Speakers 

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Thomas Kang
Seoul National University, South Korea

Dr. Kang is a Professor in the Department of Architecture & Architectural Engineering and Director for Engineering Education Innovation Center at Seoul National University, Korea. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. He has held various affiliated positions in the U.S. and Japan, including Adjunct Professor at the University of Oklahoma, Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Lecturer at UCLA, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the University of Tokyo. Prof. Kang received his PhD from UCLA, his MS from Michigan State University, and his BS from Seoul National University.

Prof. Kang is a Fellow of Post-Tensioning Institute (PTI) and a Fellow of American Concrete Institute (ACI). Prof. Kang received the Kenneth B. Bondy Award for Most Meritorious Technical Paper as Lead Author from PTI in 2012, and the Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper as Lead Author from ACI in 2009 with the subject of post-tensioned concrete. He regularly teaches the course of Post-Tensioned Concrete Structures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign every other summer (both on campus and online) and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa every fall (live online lectures). Prof. Kang is an Editor-in-Chief for three journals: International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials, Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance, and Advances in Computational Design; and Associate Editor for PTI Journal of Post-Tensioning Institute. He is one of the founding and voting members of PTI DC-20 Committee, Building Design, and has been a voting member for ACI Committee 369, Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation; Joint ACI-ASCE Committees 335, Composite and Hybrid Structures, 352 Joints and Connections in Monolithic Concrete Structures, and Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 423, Prestressed Concrete; and Joint ACI-ASME Committee 359, Concrete Containments for Nuclear Reactors, as well as various committees in Korea.

Prof. Kang published more than a hundred international journal papers and more than a hundred international conference proceedings, including 40 in ACI Structural Journal and 10 in PTI Journal. He has chaired many sessions/symposiums of structural engineering; delivered many keynote/invited speeches; and organized international conferences/workshops as a Chair. Additionally, Dr. Kang has done a lot of practice as a consulting engineer in Korea and the U.S. Prior to joining the academia, he had a working experience in California, USA (e.g., John A. Martin & Associates), and was a licensed Professor Engineer (PE) in California.

Dr.-Ing. Andry Widyowijatnoko, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia

Dr.-Ing. Andry Widyowijatnoko is an architect, lecturer, and researcher at the School of Architecture, Planning, and Policy Development, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. He has been working with bamboo since 1999, initially focusing on using bamboo for low-cost housing. In 2006, he was sponsored by the Environmental Bamboo Foundation to travel to Colombia to learn about bamboo construction techniques. This experience transformed his approach, leading him to promote bamboo by designing high-end buildings to increase its perceived value. One of his notable achievements is the award-winning Great Hall OBI, an oval bamboo structure with spans ranging from 20 to 30 meters. He earned his doctoral degree in 2012 from the Chair of Structures and Structural Design, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. His dissertation, titled Traditional and Innovative Joints in Bamboo Construction, focused on bamboo joints. It began with a classification of bamboo construction types, followed by a detailed classification of bamboo joints, and concluded with a proposal for customized lashing-based bamboo joints with exceptional tensile strength. The patented joint, known as the Bamboo Radial Compression Joint (Barcom Joint) and its variation with multi-knots, was applied to improve the renowned Three Mountain Building in Bali. He is regarded as a pioneer of tensegrity structures in Indonesia, combining them with bamboo construction. Drawing on his experience with tensegrity and reciprocal frames, he invented a new structural system called Rection (Reciprocal Tension). Unlike conventional reciprocal frames, where rigid elements touch, Rection features elements that lift each other reciprocally without direct contact, similar to tensegrity principles. Two temporary bamboo Rection domes were built: one at Indonesialand in 2016 with a 13-meter diameter, and another at ITB in 2017 with a 10-meter diameter, followed by additional structures in Lampung and Malang. To promote proper bamboo construction techniques to architecture students and professionals worldwide, he cofounded the AA-ITB BambooLab Course with John Naylor in 2018, a joint workshop between ITB and the AA School of Architecture, London. He has delivered numerous lectures and conducted hands-on workshops on bamboo construction across Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas.