Graduate Research Assistant Field Mission 2004
In mid-July, five Mid-America Earthquake Center graduate students joined six students from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center , three students from the Multi-disciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, and two students from Southern California Earthquake Center on an earthquake field training mission to Japan. MAE Center students Jayram Ramachandran, Tracy Smith, and Oh-Sung Kwon of the University of Illinois and Jamie Padgett and Leonardo DueOsorio from Georgia Institute of Technology all received travel fellowships to participate in the field mission. Sue White, an earth science middle school teacher from Many Farms, AZ, was also a participant, sponsored by the MAE Center .
The group gathered in Los Angeles for a pre-trip briefing on July 16 before departing for Japan the following day. Dr. Scott Ashford, the PEER Center 's Assistant Director for Education, who led the group, discussed professional and cultural expectations in Japan as well as goals for the trip.
The first stop was Waseda University where the students heard lectures by Masanori Hamada and other faculty and students on their research. A representative from each EERC then gave a presentation on goals and research of the NSF centers. The following day the group toured Tokyo Bay before being given an extensive tour of the Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI). Highlights of this tour included a three-dimensional underwater shake table, centrifuge and laminar box for geotechnical experiments, and multiple wave simulators.
On Wednesday, July 21, students traveled to Tsukuba and visited the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster, the Building Research Institute, and the Public Works Research Institute. These tours highlighted facilities that are among the largest in the world for earthquake engineering research.
On July 22, the group traveled to Kyoto where they attended lectures at Kyoto University . Students toured the structural lab where they saw experiments on structural retrofit strategies for both steel structures and historic Shinto shrines. Two Kyoto University graduate students gave presentations on their current work, and compared their experiences with the visitors.
Friday was the last day of the tour. The group visited the E-Defense shake table facility in Miki City , the largest shake table in the world. Finally, they visited the Hanshin Expressway Museum in Kobe , which preserves damage specimens from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and keeps records of the reconstruction.
The students returned to their respective home institutions on Saturday, July 24 to prepare presentations that compare earthquake research in Japan to that in the United States . Each student will make at least one presentation to their institution or research center.
