The 13^th Tongji-KAIST Symposium and Summer School was held at the College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University from 9 to 15, July, 2019. Under the theme of “Sustainable and Novel Structures”, 3 professors and 5 students from KAIST and 12 professors and 19 students from CCE gathered and exchanged ideas.

In the opening ceremony on 9 July, Prof. Huanjun Jiang, the Vice Dean of CCE, extended a warm welcome to all the participants, introduced CCE’s visions and missions of international cooperation and expressed hope for further collaboration between CCE and KAIST. The symposium then proceeded to keynote speeches, where Prof. Hoon Sohn and Prof. Yong Yuan shared their views on “Structural health monitoring (SHM) and non-destructive testing (NDT) of micro-scale to large-scale structures using smart sensing technologies” and “Issues on seismic performance of underground engineering”, respectively. At the Technical Session in the afternoon, Prof. Fengshou Zhang, Prof. Hyung-Jo Jung, Prof. Lijun Jia, Prof. Chaomeng Dai and Prof. Tae-Hyuk Kwon gave speeches on 6 topics – “Rock Mechanics for ‘Deep Earth’”, “Bridge condition assessment using UAV-based inspection strategy”, “Nonlinearity and cable forces optimization of cable-stayed bridge”, “Sponge city technologies”, and “Pore-scale visualization of abiotic carbonate precipitation in porous media using X-ray imaging”.

During the summer school from 10-12 July, the students were given a chance to learn about different classes, including “Stability of steel structures”, “The Development of Passive Wireless RFID sensors in Structural Health Monitoring”, “Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Beams by Bolted Side-Plates”, “Fire performances of high strength steels and beam-column connections made of high strength steels”, “Design of arch bridges” and “Small strain stiffness of soil: from theory to practice”.

In addition to the classes, technical visits were organized to enhance the students’ knowledge. They visited the shaking table laboratory, centrifuge laboratory and wind tunnel laboratory on campuses, and headed to Shanghai Center in Lujiazui. As their exploration deepened, the students got a deeper understanding of the construction of super high-rise buildings and wind and earthquake resistance.

Tongji-KAIST Symposium and Student Summer School is an important exchange program between Tongji University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. It is organized by both parties in turn every year. The project not only makes the students aware of the research frontiers and technical applications of civil engineering, but also sets up a bridge for academic exchanges between the two universities.