Applications open for School of Advanced Science on Structural Safety

(Press-News.org) The “São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Structural Safety and its role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the built environment” will be held May 3-16, 2025, in Brazil, at the São Carlos School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo in its São Carlos campus.

Reporters are invited to register for the scientific sessions and short courses, which will present state-of-art science and results of new research.

This advanced science school will address the main challenges related to Structural Safety and Infrastructure Resilience in a climate change context. Climate change is already producing more frequent and more intense weather-related events, which have an impact on structural loads and their mean return rates. Increasing infrastructure resilience in this context is fundamental to reduce the impact of climate change on social wellbeing. Climate change is also pressing the production of cement with reduced CO2 emissions: yet, the durability of reinforced concrete made with these cements is still unknown – hence, the potential reduction in the expected lifetime of such structures may completely offset the environmental gains in using reduced clinker cement.

The School will also focus on methods that can address the aforementioned issues, such as Structural Reliability (SR) methods, Performance Based Engineering (PBE) and risk-based optimization.

The School will benefit from a roster of speakers comprising highly regarded researchers in the field – Paolo Gardoni, from the University of Illinois (USA), will lecture about “Sustainable and resilient critical infrastructure”; Mark G. Stewart, from the University of Technology Sydney (AUS), will deliver the lecture “Climate change impact on built infrastructure, sustainability, and risk-based approaches to climate resilience”; Jochen Köhler, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, will be speaking about the “Future Structural Codes: Navigating Safety and Sustainability in Design”; Maurício Sanchez-Silva, from the Universidad de Los Andes (COL), will be giving the presentation “Modeling the built environment as Dynamic Systems for Reducing CO2 Emissions”; Seymour M. J. Spence, from the University of Michigan (USA), will be speaking about “Reducing Emissions by Performance-based Wind Design”; and Ioannis A. Kougioumtzoglou, from Columbia University (USA), will give a lecture on “Stochastic Engineering Dynamics”.

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is supporting the event through its São Paulo School of Advanced Science Program (SPSAS).

Students and Young Researchers engaged in research in Civil and Structural Engineering and related fields are encouraged to apply. Applications are open until November 19, 2024. Participation is by invitation only, for those selected in the application process. Students will have their travel and related expenses (accommodation, insurance, meals) covered.

Ninety to one hundred students from all over the world will be invited, based on an evaluation which will consider PhD or research topic, supervisor, academic records and Curriculum Vitae.

END