Plenary Speakers

Retrospective and prospects in structural mechanics and nonlinear dynamics

Reflections of a life, with topics, scholars, communities

After nearly half a century of intense development, nonlinear dynamics in mechanics has evolved into a well-defined discipline, with a comprehensive methodological and phenomenological framework. This significant maturation provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the field’s historical evolution and to identify the innovations necessary to keep it aligned with the cultural and technological demands of a rapidly changing society. This lecture serves as a witness of the progressive growth of the nonlinear dynamics community, seen through the lens of a structural mechanics researcher who has had the privilege of maintaining close connections with numerous scholars and emerging researchers over the past forty years. Framing personal thematic lines within four general phases of the development of nonlinear dynamics in mechanics, it is also intended to provide a tribute to those who have been pivotal in shaping the field—and can thus be regarded as ‘fathers’ of the discipline—as well as to numerous esteemed colleagues and friends. The main research trajectories and key contributors are mapped against an evolutionary framework that spans from classical to hybridized topics. Delving into the need to move from concepts and methods to new developments in which nonlinear dynamics is called to show its enormous potential for achieving goals in targeted technological contexts by harnessing nonlinear/global features and phenomena for a reliable engineering design, the discussion addresses challenges and future directions based on two key criteria: (i) Establishing connections with the foundational work of previous generations, highlighting how contemporary advances build upon past accomplishments; (ii) differentiating between challenges of intrinsic mechanical significance and the broader contributions that nonlinear dynamics can offer in the reliable modeling and effective control of various evolutionary phenomena, also extending beyond mechanical systems.

Bio-sketch: Giuseppe Rega is Professor Emeritus, Sapienza University of Rome. Past Chairman of EUROMECH Nonlinear Oscillations Conference Committee and Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, member of CISM Scientific Council. Past EiC of Meccanica has been/is Advisor/AE/EBM of several archival journals. Organized scientific events within EUROMECH, IUTAM, ASME, NNM, CISM, and EURODYN. Plenary/Keynote Lecturer at many international conferences and academic institutions. Recipient of ASME Lyapunov Award (2017) and Ali H. Nayfeh Senior Award (2025). Honored with special issues of Nonlinear Dynamics and International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics at 60th and 70th birthday anniversaries. Contributions to cable nonlinear dynamics, nonlinear oscillations, bifurcation and chaos in applied mechanics and structural dynamics, reduced-order modeling, control of oscillations and chaos, exploitation of global dynamics for engineering safety, smart materials, coupled oscillators, thermomechanical problems, and structural architecture.

Green Energy: Technology and Perspectives based on Smart Materials

The increasing global energy demand and the environmental impacts associated with fossil fuel consumption emphasize the necessity of developing clean and renewable energy technologies. This lecture first outlines the urgency of sustainable energy utilization in response to energy shortages and ecological challenges. It then compares three primary energy conversion mechanisms—electrostatic, electromagnetic, and piezoelectric technologies—in terms of power density, transmission efficiency, structural integration, and economic cost, highlighting the advantages of piezoelectric materials in distributed energy harvesting. Finally, various smart-material-based structural designs for harvesting energy from ocean waves, wind, high-rise buildings, and vehicles are presented, demonstrating their effectiveness and application potential in sustainable and decentralized energy systems.

Bio-sketch: Professor Quan Wang currently serves as the executive president of Shantou University. In recognition of his outstanding academic contributions, he was elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Canada in 2015 and 2016, respectively. He was awarded the Blaise Pascal Medal from the European Academy of Sciences in 2019. Professor Wang is also a fellow of several leading international professional societies, including the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In addition, he has served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Mechanical Sciences. He is widely recognized as an influential scholar in the fields of energy harvesting, smart materials, and nanotechnology.

Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos in Smart Systems

Bioinspiration is a paradigm that extracts design principles from biological and natural systems. Based on that, it is possible to create systems and structures with adaptive behavior according to its environment. Smart materials have an essential importance on this idea being used as sensors and actuators that define the remarkable system characteristics. Besides, natural rhythms are inspiring new situations and therefore, the investigation of nonlinear dynamics, chaos and control is establishing other design paradigms. The use of bioinspired smart systems is now evolving to create origami-inspired systems based on the ancient art of paper folding. Basically, the main idea of the origami is to create a three dimensional structure from a plane source. Adaptive origamis have been explored in order to produce foldable, adaptive structures that can be applied in several areas of the human knowledge. This presentation deals with the nonlinear mechanics of smart bioinspired systems. Smart system applications and their multiphysical behaviors are of concern, discussing the system modeling. Shape memory alloy systems, origami-inspired structures, mechanical energy harvesting, chaos and chaos control are some subjects presented to give a general idea of the research activities. The rich, complex dynamical response of these systems is of special concern.

Bio-sketch: Marcelo A. Savi is Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE - Mechanical Engineering) being the Head of the Center for Nonlinear Mechanics. He has published over 550 journal and conference papers, 5 books and about 19 book chapters. Awards and distinctions were received including: FAPERJ Award of Outstanding Researcher in Exact Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Engineering; UFRJ solemn tribute to the most influential researchers in the world; COPPE Award Giulio Massarani of the Academic Merit; CNPq Researcher level 1A; Scientist of Rio de Janeiro. He is actively involved as advisor of graduate and undergraduate students, summing more than 150 works. Scientific exchanges with research centers in Brazil and all over the world should be highlighted. He has administrative experience as head of department, graduate coordinator, and university committees. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2024-present); Associate Editor of journals including International Journal of Mechanical Sciences (2018-present), Journal of Vibration and Control (2017-2026), ASME – Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics (2019-2025), Mathematical Problems in Engineering (2018-2024), Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2006-2016); and member of the Executive Editorial Board of Smart Materials and Structures (2025–present). He is member of academic societies including ASME, ABCM and SBF. Research interests are related to nonlinear mechanics where it should be highlighted smart material and structures; nonlinear dynamics, chaos and control; biomechanics and ecology.

CV: http://lattes.cnpq.br/1224532648969159