Student Research Accomplishments
2002-2003

Best Article Competition

This year marked the first Best Student Article Competition. Members of MCEER’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB) judged the 16 submissions, and selected a winner and three honorable mentions. We congratulate Michael Pollino, University of Buffalo, who was awarded first prize, and Hiram Badillo-Almarez, University of Buffalo, Zehra Cagnan, Cornell University and Yong Gao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who received honorable mentions for their outstanding efforts. All four students were invited to present their research at the 2004 MCEER Annual Meeting. Our thanks go to Sreenivas Alampalli, New York State Department of Transportation, Paul Hough, Armstrong World Industries, Jeremy Isenberg, Weidlinger Associates, Amarnath Kasalanati, Dynamic Isolation Systems, Jon Mochizuki, City of Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power, and Jean-Robert Pierre, Transenergie Hydro Quebec for their reviews and recommendations.

Winner

Michael Pollino

Graduate Student, University at Buffalo, Department of Civil, Structural and Enivronmental Engineering

Research Supervisor: Michel Bruneau, Professor and Director of MCEER

Seismic Retrofit of Bridge Steel Truss Pier Anchorage Connections (602 kb)

Honorable Mention

Hiram Badillo-Almaraz

Graduate Student, University at Buffalo, Department of Civil, Structural and Enivronmental Engineering

Research Supervisor: Andrew S. Whittaker, Associate Professor

Seismic Fragility Testing of Suspended Ceiling Systems (334 kb)

Zehra Cagnan

Graduate Student, Cornell University, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Supervisor: Rachel Davidson, Assistant Professor

Post-earthquake Lifeline Service Restoration Modeling (214 kb)

Yong Gao

Graduate Student, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Supervisor: Billie F. Spencer, Jr., Nathan M. Newmark Professor

Java-Powered Virtual Laboratory for Nonlinear Structural Dynamic Analysis (448 kb)