The topic of maintenance and monitoring of bridges, proposed by Michal Venglár, from our Department of Structural Mechanics, and Japanese team consisting of Taiki Giga from Hanshin Expressway Co. Ltd., as well as prof. Yamaguchi Takashi and lecturer Hayashi Gen from Osaka Metropolitan University and lecturer Moriyama Hitoshi from Tokushima University, was designated for implementation within the international Sakura Science Exchange program in 2024.
Young employees of our faculty up to the age of 40 and students of the doctoral study program in Theory and Structures of Civil Engineering Works from the Department of Structural Mechanics and the Department of Steel and Wooden Structures participated in this mobility. In addition to them, younger students of various programs in bachelor and master studies, also participated in the mobility. On the Japanese side, students, and staff from Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) and Tokushima University participated in the mobility.
The program consisted of several parts. In the first few days, expert lectures were given, delivered by Michal Venglár, Katarína Lamperová, Daniel Beutelhauser, Lucia Ondrašinová, Marian Sýkora, and Tamara Šimkaninová on behalf of our faculty. This was followed by a very interesting part of the program: a visit to the world-famous Akashi Kaikyo Bridge along with a visit to the museum dedicated to its construction and all the associated challenges and issues during the construction. We must also mention the visit to the Hanshin Expressway Earthquake Museum, as well as the training center of this company. An important part was the visit to the IHI company, which manufactured individual parts for the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. As part of the cultural program, we visited the former Japanese capital, Nara. All mobility graduates received a certificate of successful completion.
In this way, we also express our gratitude to the Japanese side for their exceptionally friendly reception and look forward to the next and in the same time the second workshop in 2025, this time in Slovakia.
Text: Michal Venglár, Department of Structural Mechanics, photos taken by the participants
