Minutes from the
Emerging Computing Technologies Committee Meeting
2005 Structures Congress
1. Attendance:
Members:
Eduardo De Santiago, Vice Chair
(Illinois Institute of Technology)
Abhinav Gupta, Secretary (
Colby Swan, Chair (
Elisa D. Sotelino (Virginia Tech)
Ian Smith (EPFL Federal Institute,
Visitors:
Jasbir Arora, (
Don Grierson, (
2. Call to Order
The meeting was called
to order by Colby Swan. All members and guests introduced themselves.
3. Meeting Agenda
Colby Swan had emailed
an agenda prior to the meeting which was agreed upon by the members in
attendance
4. Review/Discussion of Committee’s
Colby Swan summarized
committee’s past activities and focus areas. He emphasized the changing nature
of its focus area to keep up with the emerging issues. He invited members and
guests to review and suggest update on the field of interests for the
committee.
5. Update of Committee Roster and Selection of
New Chair
Colby Swan discussed
the current membership roster and requested members to identify/recruit new
members.
Colby Swan informed
that the current 3 year term for the Chair ends in September 2005. He explained
the responsibilities of the committee chairs. Eduardo Santiago expressed
interest in the Chair’s position only if he could start in 2006. Consequently,
the members requested Colby Swan to continue for another year.
6. Comments/Report by EXCOM Chair Jasbir Arora
EXCOM chair Jasbir
Arora requested the committee to look at long range plans, current goals, and
evaluate if a change is needed in the committee’s scope and direction.
He emphasized the need
for keeping the product tracking sheet updated for ensuring appropriate
communication between the technical committees, TAC, and EXCOM.
He informed the
members of the Analysis and Computation Track at the 2006 Structures Congress
with a total of 8 sessions to be distributed among 4 committees (tentatively 2
sessions for the ECT committee). He also emphasized the need for preparing
sessions in close coordination with the theme of a particular Congress. Some
members expressed their concern over problems regarding acceptance of session
proposals in recent past and about the apparent lack of understanding on part
of local organizing committees regarding sessions on emerging computing issues.
Jasbir Arora mentioned that one EXCOM representative has been assigned to the
local steering committee. He requested that the session proposals be copied to
the EXCOM representative. For 2006, the EXCOM representative is Jasbir Arora
himself.
Jasbir Arora also
informed the committee that the deadline for session proposals for the 2007
Congress will be 3 weeks after the conference dates in 2006. Members supported
this change and its effect on facilitating the organization of sessions for
future congress.
Jasbir Arora
encouraged the committee to seek new members especially those from industry.
He also explained the
changes in committee membership. According to the new rules being proposed,
currently memberships are active for a period of 6 yrs. The members are dropped
from the roster at the end of their 6 year term. However, the committee chair
can write a justification for extension beyond 6 years especially for highly
active members. This request is then forwarded to TAC for approval.
7. Discussion of Current Activities
7. (a) Proposed Sessions for 2006 Congress
Members considered
developing proposals for four sessions. The deadline is
1.
Hybrid
Simulation: Testing and Verification of
Real-Time Control Systems (to be developed by Abhinav Gupta and Elisa Sotelino)
2.
Artificial
Life Optimization Algorithms, (Chris Foley had mentioned to Abhinav Gupta about
his interest in developing this session as a joint session with the Committee
for Optimal Structural Design)
3.
Panel
Discussion on Information Technology & Computing in Structural Engineering
Education (to be developed by Colby Swan)
4.
High
Performance Computing (to be developed by Colby Swan).
7. (b) Workshop on Information Technology in
Structural Engineering Education
The attendees discussed and agreed that the ECT Committee should develop
a Workshop on Information Technology in Structural Eng. Education for the 2006
Congress to be held at
Format of workshop: It was agreed upon that a minimum of half day
format would be desirable.
Topics: Four primary sub-topics were identified for the
workshop. These include (a) Data modeling and Validation, (b) Computation and
Simulation, (c) Visualization, and (d) Distance Education.
Speakers: Abhinav Gupta reported on his findings about
possible speakers. He also presented a summary of their NSF sponsored research
being conducted at NC State University regarding the development and
incorporation of internet enabled remote control and observation of
undergraduate laboratory experiments in structural engineering with emphasis on
distance education offerings. He identified a couple of speakers on Distance
Education topic.
Ian Smith reported on his work on computing in undergraduate education
and on a textbook coauthored by him on this topic. He has agreed to contribute
to the Data Modeling and Validation topic of the workshop.
Colby Swan will coordinate the work on the other two topics.
Timeline: It was agreed upon that organizers will
coordinate through conference calls during the course of next year.
8. Special Publication Activities
Associate Editors for
the Journal of Structural Engineering, Elisa Sotelino and Abhinav Gupta, along
with TAC chair, Don Grierson reported that the Journal plans to pursue a
special issue on the topic of Analysis and Computation based on the papers
presented at the 2006 Congress. The papers related to the ECT topics will be
considered in this special issue. Additional papers (not presented at the
conference) will also be considered and any paper will undergo a typical review
process for the Journal which will be coordinated by the guest editor for the
Special Issue.
9. Report by Associate Editor
Associate editor’s
report summarized that a total of 14 papers were received for facilitating the
review. 2 papers were accepted and 3 were declined. 8 papers are currently
under review and 1 had been withdrawn.
10. New Technologies of Potential Interest to
the Committee
In the context of
emerging nature of the scope of this particular committee, Abhinav Gupta
suggested that the committee invite researchers to make technical presentations
on new technologies of potential interests to the committee members.
11. Adjournment
The meeting was
adjourned at
Minutes of the meeting
prepared by:
Abhinav Gupta
Associate
Professor
Department
of Civil Construction & Environmental Engg.
Campus
NC
Ph:
(919)-515-1385
Fax:
(919)-515-5301
Email:
agupta1@eos.ncsu.edu