Auckland wins international design competition

Media Release
5 October 2007

Auckland wins international earthquake design competition

With wooden sticks, string and glue, engineering students from The University of Auckland have proved they can design the most earthquake-resistant buildings in the Asia-Pacific.

The Auckland team beat 34 other universities from Asia, Australia and New Zealand to claim the coveted trophy and $20,000 Taiwanese dollars (about $800NZD) at the 2007 IDEERS Earthquake Engineering Design Competition in Taiwan.

It is the first time since the competition began seven years ago that a non-Taiwanese team has won the undergraduate division.

The students were Dmytro Dizhur (Birkdale), John O'Hagen (Waihi), Rohann Da Silva (Waitakere) and Ronald Lumantarna (Birkenhead).

The competition challenges engineering students to construct a three-storey, L-shaped building using only wood, paper, glue, string and rubber bands, in a 6.5 hour time slot. The model must reflect the principals of actual building design and hold weights on each of its floors.

The models are then subjected to earthquakes on a shaking-table, the intensity increasing until the buildings collapse. The models are judged on their strength and efficiency.

“This win confirms New Zealand’s and The University of Auckland’s strength in Earthquake Engineering education,” says Quincy Ma, from the Earthquake Engineering Research Group. “A strong model will not necessarily perform better in an earthquake, in fact they typically perform worse. The best designs demonstrate an advanced understanding of the principles of seismic design, structural dynamics and structural mechanics, all taught as part of an engineering degree.”

The competition was held from September 28 to 30. The students selected to travel to Taiwan were high achieving undergraduates in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Three of the students will continue on to PhD studies in earthquake engineering from next year.

The team was sponsored to travel to Taiwan by the Earthquake Commission New Zealand, as a gesture of support for earthquake research in New Zealand. British Council Taipei sponsored the team’s stay in Taiwan.

The University’s Earthquake Engineering Group researches ways to mitigate the effects of earthquake and related effects for society, with an overall emphasis on performance of structures during seismic activity.

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