SPIE Smart Structures/NDE

The 22nd annual SPIE Smart Structures and Material Systems + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring (SS/NDE) will take place 8-12 March in San Diego, CA (USA). This international symposium brings together engineers and researchers from government, military, academia and the commercial sector to discuss the current status and future directions of smart structures and materials, NDE, and health monitoring.

This year’s conferences include nondestructive testing; active and passive smart structures; multifunctional materials and composites; and electroactive polymer actuators and devices (EAPAD).

The plenary sessions will begin Monday with presentations of the SSM Lifetime Achievement Award to Gregory P. Carman of University of California, Los Angeles (USA) and the NDE Lifetime Achievement Award to Peter B. Nagy of University of Cincinnati (USA).

The five plenary speakers are:

• Alexander Michaelis of Fraunhofer-IKTS (Germany), “Potential and challenges for the application of smart advanced ceramic materials”
• Donald Leo of University of Georgia (USA), “Biomolecular material systems: harnessing nature’s smart materials for sensing, actuation, and energy conversion”
• Nobuo Takeda of University of Tokyo (Japan), “Optical fiber-based structural health and process monitoring of advanced composite structures”
• Massimo Ruzzene of Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), “Guided acoustic wavefield imaging for damage detection, structural characterization, and transducer design”
• Shiv Joshi of NextGen Aeronautics, Inc. (USA), “Smart sensors and actuators: from concepts to products”

The 17th annual electroactive polymers (EAP)-in-action session and demonstrations, chaired by SPIE Fellow Yoseph Bar-Cohen from Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) (USA), will be held on 9 March. Attendees will meet technology developers and get hands-on experience with EAP. In the EAPAD keynote presentation, Brett Kennedy of JPL will discuss RoboSimian and the advancement of mobile manipulation in robotics.

SPIE is partnering with the San Diego Zoo again this year to host a panel discussion at the Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication conference on the current state of bioinspiration in the research lab, its challenges, and future solutions.

A representative from the zoo’s Center for Bioinspiration will bring an “animal ambassador” to demonstrate how engineers can transfer ideas and capabilities from nature to commercial products, services, and processes that benefit the world.

Open to all attendees, the panel will focus on all aspects of engineered biomimicry, including education, awareness, applications, research, and funding sources.

Symposium chairs are SPIE member Victor Giurgiutiu of University of South Carolina (USA), and SPIE Fellow Christopher S. Lynch of University of California, Los Angeles (USA).

Co-chairs are SPIE member Jayanth N. Kudva of NextGen Aeronautics (USA) and Theodoros E. Matikas of University of Ioannina (Greece).

More information: spie.org/ssnde

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