Bridges are a vitally important part of modern infrastructure. Their condition needs to be monitored on a continuous basis in order to ensure their safety and functionality. Teams of engineers visually inspect more than half a million bridges per year in the US and the EU. There is clear evidence to suggest that they are not able to meet all bridge inspection guideline requirements. In addition, the format and storage of inspection reports varies considerably across authorities because of the lack of standardisation. The availability of a comprehensive and open digital representation of the data involved in and required for bridge inspection is an indispensable necessity for exploiting the full potential of modern digital technologies like big data exploration, artificial intelligence and database technologies. A thorough understanding of bridge inspection information requirements for reinforced concrete bridges is needed as basis for overcoming the stated problem. This work starts with a bridge inspection guideline analysis, from which an information model and a candidate binding to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is developed. The resulting bridge model can fully store inspection information in a standardised way which makes it easily shareable and comparable between users and standards. Then, two inspection stages for locating and classifying visual concrete defects are devised, implemented and benchmarked to support the bridge inspection process: In a first stage, healthy concrete surfaces are located and disregarded for further inspection. In a second hierarchical classification stage, each of the remaining potentially unhealthy surface areas is classified into a specific defect type in accordance with bridge inspection guidelines. The first stage achieves a search space reduction for a subsequent defect type classification of over 90% with a risk of missing a defect patch of less than 10%. The second stage identifies the correct defect type to a potentially unhealthy surface area with a probability of 85%. A prototypical implementation serves as a proof of concept. This work closes the gap between requirements arising from established inspection guidelines, the demand for holistic data models which has recently become known as "digital twin", and methods for automatically identifying and measuring specific defect classes on small scale images. It is of great significance for bridge inspectors, bridge owners and authorities as they now have more suitable data models at hand to store, view and manage maintenance information on bridges including defect location and defect types which are being retrieved automatically. With these developments, a foundation is available for a complete revision of bridge inspection processes on a modern, digital basis.

The Covid-19 pandemic was detrimental to many industries and the sports industry was no exception. Due to ceased activity and financial deficit, sports organizations now look towards directing resources to developing digital technologies to enhance the customer experience. Jägersro Trot & Gallop is one of Sweden’s leading figures in the trotting industry, but they are suffering from financial decline and interest from customers. With no concrete plans on how to reach certain demographics, this study explores how digital technologies can help with reaching these demographics. This study introduces a new concept called Digital Bridge, which is prototyped in the form of a digital arena and then tested in two different qualitative focus groups. With a phenomenological approach, the study aims to understand the participant’s experience with the newly introduced concept. Findings show that the demographic between ages of 24-30 are prone to digital experiences presented in the prototype, with a high emphasis on socialization. Findings also show that the digital bridge can attract this demographic, even when individuals do not have prior experience with the sport. This study concludes that the concept of digital bridge can be beneficial for organizations who have difficulties in attracting new demographics.

This multiple case study investigated impact and perceptions of students enrolled in the Watson Digital Bridge Academy Foundation Course at Cabrillo College in Watsonville, California. The Watsonville Digital Bridge Academy is an innovative community college program that integrates four theoretical frameworks in student learning: self-efficacy, accelerated learning, team management, and developing a desire for learning. Students identified three crucial components of the Foundation Course as impacting their success in and desire to continue college. First, students believed the self-assessment of their team networking skills was useful during and after the Foundation Course. As part of identifying their own team interaction style, students also reported they learned to understand and appreciate differences in others. Second, students believed the Learning-to-Learn skills made them more efficient learners, able to take notes and engage with texts. Students were amazed that they had read and written so extensively, and felt they could approach other college assignments with new skills. Third, students were energized by the social research project that required them to gather data from community sources, facilitate group discussions and speak in front of others. While each of these components resulted in important skills, the combination had a remarkable impact on these students' beliefs about themselves. Students described themselves as more self-confident, more aware of their own strengths and weakness, more capable of academic success because of their reading comprehension and note-taking skills, and more motivated to continue their education. This case study confirmed much of the literature about the importance of learning to manage teamwork and applying these skills to real-life community projects. Community colleges play a large role in helping at-risk students achieve economic and social advantages. The key to student success is to ensure that for high-risk students, the transition into a college learning environment is both challenging, as well as a safe and comfortable environment. The Watsonville Digital Bridge Academy Foundation Course presents a unique model designed to help students make a seamless transition into the college environment with the goal of teaching students essential academic skills to become successful in college.