Joel Orr's World

International Event Marks First Formal Activity of the American Society of
Civil Engineers' New Engineering Mechanics Institute

Reston, Va.—Marking the first major achievement since its formation in
October 2007, the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Engineering
Mechanics Institute (EMI) will host its Inaugural International Engineering
Mechanics Conference at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis May 18-
21.

"EMI's mission is to serve the professional community by anticipating and
adapting to new challenges and creating an environment that facilitates
professional growth," said Wilfred D. Iwan, Ph.D., EMI president and California
Institute of Technology professor of applied mechanics, emeritus. "I can think
of no better way to meet that goal than to provide a forum where members
of the international mechanics community can gather to exchange new ideas
and findings."

The conference will feature nearly 500 technical presentations covering such
areas as theoretical developments, advances in numerical methods and
progress in experimental methods. Individual sessions will include such topics
as: bridge engineering, computational mechanics, probabilistic mechanics,
fatigue and fracture, risk analysis, solid mechanics and fluid mechanics,
structural reliability, geomechanics, control and health monitoring of civil
structures, and the mechanics of pavements and paving materials.

Plenary presentations will be made by researchers from such institutions as
Cornell University and Université Paris-Est on topics including "Morphogenesis
of the Embryonic Heart" and "Recent Advancement in Understanding of Water
Wave and Muddy Seafloor Interactions." Mini-symposia are also scheduled on
such topics as multi-scale behavior of damage and failure mechanics,
mechanics of biologically inspired materials, cardiovascular fluid mechanics,
and the interaction of fluid flow and biota.

ASCE established EMI on October 1, 2007 to serve the needs of the world-
wide engineering mechanics community by promoting research and application
of scientific and mathematical principles to address a broad spectrum of
existing and emerging engineering and societal problems. The institute has
14 technical committees addressing a variety of topics including
computational mechanics, elasticity, experimental analysis and
instrumentation, fluids, modeling inelasticity and multiscale behavior,
probabilistic methods, properties of materials, structural health monitoring and
control, and turbulence, and produces the highly regarded Journal of
Engineering Mechanics. It replaced ASCE's former Engineering Mechanics
Division, and is the Society's eighth technical institute.