Dr. Schumacher’s primary research interests are in the area of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of civil infrastructure with a focus on concrete structures. In particular, he is interested in stress wave and vibration-based methods such as acoustic emission and ultrasonic monitoring and impulse response testing, respectively. Additionally, he has been collaborating with faculty at the University of Delaware to develop a novel distributed carbon nanotube (CNT)-based sensor that can be integrated with structural composites to form a self-sensing reinforcement to repair and rehabilitate concrete and steel structures. Finally, he is interested in video-based sensing techniques to monitor structural motion. His additional research interests include the behavior and durability of concrete structures, structures subject to extreme events, bridge engineering, data analysis and signal processing, and asset management.
