Biography
Alper Kanyilmaz is an associate professor in Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He works at the intersection of mechanics, data science, and digital technologies to deliver a safe and resilient built environment, studying how structures behave and age across their life cycle and how their dynamic response can be measured and interpreted. His research integrates structural engineering with signal processing and computational modelling (in collaboration with metrology and computer science experts), covering nonlinear dynamic analysis, inverse problems, laboratory and full-scale testing, and data-driven methods for diagnosis, prediction, and multi-objective optimization.
He is an Expert Advisor for the European Commission Steel Advisory Group (SAG) focused on the R&D domain of steel construction applications. He is the author of Life Cycle Driven Structures (Wiley), a textbook that frames structural design around the whole life of a structure, from material choice and embodied carbon to monitoring, maintenance, and end of life.
Recently, he has built a new line of research that dual-purposes existing telecom fiber-optic networks as vibration sensors in structures. His vision is to give structures the ability to "speak" through the infrastructure that already connects them, transforming cities from passive built environments into active, self-monitoring structural observatories. This line is currently recieving growing interest from both telecom and structural engineering communities.
Full article list / Books / Talks
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Alper Kanyilmaz is the author of Life Cycle Driven Structures (Wiley, 2026). A practical guide to bringing life cycle thinking into structural design. Covering steel, reinforced concrete, mass timber and hybrid systems, the book connects embodied carbon assessment with material selection, design optimization and seismic resilience.
Through worked examples and contributions from international practice, it helps engineers, architects, students and educators evaluate structural alternatives and make informed decisions across a structure’s whole life cycle.
25 case studies | 15 countries | 6 continents
With a foreword by Alison Kinn Bennett, Executive Director of Building Transparency.
