Bridge Optimization Considering Moving Vehicles

Tom Golecki, PhD

Teaching Assistant Professor,

Mechaincal Science & Engineering Department,

University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Monday, March 4 | 11 a.m. | 140 Ketter Hall

This presentation will briefly describe the research motivations and contributions of Golecki’s dissertation “Bridge Optimization Considering Moving Vehicles.” His research work, combined with ten years of industry experience has informed a teaching philosophy with a focus on practical applications and active learning. This will be demonstrated through an example lecture in structural dynamics. The lecture is intended for students in their junior or senior year as part of a course in the dynamics of structures. The intent of this lecture is to discuss the dynamics of continuous systems through development of the assumed modes method. Starting from student’s existing knowledge of kinetic and potential energy, the extension from discrete to continuous systems will be developed and shown to lead directly to applications in structural assessment as well as general finite element theory.

Tom Golecki is a teaching assistant professor in Mechanical Science & Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned BS and MS degrees in Civil (Structural) Engineering from Drexel University and his PhD in Civil (Structural) Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Golecki has 10 years of industry experience and holds professional and structural engineering licenses in multiple states. Under the advisement of Bill Spencer, his research combined industry experience in bridge engineering with random vibrations and topology optimization theory to develop new algorithms for bridge design optimization accounting for the dynamics of moving vehicles.