Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING RESEARCH INSTITUTE

OregonStateUniversity Student Chapter

2007-2008 Annual Report

General Chapter Information

2007-2008 Officers:

President:Scott Ureel

Vice President:Ben Blasen

Secretary:Nick Colson

Faculty Advisors:

Dr. Thomas Miller

Dr. Stephen Dickenson

EERI National Student Members:

Scott Ureel

Ben Blasen

Nick Colson

Duncan Stark

Tuan Tygart

Iain Schoenberg

Aubrey Peek

Matthew Gordanier

Bryan Costa

Other Active OSU EERI Student Chapter Members:

Joseph Henry

Christina Garret

Brian Costa

OSU Faculty EERI National Members:

Dr. Stephen Dickenson

Dr. Thomas Miller

Dr. Harry Yeh

EERI Student Chapter Activities

January 2008

The presentations were geared toward a general audience and included a slide show on the basic causes of earthquakes, general roles of geotechnical and structural earthquake engineers, and also had several demonstrations using a liquefaction simulation model, a response spectrum demonstration showing natural frequencies of SDOFs, and a portable structural frame on a shake table. Providing an interestingengineering science lesson for students and posing open-ended questions is the primary goal of this program. This year the presentation was made as a half day of Oregon State University’s winter precollege program for gifted and talented youth, Corvallis, Oregon. The Powerpoint presentation was saved for future use and provided to the faculty advisors for ease of preparation and/or modification by future chapter members.

Scott Ureel and Ben Blasen with liquefaction demo at OregonStateUniversity for the winter precollege program for gifted and talented youth

Joe Henry, Duncan Stark, Nick Peek, Matt Gordanier, Brian Costa, Christina Garret

February 2008

Of 17 teams, Oregon State took 7th place in the 5th Annual Seismic Design Competition for Undergraduates, jointly sponsored by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). The event, held during the EERI Annual Meeting, February 6-9, in New Orleans, was an opportunity to demonstrate performance-based, cost-effective seismic design.

EERI/ASCE Members

March 2008

A joint-EERI/ASCEspeaker meeting is planned for March 2008 from Chris Thompson of Catena Consulting Engineers. He will discuss aspects of earthquake/structural engineering and the work Catena Consulting engineers have performed. Thompson will speak primarily to students that are interested in learning more about working as a practicing structural engineer. As well as talking about the business of engineering, Chris Thompson will explain what students may expect entering today’s engineering firms, typical career paths, and what employers would expect of them. For a technical topic, Thompsonwill discuss the basics of Buckling Restrained Brace Frames.

Scott Ureel, Nick Colson

June 14th, 2008

This year, the EERI student group, in conjunction with the OSU ASCE Student Chapter, continued the tradition started in 2005 and is hosting the “Order of the Engineer” induction ceremony. EERI members Scott Ureel and Nick Colson, with the assistance of ASCE members Aubrey Peek and Laura Elbert and EERI/ASCE Faculty Advisor, Tom Miller, are organizing the ceremony. The event is planned for the Memorial Union on the OSU campus just before commencement 2008. Hopefully, the student chapters of EERI and ASCE will continue the tradition and interest will continue to increase yearly.

Student Chapter Goals

• Increase the number of active EERI local student chapter and national members at OregonStateUniversity by continuing to offer a universal membership form that includes various student clubs such as ASCE, EERI, ITE, etc. In the fall of 2007, there were both structural and geotechnical seismic courses offered, so this should help with recruiting new members.
• Maintain student involvement by continuing the presentation of informative seminars and lectures throughout the academic year.
• Encourage the involvement of practicing engineers with the student chapter and its various activitiesthrough the use of an active e-mail list of professionals throughout Oregon.

• Continue to develop strong relationships with primary, middle and secondary education programs in Corvallis and surrounding communities.
• Invite an EERI Visiting Professional to the OSU campus. This has been very successful in the past, and the support of national EERI is tremendous.

OSU EERI Annual Report1/6