Quake Summit 2011 UB-NEES Site Tour and Test Demonstrations

Saturday June 11, 2011following the Quake Summit closing sessions, UB-NEES hosted over 100 Quake Summit participants for a multi-hour tour of the UB-NEES site. CSEE Professor Andre Filiatrault provided detailed descriptions and research applications of the major UB-NEES equipment systems including the Twin Re-configurable Shake Tables, The Nonstructural Component Simulator (NCS), the 1-G Geotechnical Laminar Box and the Reaction Wall/Strong Floor/Actuator testing systems. This was followed by Shake Table and NCS equipment system test demonstrations.
For more information please go here.

Quake Summit 2011-Student Mentoring Workshop

Thursday, June 9, 2011 A major EOT activity held during Quake Summit 2011, was the Student Mentoring Session and Workshop on instrumentation, calibration and testing organized and hosted by the UB-NEES site. The workshop, attracted approximately 56 domestic and international students that were accompanied by many of the NEES site PI’s and NSF’s Dr. Joy Pauschke.
For more information please go here.

BEAM Grand Challenge 2011

May, 2011in conjunction with the UB-School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), UB-NEES led and participated in a major event at the annual BEAM competition targeting Western New York High School minority students. This year, approximately 90 local high school minority students participated, representing ~14 local high schools. This UB-BEAM event involves all of the engineering departments in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Civil, Aero-Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Bio, Computer Engineering, etc…) each establishing a discipline specific venue challenging students to complete an engineering task and answer engineering technical and trivia questions related to the specific engineering venue.
For more information please go here.

Congresswoman Kathy Hochul Visits the UB-NEES Laboratory

Tuesday, June 28, 2011: newly elected Congresswoman Kathy Hochul visited and toured the UB-NEES laboratory, escorted by UB President Satish Tripathy. Her visit with President Tripathy was hosted in relation to UB’s 2020 program. This visit has afforded UB-NEES with some initial visibility, at the federal congressional level with more anticipated during future visits, as Congresswoman Hochul indicated.

For more information, please, click here.

SEESL/NEES@Buffalo YouTube Channel

Thursday, May 20, 2010: A SEESL/NEES@Buffalo YouTube Channel has been created where you will be able to see videos and news coeverage of some the tests done here.

For more information, please, click here.

UB “Science Exploration Day” 2009 at SEESL

Wednesdau, March 11, 2009 Approximately 40 Western New York high school students, participating in UB’s-23rd “Science Exploration Day” toured UB’s Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL), in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE). They also observed a simulated earthquake, employing a “Mini-Shake Table”, subjecting a sub-scale 27-story building to a seismographic record from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. For more information please go here.

Instrumentation Society of America (ISA)

On Thursday, January 8th 2009, 24-members of the regional chapter of the "Instrumentation Society of America" (ISA) attended a presentation and tour of the UB-NEES/SEESL facility. Ms. Jenine Trzewieczynski UB's School of Engineering Assistant Director of Development attended the session to express the school's gratitude for a $500.00 scholarship just granted to the school by ISA.

Hutchinson Central Technical High School

On December 4th 2008, approximately 40 minority students from the Hutchinson Central Technical High School visited UB-NEES/SEESL for a presentation and facility tour to learn about earthquake engineering and career opportunities. The attending school councilors expressed their appreciation as the experience reinforced what the students were learning in the classroom and opening their eyes and minds to possible areas of endeavor.

Dedication of the University at Buffalo Nonstructural Components Simulator (UB-NCS)

October 12, 2007 MCEER, NEES and SEESL hosted a Symposium on Seismic Regulations and Challenges for Protecting Building Equipment, Components & Operations. This program marked the dedication of the University at Buffalo's new Nonstructural Components Simulator (UB-NCS). The Symposium, which was free and open to building equipment manufacturers, engineers and related practitioners, aimed to help improve understanding of recent changes to building design codes, which now require seismic qualification of mechanical and electrical equipment. The Symposium was followed by a dedication and demonstration of the UB-NCS, which provides unique capabilities to help address equipment qualification issues.

• Arhived webcasts of symposium and demonstration.

A Unique Educational Experience for Community College Students in the Engineering and Construction of Woodframe Structures for Seismic Performance
During phases 4 and 6 of construction of the NEESWood project, in July and August 2006 respectively, twenty-four (24) students from the SUNY-ECC “Construction Management Engineering Technology (CMET), Civil Engineering Technology and Building Management/Building Trades Programs,” organized in three (3) groups, were responsible for the installation of the gypsum wall board on the interior walls (perimeter-phase 3; interior & ceiling phase-4) of the 2-story townhouse.
For more information please go here.

CIE616 - EXPERIMENTAL METHODS IN STRUCTURAL ENG., University at Buffalo, 140 Ketter Hall:
Course intended to introduce students to experimental methods, test planning, model preparation, loading systems, instrumentation, data acquisition and data processing. The course covers aspects of static and structural dynamics problems. Advance methods of testing will include hybrid techniques for substructure testing which combine simultaneous physical and numerical simulations. Elements of modal testing and nondestructive methods will be introduced. The course provides several “hands-on” applications in laboratory using testing and computing equipment. The students get acquainted with the following subjects: (1) Similitude, modeling and dimensional analysis (1wk), (2) Measurement systems, statistical and error analysis (1wk); (3). Test Planing, design and implementation - test protocols (1 wk); (4) Structural and Materials testing - steel, timber, plastics, concrete, etc.(1wk); (5) Loading Systems - set-ups, loading devices, actuators, control, etc. (2wk); (6) Instrumentation - mechanical, electrical, electronic (2wk); (7) Data Acquisition - analog and digital (1wk); (8) Computerized data processing - numerical and graphical (1wk); (9) Data archiving and curating- data quality control (1 wk) Instructor: Prof. A.M. Reinhorn, Fall Semester 2004, Spring 2007

Seminar on State of the Art of Shaking Table Tests of Wood Buildings in Japan
Friday, August 25th, 2006: MCEER, UB-EERI, MCEER SLC and UB-CSEE have hosted a Seminar by Dr. Hiroshi Isoda Associate Professor, Dept. of Architecture & Civil Engineering Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan on "State of the Art of Shaking Table Tests of Wood Buildings in Japan". Which had complemented nicely the ongoing NEESWood testing in SEESL lab.
For more information about the seminar and to view the archived webcast please go here.

Seminar on Seismic Analysis of Woodframe Structures
Friday, June 9th, 2006: MCEER, UB-EERI, MCEER SLC and UB-CSEE have hosted a Seminar by Dr. Bryan Folz, Program Head, Dept. of Civil Engineering, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, on "Seismic Analysis of Woodframe Structures". Which had complemented nicely the ongoing NEESWood testing in SEESL lab.
For more information about the seminar and to view the archived webcast please go here.

Thursday, May 18th, 2006:

Two UB Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) undergraduate students, Dave Keller and Charles Ekiert, visited Hamburg Middle School in Hamburg, NY to discuss earthquake engineering, after a brief overview of civil engineering, to over 250 sixth graders. The visit was coordinated by 6th grade science teacher Sherry Pfohl, who approached Dave with the idea at a CSEE open house this past semester.

For more detailed information, please, click here

UB-NEES Training Workshop:
Research at the UB-NEES Versatile Large Scale Hybrid Testing Laboratory - “A Users Perspective”
This workshop is designed for researchers and industry members of the earthquake engineering community as prospective users of the UB-NEES Site. It will provide a comprehensive overview of UB’s “Versatile Large Scale Hybrid Testing Facility” and include instruction and demonstrations on the applications, performance and operation of the twin 6-DOF shake tables, dynamic and static actuators, digital and analog controllers, data acquisition systems and instrumentation. Instruction in and the applications of Real Time Dynamic Hybrid Testing (RTDHT) will be included.
Please click here for more information

Announcing a Comprehensive Training Program on the Operation of a Structural Dynamics Testing Facility
The University at Buffalo NEES-Site, in conjunction with the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory (SEESL), in the Department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) announced a training program hosting researchers or technical staff for intensive training in the operation of a structural dynamics testing facility. This hands-on training program includes two stages of instruction: one academic and the other practical laboratory experimentation. The first two candidates who successfully completed a six month program were Hassan Aknouche and Abdelhalim Airouche of the Algerian CGS (Centre National de Recherche Appliquée en Génie Parasismique, Alger, Algeria). For further details click here.