Bielefeldt wins Best Student Oral Presentation award at international conference

Brent Bielefeldt, a doctoral student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, won Best Student Oral Presentation at the 29th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies (ICAST), hosted by Konkuk University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, South Korea.

Bielefeldt conducts research in the Multifunctional Materials and Aerospace Structures Optimization Lab under the guidance of assistant professor Dr. Darren Hartl. His paper was titled “Expanding the Design Space Via Graph-Based Interpretation of L-System Encodings for Topology Optimization of Multifunctional Structures.” Bielefeldt’s research focuses on generating multifunctional structures using a parameterized L-System, which encodes topological information similar to how genetic information is encoded in DNA. Specifically, the use of a graph-based interpreter for these encodings, referred to as SPIDRS, allows for the efficient addition of shape optimization to the topology optimization framework and the increasing of structural dimensionality of specified areas of the topology.

ICAST is an international conference that aims at promoting research, development and application of adaptive structures and technologies through the exchange of scientific results and insights from leading international scholars and specialists. The conference provides a forum for discussion of recent advances in the highly multidisciplinary field of smart materials and structures. In addition, this conference encourages the transfer of the advanced scientific results to various engineering applications.