Simulation Insights for Safer Structures
- Işik University in Şile and Lehigh university, in bethlehem, Pa.
- She was born in Istanbul to a father who is a professional drummer and a mother who worked in magazine advertising and sales.
- Ayşe Kizildemir is a project engineer at Thornton Tomasetti,specializing in finite element modeling for critical infrastructure,and completed her Ph.D.
When two airplanes hit the World Trade Center in New York City on 11 September 2001,no one could predict how the Twin Towers would react structurally.The commercial jet airliners severed columns and started fires, weakening steel beams, and causing a “pancaking,” progressive collapse.
Skyscrapers had not been designed or constructed with that kind of catastrophic structural failure in mind. IEEE Senior Member Sena Kizildemir is changing that through disaster simulation, one scenario at a time.
Sena Kizildemir
Sena Kizildemir
Table of Contents
Employer
Thornton Tomasetti, in New York City
Job title
Project engineer
Member grade
Senior member
Alma maters
Işik University in Şile and Lehigh university, in bethlehem, Pa.
A project engineer at Thornton Tomasetti’s applied science division in New york, Kizildemir uses simulations to study how buildings fail under extreme events such as impacts and explosions.The simulation results can help designers develop mitigation strategies.
“Simulations help us understand what could happen before it occurs in real life,” she says, “to be able to better plan for it.”
She loves that her work mixes creativity with solving real-world problems, she says: “You’re creating something to help people. My favorite question to answer is, ‘Can you make this better or easier?'”
For her work, the nonprofit Professional Women in Construction named her one of its 20 Under 40: Women in Construction for 2025.
Kizildemir is passionate about mentoring young engineers and being an IEEE volunteer. She says she has made it her mission to “pack as much impact into my years as possible.”
A shining student in Türkiye
She was born in Istanbul to a father who is a professional drummer and a mother who worked in magazine advertising and sales. Kizildemir and her older brother pursued
Early Career and Education
Ayşe Kizildemir is a project engineer at Thornton Tomasetti,specializing in finite element modeling for critical infrastructure,and completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Lehigh University in 2023.
Kizildemir graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2018 and subsequently completed a summer internship at Thornton Tomasetti. During this internship, she utilized Abaqus software to perform computational modeling on rails experiencing repeated plastic deformation, ultimately presenting her findings and recommendations to company management. she collaborated with professors specializing in materials behavior and mechanical engineering, which motivated her to pursue doctoral studies.
She rejoined Thornton Tomasetti as a project engineer after earning her Ph.D., citing her positive experience with the company and its team.
From Simulations to Real-World Applications
Kizildemir’s current work centers on developing finite element models to simulate the behavior of critical infrastructure during extreme events.
Finite element modeling is a numerical technique that divides complex systems into smaller, interconnected elements to simulate real-world scenarios. She builds computational models to analyze how structures respond to catastrophic events, providing insights for improved design and resilience. For example, she might model a bridge’s response to an earthquake or a building’s resistance to hurricane-force winds.