Sustainable Infrastructure
Creating the built environments today that meet the grand
challenges of tomorrow
The built environment plays a vital role in supporting healthy individuals, thriving commerce, and community resilience.
UT Research is ensuring our built infrastructure is more sustainable—from the buildings where we live, work, and play, to the roads, rails, and trails that connect communities, people, and information.
Highlights
Tennessee RiverLine Ideas for Improvement Projects in Seven Communities
Tennessee RiverLine, founded in the College of Architecture and Design and Herbert College of Agriculture, has developed concepts for riverfront infrastructure that can improve people’s access to, and experiences on, the Tennessee River.
Reimagining the Urban Jungle: Award Supports Zhou’s Eco-Minded Plan
Associate Professor Nick Zhou is combating the urban heat island effect by designing a building material that mimics the preferred microenvironment of moss. Applied on building exteriors, it could grow moss that would cool building surface temperatures.
Research Team Assists in Resilience Design in California Community
A team of faculty and student researchers from the the College of Architecture and Design collaborated with Bard College and a California town to revitalize their community, understand wildfire’s ecological role, and better prepare for future fires.
How to Make a City Safer for E-Bikes? Think Infrastructure
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Christopher Cherry researches sustainable micromobility options such as electric bikes and scooters. As a recognized subject matter expert, he is quoted by mainstream media, including this article from Bloomberg.
Research on Urban Stormwater Advancements Wins Best Paper Award
Researchers from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and partners from Oak Ridge National Laboratory were honored for their research in using green infrastructure practices to improve the resilience of stormwater systems in the face of increased urbanization and climate change.
New Composite Bridge Showcases Sustainable Solution
Engineering faculty and students embedded fiber optic sensors into the next-generation, fiber-reinforced polymer composite used to replace a damaged bridge in Morgan County, Tennessee. The team uses data from the sensors to evaluate the material’s performance over time.
Facilities & Initiatives
UT operates world-class facilities to support both traditional and emerging transportation research areas, including advanced materials manufacturing processes.
- Center for Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Policy
- Center for Freight Transportation for Efficient and Resilient Supply Chain
- Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities
- Fab Lab
- Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility
- Institute for Advanced Composites and Manufacturing Innovation
- Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment
- Tennessee RiverLine
- Water Infrastructure Laboratory
Our Researchers
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UT–ORNL Governor’s Chair for Advanced Manufacturing
Materials and metallurgy, manufacturing, computational thermodynamics and kinetics, in-situ and ex-situ characterization, interdisciplinary research in energy sciences and engineering
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Associate Professor, Architecture
High-performance integrated construction systems, large-scale additive manufacturing applications in architecture, energy-efficient building systems, advanced computational design methods, topology optimization, sustainable architecture and design, resilient and flood-resistant building design, biophilic design and nature integration, human-centered design principles, design solutions for global challenges
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Peebles Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Sustainable manufacturing of materials and energy, upcycling and recycling and automation, structure-process-property relationships of natural and advance materials for energy applications in extreme environment, radiation-based (neutrons, photons, electrons) imaging and scattering of materials and extreme environment, additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence based cellular solids for multifunctional design, infinitely recyclable fiber reinforced composites
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Assistant Professor, Design & Structural Technology
Integrated computational design, robotic fabrication, additive manufacturing, and lightweight fiber composite systems for architectural applications
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Associate Professor, Interior Architecture
Cross-disciplinary design thinking, empathy, collaboration, participatory design, design-build, formal and informal learning environments and pedagogies