Structural Engineering Chair

Structural Engineering Chair is established to excel the academic works in the field of Structural Engineering as a mission vested by the University to the Faculty. The chair facilitates administers the courses to the students of Civil Engineering, and provides consultancy services to the neighborhood community in the field of structural engineering.  The field in general is aimed to provide optimal engineering solutions in the design and construction processes of structural systems of civil infrastructures including but not limited to buildings and bridges.

Courses delivery 

The contents of the structural courses offered by the chair range from fundamental mechanical principles to code based empirical provisions for the design and construction of structural systems of civil infrastructures built from reinforced/pre-stressed concrete, timber, steel and and masonry structures.

Undergraduate

Currently, the courses administered by the chair include but not limited to engineering mechanics, strength of materials, theory of structures, reinforced concrete, fundamentals of bridge design, structural design, design of steel and timber structures, finite element methods. 

Graduate

To meet the national demand of qualified structural engineers in the construction industry, the chair offers and administers MSc. in Structural Engineering. The program is  aimed to develop Structural Engineers equipped with the necessary advanced state-of-the-art knowledge in structural principles and computational tools to design and to manage the construction of special structures such as high rise buildings and long-span bridges in line with the state-of-the-practice in the industry.

Research and community services

The faculty members under the chair have been actively involved in the design and construction supervision of multi-story buildings and bridges constructed in the State, especially in Bahir Dar and its neighborhood. The chair has played a major role in testing and evaluation of construction materials pursuant to the requirements of the national and international standards. These consultancy services offered by the faculty members enabled to execute the academic tasks within the requirements of the state-of-the-practice of the profession, to endow the neighborhood community with best engineering solutions. The chair has also been involved in delivering a series of practical trainings especially on application software for structural design and evaluation of infrastructures by the help of software such as SAP, STAD pro, MS-Excel, Auto Cad; and construction management tools such as MS-Project. Being driven by the graduate program, the research is being conducted towards development and application of computational tools to aid the structural design practice. However, the research is being taken up to address the demands of the community for best engineering solutions in the following areas: proposal of cost effective alternative construction materials, engineering characterization of bamboo structures, development of modular structural systems, lightweight structures, conservation of historic structures, development of computational tools for structural optimization, and others.

Laboratory facility

The chair has been jointly administering construction materials laboratory for characterization of material properties. The Structural Engineering Laboratory is established the teaching learning process besides testing and evaluating the quality and performance of structural elements.

Laboratory

Current Chair Holder

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