After placing 3rd in Boston last year, the Cal Seismic Team is looking for a groundbreaking way to take on the EERI 2016 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, April 5-8 (pun intended).
Seismic is preparing for a long trek…all the way to San Francisco. Due to the minimal travel costs, it's a rare chance for the entire team to participate at the competition itself.
The challenge this year is to design a building for the San Francisco Financial District, The building must have a restaurant level at the middle level and the restaurant's ceiling needs to be twice the height of the other floors.
Plus, the seismically-safe landmark building "should be worthy of redefining the famous San Francisco skyline."
No pressure that!
"Believe it or not, we're pushing it even further, says Lillian Fan, Seismic's Project Manager, "This year, we're going for a record-breaking annual building income." (Each building is scored on its overall "Final Annual Building Income" or FABI. The greater the revenue and the lower the cost, the greater score you will have in the end.)
"This may mean more risk, but with great risk comes reward, and we’re coming in prepared," said Fan.
However, going for the record has consequences—as the team learned in December.
Completing their first test model, Seismic put it on the shake table. They cringed at the sound of cracking beams and braces! And it was back to the drawing board.
Aside from building several models in preparation, the team has also taken greater analysis measures
to ensure the design's success.
"Balsa wood isn’t like steel or concrete—its material properties can be a little more fickle to say the least. We’ve been doing a lot of materials testing to get more accurate results," said Fan.
Cal Seismic is a tightly knit team. Each member's time and talent has played a major role, whether the member just joined in the spring semester—or is contributing while on a semester abroad.
"We can’t wait to see what other teams from around the world will bring," said Fan.
Go Cal Seismic!
And to the other teams? You're entering Bear Territory.
2016 Cal Seismic Team. L-R: 1st row: Lillian Fan, Max Jung, Brian Tam, Henry Teng, Joshua Rojo; 2nd row: Isaac Lee, Michael Hui, Jono Disenhof, Timothy Huang, Priya Dewan, Samantha Cristol, Stella Te, Monica Liu, Miguel Bernabe; 3rd row: Mairead Montague, Alyssa Yu, Jordan Gilles, Stephen Shelnutt, Julia Welsch.