Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor (CRPHT), Luxembourg, 

 is a Luxembourgish SME company. The CRPHT, founded in 1987 as a public research centre, was created to reinforce the national innovation capability of Luxembourg. The Centre's main aim is to promote innovation in both the private and public sectors by providing support services across the main technology orientated areas: information and communication technologies, clinical engineering, industrial technologies and environmental technologies. The Centre de Recherche Henri Tudor intervenes in all the domains of the Innovation Chain: R&D projects, creation of competencies, technology transfer, technological assistance and consulting, high level training and qualification, technology watch and documentation, sensitising. A diversified network of industrial and institutional partners leverages the Centre’s activities. The main competences of CRPHT lie in the areas of material characterization (static and dynamic testing, corrosion and environmental degradation), mechatronics and computational mechanics. CRPHT employs more than 220 people, most of which are highly skilled and stem from either academic or industrial backgrounds. Most of its personnel have either a PhD or a technical engineering degree in areas such as computational mechanics, materials engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, signal processing, data mining, automation engineering, artificial intelligence and software development. CRPHT is fully equipped in numerical and computational facilities (Ansys multiphysics, matlab, simulink, etc…). CRPHT has in recent years developed an extensive expertise in composite materials, optimisation, mechatronics, control theory and computational mechanics, which up to now has been applied to the development of efficient technologies in local industries. Basic tools have been developed which will allow for an extrapolation of the knowledge towards the field of modelling and simulation of composites and adaptive structures. 

• Key researcher: Dr. Salim Belouettar is a senior researcher in the Laboratoire de Technologies Industrielles. Member of the ERCIM (European Research Consortium in Informatics and Mathematics). Research areas: material sciences, composite materials, structural mechanics and computational mechanics. He participated in the program committees of international conferences and was Chairman and organizer of an international conference on finite element modelling and analysis. Dr. Belouettar is author and co-author of about 20  publications.

ISMEP  (SUPMECA) 

is a high institute of mechanics at Paris. It is a public school of engineering under the autority of the French ministry of higher education and research. The Structures team of the ISMEP-LISMMA, France, has a well recognised expertise in modelling and analysis of piezoelectric materials-based smart structures and their applications, in particular in active, passive and hybrid active-passive control and damping of structural vibrations using passive viscoelastic and active piezoceramic materials and in transverse shear piezoelectric actuation and sensing for active vibration and shape control applications. These two concepts have been developed, analysed and evaluated numerically with displacement-potential based specific finite element models. Their experimental validations have been made by aeronautic industrial partners for potential civil and military applications.   

• Key researcher: Dr. Ayech Benjeddou is a full Professor at the High Institute of Mechanics at Paris. He has authored or co-authored about 60 publications in leading international journals and conferences and has served in the program committees of several international conferences. He is a reviewer for more than 15 scientific journals. His main research interests are in the adaptive structures modelling, on-line structural health monitoring and computational composite structures.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering (DIASP) of POLITO, Italy,

includes  about 40 professors and 20 staff people. Research works on Aerodynamics, Structures, Flight Mechanics and Systems are currently performed. The group of structural analysts covers the various topics of aerospace structure design and analyses. Of particular relevance is the research work conducted in the area  of multilayered, anisotropic composite materials. The scientists involved in the present application have recently dealt with the following topics: 1. classical and advanced (mixed) methods for the thermo-piezo-mechanical analysis of anisotropic multilayered plates and shells; 2. development of efficient finite element formulations for static, dynamic and stability analyses of what at point 1. POLITO group has a worldwide reputation on analytical and FEM modelling of multilayered structures with classical and advanced two-dimensional models. Research work has been carried out on piezo-mechanical problems as well as on thermal stress problems. 

• Key researcher: Dr Erasmo Carrera is a full Professor of Aerospace Structure and Aeroelasticity at   Aerospace Department of  Politecnico di Torino. He  has been visiting professor at University of Stuttgart, Virginia Tech and  SUPMECA Paris. His main research topics are: composite materials, finite elements,  plates and shells, post-buckling and stability, smart structures, aero-elasticity, multi-body dynamics, inflatable structures and design and analysis of non classical lifting systems. He his author or co-author of more than 100 articles on these topics, many of which have been published in international first rate  journals. He serves as a referee for many journals and has served the international committee of many international conferences.

Metz University, France :

The scientific objective of the LPMM, France,  is to study the different aspects of solid mechanics, from the material microstructure to the macro scale of the material until the modelling of processes and structures. Founded in October 1982, the Laboratory of Physics and Mechanics of Materials (LPMM) is associated to the French National Research Centre (CNRS) since 1986. The LPMM has the particularity to be common to the university of Metz, to the Metz National Engineering School (ENIM), to the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) and to the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (INPL). The LPMM regroups 16 Professors, 28 Doctors, and 40 PhD Students. Since its creation in 1982, the LPMM conducted many original researches:In several domains (plastic and thermoplastic instabilities, martensitic transformation, high speed machining, structures buckling, dynamic characterization of the behaviour of the materials, micro mechanics modelling), the UM-LPMM is one of the best teams on an international level.

• Key researcher: Dr. El Mostafa Daya is a full Professor at the Faculty of sciences. His main research interests are in the repetitive structure, adaptive structure modelling and non-linear vibration. He has co-authored about 40 publications in leading international journals and conferences and He serves as a referee for many journals and has served the international committee of many French national conferences.
  

EADS-CCR, France,

is the largest aerospace company in Europe and the second largest worldwide. It is active in the fields of civil and military aircraft, space, defence systems and services. The company came into being on 10 July 2000, emerging from the link-up of the French Aerospatiale Matra, the German Daimler Chrysler Aerospace AG, and CASA of Spain. The Corporate Research Centre of EADS (CRC), with sites in Germany and France, provides world-class research capabilities in main aeronautics research topics such as materials, processes, structure engineering, systems environment and information technologies for engineering.  EADS CCR is the French part of the Corporate Research Centre of EADS (CRC) and is, as such, usually denominated as "EADS CRC-F". It is a “Groupement d’Intérêt Economique” (G.I.E.), whose members are EADS France (40% of the shares), Airbus France (40% of the shares), MBDA France (10% of the shares) and EADS Space Transportation (10% of the shares). EADS CCR has a permanent staff of 320 people, 60% of which are senior scientists. Its objective is to carry out research activities which require a concentration of skills and equipment and which correspond to cross-Business Units interest in the following technical fields:  Materials, manufacturing processes, Structures engineering,  Systems (including lightning protection, electromagnetic compatibility, optics and lasers), High performance scientific computing,  Information technology for product and process engineering.

• Key researcher: Mr. Benoît PETITJEAN has graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1989 especialty: Acoustics, Mechanical Engineering, Signal Processing). He was then appointed as a research engineer at ONERA (French Aerospace Research Establishment) for numerical studies on Fluid Structure Interactions. In this framework, he developed a software tool for submarine applications. Between 1990 and 1992, he was a Visiting Researcher at the George Washington University (Washington DC, USA), where he developed numerical time-domain schemes for Radar Cross Section calculations. Between 1992 and 2000, he was mainly involved with active control of noise and vibration. His activities included theoretical aspects (control low design, noise radiation simulation, optimization of sensor and actuator locations), but also experimental aspects (real-time processing issues, etc.). Since 2000, he is the Head of the Multifunctional Research Unit at the EADS Corporate Research Center in Suresnes (Paris area), and has cross-national responsibilities in the fields of Smart Structures, Acoustics, and Structural Vibration.

Riga Technical University (RTU), Latvia,

is one of the oldest institutions of higher technical education in Eastern Europe. At present RTU with about 14700 students serves the needs of rapidly growing industry of the Baltic region. The Institute of Materials and Structures (IMS) has about 30 years experience in the field of modelling, analysis and optimisation of advanced composite materials and structures. In connection with its considerable experience and proven expertise on this question, IMS (RTU) participated in some Latvian and European scientific and technological projects (FRAMEWORK5: POSICOSS, SANDWICH, HYCOPROD). The software for the design of sandwich and laminated composite materials and structures created at IMS (RTU) is based on the theories developed during a considerable period of research. Scientific results have been presented in more than 300 papers in international journals, 5 monographs and at many international conferences. In the academic year 2003/2004 more than 10 postgraduate students at IMS (RTU) are performing research for MSc and PhD degree in the field of design and optimisation of advanced composite materials and structures.

• Key researcher: Dr. Rolands Rikards, full Professor at Riga Technical University, is the head of the Institute of Mechanics and Structures.  He has co-authored about 250 publications in leading international journals and conferences and has served in the program committees of international conferences. His main research interests are in the composite and damped structure modelling.

Woelfel Beratende Ingenieure (WBI), Germany,

funded in 1971 as one of the first engineering organisations in Germany carrying out FEM-simulations and measurements for structural-mechanical problems especially in the area of dynamics. Today WBI with residence at Hoechberg near Wuerzburg is an SME with a staff of more than 30 employees and closely co-operating with its sister company Woelfel Messsysteme-Software, a software company with main product MEDA – a measurement software. The WBI  research is directed to:          Load case specific determination of unknown material data of plastics; Active vibration reduction of rotors; Active systems for reduction of structure-borne sound;

• Key researcher: Dr. Fritz-Otto Henkel, senior researcher and technical director of WBI, has co-authored many publications in leading international and local journals and conferences. His main research interests are in the structural dynamics and data measurements.

Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) Portugal

The Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) Portugal, has more than 40 researchers involved in the area of Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Structural and Mechanical Systems.  Research in computational methods for analysis and synthesis of structures ranks high in this Centre. The research potential in this area is imbedded in a group of 8 researchers (1 full Professor, 4 Associate Professors, 3 Assistant Professors) active in the field of computational structural mechanics, composite materials, plate and shell structures, structural optimization, and providing consulting for industry. This group has been involved in the last 10 years in several research projects in structural optimization, analysis of composite/laminate plate and shell structures and adaptive structures.      

 The Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, ULB's

involvement in Europe dates back much further than the last decade, as indicated by its establishment in 1963 of the Institute of European Studies. Since 40 years the Institute has been teaching postgraduate courses and organising study and research groups on the economic, legal, political, social and cultural aspects of the construction of the European internal market. For very many years the ULB has been developing a systematic policy of cooperation in the fields of research and teaching with numerous universities from industrially advanced countries in Europe. This cooperation has manifested itself in the form of personal contacts, exchanges between laboratories, and formal agreements, of which there are currently around sixty. The ULB has shown itself to be particularly dynamic in the fields of inter-university cooperation and student mobility fostered by European Community programmes. With regard to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in addition to its bilateral agreements and joint research projects with Rumanian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Baltic and Russian partners, the ULB coordinated or participated in around fifty TEMPUS programmes between 1990 and 1999. 

• Key researcher: Dr. André Preumont is a full time professor at Unversité Libre de Bruxelles, part time professor at Université de Liege (Belgium) and a scientific advisor of Micromega dynamics SA. He is also member of about 10 national and international committees on adaptive structures. He is member of many industrial societies as AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), SBM (Société Belge des Mécaniciens), SPIE (Society for Optical Engineering), SEM (Society for Experimental Mechanics). His Fields of expertise and scientific interests are on structural dynamics (nuclear and aerospace structures), random vibration, robotics (kinematics, dynamics and control of manipulators, walking robots), structural control, active isolation and damping of large space structures and smart materials.