A team of CE students competed in the Seismic Design Competition held at this year's annual conference of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Feb.12-15 in Seattle, Washington.  The goal of the competition is to create a model of a high-rise building that will replace the Seattle Space Needle, and test the model against seismic loading. The competition is judged by the height, weight and strength of the models.

The Purdue team, comprised of Ben Taylor, Mike Pearce, Matt Stocker, Ron Moore and Barnard Mondal put their tower to the test against 35 other teams. Their work began early in the fall semester, meeting weekly to plan and design the structure. Construction began the first week of spring semester, and they have been working countless hours on the weekends to finish the tower. The team  arrived on the 11th to prepare for the four day conference. They made their team presentation on the 13th, showing off the structure and poster. On the 14th, the towers were tested on the shake table to see how they perform against seismic loading. Finally, the awards banquet was held on the 15th.

The team would like to especially thank ASCE, EERI, TGRWA and Ron Klemencic for their key sponsorship.