A 6-hour short course introducing Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) within the statistical pattern recognition (SPR) paradigm, providing participants with the fundamental concepts and methodologies to support damage identification.
The course is organized for students enrolled at PUC-Rio and will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 15, 2026.
Target public: The course is tailored towards graduate students registered at PUC-Rio.
Keywords: SHM, bridges, structural mechanical modeling, pattern recognition, machine learning, system identification, damage identification, uncertainty, probability, probabilistic digital twins, risk, resilience, sustainability.
Accreditation: This short course has been accredited by Ordem dos Engenheiros - the Portuguese regulatory and licensing body for the engineering profession in Portugal.
Sustainable Development Goals: This course contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 9, and 13, by promoting sustainable and resilient infrastructure through the introduction of new technologies and innovation to guarantee the safety and comfort of people, through optimization of design and integrity management to reduce embedded CO2 and thereby countering climate change, and finally by along the same lines facilitating the development and operation of sustainable energy infrastructure, like wide turbines and dams.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- Pose the SHM in the context of a statistical pattern recognition paradigm.
- Understand the differences between quasi-static and dynamic monitoring.
- Overview of sensors and DAQ hardware for designing an optimum instrumentation scheme for SHM.
- Understand the applicability of finite element modeling and machine learning (unsupervised and supervised learning) for data enhancement and interpretation, as well as for damage identification.
- Understand the role of transfer learning for SHM.
- Understand the role of SHM to support climate change adaptation.
- Understand the goal of SHM with current limitations, grand challenges, and future trends.
DURATION, LOCATION, DATE, AND TIME
- Duration: 6 hours
- In-person component (6h):
- Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Date: December 15, 2026
- Time: 9:00 to 16:00 (one hour for lunch)
OBSERVATIONS
- The instructors reserve the right to modify the course organization as necessary to maintain the highest standards of content quality.
- Course notes will be distributed during the course.
- A Certificate of Attendance will be issued at the end of the short course.
- If you have any questions, please send us an email:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Last update: September 28, 2026.
INSTRUCTORS
Eloi Figueiredo – Eloi Figueiredo, PhD in Civil Engineering (2010) and Full Professor at Lusófona University with over 125 publications on structural health monitoring (SHM) through books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journals, and conference proceedings; and over 100 opinion articles to promote science and engineering in our society. He is the coordinator of RISE research group and has scientific collaborations with several institutions in Europe, United States, and Brazil.
Ionut Moldovan – PhD in Civil Engineering (2008) and Associate Professor at Lusófona University, has more than 100 scientific publications, including books, book chapters and papers in international journals and conferences. He is the Principal Investigator of the Project INTENT, funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT), and lead developer of FreeHyTE, the first public, open-source and user-friendly computational platform using hybrid-Trefftz finite elements.
Michael Havbor Faber – Professor at Lusófona University. He is discipline Director for Risk, Resilience and Sustainability at NIRAS A/S in Denmark, and he has a position as Chair Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology in China. His research interests are directed on probabilistic modeling and analysis of systems with applications to governance and management of risks, resilience and sustainability in the built environment. Initiating president of the Joint Committee on the GLOBE Consensus, past president of the Joint Committee on Structural Safety, member of the WEF Global Expert Network on Risk and Resilience, member of the Danish Research Council and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences. Michael was awarded the Allin C. Cornell Award in 2019.