Worldwide Universities Network

Very often, successful partnerships in WUN develop in situations where research is developing in a new direction, where contacts with the WUN partner have resulted in new insights and fresh approaches to the way research is undertaken.  Faculty exchange, and then mutual exchange of research students, can help “cement” research relationships.

Dr Matthew Gilbert, Senior Lecturer and EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering has developed a fruitful relationship with the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State University at the interface between Architecture and Engineering. Matthew has an interest in developing a better understanding of the behaviour of masonry structures, and also in examining the feasibility of both architects and engineers adopting novel computational design tools which can be used in new design, or in rehabilitating existing structures. Very often, historic structures act as test beds, and offer solutions to their preservation.

Penn State University’s Prof. Tom Boothby is a well known international authority on historic structures, especially arches and domes, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, various State DOTs, and the Fulbright Commission, amongst others. Sheffield research in this field is supported by EPSRC (e.g. Gilbert’s Advanced Research Fellowship), Buro Happold and various other sources.

Activity at the architecture-engineering interface has intensified, with 3 graduate students from Penn State spending periods of up to 6 months in Sheffield. A recent focal point has been the stone vaults of local church Beverley Minster, East Yorkshire, on which construction started around 1220-1260 AD, to which modal testing techniques have been applied. Simultaneously, a Sheffield student working has been working at Penn State on the development of novel design techniques for engineers and architects, has been finding new sources of inspiration.

This is a grassroots led collaboration, and both parties are using it as a means of broadening the horizons of graduate students, and injecting fresh thinking into the research.

Boothby and Gilbert are also keen to involve other WUN universities working in this field (e.g. Prof. Boothby has significant contacts within the academic structural engineering community in the U.S; Boothby's connections to the University of Washington are particularly strong (his Ph.D. is from University of Washington/Seattle), and he has equally strong professional connections to the Civil Engineering and Architecture Departments at the University of Illinois).

The collaboration between the Penn State University and the University of Sheffield has already shown itself to be sustainable: an initial WUN grant at PSU, matched by dedicated research funding, led in 2004 to a six-month long visit by a PSU student to Sheffield, which culminated in an experimental programme, an M.S. thesis, and a journal article. In the following year, reciprocal visits involving Dr. Gilbert and Prof. Boothby were used to strengthen academic ties, and to explore further mutual areas of interest. This has led to the present collaboration, and to further funding from an in-house Penn State endowment which funds interdisciplinary work in Architecture and Architectural Engineering (The Bowers Program).

As this collaboration is allowed to expand, further initiatives will develop, and further opportunities for funding will emerge, including support from foundations interested in the built environment, the National Science Foundation in the U.S., EPSRC in the UK, and building owners.