Dr. Leif Asp

Chalmers University of Technology

Dr Leif Asp holds the chair of professor in lightweight composite materials and structures at the Division of Material and Computational Mechanics in the Department of Industrial and Materials Science at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also the Director of Chalmers’ Area of Advance in Materials Science.

Dr Asp received his PhD in Polymer Engineering at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, in 1995 and joined the Swedish Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA) in Stockholm. In 2000, he founded the Swedish Institute of Composites’ (SICOMP) office in the greater Gothenburg region, and in 2011, he was appointed head of research for the institute. During this period, he held positions as an adjunct professor at Luleå University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology, as well as President of the European Society of Composites (ESCM). In 2015, Dr Asp joined Chalmers as a full professor. Dr Asp served as President of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM) from 2017 to 2019. In the year 2014, Dr Asp was appointed a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Dr Asp’s research is focused on efficient design methodologies for carbon fibre composite transport applications. The research draws on more than 25 years experience in damage-tolerance modelling, design, and certification methods for aircraft composite structures. Since 2007, Professor Asp has led research activities on multifunctional composites. In particular, the research group studies structural battery composites, materials that can simultaneously store electrical energy and withstand mechanical loads. The work comprises material development and characterisation, ranging from the mechanical and electrochemical characterisation of constituents to cells and multicellular structures.

Outline of the presentation:
Multifunctional Composites

Multifunctional composites offer routes to disruptive innovation, providing, e.g., massless energy storage, intrinsic sensing, and morphing capabilities. This talk addresses one type of multifunctional composites – structural batteries made from carbon fibre composites. The roles of the constituents, the synthesis of the multifunctional composite, and the resulting performance will be discussed. The talk will conclude by pointing out future research directions to improve their performance and upscaling.

Dr. Philippe Christou

Huntsman Advanced Materials

Philippe Christou holds a PhD in Macromolecular Chemistry from the University of Lyon, completed at the CNRS. He spent 15 years at Hexcel working on structural matrices for composite materials before joining Huntsman Advanced Materials in Basel in 2005. From 2005 to 2020, he was responsible for the European Technical Support, covering the full range of Huntsman technologies, including composites, structural adhesives, electrical insulation, coatings, and 3D printing. Since 2020, he has been Head of Environmental & Technology Intelligence, leading a team focused on sustainability initiatives and long term technology scouting for future solutions.

Outline of the presentation:
Thermoset Polymers for Composites: An Industry Perspective on Future Needs and Constraints.

This talk will outline how, from the perspective of Huntsman Advanced Materials, sustainability pressures, cost effectiveness, and competition from alternative materials are reshaping the development of thermoset resins. We will discuss how to address these topics alongside the ongoing need for performance improvements and the development of new applications, and how to prioritise R&D teams developing future technologies.

The presentation will also discuss the challenges and barriers associated with balancing environmental ambitions with market and cost constraints. It will also highlight how digital tools and artificial intelligence can support technical development and informed decision-making as the industry adapts to these evolving demands.

Dr. Dimitrios Zarouchas

Delft University of Technology

Dr Dimitrios Zarouchas is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence in AI for Structures, Prognostics and Health Management at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. His research interests focus on damage mechanics and fatigue analysis of composite structures, AI-based structural health monitoring and health management, structural reliability and stochastic finite element analysis. His main goal is to develop and deploy intelligent cyber-physical structural systems with state-awareness capabilities to enable real-time diagnostics and prognostics. Dimitrios has published more than 100 journal articles and has led multimillion-dollar research and innovation projects funded by the EU, national schemes, and industry.

Outline of the presentation:
Why (and why not) AI can enhance structural and performance analysis of composites?

This presentation explores the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in advancing the structural integrity assessment and long-term performance prediction of reinforced polymer composites. AI techniques, ranging from physics-informed machine learning to deep neural networks, offer significant benefits for modelling the complex, stochastic degradation processes that govern the evolution of composite fatigue and damage. It will be shown that integrating AI-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) into diagnostics and prognostics enables real-time condition assessment, early damage detection, and accurate remaining-life estimation, enabling condition-based/predictive maintenance and improved lifecycle management of composite structures.

AI brings unprecedented computational efficiency and the ability to uncover hidden correlations across heterogeneous data sources, including sensor signals, experimental results, and simulations. These capabilities can enhance the fidelity of fatigue life prediction models and support the development of digital twins for continuous performance tracking.

However, the adoption of AI in safety-critical applications, such as airframes, faces major challenges. The interpretability and explainability of AI models remain limited, making it difficult to establish a causal understanding of predicted outcomes or to ensure regulatory compliance. Furthermore, the lack of standardised frameworks for validating and certifying AI-driven systems poses significant barriers to their widespread use in engineering practice.

The presentation will conclude by addressing these limitations and outlining pathways toward trustworthy and certifiable AI frameworks that combine data-driven and physics-based approaches. Such integration is expected to bridge the gap between predictive accuracy and interpretability, ultimately enabling reliable, explainable, and safe deployment of AI in the structural performance analysis of advanced composites.

Kim Sjödahl

Exel Composites Plc.

Kim Sjödahl is the Senior Vice President of Technology and Sustainability at Exel Composites Plc. He graduated from Chalmers University of Technology with an MSc in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in material technology and composites. Kim joined Exel Composites in 1997, starting in engineering and sales support. Following several leadership roles in engineering, he was appointed Senior Vice President in 2012, overseeing global research, development, and technology.

With over 27 years of experience in composites manufacturing and pultrusion, Kim has played a key role in advancing sustainable composite solutions. Since 2024, he has led Exel Composites’ sustainability and circularity initiatives, focusing on reducing environmental impact, improving material efficiency, and developing closed-loop solutions for composite applications.

Kim holds multiple patents related to pultrusion, composites, and components, and has collaborated with customers to create high-performance, sustainable applications. He actively contributes to industry standards and codes and participates in polymer and composite associations.

Outline of the presentation:
Forward-thinking sustainability for composites

Sustainability in composite materials requires a holistic, lifecycle-driven approach rather than isolated initiatives. Considering the full value chain, from raw material sourcing and manufacturing to product use and end-of-life, is essential for making informed decisions and enabling long-term progress toward circularity.

In this keynote, Kim Sjödahl emphasizes that no single company can achieve circularity alone. Meaningful progress depends on collaboration across the value chain, from regulators to customers via researchers, suppliers, and recycling partners. The composites industry has the capability to become significantly more sustainable by aligning efforts, sharing challenges, and embracing openness. The presentation highlights the importance of allowing multiple recycling and recovery pathways to coexist. No single solution fits all composite applications, and progress comes from coordination rather than competition between technologies. Transparency is identified as a key enabler of trust and collaboration. Openly sharing data on emissions, waste, and sustainability performance accelerates learning and strengthens collective responsibility across the industry. Leveraging industrial experience at Exel Composites, Sjödahl demonstrates how principles of circularity are actively being integrated into composite manufacturing processes. Through a review of multiple case studies, Sjödahl highlights the practical challenges and driving motivations behind these efforts, while identifying actionable strategies and priorities - particularly in advancing circular design within the industry. By aligning industry and academic efforts, composite materials can continue to deliver high performance while evolving toward a more sustainable and responsible future.

Prof. Silvestre Pinho

Imperial College London

Silvestre Taveira Pinho is a Professor in the Mechanics of Composites at Imperial College London, where he holds the Airbus Chair in Composites. He is the Vice-President of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM) for Region I, Chair of ICCM's Information Committee, Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, EPSRC Research Fellow, member of the Royal Aeronautical Society Structures & Materials Specialist Committee, Editor for "Composites Science and Technology" and Editor in Chief for Elsevier's book series "Woodhead Publishing Series in Composites Science and Engineering".

Silvestre's group's main interests and research contributions include novel experimental insights into various failure modes in composite materials, the proposal of novel test methods to characterise these failure modes, and the development of analytical and numerical models for composite failure, some of which are currently available natively in both Abaqus and LS-Dyna. His group has also developed bio-inspired microstructures for composites, which lead to an over fivefold increase in energy dissipation during failure; some of these have been patented and are being investigated further for eventual application in aircraft.

In 2010, Silvestre was awarded the prize for best young researcher in Composites active in Europe by the European Society for Composite Materials (ESCM), and also served as a member of the Council and the Executive Committee of the European Society for Composite Materials from 2012 to 2022. Silvestre was awarded two distinct fellowships from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (2014 and 2022). Silvestre has also been a member of a UK government committee on recycling of Composites, and more recently authored the chapter on aviation of a NetZero All Party Parliamentary Group's report. He has also been interviewed for a BBC film on sustainability in aviation and delivered a TEDx talk on "New lightweight materials inspired by nature".

Outline of the presentation:
Simulation of mechanics of composites at different design stages: from sizing to certification

Simulating the mechanics of fibre-reinforced composites numerically has evolved significantly over the last few decades, with a major focus on ply-level models, ideally suited to detailed simulations of relatively small specimens. In this talk, we will discuss the potential and challenges for developing and using simulation frameworks across use cases, including sizing, damage tolerance and vulnerability, certification and digital twins.

Dr. George Pechlivanoglou

Eunice Energy Group / JOLTIE S.A.

George Pechlivanoglou studied mechanical engineering (BSc) and completed the MSc in renewable energy technology at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. He completed his doctoral dissertation (PhD) in the field of wind turbine aeroservoelasticity at TU Berlin, Germany, and did post-doctoral work at the same institute. Has published more than 90 scientific papers and holds more than 13 national and international patents.

George Pechlivanoglou has 18 years of industrial experience in the wind energy market and 10 years of experience as a wind energy expert, designer and wind turbine technical inspector with international collaborations and a global project portfolio. He held the position of the technical director of SMART BLADE GmbH for 8 years and has established several global collaborations with corporations like 3M, Vestas, Nordex, etc. He is the former Wind Energy Committee Chair at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a member of the German Chamber of Engineers (VDI), as well as the former representative of the Technical University of Berlin at the European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE). Dr G. Pechlivanoglou currently holds the position of Deputy CEO of Eunice Energy Group, and he is the CEO of JOLTIE S.A.

Outline of the presentation:

Title and description of the presentation will be available soon.