Instructors were selected by their technical competence, complementarities and teaching experience. All of them have done active research on SHM during more than ten years, with a large number of publications. They contribute regularly to the international conferences on related themes, they are actively involved in the organization of Workshops, and also as members of editorial committees for specialized journals and books on this subject. Highlighting some individual facts:
- Christian Boller | A pioneer in the SHM field, he was a lecturer in the AGARD-CP-531 on Smart Structures in October 1992, keeping an uninterrupted activity since then. Formerly working as chief engineer for Deutsche Aerospace (now EADS), he became a professor at the University of Sheffield/UK before moving to Saarland University taking over a chair in NDT and quality assurance and heading
Fraunhofer IZFP. His major interests are related to structural integrity assessment.
- Claus Peter Fritzen | Expert with a professional experience of 18 years in the field, he is leading a team of about 20 people, recognized by their work on vibration-based as well as wave propagation-based SHM principles, software for data analysis, and the development of methods for evaluation and decision-making. The results are applied to problems in aeronautics, mechanical and civil engineering.
- Spilios Fassois | He is a leading authority on stochastic mechanical systems and statistical methods for SHM. He has over 20 years of professional experience in Europe and the USA. He has strong industrial
experience and participates in European research consortia and projects.
- Alfredo Güemes | He started in 1996 an optoelectronics Laboratory, and was among the firsts in Europe to produce and embed fibre optic sensors in Composite structures. He has participated without interruption in several European research projects, addressing main issues as sensor response and its qualification. He acts as Coordinator for this Project.
- Malcolm McGugan & Povl Bronsted | Both are working at Risoe, in Denmark, a reference centre in Europe for research and testing of wind energy systems. They are specialists in the implementation of
SHM inspection technologies in these large structures, representing one of the most advanced development in the field.
- Wieslaw Ostachowicz | Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery. He conducts research in several areas of numerical methods in mechanics, as spectral finite elements for damage detection, as well as the use of intelligent materials in dynamic control. He participates in
several European research consortia and projects.
- Afzal Suleman | He is currently Principal Investigator at the Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica (IDMEC-IST) in Portugal and Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Victoria in Canada. He
has been involved in several EU projects on structural optimization, active aeroelastic aircraft composite structures and aircraft reliability using smart materials.