New ISHMII Fellows

During the SHMII-4 conference in Zurich, six new ISHMII society fellows have been elected:

Prof. J. Brownjohn (first left)
Dr. S. Alampalli (second left)
Prof. Z. Wu (second right)
Dr. D. Inaudi (first right)
Prof. H. Koh
Prof. D. Frangopol

The awards were presented by the newly applinted ISHMII President, Prof. Farhad Ansari (in the center) and the SHMII-4 conference organizer, prof. Urs Maier.

SHMII-4 Website

The SHMII-4 conference website is now available at shmii.empa.ch.

You will find information about the conference, venue, social program and registration.

SHMII-4 Conference 2009 is an official conference of the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructures (ISHMII) and is being organised by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials, Testing and Research (Empa).

A pre-conference tour will be organized in Ticino, including a visit to SMARTEC, the Ricciolo bridge, the Gandria Church and the AlpTransit tunnel site. 

ISHMII News

PRof. Aftab Mufti, president of ISHMII has reported on the main news concrning ISHMII and the SHMII-3 conference:

We have elected three members to the council , The Council members elected were Dr. Fritz Brunner, Dr. Alessandro De Stefano, and Dr. You Lin Xu. Also, ISHMII membership confirmed the new council. A list of the council members names is attached.

The council elected two new Vice Presidents. The Vice-Presidents elected were Dr. Farhad Ansari and Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Habel. The ISHMII Council also confirmed the new executive committee. The list of the present executive committee members is attached. Please note that Dr. Farhad Ansari has agreed to be the secretary of the ISHMII Executive Committee. I am very thankful to him for accepting this responsibility.

I am pleased to report that over 250 participants representing 22 countries attended the Third International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (SHMII-3), November 13-16, 2007, Vancouver, Canada. An excellent technical program was planned, as well as an entertaining social agenda. Highlights of the conference was a workshop on Civil Engineering Education Reform and a plenary session on the U.S. Federal Highways Administration Long Term Bridge Performance Program. A short course took place on Implementing Structural Monitoring in Bridge Management and Maintenance Practices, for which over 30 participants attended.

Prof. Urs Meier will chair the organizing committee for the Fourth International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure, to take place in Zurich, Switzerland in November 2009.

Prof. Alessandro De Stefano is organizing an ISHMII workshop on weigh in motion to take place in Sicily, Italy in September 2008. This will be the second in a series of workshops which are planned to take place every second year, commencing with the workshop on Civil Structural Health Monitoring which took place in Hawaii in 2004. The objective of these workshops is to focus on specific issues of current interest. Approximately 40 to 60 targeted participants will be invited to participate.

Dr. Baidar Bakht reported that 12 papers had been selected as finalists for the JMBT Structures Research Inc. Best Paper Award at SHMII-3. Awards Committee members judged the paper presentations throughout the conference and the winner were announced at the banquet on Friday evening. Two prizes of $500 US each were awarded for the following papers:

a) Best Paper in SHM Applications to Daniele Inaudi and Branko Glisic for their paper on “Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensing for Long-Range Monitoring of Pipelines”

b) Best Paper in SHM Research to Shuji Umemoto, Noriyuki Miyamoto, Takuji Okamoto, Takefumi Hara, Keita Kubota, and Yozo Fujino for their paper on “Verification of a High-Accuracy and Noncontact Measurement System FSF Laser Optical Coordinates”

It was decided that the Advisory Committee would be dissolved, which would allow the Executive Committee to play a stronger role in the organization.

The Standing Committees and Task Groups of the Society were confirmed as follows:

Standing Committees:
· Technology Transfer, Education and Training – Chair: Prof. Tripp Shenton
· SHM Applications – Chair: Dr. Paul Sumitro

Task Groups:
· Non-Destructive Testing - Chair: Dr. Sreenivas Alampalli
· Civil Structural Health Monitoring Workshops - Chair: Dr. Farhad Ansari
· Data Mining - Chair: Dr. Dean McNeill
· Vibration Based Monitoring - Chair: Prof. James Brownjohn
· Global Reform of Civil Engineering Education - Chair: Dr. Emin Aktan
· SHM Systems for Civil Infrastructure Safety - Chair: Prof. Yozo Fujino
· Strategic Roadmap for the Advancement of SHM - Chair: Dr. Steven Chase

Criteria for the establishment of awards for Best SHM Project, Best Ph.D. Thesis and Best Paper Published in “The Monitor” are currently being developed.

The next issue of “The Monitor” newsletter will be published in January 2008 and will include two peer reviewed articles and highlights of the SHMII-3 conference.

New ISHMII Concil Members and Vice Presidents

During the SHMII-3 conference, new concil members and Vice Presidents were elected.

New Council Members:

• Fritz Brunner
• Alessandro De Stefano
• You Lin Xu

New Vice Presidents:

• Wolfgang Habel
• Farhad Ansari

New ISHMII Fellows

At the SHMII-3 banquet, Dr. Aftab Mufti, president of ISHMII, announced the election of the first fellows of the ISHMII Society:
Dr. Emin Aktan
Dr. Farhad Ansari
Dr. Baidar Bakht
Dr. Yozo Fujino
Dr. Jan-Ming Ko
Dr. Urs Meier
Dr. Emin Aktan, Dr. Yozo Fujino, Dr. Jan-Ming Ko and Dr. Urs Meier are the founding members of the society. At a meeting at EMPA in Switzerland on 24 July 2003, the International Group on the Structural Health Monitoring was established. The objectives and work plan of the Group were established. Eventually the Group agreed to form the ISHMII society.

Dr. Farhad Ansari, chair of the advisory committee of the ISHMII council, has devoted a great deal of time and effort to help in the establishment of our Society. His help has been invaluable in organizing ISHMII and ensuring that we meet our goals.

Dr. Baidar Bakht has made tremendous contributions in Canada to ensure that SHM has become a part of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code. This particular development will lead to ISHMII being very active and strong in Canada.