Episode 4 Data And Trained People

In this episode, host Dan Zehner talks with UC San Diego’s Darren McKay, development engineer and operations manager for LHPOST, the world’s largest outdoor shake table. The shake table, part of the UCSD Jacobs School of Civil Engineering, is one of NHERI’s 8 experimental facilities. At McKay’s site, researchers “build big.” They construct full-scale and near-full scale structures, often multiple-story buildings, to test designs for seismic reliability. McKay introduces three engineering students who did summer research at the facility as part of NHERI’s research experiences for undergraduates program. The REU students relate their experiences doing hands-on things like setting up instrumentation, applying sensors and analyzing data -- and using construction power tools for the first time. A little scary! And find out what NOT to wear when spending the summer climbing in and around a large-scale test structure. Also, learn why safety is a top priority at the facility, when McKay tells anecdotes about engineers don’t follow safety protocols. Feeling goulish, host Dan Zehner asks everyone to tell their favorite natural disaster story – including the one about a plane-ride through a typhoon. Lastly, find out about the engineering research capabilities of the LHPOST shake table, where multi-university research projects are the order of the day – even if the schools are football rivals like Oregon State and the University of Washington.