Pengcheng Jiao Editor

Dr. Amir H. Alavi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Pitt, Dr. Alavi was an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Missouri. Dr. Alavi’s research interests include structural health monitoring, smart civil infrastructure systems, deployment of advanced sensors, energy harvesting, and engineering information systems. At Pitt, his Intelligent Structural Monitoring and Response Testing (iSMaRT) Lab focuses on advancing the knowledge and technology required to create self-sustained and multifunctional sensing and monitoring systems that are enhanced by engineering system informatics. His research activities involve implementation of these smart systems in the fields of civil infrastructure, construction, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. Dr. Alavi has worked on research projects supported by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Missouri DOT, and Michigan DOT. Dr. Alavi has authored five books and over 170 publications in archival journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has received a number of award certificates for his journal articles. He is among the Google Scholar 200 Most Cited Authors in Civil Engineering, as well as Web of Science ESI's World Top 1% Scientific Minds. He has served as the editor/guest editor of several journals such as Sensors, Case Studies in Construction Material, Automation in Construction, Geoscience Frontiers, Smart Cities, ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, and Advances in Mechanical Engineering. Maria Q. Feng is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Director of the Sensing, Monitoring, and Robotics Technology (SMaRT) Lab, and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University-NYC. Pengcheng Jiao earned his MSc and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University and Michigan State University in 2012 and 2017, respectively. Prior to joining the Ocean College at Zhejiang University as Research Professor, Prof. Jiao was working as Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at University of Pennsylvania. Prof. Jiao’s areas of research interests include smart materials and structures, structural stability analysis and applications, structural health monitoring (SHM), energy harvesting, and multiscale solid mechanics. Particular interests are focused on: 1) conceptual development and investigation of structural components and systems to expand traditional utilities while exploring multi-functional features; and 2) deployment of advanced structures for novel energy harvesting and damage sensing techniques, which leads to a variety of novel applications within the areas of SHM and digital smart infrastructures. Zahra Sharif Khodaei is a reader (Associate Professor) in structural integrity. She obtained her PhD from Czech Technical University in Prague in numerical modelling of functionally graded materials in 2008. Prior to her lectureship post in 2014, she was a research associate at Imperial College London, department of Aeronautics since 2009 where she conducted research in fatigue modelling and analysis of metallic and Fibre Metallic Laminates (FML) and more significantly in developments of technologies and methodologies for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of composite structures.