 
Eva Lantsoght, Ph.D.
5/1/2020
1

 You don’t have to give up your life when you become an
engineer
 A bit about working in a Concrete Structures lab
 Consider graduate school
o Research is a lot of fun
 As explained with my story
 Skewed gender balances at universities
5/1/2020 2

5/1/2020 3

 1992: Dirk Frimout
 First Belgian in space
 Electrical Engineering and
applied physics
 Engineering studies!
 Playing cello
5/1/2020 4

5/1/2020 5

5/1/2020 6
 Regina Pacis Hove
 Studies: Latin-Mathematics (8)
 Lacking science education
 Graduation Project: History –
Politics:
 Analyzing the Lebanese Civil
War
 Part-time music and spoken

5/1/2020 7

 2003: Entrance exam
(math)
 Only 6 universities in BE
 57 students in Engineering
o 5 (4) women
 General Engineering, BSc
level, 2 years
5/1/2020 8

 Angel in Twilight
 Choir (different choirs,
Project-based)
 Weekends: SAMWD
Lier
5/1/2020 9

 2005: Civil & Environmental Engineering
(specialization)
o not electrical or aerospace…
o 10-12 students, 2 women
 2006: Reinforced Concrete Design
o Only 1 semester
o RC I & II, Eurocodes
o Difficult material behavior
o … but so interesting once it “clicks”
 2007: Internship at Establis
o Steel design & calculation spreadsheets
5/1/2020 10

 2007: summer job at
Ney & Partners
o Bridges
o Spreadsheets for
concrete structures
 2008: MSc Thesis on
buckling of concrete
column
o Purely analytical work
5/1/2020 11

5/1/2020 12

 2008-2009: M.S. in
Structural Engineering
 Research Project:
Punching of RC slabs
o Slabs!
o Punching!
 More analytical work
 Funding: BAEF +
Fulbright
 Atlanta: Progpower
5/1/2020 13

5/1/2020 14

5/1/2020 15

5/1/2020 16

 2009-2013: PhD in Civil
Engineering
 Concrete Structures research
group
 Research-based PhD
 Teaching assistant + guest
lecturer
5/1/2020 17

 Experimental work
 2,5 years of breaking slabs of 10
ton
 156 experiments
 Analytical work
 Plasticity-based model
 Relability analysis of test data
 Practical application
 Quick Scan with Rijkswaterstaat
5/1/2020 18

 Stevin II Laboratory
o Max load 10 MN (1000
ton)
o Bridge crane of 12 ton
capacity
o Structures up to 40 m x
20 m x 8,5 m
o 10 climate rooms
o Casting room
o Drilling and sawing
workshop
o ….
5/1/2020 19

 Many surprises
 Seeing, feeling,
understanding the behavior
of slabs
 Connection between
experiments and theory and
practice (Ministry)
5/1/2020 20

 Testing big things = team
work
 Planning
 Start analyzing and writing
early on
 Course-correct where
needed
 Automate processes
o E.g. data processing in
Matlab
5/1/2020 21

 5 PhD students on
shear at the same
time
 Great discussions
 Helping out in the lab
 Significant progress
on shear in existing
structures
5/1/2020 22

 Krashna Musika Choir
 Krashna Musika
Chamber Choir
 Grave Concerns
Reviews
5/1/2020 23

5/1/2020 24
2010: UK, Denmark
2011: USA (2x), Czech
Republic
2012: Italy, Germany, USA
2013: USA (2x), Israel,
Netherlands, Japan, South
Africa, Australia

 Building up a network
o Concrete world
o fib, ACI, IABMAS, TRB
o Academic network
across disciplines
• Blog
• Twitter
 Independence in
research
5/1/2020 25

 Science = fun
 “The Pleasure of
Finding Things Out”
 Go where no one has
gone before
 Autonomy
5/1/2020 26

5/1/2020 27

5/1/2020 28

 2013 – present
 First years: developing
courses
 Working on publications from
PhD Thesis
 2013 – 2016: Starting USFQ
ICV-Laboratory
5/1/2020 29

 Setting up own research lines:
o Existing Bridges
o Difficulties:
• contact with Ministry of
Transportation?
• Information is missing
• No awareness
• Laboratory and tools: limited
• No “research group”
o Solution:
• Desk research
• Presentations to raise awareness
about existing structures
• Service: international committees
5/1/2020 30

 Students:
o 257 full-time students
o 65 women
o 25%
o Data not readily available
 Faculty:
o 7 full-time faculty
o 1 woman
o 14%
5/1/2020 31

 Moving a cello by plane..
 Klez n Jazz
 Capella Aeqvator
 Darkview reviews
5/1/2020 32

 2013 – present: 0,2 fte
 Short projects ->
Research line
 Summer 2013:
o Revision of QS
spreadsheets for Ministry
 Summer 2014:
o Fatigue of HSC for new
code
o Ruytenschildt Bridge test
 Breaking bridges
5/1/2020 33

5/1/2020 34

 Summer 2015:
o Study of ASR effect on
existing bridges
o Proof load test of
viaduct Zijlweg
o Support in proof
loading research
5/1/2020 35

 Summer 2016
o Definition of research line: proof
loading
o Beam tests + analysis
o Analysis of viaduct De Beek
proof load test
o Thorough literature review
o Overview of proof loading
research in NL
o Draft guidelines
o Vechtbrug: Fall 2016
5/1/2020 36

 Pageviews +- 3 million
 1053 published posts
 Mostly aimed at PhD students
 Most popular post: How to write
an abstract in 30 minutes
 http://phdtalk.blogspot.com/2011/
08/how-to-write-abstract-in-30-
minutes.html
 Guest writer for other blogs
 Support from M&C, TU Delft
 Sponsorship AcademicTransfer
5/1/2020 37

 88 articles in Scopus
 H-index of 14
 4 books, writing 1
 Top reviewer in Engineering
 ACI Committees, TRB committees, IABMAS, IALCCE
 Scientific Committee of conferences
5/1/2020 38

 You don’t have to give up your life when you become an
engineer
 A bit about working in a Concrete Structures lab
 Consider graduate school
o Research is a lot of fun
 As explained with my story
 Skewed gender balances at universities
5/1/2020 39

Contact:
Eva Lantsoght
elantsoght@usfq.edu.ec // E.O.L.Lantsoght@tudelft.nl