In late July, Larry Fahnestock visited Dhaka, Bangladesh for the Second International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure and Construction Materials, where he delivered a keynote lecture and spoke at the closing ceremony about the legacy of Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan. CICM 2023 focused on the theme of Resilience and Sustainability, and it was organized in honor of Dr. Khan, who earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1955 and went on to design iconic structures around the world. Along with all of his engineering accomplishments, Dr. Khan was known for his heart for people. He said, “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people.”

Larry Fahnestock has been invited to deliver a keynote lecture at the 2022 edition of the International Colloquium on Stability and Ductility of Steel Structures (SDSS 2022), to be held at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, on 14-16 September. The event next year will mark the 50-year anniversary for this series of SDSS colloquia, which was started in Paris, France (1972).  The SDSS colloquia series – supported by the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) and the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) – provides a forum for discussion and dissemination, by researchers and designers, of the most recent advances in theoretical, numerical and experimental research in the field of stability and ductility of steel and composite steel and concrete structures.

CEE faculty Bill Spencer, Erol Tutumluer, Larry Fahnestock, Frank Lombardo and Jinhui Yan visited Guangzhou University and delivered lectures as part of a two-day workshop (June 29-30) on potential research collaboration.  Guangzhou University is a new 3+2 Program partner with CEE@Illinois.

Frank Lombardo, Larry Fahnestock, Bill Spencer, Erol Tutumluer and Jinhui Yan at Guangzhou University.

On September 20, 2018 from 8:00am to 5:00pm, the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois will be holding the 2018 Central Chapter Trade Show and Symposium at the i-Hotel on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  This day-long event provides a forum for engineers and architects to interact with trade professionals, and listen to informative presentations.  The Trade Show and Symposium provides six hours of continuing education credit plus numerous opportunities to meet with companies that provide goods and services to the design profession.  For more information and to register, see the SEAOI website:

https://www.seaoi.org/event/central-chapter-trade-show-and-symposium-2018

Lehigh University’s NHERI Experimental Facility will be hosting a 1 and ½-day Research Workshop on Monday, December 5th and Tuesday, December 6th at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. The NSF-sponsored event is entitled: Researchers Workshop: Advanced Simulation for Natural Hazards Mitigation.

The objectives of the workshop are:

1. to disseminate information on the use of the NHERI Lehigh Experimental Facility (EF) to conduct state-of-the-art research in natural hazards mitigation;
2. provide a platform to disseminate knowledge on the recent advances in the field;
3. identify the grand challenges and the role of the NHERI program in addressing these challenges;
4. facilitate sharing of ideas and research collaboration among the workshop participants; and,
5. identify and develop opportunities to utilize the NHERI Lehigh EF.

As part of this workshop, Prof. Fahnestock will discuss full-scale braced frame testing conducted at Lehigh University, which was part of the project NEESR: Reserve Capacity in New and Existing Low-Ductility Steel Braced Frames, and the program includes speakers from University of California San Diego, Morgan State University, University of Washington, Lehigh University, Western Michigan University, Maffei Structural Engineering, University of Arizona, Notre Dame and National Science Foundation.

Partial travel financial support for on-site participants is available on a limited basis. Participants interested in receiving travel support will need to apply for this support in the workshop registration form on DesignSafe-CI. The deadline to apply for travel support is November 21st. Questions regarding the site workshop can be addressed to Dr. Chad Kusko, Administrative Director, ATLSS Engineering Research Center, Lehigh University at chk205@lehigh.edu or 610-758-5299.

Last week, Prof. Fahnestock delivered invited lectures at Beijing University of Technology, as part of the 2nd Huixian International Forum on Earthquake Engineering for Young Researchers, and at Dalian University of Technology.  Also at the Huixian Forum, Prof. Bill Spencer delivered one of the keynote lectures.