Education:
PhD, Civil Engineering, UIUC, Expected May 2028
MS, Civil Engineering, UIUC, May 2025
BS, Civil Engineering, Iowa State University, May 2023
Contact and Links:
Bio:
Aniston is a direct PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she jointly completed a Master of Science in Civil/Structural Engineering. Originally, she is from the Kansas City, Kansas area and attended Iowa State University for her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. She has an interest in anything bridge design and inspection-related. While she works to complete a PhD, her goals after education will be to transition into the bridge industry, applying her research knowledge in practical inspection and repair settings.
She currently works closely with the Army Corps of Engineers CERL office in Champaign, Illinois on research. With the goal of utilizing knowledge in finite element modeling and experimental material testing to evaluate the fatigue risk of important miter gate anchorage structures, as depicted below.
Research Overview:
Miter gates are an integral portion of the lock and dam infrastructure on the Mississippi River, as well as many other navigable riverways in the United States. The miter gates for the lock are responsible for the water barrier when barges are transferred to differing river water levels. The load of each gate is carried by an anchorage system. The steel anchorage system for the miter gates is fully embedded in the concrete walls of the lock, which makes inspection and replacement challenging. Previous studies have been conducted to demonstrate that the embedded steel transfers the load to the surrounding concrete, making the risk for fatigue cracks low during the over one-hundred-year life span. More recent construction of miter gates in the 1950s and 1970s included a bituminous material to debond the steel from the surrounding concrete. Subsequently the interaction between the steel anchorage system and concrete is unknown. Further investigations are in progress to determine the effects of the debonding agent, as well as the potential risk for fatigue in structural steel elements.
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There are over 600,000 highway bridges in the United States, all of which require regular inspections. The Federal Highway Administration and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials publish regulations and guidelines for inspection types, intervals, and procedures. However, bridge inspections are well-known to be subjective due to the reliance on visual inspection techniques and the different experience/perspective of the inspectors. With aging bridge infrastructure, the need for reliable inspections is paramount to accurately model the current health of the bridges. To aid in the reduction of the visual inspector’s subjectivity, there are a variety of artificial intelligence and non-destructive evaluation technologies being researched for bridge monitoring applications. Reviewing existing technology and interviewing career inspectors provides the opportunity to better understand the needs of he industry.
Research Interests:
Highway Bridge Inspections
Finite Element Model Updating
Experimental Material Testing
Affiliations and Organizations:
SEAOI at UIUC Student Chapter – Secretary
AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition – Judge
ASEC/SEI Student Chapter at UIUC – Graduate Liaison
Illini Waterski Team – Alumni Competitor
Select Awards and Honors:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign SURGE Fellow
Hong Kong Polytechnic University APESS 2025 Final Project – First Place Award
Hobbies:
- Waterskiing
- Football (Die hard KC Chiefs fan)
- Cycling
- Reading