Fourth Annual EKS Retreat
February 2008
Fourth Annual EKS Retreat
The University of Illinois' Allerton Park was the site of the 4th Annual EKS Retreat the weekend of February 16th and 17th. Students and faculty of Professors Amr Elnashai, Dan Kuchma, and Bill Spencer (EKS) gathered Saturday morning to listen to special guest and keynote speaker Professor Emeritus Bill Hall, beginning a weekend focused on sharing research. Professor Bill Hall opened the event with a discussion on the Trans-Alaska Petroleum Pipeline, which included the design planning and construction execution of the project.
Five sessions of student presentations ensued over course of the two-day event. Each session had a different focus, as follows: Session 1, Buildings, Components, and Experimental Research; Session 2, Structural Health Monitoring; Session 3, Computational Models and Analysis Tools; Session 4, Earthquake Impact and Risk Assessment; and Session 5, Bridges and Experimental Research. While the information shared by all 25 student presenters was quite varied and extremely high-quality, each provided all attendees with an appreciation of their fellow researchers work.
Other events at the retreat included the Second Annual EKS Poster Session Saturday afternoon, group games on Saturday evening, and an awards session wrapped up the event Sunday afternoon. Participants in the Poster Session featured their recent work and accomplishments in addition to highlighting future work. This poster session provided a casual environment for students, faculty and special guests to discuss those research topics not covered in formal presentations. The first night concluded with an icebreaker, where students socialized with one another, followed by a Jeopardy trivia game which included facts about engineering formulas, acronyms, history, and UIUC trivia among other subjects. Additional late-night activities included run-around-the-table ping-pong, poker, and socializing.
Awards were given out to the best presenters, poster submissions, and best participant based on student and guest evaluations immediately following the luncheon on Sunday. Jianping Han, student of Dr. Spencer, won the 'Best Poster' contest for his work entitled, "Seismic Evaluation on Palms Together Dagoba of Famen Temple by Shaking Table Model Test." Jennifer Rice, a student of Dr. Spencer, was voted 'Best Presentation' for her work entitled, "Imote2 Sensor Board with Versatile DSP." Additional prizes were awarded to second and third places in both poster and presentation categories. Hussam Mahmoud, a student of Dr. Elnashai, won the best participant award for being active in both question and discussion after a participants presentation. The 4th Annual EKS Retreat proved to be not only informative, but also fun, for all those involved.
