Alexandros Taflanidis
Alexandros Taflanidis, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, concurrent associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute of International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected as one of the nation’s 73 most innovative young engineering educators by the National Academy of Engineering. These early career faculty members, who have already been honored for their development and implementation of novel educational approaches in a variety of engineering disciplines, will participate in the academy’s 2013 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium.
Scheduled for Oct. 27-30 (Sunday-Wednesday) in Irvine, Calif., this year’s program will focus on the development of new teaching practices as well as the design and implementation of innovative courses and curricula.
“Through this forum, our engineering faculty are empowered to create the conditions to meaningfully engage engineering students in innovation and entrepreneurship to meet 21st-century challenges and are encouraged to be agents of change at their home institutions,” said Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Northeastern University and chair of the Frontiers of Engineering Education advisory committee.
Taflanidis joined Notre Dame in 2008. His research focuses on the development and implementation of advanced computational methodologies for assessment/mitigation of risk due to natural hazards, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and for probabilistic/robust design of engineering systems. He also works on sustainable solutions for low-income residential housing in the developing world under the banner of Engineering2Empower. His contribution in this year’s symposium is titled “Incorporation of Simulation-Based Science in the Engineering Curriculum through Integration of High Performance/Soft-Computing Techniques.”
Established in 1964, the NAE is an independent, nonprofit institution that serves as an adviser to government and the public on issues in engineering and technology. Its members consist of the nation’s premier engineers, who are elected by their peers for their distinguished achievements.