News & Upcoming Events
8M Earthquake Generates Tsunami in Samoa; 7.6M Earthquake Occurs in Indonesia
On Tuesday, September 29, 2009, an earthquake struck, generating 15ft (4.5m) tsunami waves in some areas of the Samoa Islands.² Based on currently available location and fault mechanism information, the USGS infers that the earthquake occurred as a normal fault rupture on or near the outer rise of the subducting Pacific plate.³ Several countries have been hit by the tsunami including: Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Cook Islands, and Japan.
On Wednesday, September 20, 2009, a 7.6M earthquake occurred in Indonesia as a result of oblique-thrust faulting near the subduction interface plate boundary between the Australian and Sunda plates. MCEER's Information Services website has links to preliminary reports, news releases, relief agencies and photo galleries for the quakes in Samoa and Indonesia.
UB Alumnus Speaks About the Transition from University to Professional Practice
Friday, October 2 at 1:00 p.m. | 140 Ketter Hall
The transition from university to professional practice can be formidable. New people, new expectations
and new environments further complicate the transition. One learns that professional practice is
more than calculations on engineering paper. Graeme Ballantyne, a recent SUNY Buffalo graduate student, discussed his transition into professional practice, from Philadelphia and later to San Francisco, both with Thornton-Tomasetti. The seminar was sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSSEE), the CSEE Graduate Student Association, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Student Chapter and MCEER.
ASCE Buffalo Section Meeting to Focus on MCEER-Calspan Partnership
MCEER Director Andre Filiatrault and Calspan Corporation Executive Vice President Thomas Pleban gave a technical presentation on “Multihazard Resilience of Large Civil Engineering Infrastructure” at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Buffalo Section Dinner Meeting on Tuesday, September 22, 2009. They talked about the recent MCEER-Calspan partnership, and the development of a test program that will subject two full-scale bridges and their advanced protective technologies to a wide range of naturally occurring environmental and climatic conditions.
The meeting was held at Classics V, located at 2425 Niagara Falls Blvd. in Amherst, New York. For more information, refer to the ASCE Announcement or visit the Buffalo ASCE Chapter Web Site.
Measuring Community Resilience is Aim of NIST-Sponsored Project
MCEER investigators are expanding the resilience concept to establish a framework to measure the disaster resilience of communities in a new project sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "A Framework for Defining and Measuring Disaster Resilience at the Community Scale" will build on previous research at MCEER linking the four resilience properties (robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity) and resilience dimensions (technical, organizational, societal, and economic). Andrei Reinhorn, University at Buffalo, is the principal investigator of the project.
MCEER and Calspan Partner for Full-Scale Bridge Test
In partnership with Calspan, MCEER will develop two full-scale bridge tests at Calspan’s 700-acre Ashford facility. The Ashford facility will enable Center researchers to subject two adjacent single lane bridges equipped with state-of-the art isolation technologies to harsh, real-world conditions and earthquake vibrations.
The MCEER-Calspan partnership will leverage the infrastructure-research skills of MCEER with the testing expertise of Calspan Corporation, internationally recognized for its rich heritage of innovation and proven excellence in technology and science.
MCEER Research Focuses on Improving Earthquake Response of Substation Equipment
MCEER researchers are working on a series of studies supported by $1.2 million from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the California Energy Commission (CEC). The research will continue a long-time MCEER focus on the seismic resilience of electric power substation equipment. The projects are led by Andrei Reinhorn, in collaboration with Andre Filiatrault and Michael Constantinou. They also include a project advisory committee comprising industry participants that will provide continuing guidance to the research program.
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