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Message from the Chair

Dear Students, Colleagues, and Friends,

We have successfully completed another great academic year in the Department of Structural Engineering! It could just be the June Gloom, but the week or two after graduation always seem so quiet and empty on Campus compared to the orchestrated chaos of the academic year. But there is no such thing as quiet in the Department where our students, post-docs, and faculty have continued to make discoveries, win awards, engage our industrial partners, and excel in the classroom. Please read below about all these exciting things and have a great summer!

Michael Todd
Distinguished Professor & Chair

Jacobs School of Engineering Ranks 9th in U.S. News & World Report Rankings

For the third consecutive year, the Jacobs School of Engineering rose one spot in the rankings to reach No. 9 in the nation for 2026, up from No. 11 in 2024 and No. 10 in 2025. Among public engineering schools, it ranks No. 6 in the country and No. 2 in California. With highly ranked graduate programs spanning all six engineering and computer science departments, the Jacobs School’s transformative technical education and cutting-edge research continue to drive innovation and real-world impact. Read More >>>

Safer Railroads Through Ultrasound

Ensuring the safety of the vast 140,000-mile network of existing rail infrastructure in the United States is critical, especially as that figure grows with the addition of new high-speed passenger rail lines. Partnering with industry and government railroad organizations, Prof. Francesco Lanza di Scalea applied an innovative form of ultrasound with new beamforming algorithms to create a device that can be embedded in the wheel of a cart — and one day, potentially a train itself —  to inspect each and every mile of rail for defects and internal cracks not visible to the naked eye.  Read More >>>

Professor Lanza di Scalea and Ali Hosseinzadeh Receive 2026 ASNT Research Fellowship Award

Professor Francesco Lanza di Scalea and PhD candidate Ali Hosseinzadeh have received the prestigious 2026 ASNT Research Fellowship Award, one of only a handful given out nationally each year. Their proposal will advance passive acoustic interferometry, a low-cost technique for monitoring structural health in bridges, buildings, and aircraft using ambient vibrations instead of controlled excitation. The team will be honored at the ASNT Annual Conference this October in Columbus, OH.  Read More >>>

Visiting Scholar Spotlight: ARMOR Lab Welcomes Dr. Armin Buchroithner

Professor Kosmatka's Aerospace Structures Capstone: Three Teams, Three Wings, One Path to Certification

Under the guidance of Prof. John Kosmatka and the SE 143 instruction team, three undergraduate teams spent the year designing, building, and testing composite aircraft wings for a single-seat personal aircraft. Working from a real Request for Proposal and a baseline inspired by the classic BD-5 micro-jet, each team carried their wing through six formal aerospace-style design reviews— from initial concept all the way to FAA-style certification testing. Read More >>>

Professor Lelli Van Den Einde's SE 3 Class Engineers a Way to Catch Pokémon

This spring, Prof. Lelli Van Den Einde's SE 3 students traded textbooks for a Pokémon-inspired design challenge — building structures in SolidWorks and 3D printing them into working prototypes capable of catching Pokémon in the Kanto region. The quarter culminated in a live final design competition, where teams demonstrated their creativity, teamwork, and engineering skills in action. Read More >>>

Dylan Cram Honored for Academic Excellence and Mentorship 

Enrique Simbort Zeballos Wins National Recognition for Dam Seismic Resilience Research

Enrique G. Simbort Zeballos, a Ph.D. candidate advised by Prof. Joel P. Conte, earned 3rd Place in the 2026 Kim de Rubertis Student Scholarship Awards, presented by the United States Society on Dams (USSD) at its Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. His award-winning research, "A Bayesian Digital Twin Framework for Seismic Resilience of Dams," combines advanced computational models with real-time monitoring data to improve seismic safety assessments and support better decision-making for critical water infrastructure. Read More >>>

Kyoungyeon Lee Receives Best Teaching Assistant Award

Congratulations to Kyoungyeon Lee, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate advised by Prof. Georgios Tsampras, on receiving the Department of Structural Engineering's Best Teaching Assistant Award. Recognized for exceptional work as a TA for SE 130B: Structural Analysis during Spring 2025, Yeon is passionate about helping students achieve clarity in challenging concepts and believes that truly understanding students' perspectives is the key to effective teaching. Read More >>>

Tehrani Group in Action: STEM Outreach and Composites Research on Display

The Tehrani Group recently engaged with communities near and far, hosting 100 fifth-grade students from Torrey Pines Elementary School for a hands-on introduction to composite materials and STEM careers, while also showcasing cutting-edge research facilities and graduate student work to industry and academic attendees at the Thermoplastic Composites Conference. These events reflect the group's ongoing commitment to inspiring the next generation of engineers and fostering meaningful collaboration between academia and industry. Read More >>>

Charitable donations expands what is possible for our Structural Engineering students, faculty, and staff. By making a gift, you help strengthen SE at UC San Diego. Learn where you can make an impact by clicking below.

For questions about charitable giving or inquiries for establishing a named fund, please contact Madison Lyle, Associate Director of Development at m1lyle@ucsd.edu or 858-424-1450.