Illinois-EERI student chapter places third in seismic design competition

For the second year in a row, students representing the University of Illinois traveled to sunny San Diego, California to participate in the annual Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, netting third place.

The EERI competition challenges students to design a multi-story commercial office building, and predict its seismic load resistance capacity. A scale model of the design made from balsa wood is equipped with weights, and tested against three seismic events. The designs have strict criteria each team must follow, including a weight limit of 2.2 kg, maximum floor width of 15 x 15 square inches, a maximum allowable 29 levels, and maximum floor heights of 2 inches. Rules also allow for innovative floor isolation and damping systems.

This year’s competition found 28 student teams competing, plus three international groups from Malaysia, Romania, and Canada. The competition spanned from February 9-12, including a day of oral presentation and another of testing the structural models. Teams also had the opportunity to discuss each design at an evening poster session attended by professors and professionals in the earthquake engineering industry.

The University of Illinois team participating in the consisted of seniors Quinton Champer, Michael  Morun, and Kiet Nguyen; juniors Jon LaScala, Jeanine Genchanok, Anh Le, Daniel Biernet , and Ryan Leigh, and freshman and president Meghana Devineni. Quinton Champer came up with the 26-story design for the structure. The design emphasized redundancy and was optimized for economic performance according to competition rules. Kiet Nguyen and Ryan Leigh played active roles in modeling and prediction the seismic load resistance of the structure. Through the dedicated contribution of the student team, the team took third at this year’s competition.

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is a national, nonprofit, technical society of engineers, geoscientists, architects, planners, public officials, and social scientists. EERI members include researchers, practicing professionals, educators, government officials, and building code regulators.
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Writer/Photographer: Jeanine Genchanok

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