This workshop will bring together a group of engineers and scientists from the United States, the Czech Republic, Italy and Germany who have expertise in the technical aspects of historic timber and masonry structure preservation. The co-organizers are Bohumil Kasal of North Carolina State University, Milos Drdacky of the Czech Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Luigi Binda of Politecnico di Milano. Their overall goal is to exchange knowledge and develop an agenda for future international collaborative research and education activities. For immediate impact, U.S. and European graduate and undergraduate students will attend the workshop and participate in field demonstrations of various techniques, at historic sites in the Czech Republic.
The workshop agenda features: 1) identification of infrastructure requirements and non-destructive technologies needed to assess historic buildings and 2) preparation of a general framework for an international graduate degree in engineering and restoration of historic structures. Results should lead to the definition of effective applications of state-of-art non-destructive technologies and to the proper documentation and assessment of existing structures. In terms of human resource development, the meeting is expected to contribute the preparation of a new generation of professionals who understand the specifics of engineering evaluation and preservation of both historic and modern structures.
This multidisciplinary workshop fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include early career introduction of U.S. graduate and undergraduate students to engineers in the international research community who lead efforts to effectively preserve historical structures that represent global cultural heritage.
