Upcoming Seminars
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
Being a Valued Employee: Standing out Effortlessly
February 13, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Lon McPhail
What your boss needs most of all - doing your job is half the battle
How to report findings and activities- short, sweet, and to the point
Delivering bad news- it's an art form... two to the chest, or one to the Head.
Everything you write matters! - understanding that every word you write down should be publishable, and why.
Levees, Earthquakes, and California's Water Distribution System
January 30, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Scott J. Brandenberg
The Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta is the hub of California's water distribution system, providing fresh water to over 20 million Californians and directly supporting our $50 billion/year agricultural industry. A network of over 1,100 miles of levees circumscribes Delta "islands" that lie as much as 10m below sea level. Unlike traditional flood control levees that are intermittently loaded during high water events, the Delta levees constantly impound water and have as little as a meter of freeboard at high tide.
What to Expect: Advice from the Future
January 23, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Lon McPhail
Your first 30-60-90 days - how to learn the company needs and add value to make yourself indispensable.
Social media and your professional life - making sure you're employable and sending the right message to your colleagues
Email do's and don'ts...and don't ever's - it's only "a quick little note" until it's read back to you by the Senate oversight committee for internal affairs. :-)
Get Fired Up: What Structural Engineers Should Know About Fire Design
January 18, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Maria Garlock
The increasing complexity of building structures makes it sometimes difficult to apply a prescriptive approach for fire design and at the same time maintain efficiency, economy, and elegance. While there is a place for prescriptive design, there are other tools that better enable the design intent. This lecture begins with a historical examination of fires in major structures and the impact that these events had on fire design. Then, new opportunities for fire design through a performance-based approach are discussed. Such an approach requires knowledge of the fire characteristic, therm
An Immersogeometric Framework for Patient - Specific Heart Valve Design and Analysis
January 17, 2017 - 1:30 pm
Speaker: Professor Ming-Chen Hsu
In this work, we present a framework for designing patient-specific bioprosthetic heart valves using recently proposed isogeometric analysis based parametric design platform and immersogeometric fluid–structure interaction (FSI) analysis. The patient-specific aortic root geometry is reconstructed from the medical image data and is represented using non-uniform rational B-splines. We then parametrically design prosthetic heart valves based on the aortic root, using a Rhino/Grasshopper-based interactive geometric design platform.
Creating and Presenting Credibility of Computational Solid Mechanics Analyses
January 11, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. H. Eliot Fang
Advanced computational modeling, high performance computing technology, and extensive knowledge of simulation form a strong and unique foundation of research, development and engineering at Sandia National Laboratories that enable the Lab to meet its commitment of ensuring the national security of the United States.
The Mono Bucket-Next Generation Foundation Structure for Offshore Wind Turbines
January 09, 2017 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Professor Lars Bo Ibsen
The Mono Bucket is the latest generation foundation structure. The Mono Bucket is specifically designed for offshore wind turbine application, combining the key benefits of a gravity base foundation, a monopile and a suction bucket, and building on a legacy of more than 2,000 suction technology-based foundations from the oil and gas industry.The Mono Bucket has proven its ability, having been successfully installed in a wide variety of site conditions, including sand, silt, clay and layered strata.
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Structural and Environmental Monitoring using Robotics
Speaker: Dr. Hyun Myung
In this talk, the robotics technologies to provide various services in civil environment will be introduced, mainly focusing on structural monitoring, environment monitoring, and autonomous navigation technologies. For Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), vision-based SHM and a wall-climbing drone for SHM will be introduced. For environmental robotics, JEROS (Jellyfish removal robot), oil spill protection robot, green algae removal robot will be introduced.
Wood Revolution: Inspiring Design with Innovative Wood Structural Systems
November 28, 2016 - 1:00 pm
Speaker: Jennifer Cover
Due to their high strength, dimensional stability and positive environmental performance, mass timber building products are quickly becoming materials of choice for sustainably-minded designers. This presentation will provide a detailed look at the variety of mass timber products available, including glue-laminated timber (glulam), cross laminated timber (CLT), nail laminated timber (NLT), heavy timber decking, and other engineered and composite systems. Applications for the use of these products under modern building codes will be discussed, and examples of their use in U.S.
Structural Health Monitoring for Civil Infrastructure Decisions
November 21, 2016 - 1:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Matthew D. Smith
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) owns, operates, and maintains an immense portfolio of large civil infrastructure ranging from bridges and dams to recreation sites and shoreline. Given the reality of a constrained budget and the declining performance of existing infrastructure assets, making maintenance and repair decisions that maximize the value delivered to the nation is challenging.