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  • July

    Dr. Emily Asenath-Smith, far left, and fellow team members from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineer Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Environmental Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, look at results from their water sustainment experiment. The team will be honored during a plaque presentation ceremony later this year for their work on multi-spectral photocatalytic compounds.

    ERDC researcher earns patent for high performance photocatalytic material

    Dr. Emily Asenath-Smith's determination to develop low energy solutions to remediate water led her to develop U.S. Patent No. 11,298,689, awarded April 12, 2022, for “Multi-spectral photocatalytic compounds.”
  • Christina Saltus accepts Sebastian Sizgoric Technical Achievement Award.

    ERDC Environmental Laboratory team receives prestigious technical achievement award

    A team from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) recently received the Sebastian Sizgoric Technical Achievement Award from the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX) at their annual Coastal Mapping and Charting Workshop. The award recognizes any worldwide public or private contributor striving to advance the science of using light detection and ranging, or lidar, in coastal mapping and charting.

  • June

    Global maps are shown colored by soil "labels" found using product quantization.

    ITL team gets their hands dirty with soil classification effort

    Soil exhibits immense diversity across the Earth’s surface, naturally developing under varying climate regimes, geological materials, landscape portfolios, time intervals and more. A U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) team is working to help remotely identify soil in an effort to enable the Department of Defense to confidently and accurately predict its potential impacts on various operations, particularly in foreign countries and access-denied areas.
  • A modified M1 Abrams tank lines up to cross an Improved Ribbon Bridge (IRB) erected in a testing basin at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Sept. 1, 2021. Researchers from the ERDC are testing the high military load capacity vehicle weight limits of the IRB to determine under what operational conditions they can safely cross.

    Testing the limits of the Improved Ribbon Bridge

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has partnered with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Combat Support & Combat Service Support’s Project Manager Bridging to test high military load capacity vehicle weight limits of the Improved Ribbon Bridge (IRB).

  • April

    Members of the U.S. Air Force 773 Civilian Engineering Squadron utilize a Vermeer RTX 550 trencher, along with a John Deere 410G Backhoe, to remove several tree stumps and produce a relatively straight-line path away from the loop road in which the sensing cable was buried. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory successfully demonstrated groundbreaking technology to detect airborne targets during a multi-service exercise

    New Technology Successfully Demonstrated During Arctic Exercise

    During a multi-service exercise, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) successfully demonstrated a groundbreaking technology to detect airborne targets.

  • February

    Receiving a patent in July 2021 for “Bedload transport methodology and method of use,” a Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) team at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) discuss their invention. It estimates sediment movement rates by measuring the bathymetric elevations in specific areas of a river multiple times. From left, CHL’s research hydraulic engineer David Abraha, research physicist Tate McAlpin and research physicist Thad Pratt invented these methods to answer river engineers’ challenges.

    Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory invention team receives patent for bed-load transport measurement technique

    Utilizing their combined decades of experience in river mechanics, a four-member team of research physicists and hydraulic engineers with the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) combined their expertise to invent the Integrated Section, Surface Difference Over Time, version 2 (ISSDOTv2) method, which accurately measures the sediment moving on the bed of large sand-bed rivers. The team from ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) received their patent, “Bedload transport methodology and method of use,” in July of 2021.

  • January

    Detection and elimination of munitions are important for both humans and wildlife. Gurtowski explained that his system includes a container with an amine-functionalized chitin (AFC) compound to interact with a water sample. The AFC compound produces a color change correlated with the presence and concentration of munitions. With detection of at least a one part per million (ppm) concentration of NTO, DNAN or TNT, a solid pale-yellow organic nitrogen compound used chiefly as an explosive, the munitions are absorbed by the AFC compound, and a filter captures and removes the environmentally harmful particles.

    Environmental Laboratory patent can eliminate environmentally-harmful munitions

    A multi-faceted compound that not only produces color changes when added to various Military munition concentrations is also capable of absorbing these dangerous participles for removal, thanks to precise processes invented by the Environmental Laboratory (EL) team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC).
  • Officials from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) cut the ribbon for two new Supercomputing Research Center facilities at the Information Technology Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on January 20, 2021. The official party, from left to right, included retired ITL Director Patti Duett, ERDC Deputy Director Dr. Beth Fleming, Entergy Mississippi President and CEO Haley Fisackerly, ERDC Director Dr. David Pittman, ITL Director Dr. David Horner, ITL Deputy Director Dr. Jackie Pettway, ERDC Director Emeritus Dr. Jeff Holland, Supercomputing Research Center Director Bobby Hunter, retired ITL Director Dr. Reed Mosher and ERDC Commander Col. Teresa Schlosser.

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center opens new Supercomputing Research Facility

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Information Technology Lab (ITL) held a ribbon cutting for two new, state-of-the-art Supercomputing Research Center (SRC) facilities in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Thursday, January 20, 2022.

  • October

    The fully deployed Rapid Armor Protection for Instant Deployment, or RAPID, system provides additional protection to service members. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    ERDC’s Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory tests two new rapidly deployable protection systems

    Last month, researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory unveiled two new systems that will provide additional protection to American servicemen and women in the field.

  • September

    Research biologists at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory work to find solutions for the negative impacts from ever-increasing flowering rush invasions.

    ERDC biologists’ research noted in professional journal

    Studies conducted by research biologists at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) on the management of the invasive aquatic plant flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus L.) were published in the 2021 Issue 59 of the peer-reviewed Journal of Aquatic Plant Management.
  • Bats can be vectors for diseases, such as rabies, and can therefore be classified as a naturally occurring threat to the Soldier entering a subterranean environment in an overseas military operation. Team members from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center are currently investigating how to develop sensors that would eventually be fitted to unmanned vehicles to detect these naturally occurring threats, which can be subdivided into the macroscopic type, such as bats, arachnids and reptiles, and the microscopic threat agents — or the diseases that the macroscopic species may carry that could spread to people.

    Research project will explore using unmanned systems to detect naturally occurring hazards for the Soldier

    A multidisciplinary team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center-Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) is currently cataloguing the naturally occurring threats that Soldiers encounter in such situations, with the goal of eventually developing an unmanned solution.
  • A team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was recently honored with an award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for their collaborative effort to address the worldwide problem of potholes with a unique innovation, Induction Hot-Mix Asphalt (iHMA).

    ERDC’s ‘simple but unique’ pothole solution honored with Federal Lab Consortium award

    From NASCAR racetracks to aircraft runways on military bases across the world, wherever they develop, potholes can cause serious problems. A team at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was recently honored with an award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for their collaborative effort to address the worldwide problem of potholes with a unique innovation, Induction Hot-Mix Asphalt (iHMA).

  • August

    Aerial view of the Prado Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers structure near Corona, California.

    New trial for using advanced weather forecasts to retain more water proves successful

    A new report evaluating a pilot program to use advanced weather and streamflow forecasts to enhance water storage capabilities at a Riverside County, California, dam found that enough water could be conserved to supply an additional 60,000 people per year.
  • A tube operated in gas proportional mode produces waveforms displayed on an oscilloscope. Subsequently these waveforms were captured with high-speed, analog-to-digital electronics. The instrumentation was used by U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory researchers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to develop an electronic collimator invention for detecting gamma radiation, a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. The invention enables the warfighter with a detector capable of directional detection without the use of shielding. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)

    Patented Electronically Collimated Gamma Radiation Detector aids Warfighters

    A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory (EL) will be recognized later this year for an electronic collimator invention that enables the warfighter with a gamma radiation detector capable of directional detection without the use of shielding.         
  • Dr. Brian McFall, a research civil engineer with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, discusses the SandSnap initiative with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York District employees.

    ERDC researchers engage citizen scientists in data collection

    Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), along with the U.S. Geological Service, Marda Science and James Madison University, are engaging citizen scientists in a national SandSnap initiative to amass a spatial and temporally varying nationwide beach grain-size database.

  • July

    Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory’s Field Research Facility position equipment along the shore in Duck, North Carolina, in preparation of the During Nearshore Event Experiment beginning fall 2021 along the Outer Banks.

    U.S. Coastal Research Program’s During Nearshore Event Experiment begins fall 2021

    Leading coastal scientists and engineers from across the U.S. will descend upon the Outer Banks of North Carolina this fall as part of the U.S. Coastal Research Program’s During Nearshore Event Experiment, or DUNEX, to study the physical processes behind storm impacts to beaches, dunes and coastal communities.
  • Harmful algal blooms in the lab

    ERDC partners with Ohio universities to develop solutions for harmful algal bloom problem

    The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) established cooperative agreements with the Ohio State University (OSU), the University of Toledo (UToledo) and Bowling Green State University (BGSU) to combat freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs).
  • Engineers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, test non-destructive sustainable concrete materials at ERDC’s field exposure site at Treat Island, Maine.

    ERDC labs form team to tackle climate change

    In response to a presidential executive order detailing the intensifying effects of climate change and the global shift away from carbon-intensive energy sources, multiple laboratories from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are combining their expertise to take on climatic variations.

  • June

    ERDC has begun to ship simulator technology for military uses giving leaders a tool to simulate vessel landings in severe environments.

    Using simulation tools for operational readiness in maritime and littoral operations

    Operational readiness is a term used throughout the six branches of the U.S. military. The ability of armed forces to conduct the full range of military operations, regardless of a posed threat, is contingent upon how well units are manned, equipped, trained and led. To increase readiness, researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have partnered with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps on a joint venture to use ship simulation and numerical models in the planning of amphibious assaults and littoral operations.

  • April

    U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory research civil engineer David Nguyen, center, and his team calibrate and tune the motor and rudder sensors on the ERDC’s Research Vessel Martin during its commissioning in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, harbor April 1, 2021. The inland survey vessel is the first full-size, semi-autonomous craft of its kind for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Jared Eastman)

    ERDC researchers commission full-size, semi-autonomous research vessel

    Making its way through the murky waters and swift current of the Mississippi River at the Vicksburg riverfront, the Research Vessel Martin looks like any other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) survey boat. However, there is one major difference. The inland survey vessel has been converted into a semi-autonomous craft, making it the first of its kind for the organization.