The increasing necessity to solve complex problems in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering requires the development of new ideas, innovative methods and numerical tools for providing accurate numerical solutions in affordable computing times.

This book presents the latest scientific developments in Computational Dynamics, Stochastic Dynamics, Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering in thirty-five self-contained contributions. The selected state-of-the-art chapters are revised and extended versions of the papers which were presented as plenary, semi-plenary and keynote lectures at the thematic COMPDYN 2007 Conference.

This volume will benefit researchers and engineering professionals working on structural dynamics, earthquake engineering and computational mechanics. Readers will get acquainted with advanced computational methods and software tools, which can assist them in tackling complex problems in dynamic/seismic analysis and design. Moreover, it will raise the awareness of important application areas and the social impact of the scientific and technical fields involved.

Manolis Papadrakakis is a Professor in Civil Engineering His research activities are focused on the development and the application of the latest computer methods and technology to structural engineering analysis and design. He has written and edited many publications, both in English and in Greek.

Dimos Charmpis is a Lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Cyprus. His research interests in Computational Mechanics aim for development and exploitation of innovative computational methodologies for the analysis and design of structures under static or dynamic/seismic loading. He has specialized in finite element methods, uncertainties in structural properties and loads, structural design optimization, soft computing applications, solution procedures for finite element equations and high performance computing.

Yiannis Tsompanakis is an Assistant Professor of structural earthquake engineering. He has many research and practical projects in earthquake engineering and computational mechanics. His main interests include: computational dynamics, structural and geotechnical earthquake engineering, structural optimization, probabilistic mechanics, structural assessment, applications of artificial intelligence methods in engineering.

Nikos D. Lagaros is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering. His main research interests include: *nonlinear dynamic analysis of concrete and steel structures under seismic loading, *performance-based earthquake engineering, *structural design optimization of real-world structures, *seismic risk and reliability analysis, * neural network in structural engineering, *fragility evaluation of reinforced concrete and steel structures, *inverse problems in structural dynamics, *parallel and distributed computing/Grid computing technologies, *evolutionary computations and *geotechnical earthquake engineering.