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About Us
Building a Resilient Future
At Cornell Seismic Design, our mission is to build a resilient future by equipping students with the knowledge and skills to address real-world structural challenges and contribute to the advancement of seismic design and engineering.
Our Collaborative Community
Here at Cornell Seismic Design, we foster a collaborative community where students can learn from each other and grow their skills in engineering, design, and project management. Throughout the academic year, we learn and collaborate in concentration meetings, and at the end of the year we travel to the competition to present all of our work and celebrate together.
Hands-On Learning
Our members engage in hands-on learning experiences and gain practical skills in structural design, analysis, and construction through our projects and workshops. Every member on the team, from new freshmen to the team leads, participate in weekly construction shifts where we build our competition model. Construction shifts are a great place for members to bond as we listen to music, talk, learn, and build.
Empowering Future Leaders
We are committed to nurturing the next generation of leaders in civil engineering, architecture, and related fields by providing opportunities for growth, mentorship, and professional development.
Our Concentrations
Throughout structural design, architecture, seismology, and business meetings we work together to construct our award-winning towers each year. Each student on the team affiliates with a concentration and helps create their concentration's final deliverables, such as the architectural renderings, the structural design and analysis, the competition poster, and the final presentation.
Structural Design
To perform well at competition, our tower must be designed to survive a scaled earthquake ground motion, maximize floor area, and minimize the structure’s self-weight and interstory drift. During the design process, our members get to apply structural design principles learned in classes to create an efficient and stable structure. Our structural designs place an emphasis on resisting lateral seismic forces and vertical gravitational loads, while adhering to competition constraints. Our design team utilizes software like AutoCAD and SAP2000 to design and predict the building’s performance during seismic events.
Architecture
Architecture brings our design to life through the unconstrained exploration of the building’s character. The architecture team has the unique challenge of integrating our structure into the aesthetic landscape and the broader urban context. Members prioritize sustainability and human-centered design, alongside the visual appeal of the building’s form and facade. Members have the chance to explore various softwares such as Rhino, Lumion, and D5 as we develop models of the building’s facade, floor plans, and interior design.
Seismology
How can we understand and reduce our building’s motion during an earthquake? To answer this fundamental question, the seismology concentration investigates ground motion analysis, structural dynamics models, and seismic wave physics. We also spearhead the development, engineering, and testing of mechanical dampers to mitigate tower motion. Using the shake table, capable of simulating any ground motion, we test and analyze our structures' resilience to seismic events.
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Business and PR
The business and PR concentration keeps our team running with important behind-the-scenes work such as budgeting, outreach, and recruitment. They work nonstop to keep up our social media and corporate relationships, and keep us on track to meet our fundraising goals each year. Their hard work is crucial in recruiting new members and organizing the team's travel to competition every year.