NHISMEH25: International Workshop on the Frontiers of Mechanics
Some of the world's leading experts in the field of solid mechanics with innovative engineering applications will be in Lucca next week at the event being held at the IMT School entitled "New Horizons in Structural Mechanics, Elasticity and Homogenisation" (NHISMEH25). The initiative, scheduled from 28 to 31 July, is organised by the IMT School in collaboration with the University of Trento and the University of Cambridge.
The participation of 38 researchers and around 30 PhD students from prestigious US and European universities, including Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, University of California Santa Barbara, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Utah, University of Wisconsin, Cambridge, Sorbonne, and Denmark Technical University, confirms the critical role of the IMT School as a pole of attraction for advanced research and as a privileged observatory for the area on world technological innovations.
At the centre of the debate are highly topical issues such as the mechanics of complex structures, intelligent materials and metamaterials, with a focus on how these innovations can revolutionise key sectors such as aerospace engineering, robotics and the mechanical industry in general.
"Workshops such as this one are fundamental for anticipating the challenges of the future" - underlines Marco Paggi, Professor in Construction Science, scientific coordinator of the event and vice-rector of the IMT School - "thanks to the collaboration with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, which supported the hospitality of the speakers together with the IMT School, we have organised a unique moment of confrontation, with the aim of bringing new knowledge to Lucca that will be useful to the industrial fabric of the territory on the mechanics of structures and innovative materials".
Davide Bigoni, Professor in Construction Science at the University of Trento, adds: "Special thanks go to the European project BEYOND funded by the European Research Council, of which I am coordinator, which made this meeting possible. The event represents an important opportunity to promote the scientific results obtained in the project worldwide. In addition, the broad participation of PhD students shows that mechanics is a living and relevant discipline. The future of mechanics will be discussed extensively in the closing session coordinated by Norman Fleck, professor in materials mechanics at the University of Cambridge and winner of the prestigious Timoshenko 2025 medal, on promoting diversity in terms of subject, age, gender and geographical origin.
The event, which testifies to how the IMT School continues to position itself at the forefront of the study of modern mechanics, with significant spin-offs for technological and industrial innovation, will also be a welcome opportunity to celebrate the 85th birthday of John Willis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, who profoundly innovated the field by combining mathematics and mechanics in his research, profoundly influencing several generations of researchers.
The scientific contributions are available at https://sites.google.com/imtlucca.it/nhismeh/home and, for those interested, it will be possible to follow the presentations in English via streaming by writing to marco.paggi@imtlucca.it for connection instructions.