A new research collaboration between Korean and Canadian institutions will explore the relationships between sustainable and resilient infrastructure and climate change
Four U of T faculty, all from the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering (CivMin), travelled to Seoul National University (SNU) May 18 – 19, 2023 to participate in a workshop to develop an International Doctoral Cluster (IDC) with a theme of Sustainable and Resilient Civil Infrastructures Subjected to Climate Change.
The four CivMin faculty, Professors Oh-Sung Kwon, Sarah Haines, Daeho Kim and Seungjae Lee, joined with five SNU faculty, Professors Ho-Kyung Kim, Junho Song, Jooyoung Park, Changbum Ryan Ahn and Youngsang Kwon for the two-day workshop.
The event took place at the Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering (ICEE), included introductions to existing research collaborations between U of T and SNU, exploring further areas of research including sustainable indoor environments, circular economy, AI in construction safety as well as smart and intelligent buildings and cities.
In addition to 20-minute presentations given by each participant, the workshop included a tour of the gorgeous SNU campus, the ICEE facilities and the Extreme Performance Testing Center.
The workshop was conceived by Professors Oh-Sung Kwon, Ho-Kyung Kim and Junho Song, who have, since 2017, established collaborative research projects on several topics such as an aeroelastic hybrid simulation method and the development of DNN for seismic response predictions.
The establishment of the IDC will allow for continued cross collaboration between the two universities, expanding knowledge as well as exploring new and underdeveloped topics. In the coming months the teams of researchers will begin to further develop their ideas and apply for research funding to support these cross-collaborations. Ideally, this partnership will lead to student co-supervision across universities where graduate students have the ability to conduct research at both U of T and SNU.
By Sarah Haines
& Phill Snel
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