Innovative Tech: Dr. Wei Li's Team to Use New Tomography for Predicting Landslides and Earthquakes
October 29, 2025 -- Dr. Wei Li, assistant professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at SBU, has been awarded
a prestigious three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a groundbreaking
collaborative project titled, "Stress-Tensor Tomography in 3D Fluid-Coupled Granular Media".
The research, led by Dr. Li at SBU in partnership with Dr. Ruben Juanes at MIT, aims to advance our fundamental understanding of granular material behavior when coupled with fluids--a critical knowledge in the prediction and mitigation of geohazards.
Unlocking the Secrets of Granular Media
Granular media, such as sand, soil, concrete, and crushed stone ballast, are everywhere in nature and infrastructure. They are the primary components of riverbeds and construction materials, and they play a central role in catastrophic events like landslides and earthquakes. Despite their prevalence, the mechanical behavior of these materials remains extremely challenging to model and predict due to the complex interplay of interparticle forces and fluid movement within the packing.
This NSF award directly supports fundamental research to tackle this challenge. The project will further develop the teams' innovative experimental technique: Interference Optical Projection Tomography (IOPT).
Figure 1. Illustration of interference optical projection tomography (IOPT) visualizing the internal stresses in a single particle under 3-point compression.
Seeing Inside the Earth
The IOPT technique, which Wei Li's team has pioneered, allows researchers to observe the transmission of external loads and the organization of contact forces at the single-grain scale and the granular pack scale. This is a significant leap, as traditional methods could not capture these forces in three dimensions with this level of detail.
The new knowledge gleaned from observing these forces will have immense practical implications, providing a better basis for predicting the behavior of natural systems, including:
- Landslides: Improving early warning systems and stability assessments.
- Earthquakes: Better modeling how soil and loose materials transmit seismic waves.
- Engineering Applications: Designing safer, more resilient construction materials, infrastructure, and robotic systems that interact with soil.
Inspiring the Next Generation
A core component of the grant is its commitment to education and outreach. The research outcomes and advanced techniques will be integrated directly into both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, enriching the engineering curriculum at SBU.
Furthermore, the project includes well-organized outreach activities aimed at engaging a broad and diverse group of students, including:
- The Simons STEMS Scholars program
- The Simons Summer Research Program
- The Engineering Academy for grade 6-12 students
Through these efforts, the project is expected to have a lasting positive impact on engineering education across the U.S.
1Li, W., & Juanes, R. (2024). Dynamic imaging of force chains in 3D granular media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(14), e2319160121.