Before I dig into the details of my project and the whole purpose of creating this blog, I am sure you must be curious about the person behind this blog. So, my name is Natasha Baloch I am from Pakistan and I have done my bachelors and masters from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology. During my masters, I was awarded Erasmus Mundus scholarship at Politecnico di Milano where I carried out my research and did my thesis, which I feel was the changing point of my career ( maybe I could write a separate post for it 😏 ). My research fields include wireless sensor networks, vehicular communication, and intelligent transport systems. Currently, I am part of SMARTI ETN as an Early stage Researcher and working on my Ph.D. at IFSTTAR in pavement instrumentation and monitoring.
So why is my work important? I will not be exaggerating if I say that bad pavements conditions, road closures and traffic jams all of that infuriate us, we all face these day-to-day inconveniences which affects our daily life. Let us admit that we have been the victim of hitting that snooze button on our alarms only to realize that we are not just late but also stuck in traffic.
Imagine that, the daily debate we have with ourselves that if I had woken up 10 minutes earlier I would have made it on time. In fact, I too, am one of those people who hit the snooze button and regrets it later so this struggle is quite real.
Getting back to the point, these bad pavements and traditional inspection and maintenance methods not only create traffic congestion and have a social influence on our lives but also have an environmental impact. Research has shown that air pollution has increased up to 20 percent due to traffic congestion. This all is preventable by having a smart and remote monitoring system for road pavements.
At the French institution of science and technology for transport, development, and networks (IFSTTAR), we are working together on this application of having a more smart infrastructure for the pavements. This project is divided into two main parts;
1) instrumentation 2) wireless data acquisition system.
1) instrumentation 2) wireless data acquisition system.
The idea is to instrument different kinds of sensors and transducers in the pavements that could measure the factors effecting the pavements accurately. In addition, having that data collected remotely to be treated so it is readily available and understandable to the road managers and owners. The holistic idea is that this system would help measure the fatigue and predict the lifespan of the roads and pavements. Most importantly doing this by having less traffic congestion and minimal environmental effect.
This is the short summary of my work and I tried my best to make it as comprehendible and less technical as possible. If you need any further information about the project you can always contact me.
So folks thank you for taking out your precious time and making it to the end of this post. This is it for today but I will keep you posted about the adventures of an MSCA fellow! After all, this is the whole purpose of creating this blog and so we are on this journey together. 😃😃
au revoir
A très bientôt (see you soon) 😄
This is the short summary of my work and I tried my best to make it as comprehendible and less technical as possible. If you need any further information about the project you can always contact me.
So folks thank you for taking out your precious time and making it to the end of this post. This is it for today but I will keep you posted about the adventures of an MSCA fellow! After all, this is the whole purpose of creating this blog and so we are on this journey together. 😃😃
au revoir
A très bientôt (see you soon) 😄