FEATURING:
DR. NEMY BANTHIA, PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLOMBIA, VANCOUVER, CANADA

ATTENDEES WILL LEARN
• Why is our civil infrastructures in such deplorable state and how can fiber reinforced concrete with its greater resistance to cracking help?
• Can fiber reinforced concrete replace traditionally reinforced concrete in strategic applications?
• How can concrete be made highly resistant to earthquakes and blasts?
• What is shotcrete and why is it rapidly becoming a material of choice in repair, slope stabilization, precast and seismic strengthening projects?
• What is Internet-based structural health monitoring and how smart, piezo-resistive fiber reinforced cementitious materials carrying nano-tubes revolutionizing this field?

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
• Builders, especially those that specialize in commercial and industrial construction
• Contractors
• Engineers and Designers
• Government
• Private
• Anyone in the concrete industry
“The state of infrastructure is indeed alarming in the US, and the financial burden is huge.” US Federal Reserve Board
The U.S. Federal Reserve Board has concluded that the failure of civil infrastructure systems to perform at their expected level has reduced the US GDP by 1%. It stated: “The state of infrastructure is indeed alarming in the US, and the financial burden is huge”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), assigned an overall grade of D (Poor) to the USA in its recent Infrastructure Report Card. It estimates that $1.6 trillion are needed in the next five years to alleviate potential problems with the civil infrastructure. It is widely agreed that 27 % of US’s 590,750 bridges are rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. More than 69,000 are considered structurally deficient.
A functionally adequate and safe infrastructure is vitally important to any country’s socio-economic progress. Unfortunately, severe corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete elements, missed maintenance, changes in the code provisions, increases in design loads, and last but not least, lack of durable repair and strengthening technologies, have created an infrastructure crisis of unprecedented proportions.
The lack of durability in plain concrete materials--emanating predominantly from their poor fracture toughness--is the primary reasons why concrete structures perform poorly in service. The most effective way of enhancing the fracture resistance of such brittle materials is by reinforcing them with short, randomly distributed fibers. Since their first inception in concrete some forty years ago, fibers in concrete have come a long way and much progress has been made.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Date/Time: February 12, 2010
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm
12:00-1:00pm: Q&A and Lunch
Location Ravalli Entrepreneurship Center
274 Old Corvallis Road - Hamilton
Cost*: Complimentary and include lunch
RSVP: Please phone (406.243.6982) or email (mwtc@mwtc.org) MWTC by February 10th.
*Missed reservations will be billed $10 for lunch.

KEY PARTICIPANTS:
Ravalli County Economic Development Authority, Montana World Trade Center, Montana Export Assistance Center, Montana District Export Council, Montana Manufacturing Extension Center
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Dr. Nemkumar Banthia Department of Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Nemkumar Banthia is a Professor of Civil Engineering, Distinguished University Scholar and a Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Banthia obtained his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia on Impact Resistance of Concrete, and since than he has been actively pursuing research in the areas of cement-based and polymer-based materials with particular emphasis on their fiber reinforcement, placement processes, testing and standardization, fracture behavior, strain-rate effects, durability and sustainability. His research interests further include smart materials, periodic structural health monitoring using non-destructives techniques and continuous Internet-based monitoring using wireless sensors based on carbon nano-tubes.
He pioneered the process of structural repair and strengthening using sprayed fiber reinforced polymers—a highly innovative and sought after for structural rehabilitation around the world. He is credited for his contributions to the fundamental understanding of sprayed concrete including particle and fiber kinematics, rebound modeling, in-situ quality control and
performance characterization. In the area of fiber reinforced cementitious composites, he has developed a number of novel fibers for concrete and shotcrete reinforcement, and these fibers that are now being used in numerous large projects around the world.
Dr. Banthia has edited/co-edited fifteen volumes, published over 250 technical papers, and holds three international patents. A professional engineer in the province of BC, Dr. Banthia serves on the technical committees of various professional societies including the American Concrete Institute where he chairs the committee on fiber reinforced concrete, RILEM where he chairs the Technical Committee on FRP-Concrete Bond, and the Canadian Standards Association where he chairs the Durability Committee of the Highway Bridge Design Code. Dr. Banthia also serves on the Editorial Boards of four international journals.
Dr. Banthia has received various honors and awards worldwide including the WG Hislop Award of the ACI-BC Chapter, four Best Paper Awards, and the Wason Medal from the American Concrete Institute. More recently he was honored by the British Columbia Innovation Council by its coveted Solutions Through Research Award and jointly by the Seoul National University and the Korea Concrete Institute by their Distinguished Researcher Award. Furthermore, he was recently recognized as one of the 25 innovators or British Columbia. Dr. Banthia is a fellow of the American Concrete Institute, the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, the Indian Concrete Institute and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
For more information on Dr. Banthia please visit: http://www.civil.ubc.ca/faculty/banthia/homepage/index.html
For more information on the University of British Columbia and its facilities please visit: http://www.ubc.ca/ and www.civil.ubc.ca.
This Project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA’s funding should not be construed as an endorsement of any products, opinions or services. All SBA– Funded projects are extended to the public on a non discriminatory basis