Engineers from all over New Zealand will gather in Christchurch this week to share and exchange knowledge on earthquake science and how to increase the country’s quake resilience.
The New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) will hold its annual conference on April 14 to 16 at the University of Canterbury, with the theme “Turning challenges into positive legacies”. The conference is supported by the Earthquake Commission (EQC).
“Earthquake engineering in New Zealand has made huge leaps and we have learned many lessons since the Canterbury earthquakes, but there are still plenty of challenges and new solutions ahead,” said Helen Ferner, president of NZSEE.
“The conference provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact of the Canterbury earthquakes 10 years on, review the lessons learnt from the event and over the subsequent decade, and, most importantly, look to the future work that needs to be done for a seismically resilient Aotearoa.”
As part of its thrust to foster the next generation of earthquake engineers, NZSEE will hold a design competition, where teams of young professional engineers and post-graduate students are asked to design and construct a scale model building that will be subjected to a shake table test on the lunch break of the conference’s second day.
Meanwhile, EQC will host a who-is-who in earthquake engineering, which it says will bring together the brightest and most experienced engineers from universities and practice.
“Over the past 10 years there have been many advances and innovations in how we build,” said EQC chief resilience and research officer, Dr Jo Horrock. “EQC is very pleased to be a key supporter of bringing together so many engineers to freely share their knowledge for the benefit of all New Zealanders.”
