Welcome
Structural engineering prompted by resilience and sustainability, as well as advances in other fields such as architecture, mechanics, computing and manufacturing, is evolving towards complex design solutions. These solutions often have specific peculiar forms, are made of new materials, and may also be required to serve non-traditional functions. Moreover, sometimes they have to be biocompatible or integrate sensors and actuators that enable them to change form or behavior. The complexity of such solution questions 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 refers to the processes that control the organized spatial distribution of material and often units that compose the overall structure. Computer-aided structural design reflects a holistic and integrated framework of structural morphogenesis for designing tomorrow's structures through a combination of physical and numerical modeling.
Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, PhD
News / Highlights
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
May 2020
Congrats to 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.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
January 2020
Our work on using coral restoration for shoreline protection, the development of the SEAHIVE system and the adaption strategies against flooding for affordable housing buildings will be presented at Miami Climate Symposium - Predicting and Living with Extremes.
JOURNAL PUBLICATION
December 2019
Our paper on the consideration of sliding-induced friction in the static analysis of tensile structures was accepted for publication and is now available in Engineering with Computers. The paper presents the integration of sliding-induced friction in the finite-element analysis method and the dynamic relaxation method through the consideration of the Euler–Eytelwein equation.
PANEL PARTICIPATION
December 2019
We will be part of a panel entitled "Rising Tide: University of Miami’s Interdisciplinary Approach to Coastal Resilience" at Design Miami with colleagues from the School of Architecture to discuss interdisciplinary research and design innovation in relation with coastal resilience.