On May 27, “Class Day” part of the graduation ceremonies, Maria Garlock was honored with the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) Distinguished Teaching Award. In the photo she is standing with SEAS Dean Andrea Goldsmith (left) and SEAS Vice Dean Antoine Kahn (right). More details are in this article.
Dean Ahdab (Ph.D. student) and Maria Garlock were honored as outstanding educators on April 5 at the annual School of Engineering and Applied Science Excellence in Teaching Awards. Organized by the Engineering Council, the awards “celebrated professors and graduate teaching assistants for mastery of academic disciplines, clarity in instruction, and dedication to their students’ growth and well-being”. Dean was honored for his Spring 2023 teaching assistantship of CEE365 Soil Mechanics, and Maria Garlock for her Spring 2023 class of CEE262 Structures in the Urban Environment. As noted in this article, recipients are selected by the votes of engineering undergraduate and graduate students.
This by-invitation only workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, ATC Endowment Fund, and Princeton University. The overall objective of the workshop is to gather academics, practitioners, stakeholders, and other experts to discuss climate adaptable structural solutions for coastal resilience. The session themes of the workshop are: (1) State-of-Research/Practice, (2) Experimental & Numerical Capabilities & Needs, (3) Structural Engineering Design Approaches, (4) Practitioner Perspectives, (5) Educational Efforts, and (6) Identifying Goals and Gaps. Some outcomes of the workshop will be to form connections and foster collaborations , sharing experiences and resources of climate adaptable solutions, and identifying the following: deficiencies in flood design practices, gaps in basic science, and needs in codes and standards. A workshop report will be written and made available to the public following the event.
Information for Workshop Participants:
Download PROGRAM
List of PARTICIPANTS
Download MAP of Workshop Event locations
Download MAP of Princeton University Campus
Download REFERENCES related to the presentations
Download TRAVEL & PARKING
Travel from NHERI to Princeton
BRITE Pivot: Advancing Knowledge in Water – Shell Structure Interaction Through Discovery of Efficient Hydrodynamic and Structural Thin-shell Forms
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) Pivot project will lead to scientific discoveries in water-structure interaction, that will enable innovative approaches to coastal resilience. The path to these discoveries establishes and grows a new field, “aquatectural engineering”, which is represented by an integration of three disciplines: structural engineering, coastal engineering, and architecture. The design goals of aquatectural engineering are those of coastal hazard engineering (safety, durability, and robustness), structural art (efficiency, economy, and elegance), and sustainability (low environmental impact). At its best, aquatectural engineering equals adaptable aquatecture, which is characterized by no/low regret strategies (relatively low cost and large benefits under predicted future climates) and has co-benefits (serves more than one purpose). The research outcomes benefit society by enabling robust designs of coastal structures while using less mass (thus more sustainable) via thin-shell forms, and designs that are potentially more elegant and less intrusive to the community and ecosystem. In the field of structural engineering, a plethora of studies have demonstrated the significant strength of thin-shell structural forms, where “shell” refers to the inherent geometric curvature, and “thin” refers to the large span-to-thickness ratio.
The research objective is to enable aquatectural engineering and adaptable aquatecture design goals through the advancement of fundamental knowledge in water – shell structure interaction using integrative approaches: hydrodynamic analyses, finite element structural analyses, and machine learning tools. Specifically, the research will discover efficient hydrodynamic thin-shell structural forms that have broad application to coastal resilience such as seawalls, floodbarriers, floating breakwaters, coastal bridges, and coastal building facades for example. Since thin-shell structures could be susceptible to dangerous impulse (impact) forces of breaking waves, the numerical approach includes Lagrangian-based multiphase (water and air) smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) models. These complex models will be validated with experimental programs at small scale and large scale. Machine learning methods will be used to (1) arrive at efficient structural thin-shell forms given wave characteristics and (2) develop predictive equations for the wave pressure on these forms. Overall, the project will advance knowledge in the relationship between patterned thin-shell structural shapes/forms and (non)breaking wave forces. In addition, this research establishes a new interdisciplinary field, and demonstrates an integrative approach to find optimized coastal structure forms and predictive wave pressure equations.
Shengzhe (Jackson) Wang, Ph.D. Candidate ’22, has been awarded an Honorific Fellowship, specifically the Wallace Memorial Fellowship, for the 2021-22 academic year. Honorific Fellowships recognize outstanding performance and professional promise, and represent high commendation from the Princeton University Graduate School.
The award is based on his research on Kinetic Umbrellas.
This is a high honor for a graduate student at Princeton University and not many are given!
Congratulations Jackson for this well-deserved award!
Inspired by the TED-Ed video by Matthew Winkler that describes the characteristics and journey of “heroes”, my colleague Ignacio Paya Zaforteza and I wrote a paper for Structural Engineer International [1] on the elements of the structural engineering hero that are parallel to the monomythical hero. The abstract states:
In the 19th century, the civil and the structural engineer received much public acclaim for their built works (e.g. Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower). One hundred years later, the engineer was perceived by many as “out” or as not requiring much skill. This paper examines how this erroneous perception of structural engineering can change by presenting structural engineers as heroes. Using parallels to the monomythical hero, and examples of engineers, the authors present the journey and characteristics of the structural engineering hero. The journey, which has many paths, begins with the engineer leaving the comfortable “Ordinary World” of ordinary design into a “Special World”, where new forms, new materials, and/or scale for the project is needed. For underrepresented groups of people such as women and minorities, the heroic journey could be simply becoming an engineer and developing a career in conditions of equality and equity. As the structural engineering heroes enter the “Special World”, they may face trials of nature and criticism, and face constraints of economy, time, and knowledge. In the final act of the journey, they return to the “Ordinary World” wiser, disseminate their knowledge, and inspire others. The authors define the characteristics of the structural engineering heroes by four “P”s: they are prepared, they are planners, they have (super) powers, and they are persona grata. The education of the structural engineer should train and inspire future engineers using the lessons learned from the heroes and their diversity. By doing so, what seems exceptional today, can become common in the future.
[1] Paya Zaforteza, I., Garlock, M.E.M. (2021). “The Structural Engineering Heroes and their Inspirational Journey”, Structural Engineering International (SEI), DOI: 10.1080/10168664.2021.1919038
In 2021, ASCE-SEI awarded Shengzhe Wang, Maria Garlock, and Branko Glisic the ASCE Moisseif Award for “an important paper published in a print issue of an ASCE journal”:
Wang, S., Garlock, M.E.M., Glisic, B. (2020). “Hydrostatic Response of Deployable Hyperbolic Paraboloid Umbrellas as Coastal Armor”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 146 (6), https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0002619
On June 3, 12:30pm (EST), ASCE’s Virtual Structures Congress held a session titled “Structural Engineering for a Changing Climate: The Floating City”, which I moderated and presented along side some colleagues as listed below. While our profession has made great strides in quantifying forces due to gravity, wind, seismic, and fire – the floating city will require learning about new forces (e.g. hydrodynamics) and innovative materials to withstand the harsh environment. Major impediments to innovative structural solutions are policy driven – specifically – government regulations, insurance industry policy, and lack of codes and standards.This session brought together diverse panelists to stimulate discussion with the audience. Challenges and future research needs were identified by both panelists and audience. The hope is that a community of scholars and practitioners can be formed to continue communications and advance the vision for the future. Presenters and themes included:
The article recently published in Scientific American “Engineering, Beauty, ad a Longing for the Infinite“, speaks of a quintessentially Princeton ethos : the importance of a liberal arts education (and longing for ‘beauty’) in STEM curriculum.
The piece was inspired by a PIIRS Global Seminar co-taught by Sigrid Adriaenssens, Maria Garlock, and Branko Glisic. It is written by our colleague, Margarita Mooney, whom the instructors invited to join in Italy for a six-day excursion with the students. Margarita is a Professor in Princeton Theological Seminary (this year she is a visiting scholar at Princeton University), where she defines herself as “someone whose work lies at the intersection of sociology, theology and philosophy.”
Towards the end of the article she goes into detail about what we learned on the excursion and summarizes the piece nicely with why a liberal arts education is important. A great and inspiring read!
On Monday, October 7 2019, two sessions were held at the IASS Conference in Barcelona:
Six papers were presented in each well-attended session and these papers can be downloaded here.
The session organizers (John Abel, Maria Garlock, Sigrid Adriaenssens) wish to thank all of the contributors of these sessions – you were essential to making it a success! We also thank the audience for engaging in thoughtful discussions with each other and the presenters.
There will be another set of papers honoring David Billington, to be published in the Journal of the IASS in March 2020. Stay tuned!
