Last June I had the opportunity to attend the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Annual Conference at Stanford University in California. This conference brings along scientists and engineers working in the field of applied mechanics, from the USA and beyond. As a member of the Structural Stability committee of the EMI, on the day before the beginning of the conference, I participated in the annual meeting of the committee presided by Prof. Yiang Xiang, of the University of Western Sydney. We discussed the latest trends in structural stability research and where the focus of the mini-symposium that the committee organizes for each annual conference. During the meeting I informed the committee of my project and the necessity to approach issues of the stability of novel materials, such as metal foams and 3D printed composites and metals.
The conference had as always an impressive line-up of plenaries and sessions. What I found most interesting was Prof. Glaucio Paulino's plenary talk as well as the complementary sessions on structural topology and optimization. The technological development of 3D printing and computational parametric design, has allowed researchers and designers to rethink integrated design, optimizing the structure to a number of objective functions and design constraints. This is great news for INSIST since the project aims to investigate the effect of density variations and gradations in structural design. Both from the presentations as well as conversations with some of the presenters have opened new horizons for the project and areas of expansion.
My presentation was on the "Analytical interplay of local and overall buckling in thin walled sandwich struts" within the Stability of plate and shells mini-symposium. During this talk I discussed some of the work we did at the Functionally Optimized Structures group of the Cyprus University of Technology, highlighting how this work leads to the work to be undertaken in INSIST. The talk was well attended and had some interesting conversations with some delegates afterwards. I also had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Arwade, one of the principal investigators of the NSF STEELFOAM project, and discuss my project, providing useful insights from his own experience with the material.
This was a very interesting conference and I am looking forward for the next one at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For now I leave you with a picture of one of most famous structures in the world. As an engineer I could not miss the opportunity to have a closer look at it. Despite the misty Bay area, I was able to take this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory.
Enjoy!
My presentation was on the "Analytical interplay of local and overall buckling in thin walled sandwich struts" within the Stability of plate and shells mini-symposium. During this talk I discussed some of the work we did at the Functionally Optimized Structures group of the Cyprus University of Technology, highlighting how this work leads to the work to be undertaken in INSIST. The talk was well attended and had some interesting conversations with some delegates afterwards. I also had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Arwade, one of the principal investigators of the NSF STEELFOAM project, and discuss my project, providing useful insights from his own experience with the material.
This was a very interesting conference and I am looking forward for the next one at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For now I leave you with a picture of one of most famous structures in the world. As an engineer I could not miss the opportunity to have a closer look at it. Despite the misty Bay area, I was able to take this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory.
Enjoy!