Fabio Cremonesi’s summer sabbatical at the University of California in Berkeley was nearly over.
In some ways the dean’s invitation had provided Fabio with a working vacation, but it also provided
an opportunity for a professional turning point. During his stay, he had made acquaintance
with several colleagues who in time would prove to become good friends. Foremost among these was a
mechanical engineer, Carl Farrar, an expert in the emerging field of structural health of buildings.
As Cremonesi had gotten involved in the design of ever-larger structures,
assuring the integrity of the construction against catastrophic failure had become
a deep technical and ethical consideration for him.
Consequently, the opportunity to work closely with an internationally recognized expert
was the ideal way to learn how buildings could be instrumented during their construction
to report continually on their structural integrity.