Engineering and the arts are both creative in different manners and for different purposes. Yet each of these disciplines is rigorous and requires certain mindsets. Engineering is mostly quantitative, sometimes rigid, tending to utilitarian solutions. The arts are precise but open to interpretation, tending to perfection. Understanding and combining these ideals and requirements cross-fertilizes both disciplines, resulting in unprecedented creativity.
Branko Glišić is an engineer specializing in structural health monitoring (SHM), smart structures, heritage structures, and integrating engineering and the arts.
In his research, he employs a wide range of methods, such as advanced 2D, 3D and fiber optic sensing technologies; data analysis with machine learning; modeling and visualization with virtual and augmented reality; and smart structures that are kinetic, deployable, and adaptable. His multifaceted work’s application domains include concrete and steel bridges, buildings and pipelines, smart structures for coastal protection, and historical buildings and monuments.
The recipient of several awards, including the prestigious SHM Person of the Year Award and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Moisseiff Award, Branko has authored or co-authored more than 100 published papers, short courses on SHM, and the 2007 book “Fibre Optic Methods for Structural Health Monitoring.”
As a Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Branko is a member of several professional associations and journal editorial boards. He serves as a council member and fellow of the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure and a voting member of the American Concrete Institute’s Committee 444, among others. Before coming to Princeton, Branko spent eight years at SMARTEC, Switzerland, where he was involved in numerous SHM projects.