Wednesday, January 13, 2016 | By Lindsay Cashin
The Applied Technology Council (ATC) and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers selected the BC Schools Retrofit Program, developed by UBC Civil Engineering’s Earthquake Engineering Research Facility (EERF) in conjunction with APEGBC, to receive a Champions of Earthquake Resilience Award in the category of “Extraordinary Innovation in Seismic Protection of Buildings.” Dr. Armin Bebamzadeh, Civil Engineering Research Associate, represented the EERF team at the awards dinner during the ATC-SEI conference last month in San Francisco.
This award recognizes a program demonstrating “outstanding recent applications of the principles and practice of innovative seismic resistant solutions and technologies” in the design of new or retrofit of existing large buildings. Each in the Champions of Earthquake Resilience series of awards, honours a program or project that has (or will have) significant impact on public safety.
Since 2004, guidelines developed under the BC Schools Retrofit Program have been applied to the seismic assessment and retrofit of schools across BC. Dr. Carlos Ventura, Civil Engineering professor and Director of the EERF, notes that this latest award “is a great reflection of the impact that our earthquake engineering research program has not only nationally but also internationally.”