A Seminar on Constructional and Normative Innovations in the United States

In recent years, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) inaugurated its so-called “Need for Speed” initiative, starting a competition and providing seed funding for promising innovative ideas that would result in quicker, and thus more economical, design, fabrication, and erection of steel structures. Concurrently, the Committee on Specifications of the AISC has been diligently working toward a new edition of the Steel Design Specification and other documents, which will be published in 2027. This seminar will provide an in-depth overview of new and innovative systems that have been and are being developed to further strengthen the steel industry, with particular focus on lateral-force resisting systems, rapid deployment gravity systems, and new emerging technologies.

In parallel, an overview of the normative framework for steel and steel-concrete composite construction will be presented, with a summary of new and upcoming documents, as well as of the most relevant changes from the previous normative cycle. This seminar will offer a general view of the current state-of-the-art in steel and steel-concrete composite research in the United States, and how it directly affects the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (AEC) industry.