Tentative Thesis Title: "Quantification of Collagen Fiber Organization in Biological Tissues at Cellular and Molecular Scales Using Second Harmonic Generation Imaging"

Abstract Offshore wind turbines are complex structural and mechanical systems located in a demanding environment. The first part of this presentation focuses on aspects related to the design of such structures for a wind farm in intermediate water depths (60-120 feet). Numerical calculations are developed to assess the performance under aerodynamic and hydrodynamic actions. Three types of turbine support structures are considered and compared: a monopile, a tripod and a jacket structure. In the second part, attention is given to the definition of a proper probabilistic design procedure that accounts for the effect of environmental and structural uncertainties. By the avail of a macro-level model of a jacket support structure, the uncertainties affecting the parameters that characterize the physical aspects of the problem are discussed and their effect on the structural response is investigated as part of a consistent performance-based design procedure. Consequently, within this procedure, a multi-level modeling philosophy is implemented, in order to consider both global (macro-level) and detailed (meso-level) aspects that drive the design. A meso-level model of the turbine blade is developed and analyzed, together with a refined model of the aerodynamic loads. The uncertainties affecting the models at meso-scale are also briefly discussed. In the final part of the presentation, some additional applications of wind energy are discussed, after defining a generic energy harvesting framework in different scales for structures and infrastructures (micro-, meso- and macro-scale). Numerical applications on piezoelectric energy harvesting devices, at a very early development stage, are presented and discussed. About the Speaker Dr. Gkoumas is currently an Associate Researcher at the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome, with a fellowship on the topic of energy harvesting for structural and infrastructural systems. He is a member of the structural analysis and design group of Prof. Franco Bontempi in Rome since 2004. He received his 5-year degree (MEng + MSc equiv.) in Civil Engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome, and his Ph.D. in Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering from the same University. He has a multidisciplinary academic background (including transportation and structural engineering) and his main research interests include performance-based engineering, modeling and optimization of civil engineering systems and energy harvesting.

Tentative Thesis Title: "Analysis of Plasma Bipolar Junction Transistor"

Tentative Thesis Title: "Security Threats of the MAC-Layer in Wireless Networks"

Tentative Thesis Title: "Ontological Visual Understanding"