Research Assistants Symposium 1999

The second annual MAE Center RA Symposium was held October 22-23, 1999, at Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois. The theme of the symposium was How to Assess and Reduce Earthquake Losses. More than fifty MAE Center research assistants participated in the event, which provided an opportunity for meeting and for discussing current research and cross-disciplinary activities. A Student Leadership Council, linking student researchers from all MAE Center institutions, was established at the symposium. Scott Olson of the University of Illinois was elected chair of the new SLC. The SLC worked to develop a mission statement and to define membership of the Council.

This poster session was the feature of Friday night’s activity. Each research assistant prepared a poster and participants voted on best poster. The $100 award for best poster was won by Dominic Assimaki of MIT and depicted her research on Frequency - and Depth Dependent Attenuation of Strong Ground Motions in Deep Sites.
The Saturday sessions featured presentations by MAE Center Director Dan Abrams on the Center’s approach to reducing earthquake losses and Phillip Gould of Washington University. John Nichols, MAE Center, and Mark Aschheim and Youssef Hashash of the University of Illinois presented case studies on damage in recent earthquakes. Laurie Johnson, Risk Management Solutions, discussed loss assessment methodologies. Steve French, Georgia Institute of Technology, led the loss assessment exercise, in which students, working in cross-disciplinary teams, estimated their own losses for a sample community. An informal gathering of graduate student participants concluded the symposium on Saturday night.