What is wind engineering? - Tribute to the "father of wind engineering"

The Jack E. Cermak Medal.
Image courtesy of ASCE.

"Wind Engineering is best defined as the rational treatment of the interactions between wind in the atmospheric boundary layer and man and his works on the surface of earth."

That is at least how Prof. Jack E. Cermak, considered the "father of wind engineering," defined it. But at the same time it is how wind engineering has come to be known to its practitioners. It is with sadness though that Prof. Cermak has passed on earlier this week.

What is structural design?

The Moriyama House, Tokyo. One of
the projects of Structured Environment.
Image from Danda.

I listened to a lecture recently by Dr. Alan Burden, a Japan-educated British, and founder of Structured Environment, a Japan/UK-based structural design firm. Here's his take on what is structural design.

More (bridge) structural engineering: load testing a 7.3-meter long bridge made entirely out of cardboard

I recently talked about simple bridge design software and a bridge design game on RAW, where you can have some structural engineering fun. Here, sit back and relax while a professor and his students load test a bridge they designed and constructed entirely out of cardboard boxes. Don't worry folks, no one was injured.