years ago. Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, North Dakota, and Tennessee were some of the early users. This method of construction has steadily grown more popular. Today more than half of the state highway agencies have developed design criteria for bridges without expansion joint devices.

Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge

As neuroscience gains social traction and entices media attention, the notion that education has much to benefit from brain research becomes increasingly popular. However, it has been argued that the fundamental bridge toward education is cognitive psychology, not neuroscience. We discuss four specific cases in which neuroscience synergizes with other disciplines to serve education, ranging from very general physiological aspects of human learning such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, to brain architectures that shape the way we acquire language and reading, and neuroscience tools that increasingly allow the early detection of cognitive deficits, especially in preverbal infants. Neuroscience methods, tools and theoretical frameworks have broadened our understanding of the mind in a way that is highly relevant to educational practice. Although the bridge’s cement is still fresh, we argue why it is prime time to march over it.

The Elastic Octopus: A Catalogue of Failures for Disrupting Design Eduction

Elastic Octopus was inspired by a perceived increased reluctance in student attitudes towards taking risks and failure in design innovation. In particular, recent trends in funding and risk-aversion in earlier phases of education where failures are discouraged has limited the potential for ground breaking innovative thinking. This experimental design project was conceived to tackle the failure reluctance trend by developing a team based cross-disciplinary masters level design innovation studio module where students would succeed in relation to their capacity to demonstrate failure. Principally this involved creating a permission giving process where ambitious design experiments are developed in order to encourage the transgression of edges and boundaries. This was achieved by adapting a number of creative design methods including blue-sky thinking, back casting and design exorcisms to challenge and de-programme failure aversion. Succeeding through failure involved transitioning from meta-themes through to experimental contexts where failures could be attempted as a way of exploring the limits of technologies, structures, mental models, human engagement and other factors critical to success. We hope that insights gained from this disruptive educational module can offer unexpected benefits for students ranging from increased failure resilience, through to narrative generation and context forming skills while at the same time providing wider value in discussing how designers deal with failure.

The Keokuk & Hamilton Bridge : Keokuk, Iowa - Hamilton, Illinois, 1982

The Keokuk & Hamilton Bridge is one of three remaining in Iowa that were designed by Ralph Modjeski, one of this country's premier early 20th century bridge engineers. The eleven-span, double-deck steel superstructure was built in 1915-1916 on piers retained from an earlier (1869-1871) structure, to meet greater loading requirements from railroads that operated across the Mississippi at this point.