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Letter from the Chair

Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends:

Greetings from the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California San Diego! I hope this message finds you in good health as we transition into the summer season. From multiple awards granted by the American Society of Civil Engineers, to the design of lightweight battery packs for electric vertical take-off and landing flights, to successes in thermoplastic composites, our latest updates illustrate both the breadth and depth of structural engineering.

Please explore our highlights below!

Michael D. Todd
Distinguished Professor and Chair

Optimizing the Future: Professor H. Alicia Kim's Topology Innovations in Engineering Solutions

Professor H. Alicia Kim of UC San Diego is revolutionizing engineering with her groundbreaking topology optimization techniques. From reducing vehicle cabin noise to designing lightweight battery packs for eVTOL vehicles, her innovative solutions are pushing the boundaries of technological innovation. Read More>>

Professor Honored with ASCE's Raymond D. Mindlin Medal for Contributions to Applied Solid Mechanics

William Prager Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering Jiun-Shyan (J. S.) Chen was awarded the Raymond D. Mindlin Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Engineering Mechanics Institute. This honor recognizes his seminal contributions to the development of advanced finite element and meshfree methods and their applications to a wide range of applied mechanics problems, as well as to solids and structures under extreme conditions. Read More>>

Georgios Tsampras Earns Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award

UC San Diego Structural Engineering Assistant Professor Georgios Tsampras received the 2024 ASCE Region 9 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award. This honor recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and support for their ASCE Student Chapter, distinguishing them as the best in California. Read More>>

Toward Next Generation Aerospace Structures: Mehran Tehrani’s Team Wins at SAMPE 2024

Associate Professor Mehran Tehrani of the Department of Structural Engineering secured 2nd place in the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) 2024 Outstanding Technical Paper Award. His work investigates problems with automated manufacturing and fast cycle processing of thermoplastic composites, which are the future technologies for aerospace manufacturing. The award for outstanding technical paper, presented at the SAMPE Conference, recognizes research with significant potential to impact materials engineering. Read More>>

Structural Engineering Chair Named Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Michael Todd, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego, was recently named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This honor highlights his outstanding engineering achievements and significant contributions to the profession and to ASME. Read More>>

Revolutionizing Touch: Chengyang Huang's Award-Winning Innovations in Tactile Feedback

UC San Diego structural engineering doctoral candidate Chengyang Huang won 1st place for the Best Student Paper Award in the 2024 Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems at the SPIE Smart Structures/NDE Symposium in March 2024. His research explores ways to improve touch sensitivity on commercial touchscreen devices. Read More>>

A Step Above: Andres Rodriguez Secures Best Poster Award at UC San Diego Research Expo

Andres Rodriguez, a structural engineering graduate student under the guidance of Professor Jose Restrepo, won the Structural Engineering Best Poster Award for his work titled, “Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) Model of the UC San Diego Shake Table” at the 42nd annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo in April. Every Year, the event draws ambitious graduate students ready to share their research with the larger community. Read More>>

Rising to New Heights: Alex Guibert's Scholarship in Vertical Flight Technology

Alex Guibert, a doctoral student in UC San Diego's Department of Structural Engineering, recently earned the $4,000 Frank Robinson Scholarship from the Vertical Flight Foundation (VFF). Guibert is engaged in research on modeling and optimizing battery packs for electric aircraft, a key technology for enabling electric vertical flight. Read More>>