11th Annual CSCE Student Conference
Friday, January 28 - Saturday, January 29

Responding to the changing forces of nature was the theme for the 11th Annual CSCE Student Conference.  Hosted by students from Western Engineering, the national conference took place January 28 – 29 at the Station Park Inn in downtown London. 

Lectures began Friday with an ensemble of Western’s Civil & Environmental Engineering professors.  Included in the line-up were:

Ø      Professor S.P. Simonovic and his presentation titled “Natural Disasters: Research that Saves Lives.” Simonovic discussed the role of civil engineers in mitigating natural disasters through research as a foundation for action.

Ø      Professor G. Kopp and his presentation titled “Wind Effects on Structures.”  Kopp relayed the importance of code and policy to the successful control of wind damage and loss.

Ø      Professor F.M. Bartlett and his presentation titled “The Three Little Pigs Facility: Testing Full-scale Houses to Destruction.” This facility will be testing full scale buildings to simulated environmental loads and help with comparisons to wind tunnel models.

Staff at the Fanshawe Dam, which helps to manage the watershed area of the Thames River, provided an excellent tour of their facilities.  Conference participants also toured the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, learning about the basics of wind tunnel modelling and testing. 

The conference concluded Saturday, January 29 with two lectures: Professor C. Lin from McGill University presented “Weather Prediction: Past, Present and Future” and explained the main elements of weather forecasting and modelling; and Professor C. Ventura from The University of British Columbia presented “Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Buildings During Severe Earthquakes: Observed and Predicted Response” which demonstrated the response of  buildings to earthquakes and how to calibrate computer models of such structures.