Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Quanser sponsored 5th Annual Seismic Design Competition

It has become a tradition for Annual Meetings of Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to host Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition - competition opened to all undergraduate civil engineering students. This year, the competition turned out to be one of the major highlights of the EERI Annual Meeting in New Orleans (Feb. 6-9, 2008). 17 competing teams built high-rise buildings that would be tested against an “earthquake” simulated by the Quanser Shake Table. The competition was exciting, educating and not to mention, a lot of fun! Quanser representative, Sunny Ray, had the opportunity to partake in the event as a celebrity judge. “It was fun and inspiring to be a part of this [event]. What impressed me the most was how enthusiastic the students were” says Sunny “and it was reassuring to witness that our company is making a real difference to the lives of engineering students by offering them a hands-on approach to understanding engineering theory.” Michel, one of the lead Quanser engineers at the conference, noticed that students come better prepared with more resilient building models year to year. Michel is on a personal mission to make the competition even more challenging next year – preparing to offer bi-directional (X-Y) motion and a wider, more vicious, variety of earthquake selections! So, teams, get ready for the challenge!