Sankaran Mahadevan: Risk and Reliability Engineering & Management, Civil Engineering, Vanderbilt

Sankaran Mahadevan is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University www.cee.vanderbilt.edu. Dr. Mahadevan is the director of the multidisciplinary studies (within the Civil Engineering Ph.D. program) focused on Risk and Reliability Engineering and Management. The research in Dr. Mahadevan's group is categorized into 4 areas:
1. Reliability Analysis of Structures and Materials
2. Structural Health Monitoring
3. Optimization Under Uncertainty
4. Model Uncertainty Qualification, Verification and Validation.
In this video he explains Research area #1: Reliability of Structures and Materials. Dr. Mahadevan's research students Ghina Nakad, You Ling and Chen Liang also have videos on the Vanderbilt RUclips channel.
His comprehensive research interests are in reliability and uncertainty analysis methods, material degradation, structural health monitoring, design optimization, and model uncertainty. The methods have been applied to civil, mechanical and aerospace systems. This research has been funded by NSF, NASA (Glen, Marshall, Langley, Ames), FAA, U. S. DOE, U. S. DOT, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U. S. Army Research Office, U.S. Air Force, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, General Motors, Chrysler, Union Pacific, Transportation Technology Center, and the Sandia, Los Alamos, Idaho and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
Professor Mahadevan developed and directed an NSF-IGERT multidisciplinary studies program in Reliability and Risk Engineering and Management at Vanderbilt University, which started in 2001. He has directed 30 Ph.D. dissertations and 20 M.S. theses, taught several industry short courses on reliability methods, and authored more than 300 technical publications, including two textbooks and 120 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Professor Mahadevan's professional service activities include Technical Chair and General Chair of the AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Dynamics and Materials (SDM) Conferences (2005, 2010); Technical Chair and General Chair of the AIAA Non-Deterministic Approaches Conferences (2007, 2008); Chair, Executive Committee, Aerospace Division, ASCE (2004-2005); Chair, Probabilistic Methods Committee, Engineering Mechanics Institute, ASCE (2008-present); Chair, Fatigue and Fracture Reliability Committee, Structural Engineering Institute, ASCE (2001-2005); Associate Editor, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE (2006-present); Associate Editor, International Journal of Reliability and Safety (2005-present); and Member of Editorial Board for several journals.
Professor Mahadevan won the ASME/Boeing Outstanding Paper Award at the AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Dynamics and Materials (SDM) Conference in 1992. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Probabilistic Methods Educator Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. In 2006, he received one of Vanderbilt University's highest honors, the Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished Professor Award. In 2008, he received the Outstanding Professional Service Award from the Aerospace Division, ASCE.
For more information on Dr. Mahadevan and the Civil and Environmental Engineering department visit www.cee.vanderbilt.edu.
To learn more about Vanderbilt, visit www.vanderbilt.edu.