Power of ERDC

Oct 11 2024 31 ep. 34 mins 18

Power of ERDC Podcast artwork

Satisfy your curiosity and learn how some of our country’s smartest engineers and scientists are solving many of the toughest challenges facing the nation and the Warfighter. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is comprised of seven research laboratories across four states, and one of its greatest strengths is its ability to combine the expertise from multiple laboratories into powerful, cross-disciplinary projects. Each month, we dive into one of these complex problems across its broad civil works and military mission space and ask ERDC’s world-class researchers about how they are discovering, developing and delivering practical cutting-edge solutions that make the world safer and better.

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#30: Oil on Ice: Improving spill response in frigid regions

Oct 11 2024 38 mins

The environmental and economic toll of large-scale oil spills, such as the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon incidents, can linger for decades. That’s why research into better techniques and technologies for rapidly responding to these disasters is critical. One aspect of oil spill response that requires particular attention is the effect of ice and frigid temperatures, which c

#29: Underkeel Clearance: Quantifying demand for USACE dredging

Jul 31 2024 39 mins

The ships calling upon U.S. ports have grown larger, and navigation channels must be dredged to greater depths to handle them. However, dredging is expensive, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) needs more data-driven tools to prioritize limited resources more efficiently. Responding to this need, ERDC developed Underkeel Clearance. Applying newly available ship location

#28: Advanced manufacturing: Using 3D printing, new materials and optimized designs to produce large-scale components

May 01 2024 52 mins

As America’s civil works infrastructure facilities age beyond their initial design lives, so do the thousands of individual components that keep them functioning. These original components were often fabricated using vintage material and manufacturing methods, making them costly, burdensome and time-consuming to replicate. However, if one of these parts were to suddenly break, th

#27: RAIL: Making it easier to transport armored vehicles to austere locations

Oct 30 2023 36 mins

Despite modern transportation advancements, rail remains a superior method for moving heavy military equipment over vast inland distances. However, transporting tanks by train requires railyard facilities with specialized equipment capable of moving the armored vehicles onto and off of the rail cars. In response, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) develo

#26: Sand Boil Filter: A more efficient tool to combat internal levee erosion

Aug 02 2023 29 mins

When river levels rise, so does the threat of sand boils, which occur when water bubbles out of the ground near the base of a levee, surrounded by a mound of displaced soil. Caused by increased pressure, sand boils are a visible sign of erosion within a levee. And unless they are treated immediately, these sand boils will grow and more sediment will be displaced, escalating the ris

#25: CorpsCam: Enabling more proactive coastal management through real-time monitoring and data

Jun 30 2023 43 mins

Monitoring large and constantly changing coastlines can be expensive, time consuming and dangerous. Traditional surveying methods are also limited because they only provide a single snapshot in time and don’t capture the full picture. As a result, coastal managers don’t always have the information they need to understand dynamic coastal conditions and plan projects that preserv

#24: Providing Supercomputing Resources to Enable DOD Problem Solving

Jun 02 2023 25 mins

We talk with Dr. Ben Parsons, chief technology officer with the High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), about how the program enables the Department of Defense (DOD) to solve its most critical mission challenges. Managed by ERDC, the HPCMP delivers world-class high-performance computing and expertise to DOD engineers and scientists. Its five DOD Supercomputing Re

#23: Arctic Mobility

Apr 26 2023 45 mins

We talk with Dr. Orian Welling and Mr. Michael Parker from ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory about how ERDC’s cold weather mobility expertise will directly help the U.S. military better protect and defend the Arctic. As the Arctic grows in strategic importance to the United States, the region also presents unique challenges to military mobility. Heavy dut

#22: Using Augmented and Virtual Reality to Enable Next-Generation Engineering

Mar 09 2023 43 mins

We talk with Jeremy Herring and Kelly Ervin from ERDC’s Information Technology Laboratory about how ERDC is enabling next-generation engineering by applying augmented reality and virtual reality capabilities. These disruptive technologies can help solve a diverse range of current and future problems by immersing users in virtual scenes. As uses continue to grow, ERDC establishe

#21: Enhanced Terrain Processing

Oct 14 2022 38 mins

Soldiers are often forced to operate using outdated geospatial data that may not accurately represent current ground conditions. This creates challenges when trying to find the best possible routes for troop maneuvers or when selecting helicopter landing zones. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is developing a series of tools to solve this problem. Thes