The University of Nevada, Reno's seismic design team placed in the top 10 out of nearly 40 schools at the annual Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) competition held in Boston from March 30th to April 3rd.

The University's seismic design team was created three years ago as part of the student chapter of EERI. EERI focuses on research for designing more effective earthquake-resistant structures for regions with high seismic activity. Every year, EERI holds an international conference on earthquake engineering, which includes a seismic design competition for college undergraduates.

Competition teams are asked to build a five-foot tall structure out of balsa wood and glue. The structures are placed on a shake table that tests their performance under three different earthquake scenarios.

In addition to withstanding the three earthquake motions, which only 17 out of 38 teams were able to do, teams are judged based on a calculation of the model building's annual income, which includes rentable floor space as well as points for architecture, communication and analysis, minus costs of construction and seismic safety. Overall the team finished in 8th place out of the 38 schools that competed.

For the competition this year, the team designed a structure that had a high stiffness at its base and more flexibility at the top. The design took two weeks to build and was ready in time for the competition. Getting the structure to the competition proved difficult, and the team had to cut the structure into three pieces in order to take it on the plane. The team was worried that cutting the structure would ultimately cause the it to fail, but the University's model survived all three of the ground motions with minimal damage, placing in the top ten for seismic cost. Only 17 out of 38 teams competing survived all three motions.

"This is a huge success for the team, and something they can build on in future years," said Ramin Motamed, faculty advisor of the team. "The Civil and Environmental Engineering department is proud of the team's achievement and we look forward to the next year's competition which will be held in conjunction with the 2016 EERI annual meeting in San Francisco, California."