News and Events
Earthquakes and Education: Cutting Edge Research and Initiatives Light the Way for New Generations
Please join us February 23rd for an evening of discussion about innovations in earthquake engineering youth education, school safety, and career path programs. From an esteemed panel of guests, you will hear lightning talks on how EERI members and other organizations are working to deliver fresh curriculum to elementary and high school students, advocating for safer school facilities nationally, and confronting challenges to recruiting and retaining young engineering professionals, especially women engineers.
Representatives from local University Student Chapter teams, including CSU Sacramento, UC Berkeley and Stanford University, will also attend to recap their plans to build the best structure for the 2017 Annual Meeting design competition. We will continue our Chapter’s tradition of fundraising to help these students with travels costs to Portland. Donations can be made tax-deductible and will be matched by the Chapter up to $300.
Date: Thursday, February 23rd
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (6:00 Networking, 6:15 Program)
Venue: EPICENTER, 245 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please share event information with friends and colleagues who may be interested!
Speaker Profiles:
Patrick Murren, PE, is the Vice President of the Engineers Alliance for the Arts (EAA) Student Impact Project. This program – in its 16th year and hosted in 17 classrooms across 13 schools in the Bay Area plus satellite regions in Houston, TX, and Tulsa, OK – challenges participating students to design and build a 36″-span bridge using basic classroom materials such as foamboard, glue, and string. The program brings volunteer engineers into each classroom to teach basic engineering principles, work alongside the students as they build their bridges, and encourage students to consider pursuing studies and careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Patrick, a former middle school teacher through the Teach For America program, is in his 6th year volunteering with EAA. He works in the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Heidi Tremayne, PE, has served as EERI’s Program Manager since April 2014. She is responsible for supporting the Institute’s committees and chapters, and managing multiple projects and programs, like EERI’s Learning From Earthquakes Program and School Earthquake Safety Initiative (SESI) – a network of diverse professionals committed to creating and sharing knowledge that enables progressive decision making around school earthquake safety. Heidi has managed SESI from its inception, working with the committee to develop its strategic action plan, launch of 5 working subcommittees, and support ongoing product development and dissemination. In particular, she has collaborated with the Classroom Education and Outreach Subcommittee to launched several pilot activities to deliver earthquake engineering curriculum at elementary and high school classrooms in partnership with EERI regional and student chapters.Prior to joining EERI, Heidi was the Outreach Director at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering research Center (PEER) for six years where she coordinated PEER’s numerous education and communications programs, including an elementary school outreach program for the nees@berkeley laboratory. Heidi also served on the EERI Northern California Chapter Board of Directors for seven years, including a term as President from 2013-2014. She has a degree in Architectural Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a California Professional Engineering License.
Heidi will be joined by student members involved in the 4th grade and high school earthquake curriculum from UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
Nick Sherrow-Groves is a Senior Engineer at the San Francisco office of Arup, where he’s worked for the past 6 years. He’s worked on many different kinds of projects, from record-setting airports to boutique shipping-container spas, and spent a year abroad between his degrees traveling the world and (with the help of EERI!) interviewing people who had been affected by earthquakes. For the past year, he’s been working with the Structural Engineering Engagement and Equity committee, and is a current co-chair.
Student Design Competition Team Profiles:
The EERI CSUS team is proud to be competing for the second time at the EERI Seismic Design Competition. We are a growing organization at the CSUS campus, comprised of dedicated civil engineering students who are interested in innovation, design, and creation of a functional seismically stable structure.Our team consists of 16 undergraduate students who will propose, design, and fabricate a scaled balsa wood model of a high rise structure. CSUS is looking to raise $3000 funding of their $4000 budget for this year’s SDC.
The Cal Seismic Design team is an undergraduate cohort dedicated to structural design, analysis, and construction. With a membership of 60 undergraduates spanning a variety of majors, the team acts as the first available resource for any student considering seismic design and innovation. Last year, the UC Berkeley team was awarded the Degenkolb Award for Structural Innovation, in addition to placing second overall. Our team has dedicated an immense amount of time and energy to designing, testing, and improving our entry for the competition, as we prepare to travel to Portland. Our design proposal was in the top nine out of all submissions, and we are looking forward to once again compete on an internal stage. The UC Berkeley team is looking to raise an additional $1000 of their $22,000 budget, as they are hoping to bring 30 students to Portland this year.
Stanford‘s diverse, close-knit team includes students from various backgrounds and disciplines, with majors ranging from Civil and Mechanical Engineering to Linguistics. Due to our small size, we can be flexible and accommodate people in whatever tasks they feel best suit them, whether that be hands-on construction work or more administrative roles. We strive to incorporate the ideas of each individual member every step of the way. We expect to be a strong contender this year, and look forward to the coming weeks as we prepare for competition in March. Stanford is looking to raise up to $4500 to cover our competition costs, which will give all interested members the opportunity to attend the competition.
Getting to 245 3rd Street in San Francisco:
- BART & MUNI: The EPICENTER can be reached from Powell and Montgomery Stations and bus stops near those stations. Busses 8AX, 8BX, 8X, 12, 30, 45 and 91 stop at Folsom & 3rd.
- DRIVING: The SOMA pay parking lot is the closest, with entrance located after Clementina Alley and before Tehama Alley.
- BIKE: EPICENTER is working on installation of bike stalls, and has limited bike storage inside.
Wednesday November 17, 2010
“Update on liquefaction hazard zone mapping and current research for mitigating soil liquefaction”
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Venue: Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, One Market St, Suite #600 , San Francisco
Join the chapter for a interesting discussion focused on current updates in evaluating liquefaction hazards.
Chuck Real (California Geological Survey) will summarize existing and new methods for delineating liquefaction hazard zones for the California Seismic Hazard Zone mapping program.
UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Brina Mortensen will present current research on harnessing sustainable biological processes to improve soil conditions and mitigate soil-liquefaction hazards.
UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Ronnie Kamai will summarize numerical simulations of soil conditions that help define the amounts and patterns of surface deformation resulting from liquefaction.
Collectively, these efforts will improve definition of liquefaction hazard zones and guide risk-based planning decisions.
Join the Northern California Chapter as we toast to the successful end of 2016 — the night is dedicated to exchanging, connecting, and celebrating!
Date: Wednesday, December 7th
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. The night is a social event, but we’ll pause twice:
- @ 6:00 Welcome address by Tipping Structural Engineers, followed by a brief presentation and phased tours of their new isolated office building.
- @ 7:00 the Northern California board will hand out awards and honors.
Venue: Tipping Structural Engineers, 1906 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA
RSVP:
Catch up with members over food and drinks on 2016 accomplishments and talk plans for 2017. Non-members can attend guilt-free — we welcome all earthquake, engineering, and resilience professionals and students to our party! Please RSVP by November 30th so we’re efficient with our catering, but don’t hesitate to bring along a last-minute friend, classmate, or co-worker.
Getting to 1906 Shattuck Ave.
- BART — The building is just 3 blocks north of the Downtown Berkeley BART Station.
- Driving — There is potential to find street parking, and there is a parking lot on Berkeley Way, between Shattuck and Milvia.
Thursday December 2, 2010
Join your chapter colleagues as we celebrate the holiday season and toast to the successful end of 2010! The EERI Northern California Chapter Awards will be presented at 7:00 pm for “innovation and exemplary practice in earthquake risk reduction in Northern California.”
Please bring your friends and colleagues with you to learn about the chapter and participate in our joyous festivities. Non-members can attend guilt-free — we welcome all earthquake professionals to our party!
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Venue & Directions: Marines’ Memorial Club
609 Sutter St. (at Mason St.), San Francisco, CA 94102-1027
Advancements in the performance-based earthquake engineering framework provide rigorous probabilistic descriptions of seismic performance, using metrics such as economic losses, fatality estimates and downtime. More recently, the concept of seismic resilience has been emphasized, focusing on the role that buildings play in ensuring that communities, particularly urban centers, can minimize the effect of, adapt to and recover from earthquakes. A key aspect of assessing resilience is establishing a link between building performance and the post-event functionality and recovery of a community. Limit states such as functional loss, damage that renders a building unsafe to occupy or irreparable, which (by comparison) have received much less attention in past research, play a central role in evaluating resilience. The ability to quantify factors that affect downtime, business interruption, and restoration of functionality is also relevant.
This presentation will explore challenges to utilizing performance-based engineering as a tool to address specific aspects of resilience and evaluate policies that are intended to enhance community resilience. A framework for incorporating probabilistic building performance limit states in the assessment of community resilience to earthquakes will be presented. The limit states are defined on the basis of their implications to post-earthquake functionality and recovery. We will demonstrate how the framework can be applied to model the post-earthquake recovery of the shelter-in-place housing capacity of an inventory of residential buildings in order to inform planning and policy decisions, similar to those described in the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association Resilient City Initiative, to manage the earthquake risk to the residential housing capacity of communities. A novel approach to probabilistically assessing post-earthquake structural safety and the limit state defined by damage that renders a building unsafe to occupy will also be introduced. The methodology integrates key elements from previously published guidelines including component-level damage simulation, virtual inspection and structural collapse performance assessment. Strategies for enhancing the resilience of tall buildings will also be discussed and the results of a case study of an archetypal 42-story concrete shear wall building located in San Francisco will be highlighted. Finally, current efforts towards the development of resilience-based performance standards for buildings and lifeline systems will be presented.
Date Thursday, October 20th 2016
Time 5:30 – 7:00 (5:30 Networking; 6:00 Program)
Location Arup Offices — 560 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
RSVP
Dr. Greg Deierlein is the John A. Blume Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford University where he directs the Blume Earthquake Engineering Center. He holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, a master of science from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor of science from Cornell University. Greg previously served as the deputy director for the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center where he led the research planning to develop performance-based approaches and technologies in earthquake engineering. Deierlein specializes in the design and behavior of steel, concrete and composite structures, nonlinear structural analysis, computational fracture and damage mechanics, and performance-based earthquake engineering. He is a registered professional engineer and maintains professional activities as a structural engineering consultant, design peer reviewer, and participant in national technical and building code standards committees. In 2013, he was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to applying nonlinear analysis in structural design.
Dr. Henry V. Burton is an Assistant Professor and the Englekirk Presidential Chair in Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research is directed towards understanding and modeling the relationship between the performance of infrastructure systems within the built environment, and the ability of communities to minimize the extent of socioeconomic disruption following extreme events such as major earthquakes. Dr. Burton is a registered structural engineer in the state of California. Prior to obtaining his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, he spent six years in practice at Degenkolb Engineers, where he worked on numerous large scale projects involving design of new buildings and seismic evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings. Current projects include (1) utilizing remote sensing to assess the implication of tall building performance on the resilience of urban centers, (2) stochastic characterization of building aftershock collapse risk and (3) developing design and assessment methods for resilient and sustainable buildings. Henry is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Next Generation of Disaster Researchers Fellowship (2014) and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2016).
Date: February 9-12, 2011
Location: Hyatt Regency La Jolla, San Diego, California
EERI National is hosting its 63nd Annual Meeting. For more information, see the event website: https://www.eeri.org/registration/am.php
Join us for a construction site visit of the 56-story 181 Fremont Tower in San Francisco on Thursday, September 1st. The field trip will begin at Arup’s offices with a presentation by Ibbi Almufti (Associate at Arup and project manager for the 181 Fremont Tower) about the unique seismic features of the tower and the implementation of a resilience-based design approach to achieve a REDi “Gold” Rating designation (recently approved via independent peer review as the first REDi-rated building in the country). After a short walk to the site, Adrian Crowther (Senior Engineer for the 181 Fremont Tower) will lead us on a tour for a close-up view of the construction of this landmark building.
Learn more at: http://www.181fremontresidences.com/
Date: Thursday, September 1, 2016
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Location: ARUP, San Francisco.
Cost: FREE
Safety: Protective equipment and construction clothing is required including full length pants/sleeves, steel toe capped boots, hard hats and eye protection.
Please note access to the upper floor plates of the building will be via the construction elevator so it is not recommended for people who suffer vertigo.
RSVP ASAP to
Speaker Information:
Ibbi Almufti is the Global Seismic Skills manager for Arup. He recently led the development of the REDi™ Rating System which provides owners, architects and engineers a framework for implementing “resilience-based design”, a holistic approach for achieving “beyond-code” resilience objectives. Ibbi is currently serving on USGBC’s LEED Resilience Working Group, the EERI’s Resilience Panel, the Board of Directors of EERI’s NC Chapter, and the FEMA/USGS Project 17 Committee. His projects include the new Mexico City Airport and Air Traffic Control Tower, Salesforce Tower, Transbay Transit Center, the Las Vegas High Roller, and London Aquatics Centre.
Adrian Crowther is Senior Engineer with Arup specializing in the design and delivery of challenging steel structures. His larger projects include 181 Fremont, the Las Vegas High Roller and California High Speed Rail. He is also Arup’s SF champion for sculpture and art installations and was the Engineer for San Jose’s Idea Tree, Des Moines Stainless steel installation, Swirl and the proposed Reflected Loop installation for the new Union Square SF Muni Station.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Join the chapter for an informative, lively and multi-disciplinary panel discussion on the topic of “sustainability and earthquake engineering”.
How does earthquake engineering fit into green building and the larger sustainability movement?
Should higher seismic performance standards be recognized by LEED and why?
What should and could be the role of embedded energy in earthquake-resistant design?
And more!
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Arup office, 560 Mission Street, Suite 700, San Francisco
RSVP:
Panelists:
- Aaron Binkley, Director, Sustainability Programs at AMB Property Corp.
- Mark Sarkisian, Director of Seismic and Structural Engineering in the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
- Scott Steinmetz, Assistant Vice President of Corporate Risk Governance at Allianz Fireman’s Fund
- Andy Thomspon, Associate at Arup San Francisco office
Moderator: Ramin Motamed, Engineer, Geotechnics Group at Arup San Francisco office
July 19th Happy Hour @ Drakes
Eat, drink, and connect with your EERI colleagues on July 19th at 5:30 for happy hour at Drakes Brewery. There is no program, just an opportunity to see old colleagues and meet new ones. We’ll be on the back patio with two reserved tables.
Date: Tuesday, July 19th 2016
Time: 5:30 – 7:30
Location: Drake’s Dealership, 2325 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 94612
RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Getting to Drakes
Drakes Brewery is located at 2325 Broadway, in sunny Oakland, California.
By BART: It is a four block walk from the 19th St. Station. Just head North on Broadway.
Driving: There is some street parking in the area. There are a number of paid lots – the closest structure is located at 2100 Telegraph Ave. between 21st and 22nd.
By BART: It is a four block walk from the 19th St. Station. Just head North on Broadway.
Driving: There is some street parking in the area. There are a number of paid lots – the closest structure is located at 2100 Telegraph Ave. between 21st and 22nd.
All EERI NC Chapter members are invited to a lecture titled “Confined Masonry Buildings: Design and Construction Deficiencies Observed in the 2010 Maule, Chile Earthquake” by Svetlana Nikolic-Brzev, Ph.D., P.Eng. from the Dept. of Civil Engineering at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
This lecture will be held on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 from 5-6pm (REVISED TIME) at 534 Davis Hall (fifth floor), UC Berkeley. View Directions
Abstract:
A major earthquake of magnitude 8.8 shook the Maule region in Central Chile on February 27,2010, and caused 521 deaths. The earthquake exposed all types of building structures to severe ground shaking, and provided an opportunity to study their seismic performance. Svetlana visited Chile in July 2010 as a part of the EERI team with a mandate to document performance of confined masonry buildings in the earthquake. She is going to share key findings of the visit during the presentation and will discuss approaches to prevent design and construction deficiencies observed in the damaged buildings in Chile.
View the event flier for more information.
Svetlana Brzev is a Professor of Structural Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering,
British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Vancouver, Canada. She has over 25 years of
combined teaching, research, and consulting experience. Prior to joining BCIT in January 2000,
she was working as a Senior Engineer with Sandwell Engineering in Vancouver on several
seismic retrofit projects related to concrete and masonry buildings and water reservoirs. She
received her B.Eng. and M.A.Sc. degrees in Civil/Structural Engineering from the University of
Belgrade, Serbia, and Ph.D. degree in Earthquake Engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology (formerly University of Roorkee), India. Svetlana served as a Director and Vice
President of the EERI (2001 to 2003), as well as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the World
Housing Encyclopaedia (2000 to 2005).
British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Vancouver, Canada. She has over 25 years of
combined teaching, research, and consulting experience. Prior to joining BCIT in January 2000,
she was working as a Senior Engineer with Sandwell Engineering in Vancouver on several
seismic retrofit projects related to concrete and masonry buildings and water reservoirs. She
received her B.Eng. and M.A.Sc. degrees in Civil/Structural Engineering from the University of
Belgrade, Serbia, and Ph.D. degree in Earthquake Engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology (formerly University of Roorkee), India. Svetlana served as a Director and Vice
President of the EERI (2001 to 2003), as well as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the World
Housing Encyclopaedia (2000 to 2005).
In the United States, the average adult spends 2.8 hours a day on their mobile device – 0.4 hours more than the use of computers. In 2014, the number of global mobile users surpassed those with computers. As information technology evolves, an opportunity to adapt information in communicating risk presents itself. Join the chapter on June 9th as we discuss how technology can be used to communicate risk with a presentation by Ross Stein, cofounder and CEO of Temblor. Temblor is a mobile friendly web application that enables everyone in the United States to learn about their seismic hazard, to determine what most ensures their safety, and to decide what best reduces their risk.
Date Thursday, June 9th 2016
Time 5:30 – 7:15 (5:30 Networking; 6:00 Program)
Location The EPICENTER, 245 Third street, San Francisco, CA, 94103
RSVP
Dr. Ross Stein is the cofounder and CEO of Temblor a tech company providing a personal, immediate, and credible source of seismic risk understanding and solutions for everyone. Ross is an appointed member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Resilient America Roundtable. Before cofounding Temblor, Dr. Stein cofounded the Global Earthquake Model Foundation, a public-private partnership building the world’s first global seismic risk model. After completing his PhD in Geology at Stanford University, Dr. Stein spent over 30 years with the US Geological Survey.
Check out the free webapp at www.temblor.net and bring your thoughts to the next chapter meeting!
Please note that EERI-NC does not endorse any commercial products, rather, supports conversations around tools, research and communication of risk and resilience to advocate for members’ earthquake engineering knowledge.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
In the month of April each year, the EERI Northern California Chapter holds a meeting related to the disastrous April 18, 1906, San Francisco Earthquake. No exception this year! Please join the chapter for an informative meeting on San Francisco’s recently completed Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety. It will answer questions like:
- What is the CAPSS project?
- What is the retrofit strategy for soft story buildings developed by the CAPSS project?
- What are the next steps San Francisco will take?
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Where: Arup office, 560 Mission Street, Suite 700, San Francisco
RSVP:
Presenters:
- Laura Samant, Independent Consultant
- Bret Lizundia, Principal at Rutherford Chekene
- And Others
