24-h

Earlier tonight I returned from a 24-hour trip to Ispra (a small town near Varese in Northern Italy). The location is wonderful, lying on the east shore of lake Maggiore, and fully immersed in green.
Although it was a business trip, I had the opportunity to stroll around the lake and the town-center.
My visit to the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Union stressed my positive opinion even more.

The lake Maggiore dock in Ispra

The lake Maggiore dock in Ispra

Lake view

Lake view

Night view of the lakeside

The best (and only) aperitivo in the premises  

The hotel where I spent the night - “The Lobster” movie renders the idea

Hotel Europa

Tourist port

(on) DCEE 2016

On October 6-8, I co-chaired the 5th International Workshop in Design in Civil and Environmental Engineering (DCEE 2016), which was held in the Faculty of Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome.

My involvement with the DCEE workshops dates back to 2014 and the third edition held in Copenhagen (where I sent two papers based on the Master Theses of two students) and 2015 in Taipei (where I participated myself presenting two papers).

The workshop scientific program included 18 presentations (divided in 6 sessions) and 2 plenary lectures on design methodology and education, and on the role of the interdisciplinarity in the design process.

Participation on the 1st day

Participation on the 2nd day

2nd day plenary

Participation on the 2nd day

The workshop also included two guided tours. The first tour at the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana known also as the Colosseo Quadrato (Square Colosseum), an icon of Modern Architecture, nowadays housing the luxury fashion label Fendi. 

At the rooftop of the Square Colosseum  

The second tour focused on ancient Rome, and on recent and extraordinary findings in the north-eastern area of the Palatine Hill archaeological site.

The Colosseum (left) and the Arch of Constantine (right)

Inside the excavation site

On the last day

In total, over 30 people took part during the 3 days of the workshop, and exchanged ideas on their topics of research.

Group photo

not quite, close(d) for Christmas

with the distribution to students of topics for the oral exams, we are (almost) calling it a year...

2015.12.17 kg bim from Konstantinos Gkoumas

2015.12.17 kg diagrid from Konstantinos Gkoumas

3 days - some magnets and more

I spent three very intensive days in Rome this week, teaching special topics in two classes for Fire Safety Engineering and Metal Structure Design.

Together with Giulio who works for StroNGER, I also had a meeting with a group of designers for the next steps in the StroNGER piezoTsensor final design. The outcome is very encouraging and by the end of January we should have a working prototype with the final design, on time for the ESA program conclusion in March 2016.

On top of that, I got to see the Trevi Fountain, one of Italy's most-popular attractions, which was reopened in Rome on Tuesday, after a 17-month restoration.

the Trevi Fountain, reopened to public last week

brainstorming for the piezoTsensor final design

3D printer - we will need a bigger one...

adhesive magnets by 3M

adhesive magnets by 3M

Fire risk analysis of structures and infrastructures: theory and application in highway tunnels. from Franco Bontempi Org Didattica

Structural robustness: concepts and applications. from Franco Bontempi Org Didattica

(on) design and more - DCEE4 (and DCEE5...)

Last Friday and Saturday, I attended the 4th International Workshop on design in Civil and Environmental Engineering (DCEE 2015) in Taipei City, Taiwan (http://dcee2015.info).
I gave two talks: on the first day, on the "Design for robustness, resilience and anti-fragility in the built and urban environment: considerations from a civil engineering point of view", and on the second day, on "The long way towards a sound framework for structural design: 10 years of experience in Rome".
I also chaired a session on the first day, and I gave a talk on our research team in Rome, since, in the committee meetings, it was decided that the the next workshop will be held in Rome in 2016 (on a date yet to be decided, probably in October).
During the conference, we visited the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and we were given presentations on the Taipei 2016 Design Capital (http://wdc2016.taipei/en) from the World Design Capital CEO Wu Han-chung.
On a side activity, I visited the rooftop of Taipei 101 (a landmark super-tall skyscraper, the world's tallest until 2010), a night-market, the Taipei Expo Park, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (http://www.tfam.museum).

together with Shang-Hsien Hsieh (Patrick), the workshop chair

Lotte Bjerregaard Jensen of the Technical University of Denmark

Eduardo Miranda giving his keynote speech on performance-based engineering

group photo

Ying-Chih Chang, founder and chief engineer of Envision Engineering Consultants (EEC)

at the group dinner

meeting Eduardo Miranda

from the rooftop of Taipei 101

the Taipei 101 gigantic TMD

in front of the Taipei 101 TMD room

view from the 90th floor of the Taipei 101

on top of the Taipei 101

visiting the Taiwan Design Museum

visiting the robotics room in the civil engineering department

(building) drones everywhere

drone

the seismic isolation floor at the civil engineering department

leaving a sign

at the Taipei Expo Park

at a night market in downtown Taipei

at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

Alice's Rabbit Hole at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum

the Taipei Fine Arts Museum

the World Design Capital CEO Wu Han-chung

Shih-Chung “Jessy” Kang with Edoardo Miranda

at the dinner

obsolete (?) books

Taipei 2016 World Design Capital

next to me in Business class on my way to Taipei on an Asiana 777 flight

Dcee4 paper 9 from Konstantinos Gkoumas

piezoTsensor wind tunnel promo

A promo video from the piezoTsensor wind tunnel testing sessions at the UNIFI-CRIACIV- Centro di Ricerca Interuniversitario di Aerodinamica delle Costruzioni e Ingegneria del Vento (Inter-University Research Center for Building Aerodynamics and Wind Engineering)

 

CRIACIV/ test 2

After a very successful testing session last January, yesterday, Francesco and Giulio from StroNGER tested additional configurations of piezoTsensor at the CRIACIV wind testing facility in Florence (CRIACIV).

Testing configurations included both a rectangular and a T-shaped section (the later exhibiting not only Vortex Shedding but also galloping aerodynamic phenomena).

The results are very promising at this stage, in view of the final phase and conclusion of the ESA project next year.

piezoTsensor is a novel product by StroNGER, currently under development in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency): an advanced sensor for the optimum energy management in building HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Condition) systems.

StroNGER srl has an European patent pending on piezoTsensor.

Francesco (left) and Giulio (right) from StroNGER with Claudio Mannini, research associate at the University of Florence

the two prototype configurations

square - outside the wind tunnel

below a video from the testing