Organized by the International Association for Structural Control (IASC), and sponsored by the European Association for the Control of Structures (EACS), the recent world conference on structural control (3WCSC) brought together engineers, scientists, architects, builders and other practitioners interested in the general fields of active, hybrid and passive vibration control, health monitoring and damage detection, intelligent/smart materials and systems. Applications included buildings, bridges, space structures and civil infrastructures under the action of dynamic environments (earthquake, wind, traffic…) and man-made loads. It provided a valuable forum for the discussion of the most pressing concerns in structural control and its related topics.

The conference covered a wide range of topics including active and semi-active control devices, passive control devices, control algorithms for linear and non-linear systems, modeling and identification of structural systems, sensors, health monitoring and damage detection, benchmark test of building and bridges, innovative materials for structural control, applications to aerospace structures, applications to bridges, applications to critical structures, external dynamic force characteristics and controllability issues, implications of severe ground motions, wind forces, codes for structural control, and so forth. Such comprehensive treatment of the most innovative developments in structural control will make these volumes an informative reference for all researchers and engineers interested in this area.

Proceedings of the US – Europe Workshop On Sensors and Smart Structures Technology Como and Somma Lombardo, Italy

In the last few years, significant progress has been made in the area of sensing technology and structural health monitoring/condition assessment in the US and Europe. Innovative concepts involving new hardware, algorithms, and software have been proposed. There have also been several full-scale trial implementations of densely sensor-instrumented infrastructures and health monitoring systems, as well as case studies on bridges in Europe and in the US.

Much can be learnt through US/European collaboration in the area of experimental verification on small, medium, large and full-scale projects. Moreover, a common framework for expanded future joint research can be developed on the increased understanding achieved through mutual learning.

This workshop consisted of seminar sessions on several themes which included innovative sensing hardware, advances in wireless technology, and damage detection/characterization and condition assessment methodologies. In addition, there were several workshop sessions devoted to summarizing the status of the sensors and smart structures technologies in these topics, identifying the compelling research issues, and formulating an action plan with recommendations for development and implementation through possible collaborative research projects and sharing of scientific data.