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Portland State University assistant engineering professor Thomas Schumacher late last year traveled to China to talk about his research in bridge safety.

Schumacher looks at 鈥渘ondestructive testing and monitoring, including acoustic methods, nanotube-based 鈥榮elf-sensing skins’ and video-based approaches,鈥� according to a press release at .

鈥淚t’s like a Band-Aid you can attach to a structure,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou get a stronger structure but also get feedback through integrated strengthening and sensing.鈥�

Schumacher said he spoke in November at the fourth annual International Bridge Management Conference in Chongqing. The event was hosted by the Chinese government’s Regional Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport.

鈥淚 got an invitation from a professor at New Mexico State University,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 didn’t know him and had no idea how he found me, but he said he finds my research interesting and fitting in at the conference. I hope more comes out of it.鈥�

In the past 20 years, bridge construction has increased dramatically in China, according to the PSU press release. The need to monitor these new, long spans is urgent, it states.

Schumacher said he spoke before about 600 people, mostly Chinese attendees, along with about a dozen other speakers.

鈥淚t was translated simultaneously into Chinese, took about an hour, and it was rather reserved,鈥� he said.

Schumacher, one of six faculty members hired recently by PSU’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, plans to continue his nondestructive testing research and also join other PSU faculty to further his seismic monitoring and resiliency research.