The impact of Italian engineering and construction companies in the development of the civil infrastructure worldwide is an element of national pride. Perhaps less know, but as significant, is the Italian contribution to products and technologies that are used in repair and rehabilitation of constructed facilities.
The Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAE) at the University of Miami has a well-established tradition in helping Made-in-Italy technology gain access to the Americas’ construction markets.
This is accomplished in two distant ways by:
- Providing technical services via its Structures and Materials Laboratory (SML). Since 2012, SML has been accreditation by the International Accreditation Service certifying that it performs tests in compliance with ISO 17025 (the single most important standard for testing laboratories around the world). By virtue of this accreditation, SML can conduct tests and generate reports to demonstrate compliance of new materials and methods with current building code provisions.
- Contributing to the fundamental and applied research mission of corporations via membership the Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI), a multi-university NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) established in July 2009.
CAE and exchange students from Italy are involved in SML/CICI activities and are exposed, educated and trained on all aspects pertaining experimentation.