2008 awards

Dean Frieder Seible named Honorary Professor by Chinese University

In early November, 2008, Jacobs School Dean and Structural Engineering Professor, Frieder Seible, was welcomed at Southeast University in Nanjing, China, and was invited to receive an Honorary Professorship there. Southeast University is one of the national key universities administered directly under the Ministry of Education of China, and one of the first universities accredited by the State Council to determine and approve the qualifications of professors, associate professors and doctorial supervisors. Southeast University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in China, with its origin traceable back to 1902. Congratulations to Professor Seible on this impressive accomplishment! During Dr. Seible's visit, he also met with Lu Cunfang, the Vice Minister of Railway of China.

 

Eric Flynn wins "Best Student Paper" Award at ASME 2008 Conference

Ph.D. graduate student Eric Flynn (Dr. Michael Todd, Advisor) won "Best Student Paper" Award at the ASME 2008 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS08), held in Ellicott City, Maryland, October 28-30, 2008. The paper, entitled "Optimal Sensor Placement for Active Sensing," describes a new approach for determining the optimal layout for arranging sensors on a structure in order to make appropriate measurements for detecting and locating damage on that structure. The approach fundamentally employs detection theory, a means to distinguish between a signal and noise, which was adapted from earlier work established in the radar community. The optimal sensor arrangement, found by employing genetic algorithms, is defined as the minimization of either false negatives or false positives (whichever is more important for a given application) observed during the damage detection process. Flynn is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and is leading the effort for the UC San Diego/Los Alamos National Laboratory's Engineering Institute to put together a comprehensive structural health monitoring software package. Congratulations, Eric!

SE Professor and Graduate Student Receive Award for Outreach Event

Professor P. Benson Shing and graduate student Andreas Stavridis were recently awarded the "Most Effective Outreach and Training Activity of 2008" at the Network of Earthquake Engineering Simulations (NEES) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. They were selected for integrating NEES into the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program. A video, made by Stavridis, which compares their National Science Foundation (NSF) research with the work done by COSMOS students, can be viewed by clicking here. Congratulations, Professor Shing and Andreas!

Jennifer Heredia-Garcia Receives SE Department Award

SE student, Jennifer Heredia-Garcia, was selected as the recipient for the Structural Engineering Department Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service. The award was given at this year's Order of the Engineering Ring Ceremony, held Saturday, June 14, 2008, and was presented by Dean Frieder Seible, and was hosted by the Jacobs School of Engineering. This award, initiated by the Triton Engineering Student Council, was created with the purpose of commending students for their outstanding contributions to their department and the engineering community. Ms. Heredia-Garcia is President of UCSD’s Chapter of the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers. Congratulations, Jennifer!

Jennifer Rhymer named winner of AIAA Foundation Award

SE graduate student, Jennifer Rhymer was recently selected as the winner of the 2008 AIAA Foundation Award/William T. Piper, Sr. General Aviation Systems Graduate Award. Funding for this award is provided by endowment gifts from the Piper Aircraft Corporation and the W.T. Piper, Sr. Foundation, in the name of William T. Piper, Sr. combined with support from the General Aviation Systems Technical Committee and the AIAA Foundation. Ms. Rhymer was selected due to her active participation in research endeavors in General Aviation, as part of her graduate studies. Official recognition will be made in conjunction with the Awards Presentations Ceremony at the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting. In addition, the AIAA Foundation will present Ms. Rhymer with a special recognition plaque. Congratulations, Jennifer!

SE Names 2008 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

SE senior Andy Tran was announced as the 2008 Valedictorian at this year’s Senior Reception. SE senior Brandon Tappen was named as the 2008 Salutatorian. Both were selected based upon their winter quarter GPAs. Congratulations to Andy and Brandon!

Structural Engineers Association of San Diego Scholarship Awarded

SE Student, Andy Tran, was recently awarded the Structural Engineers Association of San Diego Scholarship for the 2007-2008 academic year. Congratulations, Andy!

Winners Announced From SE-1 Bridge Competition

During December 2007, final exam month at UCSD, one hundred and twenty students in Prof. Restrepo's SE-1 (Introduction to Structures & Design) class were divided into 30 teams to take an unusual and creative final exam: to build a 9-foot long bridge made of cardboard tubes. The winning team, whose bridge held not only the instructor, but a total weight of 370 pounds, was Team #10, featuring studentsAllison Yu, Denny Fulop, Lacey Cobb, and Marion Buyson.

SE Student Receives Three Prestigious Awards

Anna Pridmore, an SE graduate student researcher was recently named the recipient of three significant awards: 1) The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Honorable Mention); 2) The American Women in Science and Engineering (AWIS) Local Chapter Scholarship; and 3) The Paulette Duve Memorial Scholarship, from the Women's Transportation Seminar. All of these awards were given based on academic achievement and professional activities as well as work experience and community involvement. Congratulations, Anna!

Anna Pridmore Winner of "Best Poster-Structural Engineering" at 2008 Research Expo

The Department of Structural Engineering is pleased to announce the following results from the 2008 Research Expo:
Best Poster (SE): Anna Beth Pridmore (Professor Vistasp Karbhari, Advisor)
Honorable Mention (SE): Matthew Tobolski (Professor Jose Restrepo, Advisor)
Best Use of Literature in Poster (for SE Department): Griffin Brungraber (Professor Karbhari, Advisor)
Visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/re/ for the results of other departments, and for the name of the overall winner. Congratulations to our winners, and to everyone who participated! 

SE Team Takes First Place at National Competition

Six undergraduate SE students traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana from February 6-9, 2008 to compete in the Fifth Annual Seismic Design Competition, against 16 other schools nationwide. UCSD's 2008 Seismic Design Team won first place!

Frieder Seible Wins Bridge Engineering Research Award

Frieder Seible, SE Professor and Jacobs School Dean, was recently named the 2007 Bridge Engineering Association's Research Award winner, at the New York City Bridge Conference in August, 2007. Our congratulations to Dr. Seible!