Professor Saiidi is a Distinguished Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a Senior Principal at Infrastructure Innovation, LLC. He has published over550 papers/reports and given over 450 presentations around the world, many as a keynote and plenary speaker. Dr. Saiidi’sresearch has been fundedbymany national and state agenciesin the United States, focusing on experimental and analytical studies of seismic response of reinforced concrete bridges and other structures, seismic retrofit, resiliency with novel materials, seismic analysis, design of precast bridges for accelerated bridge construction, and probabilistic seismic damage control in reinforced concrete bridge columns. Dr. Saiidi pioneered the development and utilization of shape memory alloy reinforcement in bridge engineering and was the primary drive in implementing this technology in a show case bridge in Seattle, Washington. He has supervised research for over 35 PhD and 65 MS research assistants. Dr. Saiidi’s accomplishments have been recognized through many awards for his research and publications.

Title of Talk: Adapting Emerging Metallic Superelastic Materials for Resilient Economical Civil Infrastructure

Professor Nawawi CHOUW was Director of the University of Auckland Centre for Earthquake Engineering Research in New Zealand. Before joining the University of Auckland, he worked at universities in Germany, Japan, and Australia. He received his doctorate in Civil Engineering from the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. He has twice been awarded the Gledden Fellowship of the University of Western Australia, the Fritz-Peter-Mueller Prize of the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany, the Best Research Award of Chugoku Denryoku Research Foundation, Japan, and received two recognitions for excellence in research supervision from Chinese Scholarship Council. He has been invited by the Chinese Ministry of Education, the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Qatar Science Foundation, the SA National Research Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, and other European Research Institutions to assess applications and the international standing of peers. He has published > 440 publications including > 140 international journal papers. He was invited to teach at several universities in Europe, China, and Japan. He was guest editor of several journals, e.g., Protective Structures, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering. He is associate editor of Materials, Shock and Vibration and Frontiers in Build Environment – Earthquake Engineering, Innovative Infrastructure Solutions and serves on the editorial board of several international journals, e.g., Engineering Structures. He was a visiting and guest professor at several universities in China, Germany, Canada, Australia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Japan.

Title of Talk: The Role of Supporting Soil in the Seismic Response of Structures

Dr. Vassilios (Vassilis) Kappatos is the Head of Constructural and Infrastructure Research in Maritime and Air Transport Laboratory at Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT), Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece. He is a member of the board of CERTH, he is Visiting Fellow at School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, UK and collaborator of oN DuTy program supported by the Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) of the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and industrial partners. He is currently Fellow of The Welding Institute (FWeld) and Member of the - Engineering Council of United Kingdom (CEng) / Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE-TCG)/ Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (MIEEE)/ International Society for Condition Monitoring (ISCM) / Hellenic Society for Non Destructive Testing (H.S.N.T)/ Hellenic Institute of Acoustics (HELINA)/ Danish Center for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (DCAMM)/ Society for Machinery Failure Prevention Technology (MFPT)/ Greek-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He obtained his PhD in the area of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and also holds the Diploma of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (MEng) since 2002. His research areas are NDE, Structural Health Monitoring, Condition Monitoring, Structural Integrity, Pattern Recognition and Signal Processing. His research has been supported by the European Commission and other organizations. As a research leader, he has delivered and coordinated 45 European (European Defence Fund, Horizon Europe, Erasmus, H2020, FP7), 8 UK (TSB, Innovate UK), 5 Danish and 6 Greek National funded research projects with a total budget of more than 100 million €. He has over 140 publications in International Journals, Conference Proceedings, Book Chapters and Articles. He is a reviewer of several international journals and conference proceedings. Throughout his career, he has lectured at university level on a broad range of modules in the area of Applied Engineering in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Greece. He was Associate Professor (permanent position) at Mechanical Engineering Section, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark. He has managed more than 100 Research Fellows, Associates and Assistants, Technicians, PhD Students and Project Technical Assistants (Placement Students) over his career.

Dr. Faisal Manzoor Arain is an experienced construction project management professional and academic leader with an MS and PhD in Construction Project Management. He has extensive experience of working at management and leadership positions in industry and academia in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Canada. He completed a Leadership Development Program from Harvard University, Boston, USA. Dr. Arain has a wealth of technical knowledge and experience as he worked in numerous professionals roles as an Architect, Project Coordinator, Project Manager, Director Projects, and Consultant with construction industry in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Canada in the domains of Architecture and Construction Project Management. He has extensive experience of managing all phases of construction projects including conceptual phase, front end engineering design, detailed engineering, and related project aspects within construction project management domain. Dr. Arain has consulted, researched and published widely in the discipline of Project Management and Design and Construction Management. He has authored over 120 research publications, 2 book chapters, and 12 books (http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0028ORPJK). His research interests include leadership, project management, designing educational spaces, design and construction interface issues, and the development and application of knowledge-based systems for management of building projects. Dr. Arain serves on editorial boards of several international research journals. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Construction Project Management published by Nova Science Publishers Inc., USA. He is an expert member of the World Association for Sustainable Development, UK. Dr. Arain worked as Chair, Construction Project Management with Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Calgary, Alberta. He served as the Associate Dean of the School of Sustainable Building and Environmental Management at NAIT, Edmonton, Alberta. He also assisted Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Regina providing educational, administrative and strategic leadership for a new baccalaureate degree program in construction management. Dr. Arain worked as the Senior Principal/Senior Dean, Niagara College (NC) Campuses in KSA. Dr. Arain worked as the Senior Principal/Senior Dean, Niagara College (NC) Campuses in KSA. He recently served as the Vice President, Academic of Northern Lakes College (NLC), Alberta and as Vice President Academic and Administration of KLC College, Ontario. Dr. Arain is currently the President of Willowbank School of Restoration Arts, Niagara, Ontario.

Dr. Mohamed holds the position of Lecturer at the School of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, where he serves as the Programme Leader for the Global Online MSc in Construction Project Management. With a tenure at Edinburgh Napier University since 2010, Dr. Mohamed brings a wealth of academic expertise to his role. Prior to his affiliation with Edinburgh Napier University, Dr. Mohamed garnered experience as a teaching assistant and lecturer in the Civil Engineering Department at Omar Al Mukhtar University in Libya. Over the course of his career, he has demonstrated a commitment to both teaching and research. In the realm of research, Dr. Mohamed has taken a leadership or co-investigator role in various projects, securing funding from esteemed institutions such as the Royal Academy of Engineering, Scottish Founding Council, and Energy Technology Partnership. His scholarly contributions are evidenced by publications in reputable research journals specializing in civil engineering. Dr. Mohamed's research focus encompasses timber engineering, bio-based composite materials in construction, non-destructive test technology in civil engineering, and the advancement of high-strength and performance green concrete. Within the academic realm, he imparts his knowledge by teaching the finite element module at the MSc level. Dr. Mohamed possesses a robust background in utilizing finite element software for modeling intricate structures.

FE Seismic Performance of a Benchmark Multi-Story Multi-Bay Special Truss Moment Steel Frame with X-Diagonal SMA Bars Used as Dissipation Devices in its Special Segments

Dr. Muhammad Hasan is currently working as a Foreign Research Fellow at Division of Engineering Geology and Water Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS). He completed his PhD (2019) in Geological Engineering (Geophysics/Hydrogeology) from IGGCAS, and Master (2014) and Bachelor (2011) in Geophysics from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan (QAU). At present, with 28 SCI articles as first author in recent 5 years, he is a leading researcher in his research field. He is a well-known researcher for his innovative integration of Geophysics with other important research disciplines/fields (especially engineering geology and hydrogeology) to solve the most challenging problems. He has led several major projects. He was honored by the prestigious awards/honors (FRIS-1: NSFC Research Fund/Award for International Young Scientists, Ministry of Science and Technology Award for foreign young talents, SCO Science and Technology Partnership and International Science and Technology Cooperation Fund/Award, IIFI Postdoctoral award, best publications award, Excellent Graduate award of UCAS, Excellent Student award of UCAS, and so on) on his contributions to the international scientific community, locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally.