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Kristen MacAskill describes how an earthquake in her hometown served to influence her career as an engineer.

̽��ֱ��Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction is building on advances in sensing technology to learn everything possible about a city’s infrastructure – its tunnels, roads, bridges, sewers and power supplies – in order to maintain it and optimise its use for the future.

Two new funding initiatives at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will support the UK’s infrastructure and cities. 

A major research collaboration is looking at how small towns in the hills of India and Nepal are coping with increasing demand for water: who wins and who loses when resources get scarce?

Funding announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget is part of a wider £138 million programme to support the UK’s infrastructure and cities.

Roads that self-repair, bridges filled with first-aid bubbles, buildings with arteries… not some futuristic fantasy but a very real possibility with ‘smart’ concrete.

Stephanie Hirmer travelled to Moyo in northern Uganda to ask which possessions the villagers most value and why. ̽��ֱ��results will be used to help reduce the failure rate of projects that bring electricity to rural communities.

̽��ֱ��construction industry could slash its carbon emissions by as much as 50% by optimising the design of new buildings, which currently use double the amount of steel and concrete required by safety codes.

̽��ֱ��Japanese and Canterbury earthquakes, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and a host of other modern natural disasters have changed the game for those striving to protect our infrastructure from extreme events. ̽��ֱ��inaugural lecture at a Cambridge Centre dedicated to this cause will hear how.

A team from the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction has developed a mechanical amplifier which converts ambient vibrations into electricity more effectively, and could be used to power wireless sensors for monitoring the structural health of roads, bridges and tunnels.