About the Author: Dr S. Gopalakrishnan is currently Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He received his Master's degree in Engineering Mechanics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India and his PhD from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He specializes in the areas of structural health monitoring, wave propagation, smart structures and computational mechanics. He has authored four books, 123 journal papers, eight book chapters, and over 70 conference papers. He is on the editorial board of six international journals and the Associate Editor for two international journals, namely, the International Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, and Structural Health Monitoring. He was also the Section Editor on Simulation for the Encyclopedia on Structural Health Monitoring. He has undertaken funded research from Boeing Aircraft Company, USA; Pratt & Whitney Corporation, USA; Office of Naval Research (ONR), USA; Air Force of Scientific Research (AFOSR); and Aeronautical Research and Development Board, Government of India. Dr Gopalakrishnan is also the Chairman of the Aerospace Application group of the National Program on Micro and Smart Systems, Government of India, and a member of the Structures Panel of the Aeronautical Research and Development Board, Government of India. Dr Gopalakrishnan is also a fellow of The Indian National Academy of Engineering, and has guided nine PhD and 28 Master's students through their theses.

Dr. Massimo Ruzzene is an associate professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering and in the School of Mechanical Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a Laurea (Summa Cum Laude) and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy, in 1995 and 1999 respectively. Dr. Ruzzene conducts research in the broad areas of structural dynamics and wave propagation, non-destructive evaluation techniques, modal analysis and structural acoustics. He is the author of six book chapters (two on structural health monitoring), more than 85 journal papers and more than 100 conference papers. He has participated as a PI or co-PI in various research projects funded by the Army Research Office (ARO), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force of Scientific Research (AFOSR), NASA, the US Army, TRW Corporation, Corning Corporation, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Ruzzene is the recipient of the 2002 Young Investigator Award from ONR. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He serves as a reviewer for several journals, and as an associate editor of the Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics and of Mechanics Research Communications.

Dr. S. Hanagud worked at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) prior to joining the Georgia Tech Faculty in 1970. He became a tenure track faculty member in 1974. He was a co-founder of Failure Analysis Institute, Menlo Park, California in 1968. He taught at the University of Santa Clara as an adjunct faculty member from 1964 through 1970. Prior to receiving his PhD, he was a research assistant at Stanford University and a research fellow at the Indian Institute of Science. In addition to conducting research, Dr. Hanagud advises PhD and MS students. He has been responsible for the graduation of 32 PhD students. He has continuously modified the graduate-level structural dynamics courses to reflect the latest developments. He also developed a new graduate-level course in the areas of structural dynamics system identification, crashworthy design of structures, applied non-linear dynamics and smart structures. Honors and awards include the Sigma Gamma Tau Teaching Award (1974) in recognition of his undergraduate teaching; Georgia Tech Faculty Research Award (1989); Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation Award for Innovative Structural Design for Crashworthy Vehicles; four AIAA (IASc) Student Awards at Stanford University; Distinguished Alumnus, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India (1992); Distinguished Fellowship of the International Development Fund of Japan (1993); and Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2004). Dr. Hanagud's major contributions include the introduction of the concept of smart structures to the army research office (ARO); health monitoring techniques based on super-harmonic response associated with delamination, debonding and cracks; optimized sine wave web concept for energy absorbing structures; perturbation-based techniques for identification of nonlinear structural dynamic systems; scanning laser-based techniques for linear structural dynamic system identification; and development of closed loop models and vibration control techniques using smart or adaptive structures. He is the author of more than 250 refereed publications.