Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER)

Undergraduates Take Earthquake Engineering Contest to National Stage

Undergraduates at the University of California at Berkeley have expanded a competition they started in 2004 at the school's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) to involve their peers at other institutions, as well as professionals in the field.

The Engineering Research Center's Student Leadership Council organized the annual Undergraduate Shake Table Competition, challenging civil engineering students to construct structural models that perform well under earthquake simulations. Practitioners and judges rate teams on an oral presentation, the design's performance, technical merit, and economics.

In 2005, the PEER students invited into the competition their peers from the MCEER at the University at Buffalo and from the Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two other ERCs.

In 2006, the students took the competition to the national level-at the 8th US National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, where it attracted an audience of professionals and conference sponsors. This competition gives students opportunities to test out and gain a better understanding of what they've learned in the classroom. Competing at a national conference exposes them to career opportunities in earthquake engineering, and gives them a chance to mingle with professionals who could prove to be good contacts later on. The students also attended sessions at the conference, gaining a first-rate professional development experience.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the PEER web site at http://peer.berkeley.edu/students/Seismic.html.

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Earthquake professionals anticipate the imminent
collapse of a structure during the 2006
Undergraduate Shake Table Competition.

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Last modified: April 8, 2007