August 1, 2012 marked five years since the collapse of the I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River, an accident that killed 13 people and injured many more. Traffic through the city of Minneapolis was disrupted for months. The new bridge, which opened in September 2008, was built containing hundreds of “Smart Bridge" sensors that allow engineers to monitor the bridge’s structural behavior. MSI Principal Investigator Catherine French (Civil Engineering) and her research group and collaborators are using MSI resources for some of the evaluation of the data produced by the sensors. A report on Professor French and her research aired on Minnesota Public Radio on the anniversary of the old bridge’s collapse. An article that mentions the new bridge also appeared in Popular Mechanics. MSI highlighted this project in the 2009 edition of the MSI Annual Research Highlights.