2017-2018 ANNUAL REPORT...2017-2018 Annual Report, October 9, 2018 University at Buffalo Student...

2017-2018 Annual Report, October 9, 2018

University at Buffalo Student Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute page 1

2017-2018 ANNUAL REPORT

University at Buffalo Student Chapter

of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute

Report Date: September 1, 2018

This report summarizes the membership and activities conducted by the Student Chapter of the Earthquake

Engineering Research Institute at the University at Buffalo (abbreviated as UB-EERI Student Chapter) during the

2017-2018 academic year.

MISSION & GOALS

The mission of UB-EERI Student Chapter is to build a community of students and professionals. Social activities are

supported among the student chapter, bringing together students with similar career objectives and interests

and thus allowing a space for lifelong friendships to form. Networking events with engineering professionals can

also bridge the gap between the UB-EERI Student Chapter and the greater EERI community. Our goals include

reaching out, beyond the research lab and classroom, to give back to our local community. Finally, direct

volunteer efforts that specifically use our talents as engineers, in addition to fundraising efforts, are undertaken to

positively affect the community.

AFFILIATION

The UB-EERI Student Chapter is headquartered at the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental

Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo. The parent organization of the UB-EERI Student Chapter is the

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. The UB-EERI club mentors the UB Seismic Design Competition Team

(SDCT). This student chapter is also recognized as a Special Interest Club by the Graduate Student Association

(GSA) of University at Buffalo.

CONTACT ADDRESSES

Primary Address:

UB-EERI Student Chapter

212 Ketter Hall

Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

University at Buffalo

Buffalo, NY 14260-4300, USA

Secondary Address:

UB-EERI Student Chapter

310 Student Union

Box 602100

Buffalo, NY 14260-2100, USA

WEBSITE

The website of UB-EERI Student Chapter presents abstracts, pictures, additional links and materials regarding our

activities. Please visit the website to learn more about each of the 2017-2018 Earthquake Engineering Research

Institute activities listed in this report.

The link to UB-EERI Student Chapter’s webpage is: http://gsa.buffalo.edu/eeri/



MEMBERSHIP

The UB-EERI Student Chapter had a total of 10 official members in 2017-2018.

OFFICERS

The Board consisted of the following members:

Rimjhim Kashyap

President

Gustavo De Andrade

Senator, Webmaster

Anil Tripathi

Senator

Sai Ramya

Vice President

Rahul Raman

Senator

Pathik Baruwal

Senator

Fernando Szasdi

Treasurer

Christian Chacon

Senator

Martin Hernandez

Senator

Richa Todi

Senator

FACULTY ADVISER

Andreas Stavridis, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

University at Buffalo, State University of New York

224 Ketter Hall

Buffalo, NY 14260

[email protected]



MEMBERS

A complete list of members is shown members:

Role Name

EERI

Member

Number

Email Student Status

President Rimjhim Kashyap 18894 [email protected] Graduate

Vice President Sai Ramya Gundala 19711 [email protected] Graduate

Treasurer Fernando Szasdi 19587 [email protected] Graduate

Webmaster Gustavo De Andrade 19592 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Anil Tripathi 19712 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Christian Chacon 19714 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Richa Suresh Todi 19713 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Hernan Martin 19634 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Rahul Raman 19773 [email protected] Graduate

Senator Pathik Baruwal 19763 [email protected] Graduate

Member Joseph Colletti 18301 [email protected] Graduate

Member Gauri Chandore 19611 [email protected] Graduate

Member Seyedsina

Yousefianmoghadam 16930 [email protected] Graduate

Member Alok Deshpande 18171 [email protected] Graduate

Member Alexandros Nikellis 19133 [email protected] Graduate

SDCT Paolo Bourdeau 19220 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT Joseph Suk 19236 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT Tyler Hurlbutt 19237 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT Michael Zullo 19224 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT John Murphy 724394869 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT Nicholas Dunn 724394870 [email protected] Undergraduate

SDCT Nicholas Pasquini 724394871 [email protected] Undergraduate

Faculty

Adviser Dr. Andreas Stavridis 09914 [email protected]



BUDGET & FINANCIALS

The budgetary details of the UB-EERI Student Chapter are presented below for the 2017-2018 academic year.

CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

INTRODUCTORY MEETING

A meeting was held on September 11, 2017 to introduce the mission and goals of the UB-EERI Student Chapter

to the new members. Students across various departments of the university were invited for this meeting. The club

officers for the year 2017-2018 introduced themselves to the new members. An initial plan of the events to be

organized throughout the year was also discussed.

REGULAR CHAPTER MEETINGS

The officers of the UB-EERI Student Chapter met weekly to discuss and plan events throughout the semesters as

well as discuss current earthquake engineering research and design. The details of the various major events

organized by UB-EERI Student Chapter during the academic year 2017-2018 are presented next in chronological

order.

BIG DIG DAY

On October 15, 2017, members of the UB-EERI Student Chapter volunteered in “The Big Dig”. In this activity,

organized by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the University at Buffalo, the volunteers spent a

morning planting approximately 600 daffodil, crocus, iris and allium bulbs in the garden beds throughout the

Grace Plaza area, located in the UB’s North Campus.

CAMPFIRE NIGHT

UB-EERI Student Chapter organized a Campfire Night on Friday October 20, 2017. The event took place from 7:30

p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the Lake Lasalle Fire Pit, located at UB’s North Campus. The objective of the activity was to

offer the members of the chapter an opportunity to discuss current earthquake engineering topics while enjoying

the Fall’s weather in the outdoor.

Sponsor / Event Amount (USD)

UB GSA +1,805.87

UB CSEE +256.33

UB CSEE GSA +150.00

Big Dig Day (October 15, 2017) 0.00

Campfire Night (October 20, 2017) -110.36

SAP2000 Tutorial (October 21, 2017) -20.00

1st Annual Lancaster STEAMfest (November 18, 2017) 0.00

Last UB EERI Fall Meeting (December 4, 2017) -50.00

OpenSEES Tutorial (February 17, 2018) -25.00

Friedman Family Visit (April 6, 2018) -125.00

UB-EERI Symposium (April 20, 2018) -1,881.84

Final 2017-2018 Balance: 0



SAP2000 TUTORIAL

On October 21, 2017, the UB-EERI Student Chapter organized a SAP2000 Tutorial. This tutorial covered Dynamic

Analysis of Structures for students at the graduate level. The presenters were Ramla Karim Qureshi and Robin

Kumar, both of them PhD students at UB.

1ST ANNUAL LANCASTER STEAMFEST

On November 18, 2017, 5 students from the UB-EERI Student Chapter participated as volunteers in the 1st annual

Lancaster STEAMfest (Science Technology Engineering Arts/Architecture Math) This was an event for K-12

kids/families at Lancaster High School. UB-EERI Student Chapter presented an interactive model to show the

engineering that is taking place at UB.

LAST UB EERI FALL MEETING

The last UB EERI meeting of the 2017 Fall semester was held on December 4. At this meeting, dinner was served

while the Student Chapter members reviewed the semester activities and discussed an early list of the proposed

activities for the 2018 Spring Semester.

OPENSEES TUTORIAL

On February 17, 2018, the UB-EERI Student Chapter organized a OpenSEES Tutorial. The activity took place from

10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Ketter Hall, at UB’s North Campus. The tutorial was presented by Hadi Kenarangi,

Alexandros Nikellis and Siddharth Parida.

FRIEDMAN FAMILY VISITING PROFESSIONAL VISIT

On April 28, 2017, UB-EERI was fortunate to be awarded a visit, due to the generosity of the Friedman Family, by

Dr. Faiz I. Makdisi, Senior Principal Engineer at SAGE Engineers.

Events, on the day of the visit, included meetings with the UB Undergraduate Seismic Design Team and with Dr.

Joseph Atkinson (Department Chair), breakfast, tours of the UB Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation

Laboratory (SEESL), a keynote presentation by Dr. Makdisi, titled “Seismic Stability and Deformation of

Embankment Dams” and lunch. Additionally, Dr. Makdisi was gracious in extending his time to host a Resume

Critique, for students to brush up their resumes, interview skills and learn about the current state of the civil-

engineering hiring market.

Please see the Attachments section at the end of this document for supplemental information. Please refer to

the Friedman Family Report submitted to EERI from UB on May 2018 for supplemental information.

SECOND UB-EERI SYMPOSIUM

On April 20, 2018, the UB-EERI Student Chapter hosted its Second Earthquake Engineering Symposium. We were

extremely lucky to have University of Washington William M. and Marilyn M. Conner Professor and Department

Chair Laura N. Lowes, PhD as our keynote speaker.

The symposium included breakfast, a student research presentation competition, tours of the UB SEESL, a meeting

of CSEE female graduate students with Dr Lowes, lunch, and the keynote lecture by Dr. Lowes on the topic of

“Earthquake Behavior, Design, and Modeling of Slender Reinforced Concrete Walls”.



The student research presentation competition was judged by a faculty and student panel and the top three

prizes were 250, 150 and 50 USD. The event was co-sponsored by the UB Department of Civil Structural and

Environmental Engineering, CSEE GSA and primarily the UB GSA. Here we would like to publicly thank these co-

sponsors.

The goal of this symposium was to provide students, professors, researchers, practicing engineers and other

professionals an opportunity to exchange ideas, experience and goals in the field of earthquake engineering

and impact mitigation. UB and the UB-EERI Student Chapter were well equipped to host such an event. Plans for

the 2019 Symposium are in the works.

Please see the Attachments section at the end of this document for other supplemental information.

SEISMIC DESIGN COMPETITION TEAM

The SDCT at UB is doing well. With the ASCE club at UB there is a strong membership and there is a lot of interest,

at the undergraduate level, in seismic civil engineering.

The UB SDCT meets regularly to discuss EERI topics as well as prepare for the flagship competition event.

Please see the Attachment section for some 2017-18 photos.

SDCT Members

A complete list of members is shown below.

Name EERI Member

Number Email Role

Paolo Bourdeau 19220 [email protected] Member

Joseph Suk 19236 [email protected] Member

Tyler Hurlbutt 19237 [email protected] Member

Michael Zullo 19224 [email protected] Member

John Murphy 724394869 [email protected] Member

Nicholas Dunn 724394870 [email protected] Member

Nicholas Pasquini 724394871 [email protected] Member

Team results and lessons learned

This year’s competition included various challenging changes to the traditional rules of the EERI Seismic Design

Competition. We brainstormed multiple designs as a group and were sure to include the ideas of underclassmen.

After modeling five different framing schemes, we settled on using a two core system with an x-braced interior

frame with a chevron/shear wall exterior frame.

We were generously granted the opportunity to use the shake table at MAHLE Behr Troy Inc., in Lockport, NY.

From our results, we were able to make more accurate predictions, for roof accelerations and displacements,

prior to the competition.

The UB Seismic Design Team proudly placed 9th overall out of 40 teams from all across the world this year in Los

Angeles, improving rom our rank of 10th in 2017.



One area for improvement for following years would be to improve presentation content and communication.

Our architecture score is what put us over the top and we learned the value of having an aesthetically pleasing

design.

ELECTION

There was an open-informational discussion on September 1, 2017 at 12 PM in Grace Plaza outside Ketter Hall.

Graduate students interested in running for officer positions in the club were encouraged to attend.

On September 5, 2017 at 12:30 PM in 140 Ketter Hall the 2017-2018 UB-EERI Elections were held. At this election

meeting, people interested in EERI membership were able to learn about the club, vote and obtain student-

membership applications. Pizza and light refreshments were served at the election.

FEEDBACK FOR EERI

One of the things discussed, AGAIN, during our meetings this year pertained to the "Student Chapters" portion of

the EERI website, located at https://www.eeri.org/about-eeri/student-chapters/. We suggest a slight modification

to make things a little easier for users. There have been no changes nor inquiries sent back to us, therefore the

following text has been directly copied over from our 2016-17 Annual report.

Problem: On the Student Chapters page, every school that is officially recognized as an EERI Student Chapter is

listed in alphabetical order. However, the length of the page is quite long. For example, to look for the UB portion

of the page it is a hassle as one must sift through all the other schools and their varying content. Often it is quicker

to just "Control-F" and find the word "Buffalo." There is no concise list of participating schools.

Possible Solution/Improvement: At the EERI home screen to get to the student chapter page, one would click the

"About EERI" tab and then move down to "Student Chapters.”

However, it is at this point we would suggest there is a page for the Student Chapters that simply lists the schools

and maybe some general facts, e.g. the number of schools officially recognized, a map showing the scattering

of schools across the globe. On this page, that has the short list of only the school names, there would be

individual links for each school that would go to separate school-specific pages. On the individual pages the

school-specific information would be available, e.g. SDT information, list of officers/faculty, and annual reports.

Another [simpler] option is to provide the concise list of schools at the top of the [current] Student Chapters page.

Then, the list entries can be clicked so one could “jump down” to the desired school with a “back to top” button

next to the school-specific information.

This way it would be easy to see a full list of the schools associated with EERI without having to scroll through a

huge web page of information.



LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Included at the end of this report are various attachments to supplement the information included above. A

list of the attachments is included below:

Page 9 Photos of Big Dig Day

Page 10 Photos of Campfire Night

Page 11 Photos of SAP2000 Tutorial

Page 12 Photos of 1st Annual Lancaster Steamfest

Page 13 Photos of OPENSEES Tutorial

Page 13 OPENSEES Tutorial Invitation

Pages 14-15 Photos of Friedman Family Visit

Page 16 Friedman Family Visit Flyer

Pages 17-19 Photos of 2018 UB-EERI Symposium

Page 20 Results of Symposium competition

Page 21 Symposium Flyer

Pages 22-23 Seismic Design Competition Team Photos



BIG DIG DAY ATTACHMENTS

Participants in front of Davis Hall Engineering Building at University at Buffalo.

Participants in front of Ketter Hall at University at Buffalo.



CAMPFIRE NIGHT ATTACHMENTS

UB-EERI members present in the Campfire NIght.

Participants at the UB-EERI Campfire Night.



SAP2000 TUTORIAL ATTACHMENTS

PhD. Student Ramla Qureshi imparting the SAP2000 Tutorial.

PhD. Student Robin Kumar delivers the SAP2000 Tutorial.



1ST ANNUAL LANCASTER STEAMFEST ATTACHMENTS

UB-EERI members present in the 1st Annual STEAMfest at Lancaster High School.

UB-EERI members interacting with kids at Lancaster High School



OPENSEES TUTORIAL

Students attending the OpenSEES Tutorial.

OpenSEES Tutorial invitation.



FRIEDMAN FAMILY VISIT ATTACHMENTS

Dr. Makdisi delivering the Keynote Presentation.

Dr. Makdisi interacting with faculty and students during lunch.



Dr. and Mrs. Makdisi during Lunch

UB-EERI Student Chapter 2017-2018 with Dr. and Mrs. Makdisi



Friedman Family Visit flyer.



SYMPOSIUM ATTACHMENTS

Student Research Competition presentation.

Keynote Speaker Dr. Laura Lowes along with the students who participated in the competition.



Visit to the University at Buffalo's (UB) Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL).

Dr. Laura Lowes imparting the keynote presentation of the Symposium.



Keynote Speaker Dr. Laura N. Lowes interacted with students and faculty during the coffee break.



Award Participant School Title of Presentation

1st

Place Xuan Gao University at Buffalo

Experimental investigation of an

innovative retrofit scheme for

masonry infilled RC frames

2nd

Place Hasan Tariq

New Jersey Institute of

Technology

Cyclic Simulation of Flexural

Members with Ductile Concrete

Materials using Fiber-Hinge

Models

3rd

Place Cancan Yang University at Buffalo

Lowering Seismic Damage to

Precast Post-tensioned

Segmental Piers

- Tarun Kumar Singhal University of Toronto

Development of Civil

Infrastructure Resilience

Assessment Framework (CIRAF)

and its Application to Nuclear

Power Plant System

- Boris Galindo Manhattan College

Design Optimization for Seismic

Retrofit of Reinforced Concrete

Buildings with FRP Composites

- Woo Jong (Kevin) Kim The Cooper Union

Advantages and limitations of

current methods for Fragility

Analysis in Performance-Based

Earthquake Engineering

- Caren Irgang Manhattan College The Evolution of Seismic

Provisions of NYC Building Code

Results of Symposium competition.



Symposium flyer.



SDCT ATTACHMENTS

The UB SDCT tower being tested at MAHLE Behr Troy Inc., in Lockport, NY

UB SDCT members working on their tower



UB SDCT members testing their tower at the SDC

The UB SDCT looking confident and dapper at the SDC

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