The Conference Center of Politehnica University Timișoara hosted on May 18-19, 2023, the 31st National Conference of the Association of Structural Engineers (AICPS), a large-scale event that brought together companies, specialists and representatives of the academic sector. Considering the recent earthquakes in Turkey, the conference highlighted the importance, but also the responsibility, of the profession of a structural civil engineer, as well as the current challenges in the field of constructions.
The AICPS conference series gives civil engineers (especially structural designers) a platform for technical interaction through which they can present, discuss and debate technical topics of interest from the entire field of structure design and implementation.
The 2023 AICPS National Conference, entitled “Style | Structure | Sustainability” aimed to respect its purpose with a focus on three main directions:
The “Style” section tackled a topic related to Property, comprising technical sessions dedicated to the inspection, evaluation, surveying and consolidating buildings of cultural/historical importance or older buildings with structural systems that follow the same principles. In the context of Timisoara being the European Culture Capital, this topic was very welcome.
The “Structure” section tackled general and specific problems related to the behavior and design of structures, structural systems, structural and non-structural components. This broad topic includes every type of structural system and material used in new or existing constructions, AICPS members being encouraged to submit papers for publishing in any related field.
“Sustainability” interpreted as sustainable development, maintenance, conversion, efficiency, performance and other aspects applicable to the constructions industry represents a current and most important interest.
The conference, which brought together over 300 people, benefited from renowned keynote speakers, such as acad. Dan Dubină, president of the Romanian Academy, Timisoara branch, Gabriel Sas, from the Technical University in Lulea, Suedia, Ludovic Fülöp, from VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Dan Bompa, from University of Surrey, UK, prof. dr. Gülay Altay, from Özyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey.