The UBC EERI Seismic Design Team is an extracurricular, student-operated team hosted at UBC’s Vancouver campus. The club is open to civil engineering undergraduate students from all backgrounds and years with an interest in structural and seismic design.
The team’s focus is to promote the study of earthquake engineering and provide each team member with the opportunity to apply civil engineering and design principles while gaining hands-on experience in a safe and supportive learning environment. The team aims go beyond the classroom, helping curious minds to see familiar challenges in new ways and to discover just how powerful engineering can be. One of the team’s central activities is participation in the annual Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition (SDC), hosted by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Student Leadership Council (SLC). The purpose of entering this competition is to both enrich the experiences of participating UBC students studying seismic design, and to also represent UBC in an event that is internationally recognized. This event gives students the opportunity to apply the complex theories of seismic design to a hands on project, and also network with other motivated students and prominent professionals in the field. The event itself aims to promote the study of Earthquake Engineering and spread awareness of its professional organization.
Students involved in the team gain experience in team work, design and analysis (software modelling), construction difficulties, presentation and competition in a professional and challenging atmosphere.