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Smart Structures Technologies (SST) is receiving considerable attention as the demands for high performance in structural systems increase. Although both the academic and professional engineering worlds are seeking ways to utilize SST, there is a significant gap between engineering science and engineering practice. To bridge the gap and facilitate the research infusion, San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the University of South Carolina (UofSC) collaborated with industry partners to establish a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site program, which provides undergraduate students a unique opportunity to experience research in both academic and professional settings through cooperative research projects. The objectives of the program were to: 1) provide participants a unique and exciting summer research experience in both academic and industrial environments; 2) prepare students to become the catalysts to help close the gap between engineering science (academia) and engineering practice (industry); and 3) motivate the participants, especially those from underrepresented minority groups (URMs), not only to complete their undergraduate degrees but also to pursue advanced degrees and/or careers in engineering.
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Improving Performance of Connected High-Rise Structures through the Use of Skybridges
With a call in recent years to increase safety and enhance the value of emerging high-rise building clusters, skybridges as linking systems are attacking interest by urban designers and could play a key role in the development of our future cities. While the functional and economic benefits of the skybridges are realized, the effects of skybridges on structural systems are not widely understood. Researchers and practitioners in both academia and industry have been investigating the potential of the skybridge serving to increase the resiliency and sustainability of the connected structures. However, there is a gap between engineering science in academia and engineering practice in industry, which has previously limiting the research outcomes from becoming built realities. Partnering with an industry expert in high-rise building design, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, this study sought to better understand how coupling behaviors between high-rise structures using a skybridge affect various aspects of the individual and the linked structures. In this study, parametric data, including modal information, displacement, shear, and overturning moment were gathered from realistic high-rise structure models to evaluate the structural performance under static and dynamic loading when the skybridge is installed at various locations of the structures.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1659877
- PAR ID:
- 10296728
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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