Seymour M.J. Spence

My main research interests lie in the areas of performance-based wind engineering, system-level analysis and optimization of uncertain dynamic systems, probabilistic modeling and uncertainty propagation, metamodeling of static and dynamic systems, machine learning in stochastic analysis of structures, resilience and adaptation of communities subject to severe wind events, distributing computing frameworks for infrastructure systems, topology optimization of uncertain stochastic systems, computational fluid dynamics for wind and rain simulation. In addition, I am interested in expanding my research to hybrid data/physical computational modeling, decision frameworks based on social wellness, and computational modeling of wild fires at the interface of urban communities.

• Associate Member, American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE)
• Member, Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of ASCE
• Member, International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE)
• Member, The American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE)
• Member, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)

• NSF CAREER Award, 2018
• John F. Ullrich Education Excellence Award, University of Michigan, 2018
• American Association for Wind Engineering, Best Journal Paper Award, 2017
• Chi Epsilon “James M. Robbins” Excellence in Teaching Award (Great Lakes District), 2017
• Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society, 2017
• CEE Professor of the Year, University of Michigan Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 2017
• American Society of Civil Engineers ExCEEd Teaching Fellowship, 2016
• J. James R. Croes Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2015
• Japan Association for Wind Engineering Award for Publishing, Japan Association for Wind Engineering, 2013

• Chuang, W.-C., Spence, S.M.J. “Rapid Uncertainty Quantification for Non-linear and Stochastic Wind Excited Structures: A Metamodeling Approach.” Meccanica. 2019; Online ISSN 1572-9648
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “A Reliability Model for the Rapid Optimization of Large-scale and Uncertain Wind Excited Structures.” Engineering Structures. 2019; 190: 493-505
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “Performance-Based Design Optimization of Uncertain Wind Excited Systems under System-level Loss Constraints.” Structural Safety. 2019; 80: 13-31
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “Performance-based Bi-objective Design Optimization of Wind-excited Building Systems.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics. 2019; 190: 40-52
• Ouyang, Z., Spence, S.M.J. “A Performance-Based Damage Estimation Framework for the Building Envelope of Wind-excited Engineered Structures.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics. 2019; 186: 139-154
• Lin, S.-Y., Xu, L., Chuang, W.-C., El-Tawil, S., Spence, S.M.J., Kamat, V.R., Menassa, C.C., McCormick, J. “Framework for Modeling Interdependent Effects in Natural Disasters: Application to Wind Engineering.” Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE. 2019; 145(5): 04019025
• Chuang, W.-C., Spence, S.M.J. “An Efficient Framework for the Inelastic Performance Assessment of Structural Systems Subject to Stochastic Wind Loads.” Engineering Structures. 2019; 179: 92-105
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “Optimization of Uncertain Structures Subject to Stochastic Wind Loads under System-Level First Excursion Constraints: A Data-Driven Approach.” Computers and Structures. 2018; 210: 58-68
• Spence, S.M.J. “Optimization of Uncertain and Dynamic High-Rise Structures for Occupant Comfort: An Adaptive Kriging Approach.” Structural Safety. 2018; 75: 57-66
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “Performance-based Multi-hazard Topology Optimization of Wind and Seismically Excited Structural Systems.” Engineering Structures. 2018; 172: 573-588
• Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J. “An Efficient System-Level Reliability-Based Design Optimization Framework for Large-Scale Uncertain and Dynamic Wind Excited Systems.” ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering. 2018; 4(2)
• Chuang, W.-C., Spence, S.M.J. “A Performance-Based Design Framework for the Integrated Collapse and Non-Collapse Assessment of Wind Excited Buildings.” Engineering Structures. 2017; 150: 746-758
• Bobby, S., Suksuwan, A., Spence, S.M.J., Kareem, A. “Reliability-Based Topology Optimization of Uncertain Building Systems Subject to Stochastic Excitation.” Structural Safety. 2017; 66: 1-16
• Bobby, S., Spence, S.M.J., Kareem, A. “Data-Driven Performance-Based Topology Optimization of Uncertain Wind-Excited Tall Buildings.” Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. 2016; 54(6): 1379-1402