Ihsan Engin Bal is the Professor of the Research Group on Earthquake Resistant Structures. A civil engineer with MSc and PhD degrees in Earthquake Engineering, Ihsan worked in different countries in Europe and was responsible for numerous projects on design and strengthening of structures. Ihsan participated EU-funded FP7 and Horizon projects as well as in nationally funded research regarding earthquakes and structural safety. Before coming to the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, Ihsan has directed R&D projects in Turkey at Istanbul Technical University, focused on topics such as the production and testing of seismic isolation systems, assessment, and consolidation of historical masonry buildings and seismic monitoring of structures. Ihsan served as consultant for historical buildings to the Turkish Prime Ministry Directorate General Foundations and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for protection of historical heritage. Ihsan has coordinated seismic monitoring activities and consulted seismic design, retrofitting and monitoring in critical transportation infrastructure, automobile factories, wind turbines, power plants and petrochemical plants. Ihsan has been consulting Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in the Netherlands for the topics of seismic risk assessment, seismic monitoring and strengthening.
The research of Ihsan focuses on application of emerging technologies in the domains of structural safety and earthquake engineering. The recent projects he directed make use of AI technologies for structural defect detection, image processing and smart earthquake decision support systems powered by AI tools. Ihsan is also co-founder and partner of a start-up, Senso Engineering, which makes use of new technologies for smart monitoring of structures and critical infrastructure.
