The proposal aims to develop a durable, eco-friendly, cement-free, and self-sensing composite for strengthening masonry and cultural heritage structures. The composite, called Textile-Reinforced Smart Mortar (TRSM), will consist of natural textile fabrics embedded in a lime mortar containing electrically conductive carbon microfibers (CMF). TRSM enhances masonry's mechanical strength, while CMF enhances the composite's piezoresistive properties for strain measurement and damage detection. The project commences with the innovative development of carbon microfiber lime (CMFL) mortar, a smart solution designed to maximize performance with masonry substrates. Subsequent phases include developing TRSMs, evaluating the durability of CMFL and TRSMs under varying environmental conditions, and studying the influence of these conditions on mechanical strength and piezoresistivity. The culmination of the research involves a comprehensive exploration of the durability and piezoresistive performance of advanced TRSM-strengthened masonry panels. This endeavour bridges the divide between laboratory progress and practical industry application by combining innovative materials with self-sensing technology. The use of TRSM enhances the structural integrity of masonry and cultural heritage structures. It also enables the real-time monitoring of strain and potential damage, allowing the planning and execution of preventive instead of essential maintenance. Given increasing climate change and earthquake risks, the project is timely and has the potential to have a significant impact on preserving cultural heritage. To achieve the project's objectives, the fellow will join a research team with extensive expertise in bridging micro-technology, materials, and composite engineering to structural engineering. This partnership will broaden the fellow's research opportunities. The fellow will also gain versatile training, paving the way for a successful scientific career in this field.

The proposed project is a workshop, with primary focus the theory of the extended family of R. Thompson groups. The extended family of R. Thompson groups are an important family of (generally) finitely presented simple groups (or, nearly simple) which contain the first known examples of finitely presented infinite simple groups. The theory of this family intersects other areas of mathematics in often surprising and profound ways; providing examples and counterexamples to questions from areas such as logic (R. J. Thompson), solvable and unsolvable problems in group theory (R. J. Thompson and R. McKenzie), homotopy and category theory (P. Freyd and A. Heller), shape theory (J Dydak and H. Hastings), Teichmuller theory and mapping class groups (R. Penner) and various other areas as well. The workshop will serve to both educate new and established researchers on the State of the Art in this dynamic area, as well as highlight some of the many connections between the theory of these groups and other areas of Mathematics. In particular, the workshop will host three mini-courses on the connections of the extended family of the R. Thompson groups to various outward-reaching areas of mathematics. The titles and presenters of these workshops are given below: 1) Semigroups, 'etale topological groupoids, C*-algebras, and Thompson groups; Mark V. Lawson. 2) Braids, logic and geometric presentations for Thompson's groups; Patrick Dehornoy. 3) Thurston's piecewise integral projective groups; Vladimir Sergiescu. The workshop will also host a problem session focussing on these groups and the broader topics associated with them, and will publish summaries of the minicourses and the problem session discussion in a topical research journal.

The tissues in the body are lined by the extracellular matrix (ECM), a meshwork of proteins that acts as a physical support and provides them with biochemical and mechanical cues. Cells have the ability to change the composition and mechanical properties of the ECM through synthesis, degradation and rearrangement of its components. These changes are crucial for developing flat sheets of tissues into complex 3-dimensional structures. In adult life, correct ECM composition is vital for maintaining tissue shape and ensuring its correct function. Dysregulation in ECM composition and mechanical properties, either during development or later in life and as a result of disorders such as diabetes, can lead to severe pathological condition, such as kidney failure, hearing loss and blindness. So far, most of the knowledge about the role of ECM in tissue growth and function has come from animal experiments. However, it is still not possible to follow live changes in ECM structure and composition in the same animal. Therefore, a single study looking at these changes, either through a developmental process or during disease progression, requires sacrifice of many animals. Recently, scientists have been trying to grow organ-like tissues (i.e. organoids) in the lab. These organoids have high clinical potential and can replace animal research in the fields of tissue development and disease. However, majority of current organoid culture techniques rely on the use of extracellular matrix scaffolds derived from animals, which affects their reproducibility and hinders their translation into clinics. Scientists are working to replace these animal-derived matrices with synthetic ones, a process that requires large amount of time and resources. I propose to develop a multiscale computational platform of tissue growth and function, with explicit implementation of the extracellular matrix mechanics. This will allow researchers to model the growth of their tissue of interest, test the effect of different conditions on its growth and function, and design a minimum set of experiments to carry out in the lab, therefore replacing many animal experiments with computer simulations. The model will also allow researchers to simulate growth of organoids in synthetic matrices with different mechanical properties, and identify the optimal properties that can be further fine-tuned experimentally. This will significantly enhance protocol optimisation steps, allowing researchers to easily tailor-design synthetic ECM matrices for growth of different organoids, and eventually fully replace animal matrices with their synthetic counterparts. Finally, the open-source nature of our model will also allow researchers to incorporate their data into the model to capture more sophisticated processes, and therefore significantly reduce animal use.

The excellent atmospheric corrosion resistance and favourable mechanical properties of stainless steel make it well suited for a range of structural applications, particularly in aggressive environments or where durability and low maintenance costs are crucial design criteria. The main disadvantage hindering the more widespread usage of stainless steel in construction is its high material cost and price volatility. However, life-cycle costing and sustainability considerations make stainless steels more attractive when cost is considered over the full life of the project, due to the high potential to recycle or reuse the material at the end of life of the project. The design of stainless steel structures is covered by a number of international design codes, which have either recently been introduced or or were recently amended in light of recent experimental tests, thus indicating the worldwide interest stainless steel has received in recent years. Despite the absence of a well-defined yield stress, all current design standards for stainless steel adopt an equivalent yield stress and assume bilinear (elastic, perfectly-plastic) behaviour for stainless steel as for carbon steel in an attempt to maintain consistency with traditional carbon steel design guidance.Given the high material cost of stainless steel, improving the efficiency of existing design guidance is warranted. Improvements can be made either by calibrating the existing design procedures, some of which are based on engineering judgment and limited test data, against additional experimental results, or by devising more accurate design approaches in line with actual material response. In any case more efficient yet safe design rules are desirable. The majority of published research articles on stainless steel structures focus on the response of individual members. Due to insufficient relevant experimental data, no rules are given for plastic global analysis of indeterminate stainless steel structures in any current structural design code, even though the ductility of stainless steel is superior to that of ordinary structural steel. The controversy of not allowing plastic design for an indeterminate structure made of a ductile material is obvious in Eurocode 3:Part 1.4 where it is explicitly stated that "No rules are given for plastic global analysis" even though a slenderness limit for stocky elements is specified in the same code. Moreover, because of the lack of relevant experimental data for stainless steel frames, no specific design provisions to account for second order effects in stainless steel frames are specified in any stainless steel design code. Deficiencies in current design guidance puts stainless steel at a disadvantage compared to other materials thereby hindering its use in applications where it might be the preferred solution, had the design standards not imposed strict restrictions to its design due to a gap in current knowledge. The proposed project aims at investigating the structural response of stainless steel indeterminate structures and developing appropriate design rules, by means of experimental studies on two-span continuous beams, as well as portal frames and advanced numerical analyses. Experimental results, suitable for the validation of numerical models, will be generated and will allow a rigorous study of the ultimate response of indeterminate stainless steel structures. The accuracy of current design procedures (i.e. not allowing for plastic design or partial moment redistribution in indeterminate structures) will be assessed and the possibility to apply plastic design to stainless steel structures will be explored. It is envisaged that the proposed project will lead to design rules suitable for incorporation in EN 1993: Part 1.4.

We live in an information age, when computers and the software that drives them permeate every aspect of our society. There are two fundamentally important aspects of computation. - One concerns the resources needed to perform computational tasks: how many computational steps are needed, how much computer memory, etc. - The other concerns our ability to master the staggering complexity of the computer systems we create and use. The only way of managing this complexity is to use principles of modularity and abstraction, so that at each step of our design and construction of the system, we see only a very limited piece, whose complexity we can master. While the study of each of these aspects of computing has been greatly advanced as computer science has developed, currently we have a very limited understanding of how they relate to each other. Building on our previous work, this project aims to greatly enhance our common understanding of these issues, and to develop new mathematical tools and methods for studying computation based on this. This can lead in turn to new possibilities for fundamental advances in the field.