Alaina Dickason Roberts, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an assistant professor in the civil engineering and construction management department at Norwich University, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Roberts worked for The Boeing Company for more than a decade before returning to graduate school. During her time at Boeing, she supported the 767, 787-8, 787-9, 787-10, Tanker, 777X, Chinook, and V-22 aircraft first as a structural analyst, then as a project lead, and finally as a project manager. She also took a four-month-long international assignment as a procurement agent at a sub-tier supplier out of London in support of fabrication for the first 787-9. She earned her master’s degree while working for Boeing, and her dissertation later at the University of Vermont was titled “Detection and Localization of Fatigue Damage in Structures Using Identified Changes in Damping.”
The methodology she developed can be used to enhance real-time assessments of fatigue-critical structure with the potential to provide critical information on structural damage prior to catastrophic failure. Roberts is currently chair of the ASCE Center for Technical Advancement (CTA), is the past chair of ASCE’s Aerospace Division (ASD) Executive Committee, was chair of the COVID-delayed 2021 ASCE ASD Earth & Space Conference, and developed the daylong short course for the 2018 ASCE ASD Earth & Space Conference. She is a licensed professional engineer in the states of Pennsylvania and Vermont.
Roberts earned her master’s degree in civil engineering from Columbia University, and both her bachelor’s degree and doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Vermont.
