EERI REPORTS

• Newsletter Articles
  • April 11, 2012, M 8+ Sumatra Earthquakes – May, 2012 Newsletter [PDF]

Volunteers will be asked to select among several field tools to upload a photo, as well as to provide some data about the photo, such as the level of damage, type of building or ground failure, and lifelines system damage. If you would like to test some field tools and participate in this exercise, please e-mail Maggie Ortiz at maggie@eeri.org by May 21st with your contact information and disciplinary background. EERI will then provide more details on how to participate in the May 30th exercise.

Krawinkler joined the Stanford faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1973 and “retired” to emeritus status in 2007. He stayed active in teaching, research and professional practice until his death. He is best known for his research contributions in performance-based earthquake engineering, which were recognized most recently through his election to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honor for an engineer in the U.S. Just this past week Professor Krawinkler received the 2012 George W. Housner Medal from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. He is remembered by friends, colleagues, current and former students for his warm smile, kindness and love of life.

A memorial service will be held on May 30, 2012 at 3pm, Memorial Church, Stanford University. Visit Stanford’s Memorial Page for more information.

The publication will be shared with UNDP country offices, national governments’ disaster management ministries and offices, and used in training programs.

EERI has copies available for the cost of shipping and handling. EERI shipping rates are: $10 to the U.S., $15 to Canada and Mexico, and $20 to other countries. Copies are also available from the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Please contact NICEE (nicee.org) to order the publication from them.

Additional information on the NFRL and fire research at NIST can be found at the following website: http://www.nist.gov/el/fire_research/nfrl.cfm

U.S. citizenship is required for employment at NIST. The Department of Commerce is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

EERI will hire four interns to work fulltime on this project for 2 ½ months in summer 2012. The students will find and analyze photos and possibly building drawings under the direction of senior volunteers and EERI staff. Some database development work may also be required. The expected timeframe for the work will be approximately June 1st to August 15th. A stipend of $3000 will be provided to each student.

In addition to the internships, EERI is looking for senior experts who would be willing to spend a few hours a week working with the student interns to find and interpret the photos, and possibly to help design the database.

The overarching objective of the USGS project is the development of a more systematic performance database that can help inform modelers, researchers and practitioners. It offers an opportunity for students to be involved in a meaningful and potentially ground-breaking exercise, and will link students with senior experts in the field. The product will be a credible and accessible record of concrete building performance in past earthquakes. This database will provide information on the relative importance of deficiencies with respect to collapse and vulnerability as well as information on actual failure modes for a variety of construction types, which can improve vulnerability relationships and the accuracy of regional loss estimates.

For buildings where the exact location is known, the protocols may include the use of ShakeMaps from the global atlas to identify ground motions to which the building was subjected. Recommendations will be made by the Technical Manager in consultation with the senior advisory panel on how the deficiency factors can be used to modify vulnerability functions for older concrete buildings in various countries in the world.

To apply for one of these internships, please send a cover letter and your resume to Maggie Ortiz at EERI (Maggie@eeri.org) by April 16th. Interviews will be scheduled for the week of April 23rd, and decisions made by April 30th. If you have any questions about these internships, please feel free to contact Maggie or Marjorie Greene at mgreene@eeri.org.

To volunteer as a senior mentor or expert for the project, please contact Craig Comartin, director of the Concrete Coalition (ccomartin@comartin.net) or EERI staff member Marjorie Greene at mgreene@eeri.org. Questions? Feel free to contact either Craig or Marjorie.

The Concrete Coalition is a network of individuals, governments, institutions, and agencies with shared interest in assessing the risk associated with dangerous non-ductile concrete buildings and developing strategies for fixing them. It is a program of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley, the Applied Technology Council and their partners, including the Structural Engineering Association of California, the American Concrete Institute, BOMA of Greater Los Angeles and the U.S. Geological Survey.