News

This year’s field trip organised by the Earthquake Damage Analysis Center and the Chair of Advanced Structures at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar took us first to the extension and refurbishment works on the Straußfurt flood retention basin – a key project under the national flood protection programme.

From 17 to 20 May 2026, the Chair of Advanced Structures participated in the Earthquake Engineering Forum EEF.26 in Sofia, Bulgaria, with contributions by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lars Abrahamczyk and Dr.-Ing. Baban A. Bapir. The forum was organized by the National Earthquake Engineering Center at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACEG) under the theme “Contemporary Issues in Earthquake Engineering.”

The Chair of Advanced Structures congratulates Khalat Qadir Ahmad on the successful defense of her Master’s thesis in structural engineering entitled “Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of some Typical Buildings in Sulaymaniyah City,” which took place on 25 April 2026 at the University of Sulaimani.

The Erasmus+ project RECONSTRUCT - Forensic Structural Engineering Database for Higher Education successfully held its third international workshop on 30-31 March 2026 at GRAFOS, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia, bringing together project partners from across Europe.

As part of the Bauhaus Colloquium for Emerging Researchers 2026 at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lars Abrahamczyk delivered the keynote lecture titled “Advanced Structures: Between Interdisciplinarity and Methods”. The talk explored how contemporary structural design operates at the intersection of multiple disciplines, methods and scientific processes.

Small and mid-sized skilled trades businesses are facing growing challenges; repurposing and renovating existing buildings is becoming increasingly complex, time pressure is mounting, and there is a growing shortage of skilled workers. Digital tools and robotics are promising relief. But how can new technologies be used in a way that they actually help craftspeople in their everyday life? This is the question being asked by the interdisciplinary research team at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in the »Handwerk der Zukunft« project. The team will be receiving nearly one million euros in funding from the European Social Fund from 2026 to 2028.

On 4th and 5th December 2025, Assistant Prof. Dr. Bora Pulatsu, from Carleton University, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Canada visited the Chair of Advanced Structure at Bauhaus Universität Weimar. As part of his visit, Bora held a very inspiring guest lecture in the frame of the NHRE master programm module “Structural Design and Performance Assessment.”

On 29 October 2025, MSc Aanis Uzair delivered a webinar on the seismic assessment of cultural heritage buildings using DIANA. For anyone who could not attend live, the full recording is available on YouTube.

On 30.10.2025, the Chair of Advanced Structure, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Bauhaus Universität Weimar had the honour of welcoming distinguished researcher Dr. Amado Gustavo Ayala Milián (UNAM), who delivered a compelling guest lecture entitled “Seismic resilience in structural design: advanced methods and applications.”

As part of WP3, the RECONSTRUCT project consortium held a workshop on 6–7 October 2025 at the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIIS) in Skopje, North Macedonia. The workshop focused on virtual teaching methods based on the Escape Room concept, designed to enhance the education and training of court experts and forensic engineers in civil engineering.