Head of University of Maine composite research center to be honored by White House

PHOTO / Cianbro Corp. Habib Dagher, director of the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center, oversees the launch of VolturnUS at Cianbro's facility in Brewer in May 2013.

Write a Comment

Habib Dagher, founding director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, will be recognized by the White House today as one of the nation’s top transportation innovators.

Dagher, the primary inventor of the award-winning composite arch bridge system, known as the Bridge-in-a-Backpack, is being honored with 10 other transportation innovators during a ceremony scheduled for today in Washington, D.C., according to a press release from the university.

The bridge system uses composite arch tubes that can be rolled up and fit into a bag. The tubes are inflated and bent over a mold and then infused with a resin, resulting in a lightweight curved hollow arch twice as strong as steel, according to the university. The arch, which can be lifted into place by two people, is then filled with concrete.

The university has licensed the composite arch bridge technology to a private start-up company, Advanced Infrastructure Technologies, which has designed and built 18 such bridges in the United States so far.

The university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, founded in 1996, is a research center dedicated to the development of advanced composite materials, technologies and structures. It has 180 full- and part-time employees and students, making it the largest STEM-based research center at a Maine university.

Dagher and the center also developed a floating wind turbine prototype that was tested off the coast of Castine.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King congratulated Dagher in a joint statement, saying: “Dr. Dagher has long been an innovative force in Maine, and we are delighted that his work is being recognized so prominently by the White House.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers nominated Dagher.

UMaine extends offshore wind trial, prepares bid

UMaine consortium lands $3 million R&D grant to continue offshore wind project

Building bridges: Harbor Technologies challenges the supremacy of steel and concrete bridge beams