NASTT’s No-Dig Show is the largest trenchless technology conference in North America, with over 2,000 attendees representing municipalities, contractors, technology developers, and research institutions. The conference focusses on the sharing of environmentally friendly trenchless solutions that could present cost-saving opportunities for municipalities and utilities. The No-Dig Show student poster competition provides an opportunity for students involved in underground technology and construction to demonstrate their individual research accomplishments to a panel of judges comprising of water and wastewater municipalities, utilities, faculty members, and contractors. Thirteen posters (prepared by students representing six universities) were selected for presentation at the 2018 No-Dig Show, in March 2018.

Srinath Shiv Kumar, a doctoral student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, was awarded first place in the competition for his research titled ‘Leveraging Big-Data and Deep Learning for the Condition Assessment of Wastewater Pipelines.’ Srinath’s doctoral research conducted under the supervision of Professor Dulcy Abraham, is an interdisciplinary study that leverages deep learning to automate sewer pipeline inspection. His research has the potential to improve the speed and accuracy of sewer inspections, thereby presenting municipalities with a rapid, economical method for assessing the condition of their buried infrastructure.

This research is funded by the Water Research Foundation with Professor Dulcy Abraham serving as the principal investigator. Collaborators include the Trenchless Technology Center (TTC) Louisiana Tech University, RedZone® Robotics, Hydromax®, Miami-Dade Water and Sewer, the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Town of Hull, Massachusetts.

Photo (left to right): Kaleel Rahaim (Interplastic Corporation, NoDig2018 Program Committee), Greta Vladenau – 1st runner up (Louisiana Tech. University), Haitao Lan – 2nd runner up (Queen’s University, Canada), Srinath Shiv Kumar (Purdue University), Ian Mead (Tighe and Bond).