The Iowa State University student chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute will travel to San Francisco April 5-8 to compete in the 2016 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition. This is an international event, where teams construct model buildings tested to failure on a shake table using earthquake motions. Iowa State’s undergraduate seismic design team consists of “Kelvin” Kai Hin Chu (ENSCI), Jacob Eull (CE, Team Captain), Jacob Verry (CE), Phuong Vo (CE), “Jason” Xu Yan (ECON), and Chao Zhou (CE).
To be invited to the competition, the Iowa State team first wrote a winning design proposal consisting of architectural details, a structural analysis, a geotechnical analysis, an economic analysis, and predicted structural behavior. Iowa State’s proposal finished among the top 9 out of 33 university teams, which originate from the U.S. and several countries around the globe. Actual proposal rankings will be revealed on April 5 at the start of the competition.
The Iowa State student team must raise funds to travel to the competition in San Francisco. With support from the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering and donations from interested parties the costs associated with airfare, lodging, registration, construction materials, and shipping of the completed structure to San Francisco can be covered.
To see a video of the team constructing their building and make a donation, please go to https://fundisu.foundation.iastate.edu/EERI.
Thanks for your support, and Go Cyclones!