Upcoming Seminars
Waterfront Facility Inspection & Rehabilitation Engineering Design
April 30, 2025 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Bill Dubbs
More information coming soon!
Sustainability and the Structural Engineer
May 07, 2025 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Sara Means
Structural materials such as steel and concrete account for more than 10% of the global carbon emissions, and structural engineers have a responsibility to reduce these carbon emissions in the built environment. This presentation will give an introduction to embodied carbon. What is embodied carbon, how do you calculate it, and how do you reduce it? We will discuss which materials are most sustainable and how to reduce embodied carbon in your projects. We will also give an overview of a simple Life Cycle Assessment.
Past Seminars
Environmental and Energy Geomechanics: Challenges and Opportunities
April 16, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Marcelo Sanchez
The involvement of geotechnical/geomechanical engineers in problems comprising unprecedented Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical and Chemical (THMC) conditions is every time more frequent, particularly in geo-environmental and geo-energy applications.
Transparent Soil for Laboratory Investigations of Multi-phase Flow, Carbon Dioxide Storage, and Heat Transport
April 11, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Greg Siemens
Many experiments, field studies, and simulations are limited by the number of physical measurement points that can be contained within the study or used for comparison to a model. Even in highly instrumented experiments or field sites, a relatively small number of data points are available.
Coupled Geomechanics and Two-Phase Fluid Flow Aspects of CO2 Geological Sequestration
April 09, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Marte Gutierrez
CO2 geological sequestration (GS) in saline reservoirs involves several interacting processes. One of the processes is two-phase immiscible fluid flow which occurs when CO2 gas as the non-wetting fluid phase displaces saline water as the wetting fluid.
Damage of Bridges in 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake
March 14, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Shuichi Fujikura
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake occurred in central Kyushu, Japan, on April 14th with Mw 6.2 followed by the Mw 7.0 main-shock on April 16th. These earthquakes were mainly caused by the Futagawa fault and Hinagu fault where surface ruptures extended about 34 km long.
Life Beyond Graduation: Insight on Building Your Career in Structural Engineering
February 28, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Thomas Smith
In this presentation, Thomas will discuss his experience transitioning from school life to working life within the Structural Engineering field. He will provide suggestions for how to land your first job and will describe his experience when he first started working in the profession. He will discuss some of the challenges that he has faced in his career and how he worked to overcome them.
Design and Construction of Borinquen Dam 1E for the Panama Canal Expansion
February 26, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Lelio Mejia
Dr. Lelio Mejia will present an overview of the Panama Canal Expansion Project and of the dams that form the new Pacific Access Channel, known as the Borinquen Dams. The expansion project has approximately doubled the Canal’s capacity and allows the largest cargo and passenger ships in the world to transit through the historic waterway. Dr.
Bridging Multiple Structural Scales with a Generalized Finite Element Method
February 07, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor C. Armando Duarte
Interactions among multiple spatial scales are pervasive in many engineering applications. Structural failure is often caused by the onset of localized damage like cracks or shear bands that are orders of magnitude smaller than the structural dimensions. In this talk, we present a Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) based on the solution of interdependent macro/global and fine/local scale problems.
Understanding Resilience Through a Musical Anthology
February 05, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Ramon Gilsanz
This presentation will provide easy-to-understand explanations for the science behind earthquakes, seismic design, and why different buildings can have dramatically different responses to the same earthquake. Attendees learn about how many parallels can be drawn between music and the seemingly abstract science behind earthquake engineering.
The Professional Landscape & Your Career Path - What Awaits You and What you Need to Know
January 31, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Peter Behnam
With so much focus in school on the technical aspects of our profession young engineers on the verge of entering the workplace generally know very little of what is ahead.
Next Generation Aeronautical Engineering Designs: Exploitation of Unsteady Aerodynamics and Nonlinear Flight Mechanics
January 22, 2018 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Haithem Taha
Aeronautical engineering designs have been discreetly following conventional designs over the last century.