The Eighth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC 2022) successfully ran at the Graduate School of Business (Waterfront) from 5 to 7 September 2022. Given the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past 2 years, some meticulous planning had gone into the preparations, and provision for remote participation factored in. Some 275 international participants arrived in Cape Town from 45 countries worldwide, with an additional 100 joining via an online platform.

At the Opening Session on 5 September, Prof. Alphose Zingoni (conference chair and founder of the SEMC series) gave an overview of the SEMC conferences, while Prof. Sue Harrison, UCT Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, welcomed the international visitors to the University of Cape Town.

A total of 330 peer-reviewed papers were delivered, and these have been published by CRC Press (Taylor & Francis) as both a printed book of short papers (740 pages) and an e-book of full papers (2100 pages). South African researchers contributed 40 papers, of which 10 have been authored by UCT researchers.

The following members of the Structural Engineering and Mechanics (SEM) Group presented their work at the SEMC 2022 International Conference: Kenny Mudenda (on lateral-torsional buckling of monosymmetric steel sections with flange upstands); Edwige Songong (on vibration response of beams on non-linear elastic foundations); Chisanga Kaluba (on influence of symmetry on buckling behaviour of symmetric plane frames).