Welcome
Structural engineering prompted by sustainability and resilience, as well as advances in other fields such as architecture, mechanics, computing and manufacturing, is evolving towards complex design solutions that often question our traditional design strategies. Structural morphology refers to the study of the relation between a structure, its function, form, material, and forces. In an analogy with biology, structural morphogenesis represents the processes that control the organized spatial distribution of material and modules in a structure. In Computer-Aided Structural Engineering (CASE) Lab, we focus on the structural morphology and morphogenesis of tomorrow's structures using a holistic and integrated framework of numerical and physical modeling. Our applications and interests span from marine and coastal structures to building and infrastructure systems to space structures. We also seek and support artistic and educational STEAM projects.
Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, PhD
News / Highlights
PODCAST
March 2021
Future Cities is a monthly podcast that aims to increase awareness of, and to catalyze action on, urban resilience. In this episode, we discuss, along with Dr. Diego Lirman from RSMAS, the role of coral reefs on shoreline protection and how corals can be combined with properly designed human-made structures to dissipate wave energy and thus reduce wave action, erosion and flooding in coastal communities.
JOURNAL PUBLICATION
September 2020
Our paper on the dissipation of wave energy by a hybrid artificial reef in a wave simulator was accepted for publication in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. The paper presents the methodology of our study on the added effects produced by the presence of corals on a trapezoidal artificial reef model. It is the first paper on an exciting new direction for our lab where we explore structural morphology for coastal and marine structures.
SPECIAL EVENT
December 2020
This World Wildlife Conservation Day on Friday, Dec. 4th (1pm), we participated in a special Virtual LIVE@Frost Science panel event! The webinar featured world-class coral reef and coastal scientists to introduce the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Restoration Hub, a multi-institutional and multi-county partnership focused on restoring and increasing the resilience of Florida's Coral Reef.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
May 2020
Congrats to Dr. Omar Aloui, first Ph.D. student of our lab! Omar's thesis proposes a novel bio-inspired generative design method for tensegrity structures: cellular morphogenesis.
Starting this winter, Omar will be joining EPFL and the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems as a post-doc to investigate the future of artificial intelligence and robotics at the convergence of biology and engineering, humans and machines.