Madalena Ponte, PhD student and researcher at Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS), won the Young Engineer Innovation Award 2019 (second place ex aequo), delivered by Ordem dos Engenheiros – South region. The award recognises the best research works carried out by engineering graduates under the age of 35. “I am very grateful and rewarded. It is with great pleasure that I see my work recognised by a panel of specialists”, says Madalena Ponte.
The work titled “Definição de uma metodologia para a avaliação sísmica de monumentos complexos de alvenaria” is the result of a research project developed by Madalena Ponte at CERIS, on seismic assessment of Sintra National Palace. “The work involved a multidisciplinary work in the fields of civil engineering, architecture and topography”.
The award-winning work focuses on seismic assessment of complex masonry monuments. “It includes an experimental component with different field tests, such as dynamic identification on buildings using environmental vibration, sampling of masonry and geophysical detection using ground penetrating radar, which allowed us to collect important real data on this type of structures, to be used in the calibration of the numerical models adopted in the seismic assessment programmes”, explains the awarded student.
According to Madalena Ponte, the topic of her work “has been generating great economic, social and cultural interest”. “In addition, this work includes a multi-disciplinary approach to the seismic assessment of Sintra National Palace, a monument of national importance and high complexity, which allowed to develop a unique and very complete work, even at international level, with practical application”, adds the PhD student.
“Raising awareness for the need to assess the seismic vulnerability of the urban park in Portugal has been growing in recent years, especially in the area of traditional buildings”, stresses Madalena Ponte. “Legislation has been published recently making seismic vulnerability assessment in certain situations mandatory”, points out the CERIS researcher.
