The growing availability of structural monitoring data and the rapid development of artificial intelligence are expanding the possibilities for understanding and assessing existing structures. Their engineering value depends on how effectively observations and learning algorithms are connected to structural mechanics, and on how uncertainty is represented throughout the inference process. This seminar explores these connections through the development of hybrid digital twins for civil infrastructure and cultural heritage.
Vincenzo Gattulli is Full Professor of Solid and Structural Mechanics in the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome, and President of the MSc programme in Project and Construction Management. He holds a PhD in Structural Engineering from Sapienza and an MSc in Civil Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research integrates structural dynamics, nonlinear mechanics, vibration control, structural identification and health monitoring with computational and data-driven methods. He received an EASD award in 2023. His recent research activities include TECNODIGIT, IRIS and ATENA, addressing digital twins, robotic inspection, integrated sensing and the assessment of infrastructure and cultural heritage. He is co-editor, with Spartaco Paris and Claudio Parisi Presicce, of Marcus Aurelius in the Digital Age, a volume connecting interdisciplinary investigations, digital documentation and mechanical modelling of the equestrian statue and its museum setting. His current research focuses on the integration of structural mechanics, monitoring data, artificial intelligence and uncertainty quantification.
From 26 to 29 October 2026 the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted theISPRS Joint Council and TCP Meeting, the first in-person gathering of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and the presidents of its Technical Commissions.
Meeting at the Leonardo Campus were President Nicolas Paparoditis, Vice President Jiang Jie, Secretary General Ahmed Shaker, Treasurer Petri Rönnholm, 2030 Congress Director Jisang Park and Annette Radtke, Secretary to the Secretary General, together with the presidents of the five Technical Commissions through which the Society organises its scientific work. Petra Helmholz, 2029 Congress Director, Charles Toth, Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Committee, and Paulina Kujawa, ISPRS Social Media Manager, took part as guests.
Among the Commission presidents is Maria Antonia Brovelli, professor at our Department, who chairs Technical Commission IV, Spatial Information Science. The remaining four commissions cover sensor systems, photogrammetric computer vision, remote sensing, and education and outreach.
Participants were welcomed by Alberto Guadagnini, Vice Rector for Research at Politecnico di Milano and full professor at the Department.
Four days of work addressed preparations for the 2029 and 2030 Congresses, the structure and activities of the Technical Commissions for the 2026-2030 term, the planning of commission symposia, the Society’s scientific publications and its international outreach.
Hosting the first in-person meeting of this body places the Department at the heart of the scientific coordination of a community that, since 1910, has brought together researchers and professionals worldwide around the technologies of Earth observation and spatial representation.
On Wednesday, October 28, a seminar will be held in Fassò Room (Campus Leonardo, Building 4A, floor 1), starting at 10:15 CET.
The seminar will be given by Prof. Yashar Eftekhar Azam, University of New Hampshire, and is titled “Machine Learning for Bridge Damage Identification under Uncertainty: Contact and Drive-By Sensing”.
Abstract
Developing scalable and practically implementable tools for bridge structural health monitoring requires reliable damage identification under uncertain loading, imperfect modeling, and noisy measurements. This seminar presents a research program that combines machine learning with full-scale experimental validation to advance bridge condition assessment through contact and drive-by sensing.
The presentation covers four complementary components: novelty detection for identifying departures from healthy structural behavior, damage classification for distinguishing among structural condition states, drive-by sensing for assessing bridges through vehicle-mounted measurements, and transfer learning for connecting numerical simulations with field observations. Particular attention is given to traffic load variability, the influence of model uncertainty on damage indices, and the effects of measurement noise on identification performance. Full-scale experiments provide a basis for evaluating these methods under realistic conditions, while transfer learning addresses the limited availability of labeled damage data and discrepancies between simulated and measured responses. Throughout, the emphasis is on translating methodological advances into reliable, implementable tools that can support bridge monitoring at scale.
Speaker’s bio
Yashar Eftekhar Azam is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Ocean Engineering at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). He received his Ph.D. with distinction from Politecnico di Milano in 2012 and subsequently held research appointments at ETH Zurich, the University of Thessaly, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln before joining UNH in 2020. His research integrates structural dynamics, Bayesian estimation, and machine learning to develop practical tools for structural health monitoring and digital twinning of civil and offshore infrastructure. His work combines methodological development with full-scale field experiments and laboratory testing, with particular emphasis on identifying structural states, loads, and damage under uncertainty. Applications include bridge monitoring through contact and drive-by sensing, floating structures, and offshore renewable energy systems. His recent research also explores quantum and hybrid quantum–classical methods for engineering inference. He received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2025 and UNH’s J. Brent Loy Innovator of the Year Award in 2026.
The seminar can also be followed remotely at the following link: https://politecnicomilano.webex.com/meet/stefano.mariani
Hasan Eslami, research fellow at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has received the Best PhD Thesis Award from the journal Hydrology (MDPI) for his doctoral thesis Aggradation Wave Dynamics Under Sediment Overloading in Supercritical Flows.
The award, established this year and assigned for the first time in this edition, recognises outstanding doctoral research in the field of hydrology. The evaluation committee was chaired by Prof. Ezio Todini and included Prof. Jiabo Yin (Wuhan University), Dr. Tommaso Caloiero (CNR) and Prof. Paolo Reggiani (University of Siegen).
The awarded thesis investigates the dynamics of aggradation waves under sediment overloading in supercritical flows, a relevant topic for sediment transport management in steep watercourses.
The official announcement is available on the award page.
