This book presents the proceedings of an International Conference on Advances in Engineering Structures, Mechanics & Construction, held in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, May 14-17, 2006. The contents include contains the texts of all three plenary presentations and all seventy-three technical papers by more than 153 authors, presenting the latest advances in engineering structures, mechanics and construction research and practice.

Artificial intelligence provides an environmentally rich paradigm within which design research based on computational constructions can be carried out. This has been one of the foundations for the developing field called "design computing". Recently, there has been a growing interest in what designers do when they design and how they use computational tools. This forms the basis of a newly emergent field called "design cognition" that draws partly on cognitive science. This new conference series aims to provide a bridge between the two fields of "design computing" and "design cognition". The papers in this volume are from the "First International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition" (DCC'04) held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. They represent state-of-the art research and development in design computing and cognition. They are of particular interest to researchers, developers and users of advanced computation in design and those who need to gain a better understanding of designing.

Artificial intelligence provides an environmentally rich paradigm within which design research based on computational constructions can be carried out. This has been one of the foundations for the developing field called "design computing". Recently, there has been a growing interest in what designers do when they design and how they use computational tools. This forms the basis of a newly emergent field called "design cognition" that draws partly on cognitive science. This new conference series aims to provide a bridge between the two fields of "design computing" and "design cognition". The papers in this volume are from the "First International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition" (DCC'04) held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. They represent state-of-the art research and development in design computing and cognition. They are of particular interest to researchers, developers and users of advanced computation in design and those who need to gain a better understanding of designing.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 13th Workshop of the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering and Architecture, EG-ICE 2006, held in Ascona, Switzerland in June 2006. The 59 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for inclusion in the book. All issues of advanced informatics are covered including a range of techniques.

This book is intended for classroom teaching in architectural and civil engineering at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Although it has been developed from lecture notes given in structural steel design, it can be useful to practicing engineers. Many of the examples presented in this book are drawn from the field of design of structures. Design of Steel Structures can be used for one or two semesters of three hours each on the undergraduate level. For a two-semester curriculum, Chapters 1 through 8 can be used during the first semester. Heavy emphasis should be placed on Chapters 1 through 5, giving the student a brief exposure to the consideration of wind and earthquakes in the design of buildings. With the new federal requirements vis a vis wind and earthquake hazards, it is beneficial to the student to have some under standing of the underlying concepts in this field. In addition to the class lectures, the instructor should require the student to submit a term project that includes the complete structural design of a multi-story building using standard design procedures as specified by AISC Specifications. Thus, the use of the AISC Steel Construction Manual is a must in teaching this course. In the second semester, Chapters 9 through 13 should be covered. At the undergraduate level, Chapters 11 through 13 should be used on a limited basis, leaving the student more time to concentrate on composite construction and built-up girders.

Included in this volume are a selection of papers on the application of knowledge based systems to civil & structural engineering. The papers were presented at the Third International Conference on the Application of Artificial Intelligence to Civil and Structural Engineering held 17-19 August 1993, Edinburgh.