Structural Engineering Department Manager, Nick Triandafilou, PE, SE, P. Eng, to Moderate ACI Fall Convention Session: Statistical Evaluation of Concrete Testing Results
The American Concrete Institute is hosting its annual ACI Concrete Convention in Atlanta, GA, on October 11 – 14, 2026 with a robust schedule that includes traditional in-person activities. Our very own Nick Triandafilou will Moderate the Session: Statistical Evaluation of Concrete Testing Results. You can catch this session on October 13th at 1:30pm if you attend the convention. We sat down with Nick for a preview of the session.
Q: What is your role at the ACI fall convention in Atlanta? What is your larger role with ACI?
A: At the ACI Fall Convention, I will be participating in several committee meetings focusing on concrete repairs. As the chair of the newly formed Committee 353 “Statistically Based Assessment of Existing Concrete Structures,” I will be collaborating with other committee chairs on current developments within the concrete repair industry.
Q: What is your role at Brindley Engineering?
A: I am the Structural Engineering Department Manager for Brindley Engineering, a role in which I have served since joining the company in 2014.
Q: What do you hope people will take away from the session?
A: Our committee’s mission is to “Develop and disseminate best practices for applying statistical and reliability principles to assessment of existing concrete structures.” In this technical session, engineers will present real world examples of how statistical approaches can be used to characterize existing structures and make informed decisions on repair or strengthening projects. My hope is that attendees gain a deeper understanding of how evaluating inspection data from a statistical vantage point can be a practical approach for repair design with an overarching goal of promoting more standardization throughout the industry.
Q: Any tips for what questions attendees could ask the panel?
A: Data gathered during condition assessments can be tainted for any number of reasons, including faulty test equipment, outlying data points, inspection / construction tolerances, human bias or error, improperly characterized data sets, or any combination thereof. I would encourage audience members to challenge presenters on how they evaluated testing results and made decisions on the validity of specific data points.
Q: What other sessions are you looking forward to seeing?
A: I am planning to attend the session on “State of the Art in Concrete Fatigue Research: Current Trends and Future Challenges” on Monday afternoon. Our team is now working on a large concrete frame structure analysis subjected to cyclic loads from gantry cranes and operating equipment and I am interested in learning about current developments in this area.
Q: Is there anything else you want attendees to know about the convention or the session you are moderating?
A: In addition to the outstanding technical content planned throughout the convention, there will be special sessions honoring two individuals who made tremendous contributions to the concrete repair industry: Dr. Larry Kahn and James McDonald. I encourage anyone with an interest in concrete repair to attend these sessions and help recognize their lasting impact on the profession.
On a personal note, Dr. Kahn was a member of the Innovative Task Group that served as a precursor to ACI Committee 353, which I currently chair. His leadership, vision, and dedication to this ITG helped lay the foundation for the new committee and without his efforts I would not have had the opportunity to serve in this role, making this recognition especially meaningful to me.
Q: Is there a summary of the session?
A: Yes! Here it is: Whenever statistically based field investigations of existing concrete structures are performed, there is a risk that data sets can be tainted by outliers or that biases can be introduced during the physical testing process. Defining appropriate populations, analyzing data sets and identifying outliers or determining if the distribution of the data has been incorrectly characterized are important steps in the evaluation process. What are the appropriate measures that license design professionals can take when confronted with “dirty data?” This session will present several examples of how licensed design professionals can assess whether their collect data is tainted, how to minimize biases introduced during physical testing, and what they can do to clean it up – either through throwing out data or recharacterizing data sets or combining data sets where appropriate.
Learning Objectives:
- Appropriate actions when outliers are suspected;
- Methods for minimizing bias during data collection and sampling;
- How to identify the proper data distribution and consequences of incorrect characterization;
- Effects of bias on confidence level.
For more about the ACI conference:
- To register for the ACI Conference visit the ACI registration page.
- For more information on the session check out the ACI website.
For more about Brindley Engineering:
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