Shi Receives AISC Travel Grant

Congratulations to Shitao Shi for receiving a Student Travel Grant from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) to attend the November Task Committee and Committee on Specifications meetings in Chicago! This program connects students with AISC Staff mentors and provides the opportunity to meet some of the leading engineers and researchers in the industry and to see firsthand how AISC’s specifications and standards are made. Shitao’s Ph.D. research on seismic stability assessment and design of steel buildings is partially funded by AISC.

Fahnestock Visits Bangladesh

In late July, Larry Fahnestock visited Dhaka, Bangladesh for the Second International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure and Construction Materials, where he delivered a keynote lecture and spoke at the closing ceremony about the legacy of Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan. CICM 2023 focused on the theme of Resilience and Sustainability, and it was organized in honor of Dr. Khan, who earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1955 and went on to design iconic structures around the world. Along with all of his engineering accomplishments, Dr. Khan was known for his heart for people. He said, “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people.”

Larry Fahnestock at closing ceremony of CICM 2023.

Zhou Presents at IBC 2022

Congratulations to PhD candidate Sunny Zhou for presenting today at the International Bridge Conference in Pittsburgh! Sunny’s presentation, “Construction and Live Load Behavior of a Skewed Steel I-Girder Bridge,” describes a portion of the ongoing project “Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Load Distribution in Steel Bridge Superstructures,” which is sponsored by the Illinois Center for Transportation. Accompanying the IBC presentation is a peer-reviewed paper in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, which is now available online:

Zhou, S., Fahnestock, L.A., LaFave, J.M. and Dorado, R. “Construction and Live Load Behavior of a Skewed Steel I-Girder Bridge,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (published online July 14, 2022) https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221105276

2022 NASCC Registration Open

Registration is now open for 2022 NASCC: The Steel Conference, scheduled for Denver from March 23-25. The Steel Conference is the premier educational and networking event for the structural steel industry, bringing together structural engineers, structural steel fabricators, erectors, detailers, and architects. One low registration fee gains you access to all of the technical sessions, the keynote addresses, the T.R. Higgins Lecture, and the exhibitor showcase. Registration for AISC members is $420 beginning today (it increases $15 each week, so be sure to register early!) with discounts available for additional registrants from the same firm.

Sessions range from a focus on design & analysis to business sessions to safety. The event also encompasses the NISD Steel Detailing Conference, QualityCon, the World Steel Bridge Symposium, and the SSRC Annual Stability Conference. You can see the full schedule, along with session descriptions, by visiting aisc.org/nascc. AISC is committed to following all local, state, and national requirements for safely holding the event. You can view the current requirements at denverconvention.com/coronavirus-information. For those who don’t wish to attend in person, we’ll be streaming selected sessions.

Paper on Frame-Spine-FLC Testing at E-Defense

In December 2020 – as part of the NSF-funded project “Collaborative Research: Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections for Low-Damage Seismic-Resilient Buildings” –  researchers from the University of Illinois, Lehigh University, Oregon State University, Kyoto University, Hokkaido University and E-Defense conducted full-scale building earthquake simulations on the shake table at the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center (E-Defense).  The four-story building employed a novel low-damage structural system and the building was furnished with hospital fixtures and equipment to evaluate protection of occupants and building contents.  The testing program concluded on December 17 with an earthquake simulation using an input acceleration record from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake (100% JMA Kobe video linked).  A paper that provides an overview of the testing program was presented at the 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering:

Fahnestock, L., Sause, R., Simpson, B., Ricles, J., Kurata, M., Okazaki, T., Kawamata, Y., Tao, Z., Duke, J., Rivera, D., Astudillo, B. and Qie, Y. “U.S.-Japan Collaboration for Shake Table Testing of a Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections,” Paper No. C004765, 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Sendai, Japan.

Fahnestock Invited to SDSS 2022

Larry Fahnestock has been invited to deliver a keynote lecture at the 2022 edition of the International Colloquium on Stability and Ductility of Steel Structures (SDSS 2022), to be held at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, on 14-16 September. The event next year will mark the 50-year anniversary for this series of SDSS colloquia, which was started in Paris, France (1972).  The SDSS colloquia series – supported by the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) and the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) – provides a forum for discussion and dissemination, by researchers and designers, of the most recent advances in theoretical, numerical and experimental research in the field of stability and ductility of steel and composite steel and concrete structures.

SSRC I-RISE Summit

On October 1, the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) will host Day 2 of the Innovations for Research-to-Industry Stability Engagement (I-RISE) Summit.  This virtual event is facilitating discussions between industry professionals and steel structural stability researchers about pressing structural stability research needs.  On Day 1 (June 18), over 60 researchers and practicing engineers participated in plenary and breakout sessions to develop a set of promising stability research themes based on industry needs.  On Day 2, researchers will present research needs statements and project ideas for review and feedback.  Subsequently, researchers will refine the project ideas for consideration by funding agencies.  The event is open to anyone interested.  Contact ssrc@aisc.org to obtain Zoom meeting coordinates.

2021 AISC Educator Workshop

On August 5, AISC is offering a workshop to help educators enhance steel courses. The session will include teaching tips and resources covering topics like the importance of design, how students learn, how to design a steel course, using hands-on demonstrations to help students visualize behavior, learning outside the classroom, and how AISC teaching aids can enhance your course.  Read more and sign up here!