Sena Kizildemir Simulates Disasters to Prevent Building Collapses

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 KizildemirEmployerThornton Tomasetti, in New York CityJob titleProject engineerMember grade Senior memberAlma 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 bright student in TürkiyeShe 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 engineering careers despite neither parent being involved in the field. While she became an expert in civil and mechanical engineering, her brother is an industrial engineer.As a child, she was full of curiosity, she says, interested in figuring out how things were built and how they worked. She loved building objects out of Legos, she says, and one of her earliest memories is using them to make miniature houses for ants.After acing an entrance exam, she won a spot in a STEM-focused high school, where she studied mathematics and physics.“Engineering is one of the few careers where you can make a lasting impact on the world, and I plan on mine being meaningful.”During her final year at the high school, she took the nationwide YKS (Higher Education Foundations Examination). The test determines which universities and programs—such as medicine, engineering, or law—students can pursue.She received a full scholarship to attend Işik University in Şile. Figuring she would study engineering abroad one day, she chose an English-taught program. She says she found that civil engineering best aligned with making the biggest impact on her community and the world.Several of her professors were alumni of Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pa., and spoke highly of the school. After earning her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2016, she decided to attend Lehigh, where she earned a full scholarship to its master’s program in civil engineering.Moving abroad and working the railsHer master’s thesis focused on investigating root causes of crack propagation, which threatens railroad safety.Repeated wheel-rail loading causes microcracks, leading to metal fatigue, and residual stress results from specialized heating and cooling treatments during the manufacturing of steel rails. Cracks can develop beneath the rail’s surface. Because they’re invisible to the naked eye, such fractures are challenging to detect, Kizildemir says.The project was done in collaboration with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration—part of the Department of Transportation—which is looking to adjust technical standards and employ mitigation strategies.Kizildemir and five colleagues designed and implemented testing protocols and physics-based simulations to detect cracks earlier and prevent their spread. Their research has given the Railroad Administration insights into structural defects that are being used to revise rail-building guidelines and inspection protocols. The administration published the first phase of the research in 2024.After graduating in 2018, Kizildemir began a summer internship as a civil engineer at Thornton Tomasetti. She conducted computational modeling using Abaqus software for rails subjected to repeated plastic deformation—material that permanently changes shape when under excessive stress—and presented her recommendations for improvement to the company’s management.During her internship, she worked with professors in different fields, including materials behavior and mechanical engineering. The experience, she says, inspired her to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Lehigh, continuing her research with the Railroad Administration. She earned her degree in 2023.She loved the work and the team at Thornton Tomasetti so much, she says, that she applied to work at the company, where she is now a project engineer.From simulations to real-world applicationsHer work focuses on developing finite element models for critical infrastructure and extreme events.Finite modeling breaks complex systems or topics into small elements connected together to numerically simulate real-world situations. She creates computational models of structures enduring realistic catastrophic events, such as a vehicle crashing into a building.She uses simulations to understand how buildings react to attacks such as the one on 9/11, which, she says, is often used as an example of why such research is essential.When starting a project, she and her team review building standards and try to identify new issues not yet covered by them. The team then adapts existing codes and standards, usually developed for well-understood hazards such as earthquakes, wind, and floods, to define simulation parameters.When a new structure is being built, for example, it is not designed to withstand a truck crashing into it. But Kizildemir and her team want to know how the building would react should that happen. They simulate the environments and situations, and they make recommendations based on the results to reduce or eliminate risks of structural failure.Mitigation suggestions include specific strategies to be implemented during project design and construction.Simulations can be created for any infrastructure, Kizildemir says.“I love problems that force me to think differently,” she says. “I want to keep growing.”She says she plans to live by Thornton Tomasetti’s internal motto: “When others say no, we say ‘Here’s how.’”Joining IEEE and getting more involvedWhen Kizildemir first heard of IEEE, she assumed it was only for electrical engineers. But after learning how diverse and inclusive the organization is, she joined in 2024. She has since been elevated to a senior member and has become a volunteer. She joined the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society.She chaired the conference tracks and IEEE-sponsored sessions at the 2024 Joint Rail Conference, held in Columbia, S.C. She actively contributes to IEEE’s Collabratec platform and has participated in panel review meetings for senior member elevation applications.She’s also a member of ASME and has been volunteering for it since 2023.“Community is what helped get me to where I am today, and I want to pay it forward and make the field better,” she says. “Helping others improves ourselves.”Looking ahead and giving backKizildemir mentors junior engineers at Thornton Thomasetti and is looking to expand her reach through IEEE’s mentorship programs.“Engineering doesn’t have a gender requirement,” she says she tells girls. “If you’re curious and like understanding how things work and get excited to solve difficult problems, engineering is for you.“Civil engineers don’t just build bridges,” she adds. “There are countless niche areas to be explored. Engineering is one of the few careers where you can make a lasting impact on the world, and I plan on mine being meaningful.”Kizildemir says she wants every engineer to be able to improve their community. Her main piece of advice for recent engineering graduates is that “curiosity, discipline, and the willingness to understand things deeply, to see how things can be done better,” are the keys to success.