| Professor Priyan Dias delivered the Deshabandu Vidya Jyothi Eng (Dr) ANS Kulasinghe Memorial Lecture at the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka on 26 October 2020. Although his audience at the Wimalasurendra Auditorium comprised no more than 6 individuals due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, it is reported that over 150 persons attended in webinar mode. After establishing some personal links with the engineer "sans pareil" in whose memory the lecture was being delivered, Professor Dias - himself the recipient of the Kulasinghe Award for the best Civil Engineering Graduate for 1979 at the University of Moratuwa - spoke on the theme of "Extending some Kulasinghe Innovations". Thrust Network Analysis was presented as a way to explore form finding in compressively self-supported shell structures, with extensions to lateral loading as well. The rationale’ for using supplementary cementitious materials in concrete was next explained, drawing on recent work in nanomaterials, microstructural investigations and performance based ecological costing. The lecture concluded by exploring the role of failures for informing the design process; and the potential efficacy of analogical reasoning for inter-disciplinary learning. |
