REVIVE Technical Workshop

About the workshop

The REVIVE Technical Workshop took place on 23 September 2026 at the University of Southampton, hosted by Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering (CMEE) and organised by Dr Mehdi Kashani. It was held as part of REVIVE (Non-destructive Evaluation and Service Life Extension of Vulnerable Reinforced Concrete Infrastructure), a Horizon Europe MSCA Staff Exchanges project coordinated by Dr Kashani and funded by the European Union.

The day brought together researchers, infrastructure owners and industry practitioners to bridge the gap between academic research and practical infrastructure management. After a welcome from the Head of CMEE, Prof Yannis Ieropoulos, and an introduction to REVIVE, three keynotes set the scene from the owner and consultant perspective: Mr Tim Kersley (Network Rail) on improved resilience by unlocking hidden truths, Mr Colin George (National Highways) on the challenges of managing ageing highway structures, and Dr Chris Mundell (AtkinsRéalis) on advances in non-destructive testing for bridges with hidden critical elements, drawing on findings from the National Highways Structures Moonshot.

The technical sessions that followed covered UKCRIC, the assessment of transfer slabs for shear, distributed optical fibre sensing for damage assessment of ageing RC structures, Bayesian approaches to damage diagnosis and structural health monitoring, satellite-based monitoring of existing bridges, data-driven bridge evaluation, smart tape for structural health monitoring, and real-time damage localisation using modal curvatures and machine learning. The day closed with remarks from Dr Kashani and tours of the lab.

Key themes: non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM); artificial intelligence, data analytics and digital twins; infrastructure asset management and service life prediction.

Programme

• 8:30 – 9:00
  Arrival and registration
• 9:00 – 9:15
  Welcome and workshop introduction by Head of CMEE
  Prof Yannis IeropoulosUniversity of Southampton
• 9:15 – 9:30
  Introduction to REVIVE and purpose of the workshop
  Dr Mehdi KashaniUniversity of Southampton
• 9:30 – 10:00
  KeynoteImproved resilience by unlocking hidden truths
  Mr Tim KersleyNetwork Rail
• 10:00 – 10:30
  KeynoteChallenges in the management of ageing highway structures
  Mr Colin GeorgeNational Highways
• 10:30 – 11:00
  KeynoteAdvancements in NDT for bridges with hidden critical elements – Findings from National Highways Structures Moonshot
  Dr Chris MundellAtkinsRéalis
• 11:00 – 11:30
  Coffee break
• 11:30 – 11:50
  UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC)
  Prof William PowrieUniversity of Southampton
• 11:50 – 12:10
  Challenges in the structural assessment of transfer slabs for shear
  Prof Robert VollumImperial College London
• 12:10 – 12:30
  Application of high-resolution distributed optical fibre in damage assessment of ageing RC structures
  Ms Saba GhassemiUniversity of Southampton
• 12:30 – 12:50
  Reliability assessment of damage diagnosis with Bayesian updating: current status and future directions
  Dr Francesca MarsiliHelmut-Schmidt University
• 12:50 – 13:10
  Structural monitoring of existing bridges via satellite-based techniques
  Dr Fabio Di CarloUniversità di Roma Tor Vergata
• 13:10 – 14:10
  Lunch
• 14:10 – 14:30
  Structural health monitoring with Bayesian inversion and probabilistic models: tools, limitations, and challenges
  Dr Noemi FriedmanSZTAKI
• 14:30 – 14:50
  Data-driven evaluation of existing bridges: methods and applications at ZAG
  Dr Andrej AnžlinZAG
• 14:50 – 15:10
  Smart tape for structural health monitoring
  Dr Meisam JalalvandUniversity of Southampton
• 15:10 – 15:30
  Real-time structural damage localisation using modal curvatures based on a machine learning algorithm
  Dr Masood MohandesUniversity of Southampton
• 15:30
  Closing remarks and lab tours
  Dr Mehdi Kashani

REVIVE consortium

• University of Bristol
• TU Delft
• University of Ljubljana
• Università di Roma Tor Vergata
• Helmut Schmidt University
• HUN-REN SZTAKI
• ZAG
• SVTI ASIT
• AtkinsRéalis
• TIMEZYX Digital Twin
• SHMnext

REVIVE is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe (MSCA Staff Exchanges). Project record on CORDIS