Engineering with Evolution Featuring Alejandro Martinez
UC Davis professor Alejandro Mart\xednez explains how biogeotechnical engineers leverage solutions from lifeforms like worms, trees, and bacteria. It starts with fundamental, cross-disciplinary work with biologists. Then, at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM), centrifuge tests fill an important gap between laboratory ideas and full-scale field tests. For instance, by replicating ground stress and increased gravity in a centrifuge, geotechs can model and test designs at greater soil depths and across soil types. The NHERI CGM facility functions as a testbed for the NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) called the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, CBBG, based at Arizona State University.