Brian Uy
Head of School, School of Civil Engineering
The University of Sydney
Australia
Biography
Brian Uy is Professor of Structural Engineering and Director of the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety (CIES) in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of New South Wales in 2013. He has co-authored over 600 publications including over 150 journal articles. He has delivered over 250 conference papers in 35 countries, including over 60 keynote/invited lectures in 15 countries and has been involved in research in steel and composite structures for over 20 years. Brian is Chairman of the Standards Australia Committee BD32 on Composite Structures which is currently preparing the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS2327 on composite structures for buildings. He has been the Chairman of the Australia Regional Group of the Institution of Structural Engineers since 2012 and the Chairman of the Australia Group of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) since 2015. Brian is Chief Editor (Asia-Pacific) for Steel and Composite Structures and serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Constructional Steel Research and Advanced Steel Construction. He also currently serves on the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Task Committee 5 on Composite Construction and the IABSE Working Commission 2 on Steel, Timber and Composite Structures
Research Interest
Steel-Concrete Composite Structures, Steel Structures, Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering
Gianluca Ranzi
Director
Centre for Advanced Structural Engineering, The University of Sydney
Australia
Biography
Gianluca Ranzi is currently an ARC Future Fellow, Professor and Director of the Centre for Advanced Structural Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research interests range from the field of structural engineering, with focus on computational mechanics, behaviour and design of steel, concrete, and composite steel-concrete structures, to architectural science, heritage conservation and high-performance buildings.
Research Interest
Composite Steel-Concrete Structures, Steel Structures, Concrete and Prefabricated Structures, Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering
Biography
Dr. Daniel Dias-da-Costa received a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Porto and an MSc and PhD in Civil Engineering, from the University of Coimbra in Portugal. His current research interests include both numerical and experimental topics of structural engineering and material mechanics. In the first case, he addresses the development of finite element enrichment techniques and solution finding algorithms for highly non-linear problems in the simulation of fracture. The experimental research is focused on image processing techniques for structural assessment and monitoring, including the identification of strain localisation and cracking propagation.
Research Interest
With ongoing advances in the construction industry involving the introduction of new building materials and technologies, our ability to predict the structural behaviour and safety of these innovations is critical. Dr Daniel Dias-da-Costa's research into advanced computational simulation techniques aims to enhance the safety of our built environment by addressing a wide range of building materials, including concrete, masonry and glass. "My research in structural engineering and material mechanics aims to introduce a new computational framework that will have a strong impact on practice engineering. This framework will effectively bridge high-end simulation and monitoring approaches, such that structural designers can explore the full potential of challenging construction designs. "I develop computational techniques that can be used to simulate real-life structural failure. This allows us to efficiently predict the behaviour and response of structures in such situations; for instance, when concrete starts crushing or cracking, or when reinforcing steel yields and slips against the concrete. "This is a very complex and computationally demanding task, and even high-end commercial software often fails to deliver reliable solutions. Therefore, I have been developing new programs to address this need. This approach has already shown good performance with a wide range of problems and materials. "I really enjoy performing experimental tests of large-scale structures, where I have the chance of pushing the materials to the limit. In this way I can deeply understand the structural response. I then bring this knowledge to my numerical models and am able to run simulations of different situations that cannot be tested otherwise. This combined approach is crucial to achieve safer design solutions. "I am passionate about my research because it can be applied to a wide range of different areas. This gives me the opportunity to deal with people from very different backgrounds, which in fact is what I find most enriching and rewarding about my work."
