The biennial Structural Engineering Frontiers Conference (SEFC17) was held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology on March 17, 2017. The conference brought together more than 200 academic and professional engineering experts from Japan and abroad to discuss emerging trends in structural engineering.
The opening keynote lecture was provided by Professor Stephen Mahin. He presented recent advances in the use of computer-enabled optimization to enhance the seismic performance of existing tall building using fluid viscous dampers.
Mahin is the Director the newly established NSF center at Berkeley that focuses on the use of high performance computers to model and simulate of the effects of natural hazards on the built environment, ranging in size from individual structures to large cities. This research is the doctoral dissertation topic of Shanshan Wang.
The SEFC17 was an especially meaningful event for Berkeley in that the conference commemorated the retirement of Professor Kazuhiko Kasai from Tokyo Tech. He is a globally recognized expert on steel structures and the use of passive energy dissipation systems to improve their seismic performance.
Prof. Kasai graduated in 1985 from Berkeley, where he carried out research with Egor Popov that led to many of the building code provisions for eccentric braced steel frames that remain in place today.