Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series presents Prof B.F. Spencer, Jr.

Join the College of Engineering (CoE) on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, 3:00 PM as Professor B.F. Spencer, Jr. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents a lecture on "Topology Optimization of Structures Subjected to Random Dynamic Loads" as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

The Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series is an initiative by the College that brings distinguished experts to interact with members of the engineering community for intellectual exchange and partnership.

The lecture is open to both the NTU community and the public. Please register your attendance. 

Abstract

This seminar provides an overview of recent efforts on topology optimization of structures subjected to stochastic dynamic loads. Nearly all approaches to date have considered only static deterministic loads. However, many of the most severe dynamic loads that civil structures must withstand are random and dynamic in nature. A general topology optimization framework is presented to directly accommodate the random dynamic nature of the excitation and the responses. The proposed framework is illustrated for seismically excited and wind excited buildings, as well as bridges subjected to random traffic loading. Subsequently, an efficient and compact 115-line educational code for structural topology optimization considering stationary stochastic dynamic loads is discussed. This code is intended to serve as a baseline to help researchers understand the theory and implementation of this topology optimization approach and as a foundation for additional applications and developments. This research is expected to ultimately lead to more effective performance of our civil infrastructure.

Biography

B.F. Spencer, Jr. received his Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1985. After 17 years at the University of Notre Dame, he returned to UIUC, where he holds the Nathan M. and Anne M. Newmark Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering and is a former Director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory. His research focuses on structural health monitoring, structural control, machine learning, and computer vision. Dr. Spencer has directed over $70M in funded research and published more than 700 technical papers and reports. He pioneered magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers for earthquake and wind protection, now in common use, and developed smart wireless sensor systems with self-interrogation capabilities. His numerous awards include the ASCE Norman Medal, Newmark Medal, Housner Medal, Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award, and IASCM Takuji Kobori Prize. Dr. Spencer is a Distinguished Member of ASCE, Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Engineering Academy of Japan, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and serves as the North American Editor in Chief of Smart Structures and Systems.