In a ceremony held on February 29th, 2024, at the Institution of Civil Engineers UK headquarters in London, the University of Moratuwa and Access Engineering PLC alongside its global academic and industry partners, were awarded the prestigious Collaborate to Innovate Award 2023 by the Engineer Magazine UK. The team won the award after competing in a highly competitive category of “Information, Data and Connectivity” in which there were five shortlisted entries. This award recognized the project “Innovative Pre-Straining Tools and Brillouin Optical Frequency Domain Analysis (BOFDA) Technology Assessment: A Transnational Leap in Infrastructure Monitoring”. The objective of the project was to address gaps in the current understanding of workmanship factors essential for effective Fibre Optic Monitoring.
The collaborative team included universities and industry partners including Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), University of Moratuwa, University of Oxford, Access Engineering PLC, Laing O'Rourke Centre - University of Cambridge, fibrisTerre Systems GmbH, University of Qatar, Epsimon Ltd and WSP UK.
The new issue of the Engineer magazine highlights some of the key outcomes of the project. One of the hallmark innovations of the project is in providing first-of-a-kind experimental evidence on the need for pre-straining fibre optic cables in the compression zones and developing a new practical tool for providing pre-strain at the site. This pre-training approach corrects a critical inaccuracy in the current fibre optic monitoring practice globally. Moreover, the magazine highlights the achievement of the project in the introduction of Fibre Optic Monitoring technology to Sri Lanka and the technology transfer through the training of students and engineers.
