Cornell Seismic Design Engineering Project

The Cornell Seismic Design Team designs, builds, and tests a scaled multi-story balsa wood tower for an international undergraduate competition hosted every spring at the annual meeting sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). We are immensely grateful for the generosity of donors who have helped our team be successful in the past, and are hoping to expand our budget for the future in order to diversify the work we can do and bring more team members to the competition. Among the expenses that we need your help to cover are a new shake table, which we will use to run earthquake simulations and improve our analysis, balsa wood and building materials to construct our tower, and funds to support our travel to competition to represent Cornell in San Diego, California this coming March.

We work with the greater purpose of creating safer structures for regions impacted by seismic activity. At competition, the tower is scored on a number of categories including architecture, model predictions, building revenue and costs, team presentations, and most importantly whether the structure survives all three ground motions. In 2017, our team ranked 1st out of 33 teams at competition in Portland, Oregon and we need your help to continue our success!

Our team offers a unique opportunity for students interested in all engineering disciplines, especially those focused in construction, structures, architecture, and seismology, to experience the process of bringing a project from an abstract thought to a tangible product. On our cohesive team, students have ample opportunities to experience hands-on construction, learn several different applicable softwares, use a laser cutter, acquire leadership positions, and above all make a substantial impact on the final building!