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"Regional Initiative of Excellence" is a project of the Ministry of Education and Science, the subject of which is financing projects containing a strategy for the development of scientific research and development works covering the objectives of the program. The implementation of scientific, research and teaching tasks intensively develops Lublin University of Technology in selected disciplines.

This time the scientific mentor of the meeting was Prof. Jarosław LATALSKI (Department of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), thanks to whom our Alma Mater hosted Prof. Daniele Zulli from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, University in L'Aquila.

On September 22, 2022, the Jan III Sobieski High School in Lublin organized an international scientific workshop with the participation of Prof. Daniele Zulli.

During his visit, the students listened to a lecture entitled "Vibrations in structures: A challenge for Engineers", during which they learned about structural vibrations and the challenges that this issue poses to engineers. Prof. Zulli explained the meaning of the word 'structure' and referred to typical examples from civil engineering (bridges, buildings, power lines), mechanical engineering (vehicles, cranes, etc.) and aerospace engineering (aircraft). In the next part of the lecture, mechanical vibrations were briefly characterized, the causes of their formation, as well as their impact on human beings and on modern structures. The interest of the students, the future engineers, focused on the phenomenon of resonance and the conditions of its occurrence.

Prof. Zulli illustrated all the issues with interesting video films, e.g. vibrations of a model experimental bridge at one of the universities in the USA or vibrations of real structures under real operating conditions. It included the vibrations of the road bridge over the Bosphorus, the vibrations of the Volga Bridge in Volgograd (at the time of giving it to use, it was the longest bridge in Europe), or the vibrations of the Millennium Bridge in London. The professor also discussed the ways to reduce such vibrations - most often it is done with the use of additional construction elements with damping properties or by modifying the design itself.

Among the discussed examples of vibrations of bridge structures, an archival film from 1940 about the disaster of the Tacoma Bridge in Washington, USA, was presented.

Later in the lecture, Prof. Zulli talked about the vibrations of buildings during earthquakes (on the example of current events in Japan), and the methods of securing buildings against a catastrophe. The last part of the presentation concerned vibrations of transmission cables of power lines - the so-called 'cable galloping' and how to prevent this from happening.

The international lesson was based on the interactivity of all parties and the lively discussion of the high school students with an international scientist was a proof of interest in science and a high level of knowledge of the young people. The guest's visit to the school confirmed the fruitful cooperation of the Department of Applied Mechanics, the Jan III Sobieski High School in Lublin, as well as the International Relations Office of LUT, which organized the visit.