Bangkok--14 Aug--Asian Institute of Technology
“Earthquake engineering is going through a ground-shaking,” renowned President and CEO of Computers and Structures, Inc., American Mr. Ashraf Habibullah told a large crowd of structural engineering experts in Thailand as he introduced a one-day seminar titled “The theory and practice of Performance-Based Design: The Future of Earthquake Engineering.”
The international technology transfer event in Bangkok on 7 August 2014 was staged by California-based CSI in collaboration with AIT Consulting, ACECOMS and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The sold-out one-day conference attracted 137 participants representing 83 organizations from Thailand and nine other countries in Asia.
Mr. Habibullah, the charismatic founder of CSI, which is recognized globally as the leader in the development of software tools for structural and earthquake engineering, headlined the day-long event as the keynote speaker. He delivered four technology-packed presentations on the benefits of performance-based design, which he described as “a major shift from traditional structural engineering design concepts.”
AIT Vice President for Academic Affairs Prof. Sivanappan Kumar delivered the welcome remarks on behalf of the institute. In his words of thanks to Dr. Naveed Anwar, Executive Director, AIT Consulting, and his team of organizers, he noted the regional impact made by AIT structural engineers in the field of earthquake engineering, and in particular the role played by ACECOMS through its longstanding cooperation with CSI.
Also gracing the event was a diplomatic representative from the Embassy of Pakistan to Thailand, Bangkok. Assoc. Prof. Anek Siripanichgorn, Chairperson, Civil Engineering Committee, Engineering Institute of Thailand, attended as a special guest and addressed the participants. Accompanying Mr. Habibullah was Mr. Syed Hasanain Muzami, Executive Vice President, CSI, USA, and Ms. Marilyn Wilkes, Senior Vice President, CSI, USA.
The CSI President and CEO presented the theory and practical application of nonlinear analysis and performance-based design with terms and analogies that were very familiar to the practicing structural engineers who attended.
Mr. Habibullah emphasized that PBD provides a new method for determining acceptable levels of earthquake damage. It is based on the recognition that yielding does not constitute failure of a structure and that preplanned yielding of certain parts of a structure during an earthquake can actually help to save the rest of the structure, he said.
AIT’s own Professor Pennung Warnitchai, a highly recognized earthquake engineering expert from the AIT School of Engineering and Technology, joined Mr. Habibullah as a speaker, opening the seminar with a presentation of the latest structural engineering research being conducted at AIT concerning earthquakes and wind. He also shed light on the present seismic risks in Thailand and the region, as well as the various work of AIT researchers to improve designs to mitigate the impact of such natural hazards.
Participants were largely senior-level structural engineers and practitioners drawn from the private sector, governments and universities around the region, AIT Consulting organizers said. Notable attendees included representatives of the Committee for Quality Control of High-Rise Buildings Construction Projects – Myanmar, Nepal Engineering Council, Association of Structural Engineering of the Philippines, Building and Construction Authority of Singapore, and leading consulting firms from within the Asia-Pacific region.
According to Dr. Naveed Anawar, Executive Director, AIT Consulting, the PBD seminar was previously held in San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles, and was organized in Bangkok for the first time to benefit of the construction industry and engineering professionals in Asia.
Today, CSI software is used by thousands of engineering firms in over 160 countries for the design of major projects, including the One World Trade Center in New York City, the Burj-e-Khalifa in Dubai, and the 2008 Olympics’ “Bird’s Nest” Stadium in Beijing, China.
Photo caption: Mr. Ashraf Habibullah