The PEER Summer Internship Program in 2009 was able to provide unique opportunities for four outstanding undergraduate students who spent ten weeks during the summer conducting individual research projects that contributed to ongoing PEER research programs including the NEES Grand Challenge Project Mitigation of Collapse Risk in Older Concrete Buildings and the Concrete Coalition. Funding was provided by a grant from the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES, Inc) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
This year's intern program was unique compared to the PEER programs of previous years, in that all four students conducted research of various topics related to one primary theme: Nonductile Concrete Buildings.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Victor Sanchez, built and tested a nonductile concrete building moment frame joint at the nees@berkeley laboratory under the mentorship of Professor Jack Moehle. This project informed the ongoing research of PEER's NEES Grand Challenge Project.
Download Victor Sanchez's research paper (2 MB, pdf file)
Download Victor Sanchez's research poster (2 MB, pdf file)
Awarded "Best Poster in Session" at NEES Young Researcher Symposium
Bryce Lloyd from San Jose State University conducted a computer analysis in OpenSees that modeled the nonductile concrete moment frame joint joint behavior of the specimen constructed and tested by Victor Sanchez. This project also was supervised by Professor Jack Moehle and was used to inform the ongoing research of PEER's NEES Grand Challenge Project.
Download Bryce Lloyd's research poster (5 MB, pdf file)
Awarded "Best Poster in Session" at NEES Young Researcher Symposium
Matt Zahr, a UC Berkeley student, worked on enhancing a web-based risk and hazard mapping tool that can identify the risk to nonductile concrete building inventories under the direction of Nico Luco at USGS in Golden, Colorado.
Download Matt Zahr's research paper (11 MB, pdf file)
Download Matt Zahr's research poster (2 MB, pdf file)
Awarded "Best Overall Presentation" at NEES Young Researcher Symposium
Emmett Seymour, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student, helped the Concrete Coalition verify and validate their inventory of nonductile concrete buildings in the state of California under the direction of Marjorie Greene, Thalia Anagnos and Craig Comartin.
Download Emmett Seymour's research paper (1 MB, pdf file)
Download Emmett Seymour-s research poster (1 MB, pdf file)