Instructors*

Earlier today, my colleagues at StroNGER srl (www.stronger2012.com) and good friends Francesco Petrini and Chiara Crosti, gave a 4 hour seminar, part of a professional course for Registered Professional Engineers organized by the Engineering Chamber of Rome.
The course, develops for 12 hours in total, and is part of a continuing education for engineers.
Today's course focused on Earthquake Engineering and Fire Safety Engineering, two of the areas of excellence of Francesco and Chiara, and follows the first seminar given last week by Franco Bontempi and Stefania Arangio.

 

All four of them are excellent instructors and mentors, and, in my opinion, provided excellent insight on their topics of choice, on the more than 80 people that follow the seminar.
The seminar concludes with the final four hours next week (Thursday June 19) 

European Space Agency (ESA) Investment Readiness Programme (IRP), Lazio - June 5/6

Last week I participated in the European Space Agency (ESA) Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) Lazio in Rome, one of the 5 ESA IRPs to be held this year.

http://www.e-unlimited.com/events/view.aspx?events_pages_id=2851

 

My involvement in ESA - BIC Lazio is as an entrepreneur for the Space Technology Transfer project piezoTsensor with StroNGER S.r.l. (http://www.stronger2012.com).
 

ESA IRP aims to help early-stage entrepreneurs increase their likelihood of acquiring seed-level or venture capital funding.

Rick Salmon (http://ricksalmon.com) the program leader, worked with the participating entrepreneurs, representing 9 companies, to fine-tune our business models and sharpen our business propositions.

Rick Salmon providing feedback on 5' pitch presentations

The event was very intense, and focused on improving communication skills for presenting to investors. During the second day, I had the opportunity to present and receive expert feedback on a 5' PowerPoint pitch presentation. I also showed a 30'' promotional video for piezoTsensor, prepared ad-hoc with the help of a good friend who is a professional graphic designer.

30'' piezoTsensor promotional video

 

Introduction to structural optimization

Yesterday I gave an 1 hour presentation in a course for PhD students of the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering. The 12h course, organized by Prof. Bontempi, has as an aim the introduction of optimization methods and application in a simple and appealing manner.

My presentation focused on an introduction of structural robustness, integrated with examples and applications. The presentation gave me the opportunity to present some of the research I carried out in the past with my good friends and colleagues Luisa Giuliani, Pierluigi Olmati and Francesca Brando, all of them PhDs in the Department, and all of them launched in successful International careers. The full presentation is available for download from the following link: http://www.slideshare.net/FrancoBontempi/kg-21-05-2014

Wedding!

On May 3, together with friends I attended the wedding of our good friend and colleague Paolo (now a PhD student in our research group) with Claudia.
The wedding took place in the church of Santa Maria di Lodi, at the Santuario di Vescovio, the ancient Cattedrale dei Sabbini.
http://www.italiavirtualtour.it/dettaglio.php?id=94374
We had a great time, also during the wedding reception that followed.

 

No words can describe the beauty of the church and the whole ceremony, with traditional catholic wedding vows and vocals!



 

 

One of the highlight was the groom "escaping" with the bride on a historic Ural Sidecar!

 



 

A group photo with the married couple, during the wedding reception that followed.

 

Congratulations and warm wishes to the happy couple!

 

 

Advisor(s)

Last Thursday, two of Prof. Bontempi's Master students that I have been co-advising for the last year (Giulia Milana and Sara Ferri), successfully defended their Theses in Civil Engineering. They graduated with full marks ("110 e lode" in the Italian University System), something that translates as "summa cum laude".

Giulia's Thesis was on the sustainability of high-rise buildings. She developed FEM models of a steel diagrid structure, and assessed aspects related to its safety, serviceability and robustness.

Sara's Thesis was on piezoelectric Energy Harvesting. She developed FEM models as well, of a piezoelectric bender, equipped with a flap, which, subjected to air flow, produces energy due to Vortex Shedding excitations.

I am looking forward to preparing some papers with significant results from both!

 

What a day!

What a day!

Today I gave two presentations at a Mini Symposium (that I also chair) at the ASEM13 conference (http://asem.cti3.com/asem13.htm), held at the Jeju Island in South Korea.

I landed in Seoul two days ago, and I am still jet-lagged from the 7 hour time difference with Italy.

Both presentations where on the topic of forensic engineering, a topic on which colleagues from my research group - Prof. Bontempi, Stefania and Chiara - are heavily involved. Both presentations focused on their research.

The presentations were entitled “Alteration of the stability domain of masonry arc structures”, based on the research of my colleague Pierluigi Olmati, and ” Forensic investigation of the collapse of a metal truss structure”, based on the research of my colleague Chiara Crosti.

The next few weeks are going to be very busy and exciting for me!

Athens!

After two weeks in New York and Rome, I am finally back home in Athens. I will be spending a (working) Summer in Greece, having a number of deadlines to meet in the next few weeks (and I am actually pretty much excited about it!).

For the last three days I had the pleasure to host two visitors from Lehigh University (Prof. Clay Naito and his PhD student, Mr. Patrick Trasborg). They are both visiting Italy for a two week period, invited by Prof. Bontempi, and while there, they arranged a small trip to Athens. This gave them the opportunity to visit the National Technical University of Athens, where Prof. Naito gave a seminar on blast loading, after an Invitation from Prof. Charis Gantes. We also had the opportunity to visit three laboratories of the Civil Engineering School (the Metal Structures laboratory, the laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and the Reinforced Concrete laboratory), and have fruitful discussions with Faculty Members. The visit was anticipated by a walk in the archeological area of Athens (Monastiraki and Plaka), where we visited the Acropolis and the New Museum before having dinner with Dr. Vamvatsikos, and was concluded the next day with a dinner offered by Professors Gantes and Zeris. We also had the chance to visit the temple of Poseidon in Sounio and swim in a nearby beach!

Prof. Naito and Patrick are now back in Italy, where they will visit the University of Naples Federico II, and the Milan Polytechnic.

Prof. Clay Naito giving a seminar at the NTUA Metal Structures Laboratory

The NTUA Metal Structures Laboratory

The Temple of Poseidon in Sounio

From our visit at the Acropolis

"Yiasemi", a fantastic spot in the old Athens