Husker High-Rise succeeds in earthquake resistance competition

A Nebraska Engineering team placed third overall among 22 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities in the 2010 seismic design conference with the international Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in San Francisco.

“This is a great improvement from last year, our first year in the competition, when we placed 13th,” said John Tran, a student with UNL’s Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction.  Placement in the competition results is based on a poster and presentation, architecture of a model structure, performance predictions, and actual performance of the model structure under earthquake simulation.  

“This event was an opportunity to show schools that Nebraska has what it takes when it comes to earthquake-resistant engineering,” Tran said. “Most of the winners from previous years have been schools from California or in the west coast in general. I'm proud to say it was a pleasure to be part of the Nebraska team this year and … (to) place as well as we did.”

Team members include: Sean Bergstedt (President), John Tran (Vice President), Morgan Chatmon (Secretary), Cassandra Wiese (Secretary), Mahdi Mohseni (Treasurer), Caitlin Brow, Ryan Kubr, Matija Radovic, Tim Morrison, Matt Osmera, Kyle Repaskey, Eduardo Vazquez, Ben Wagner, Jordan Webb, and Dr. Terri R. Norton (Academic Advisor).

To learn more about the competition, view the EERI Student Leadership Council information.