My current position is split as a research scientist (pursuing a PhD) at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE; University of Stuttgart) and as the project lead (structures) at ICD ITKE Innovation GmbH planning a building project implementing the Universal Timber Slab. My research focus is on mass timber structures and on integrating timber structural design within architectural visions.

Before my current position at the ITKE, I was employed as a structural design engineer at the engineering office Fast+Epp in Darmstadt, Germany. Here I worked and was responsible for the structural design of smaller to middle size public projects such as schools, kindergartens and city halls.

For those interested in my profile, please use the following link to my LinkedIN profile. My curriculum vitae can be found in both English here (EN) and German here (DE).

ORCID 0000-0001-9517-8677

• Structural engineering blog - Here I post about topics related to my profession as a structural engineer. It covers technical engineering concepts and insights into the day-to-day work as an engineer.
• Coding blog - In this index I write about software and related issues with a focus on free/libre software.
• Miscellaneous topics - In this section I post about general, miscellaneous topics that are impacting my life and about general societal issues.

I recieved in June 2020 a Master of Science (M.Sc) in Structural Engineering and Building Technology from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Further, I completed my Bachelor's degree with a specialization in structural and transportation engineering. My master's thesis researched how a rational approach can be developed to account for brittle failure mechanisms in timber connections so that sufficient ductility can be achieved. Commonly used design standards such as the Eurocode 5 (EC5), Canadian Standards Association (CSA) O86, or National Design Standard (NDS) do not explicitly account for brittle failure modes of timber connections rather choosing to set implicit rules designed to avoid any connection from experiencing anything close to a brittle failure mechanism. The main approach used to ensure brittle failure mechanisms occur at higher load levels than a ductile failure mode is to include, like in the EC5 standard, a effective number of fastener, \(n_{ef}\), factor combined with minimum fastener spacing requirments to implicitly rule out the possibility of a brittle failure mechanism from occuring. Of course, in practical design there are also safety factors on the "design load" side of the scale. Further information can be found in my master's thesis which can be found on my website here.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about any of the ideas presented within this website. I may be reached at jameskoch@mailbox.org or Mastodon.