Michael Todd

Structural Engineering

Michael Todd received his B.S.E. (1992), M.S. (1993), and Ph.D. (1996) from Duke University's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. In 1996, he began as an A.S.E.E. post-doctoral fellow, then a staff research engineer (1998), and finally Section Head (2000) at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the Fiber Optic Smart Structures Section. In 2003, he joined the Structural Engineering Department at the University of California San Diego, where he currently serves as Professor and Vice Chair. To date, he has published over 70 journal articles, 150 other proceedings, 3 book chapters, and has 4 patents. His research interests are in applying nonlinear time series techniques to structural health monitoring (SHM) applications, adapting Bayesian inference frames for optimal decision-making in SHM, developing novel ultrasonic interrogation strategies for aerospace structural assessment, optimizing sensor networks for various SHM-rooted performance measures, developing RF-based sensing systems for structural assessment, creating real-time shape reconstruction strategies for highly flexible aerospace and naval structural systems based on limited data sets, creating rapid assessment checks for validation of satellite systems, designing and testing fiber optic measurement systems for civil and naval structural applications, and modeling noise propagation in fiber optic measurement systems. With partners at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he helped create the United States' first multi-disciplinary graduate degree program in structural health monitoring, damage prognosis, and validated simulations at UC San Diego, and he serves as Campus Director of the governing Engineering Institute. Since 2005 the Engineering Institute has graduated numerous M.S. and Ph.D. students with unique research programs that integrate students research from across multiple Jacobs School of Engineering departments.

Prof. Todd won the 1999 Alan Berman NRL Publication Award, the 2003 and 2004 NRL Patent Award, was a 2004-2005 UC San Diego Hellman Fellow, was an invited speaker at the 2003 National Academy of Engineering Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium where he was runner-up for the Galbraith Distinguished Lectureship, was nominated for the 2005 SEM Durelli Award, was named to 2005 Academic Key's 'Who's Who in Engineering Education,' was an invited speaker for the 2005 SOM National Building Science and Design Research Symposium in New York, and was a 2004 William J. Von Leibig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement fellowship winner. Most recently, he won the 2005 Structural Health Monitoring Person-of-the-Year Award, presented at Stanford University in September 2005, and he was also named a 2009 Benjamin F. Meaker Fellow at the University of Bristol (UK). He serves on the editorial board of Structural Health Monitoring: An International Journal.

Contact:

Email:
mdtodd [at] ucsd.edu