A New International Recognition for the Timișoara School of Civil Engineering

Timișoara School of Civil Engineering

During the 8th edition of the International Symposium on Sustainability and Durability of the Built Environment (Life-Cycle Civil Engineering IALCCE 2023), held recently in Milan, one of the sections titled "Resilience and Sustainability of Hybrid Building Structures Applying Steel Intensively" was organized by the Romanian Academy, Timișoara Branch, in collaboration with Politehnica University Timișoara. This event represents a new international recognition for the Timișoara School of Civil Engineering.

The symposium was jointly organized by the two institutions, with the main coordinator being academician Dan Dubină, a member of the Executive Committee of IALCCE 2023, supported by professors Florea Dinu and Viorel Ungureanu from the Department of Metal Constructions and Construction Mechanics (CMMC) within the Faculty of Civil Engineering at UPT.

The general symposium, attended by delegates from 50 countries worldwide, included 9 plenary sessions and 80 technical sessions, comprising special sessions and thematic symposia. The electronic volume of the symposium, entitled "Life-Cycle of Structures and Infrastructure Systems" (edited by Fabio Biondini & Dam M. Frangopol), contains 504 papers authored by contributors from 45 countries. The papers will be indexed in WoS (Clarivate).

The thematic symposium "Resilience and Sustainability of Steel-Based Hybrid Building Structures in the Life Cycle Environment," organized by the Timișoara mixed team, includes contributions from authors in England, Croatia, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Romania. The topics addressed are related to:

- Resilience of earthquake-resistant building structures in multi-risk environments.

- Seismic reliability of building structures designed using safety elements and centric capacity.

- Life cycle assessment and life cycle/cost evaluation of deteriorated structures and components, considering climate change and extreme loading events.

- Design strategies for adaptable construction systems in the context of a circular economy.

- Limit states of durability for maintenance and repair of existing structures.

- Resilience of multi-story modular steel buildings under extreme loading conditions.

The international symposia bearing the IALCCE logo are organized by the "International Association for Life Cycle Civil Engineering," founded in 2006, with the declared mission to become the premier international organization for the advancement of the state-of-the-art in the field of life-cycle civil engineering. The association includes founding members, individual members, and collective members.

Due to the symposium's quality and recognition, the organizers, the Romanian Academy - Timișoara Branch, and Politehnica University Timișoara, were invited to form a representative IALCCE group for Romania.

The symposium also saw the active participation of M. Lindiri, an Italian national who has successfully completed his master's degree. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. program at Politehnica University Timișoara, under the expert guidance of Prof. Dr. Eng. Florea Dinu, Ph.D., who serves as his supervisor.