PEER coordinates a 10-week summer internship program for undergraduate students that is focused on the theme of earthquake resilient communities. With funding from the National Science Program, eleven interns from a variety of backgrounds and universities participated in the 2011 program.

To show the importance of multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration, PEER assigns participating undergraduate interns with a project in one of the following disciplines: structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, urban planning, or public policy.  The interns are then assigned faculty and graduate student mentors who help them complete a unique research project at one of the three partnering research sites: University of California Davis, University of Washington, and University of California Berkeley.  During the summer of 2011, the interns at University of California Berkeley completed projects in collaboration with both San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) and University of California, San Diego.

As a final research deliverable, each intern was required to prepare a final research report.  PEER report 2011/10, “Earthquake Engineering for Resilient Communities: 2011 PEER Internship Program Research Report Collection” is a compilation of the final research papers written by the 2011 interns.  Professsor Stephen Mahin, the project PI, and Heidi Faison, the REU program coordinator, are editors of this report.

Visit the PEER publications page to download a free color pdf of the report.

A list of the institutions, projects, interns, and mentors is listed below:

University of California, Berkeley, and SPUR Projects

• – “Assessing and Mapping Earthquake Damage in Christchurch, New Zealand” was completed by intern David Deutsch under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jose Restrepo and Dr. Matt Schoettler (University of California, San Diego) Note: Deutsch conducted his research at UC Berkeley with a two week site visit to Christchurch, New Zealand, funded under National Science Foundation RAPID award CMMI-1138358.
• – “The Resilient City: Achieving Shelter-in-Place in San Francisco” was completed by intern Amanjot (Amy) Dhaliwal under the supervision of the following mentors: Sarah Karlinsky (SPUR), Professor Mary Comerio (UC Berkeley), and Laura Dwelley-Samant (consultant).
• – “The Resilient City: San Francisco Shelter-in-Place Analysis” was completed by intern John Pham under the supervision of the following mentors: Sarah Karlinsky (SPUR), Professor Mary Comerio (UC Berkeley), and Laura Dwelley-Samant (consultant).

University of California, Davis

• – “Overburden Correction Factor and the Effect of Fines Content on the Limiting Compression Curve of Intermediate Soils” was completed by intern Christopher Kissick under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Ross Boulanger and Jason Dejong, and Ian Maki.
• – “How Well Are Fines and Plasticity Represented in Liquefaction Triggering Curves?” was completed by intern Christopher Krage under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Ross Boulanger and Jack Montgomery.
• – “Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation in Partially Saturated Soils” was completed by intern Andrew Makdisi under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jason Dejong and Brian Martinez.
• – “The Effect of Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation on the Liquefaction Resistance of Sand” was completed by intern Douglas Spitzer under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jason Dejong and Brina Mortensen.

University of Washington

• – “High-volume SCM Concrete in Composite Construction” was completed by intern Gulzat Atymtayeva under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Charles Roeder and  Dawn Lehman, and Arni Gunnarsson.
• – “CFT Bridge Pier Connections” was completed by intern Zhi Long Liu under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Charles Roeder and Dawn Lehman, and Kenneth O’Neil (University of Washington).
• – “Earthquake Resiliency: Managing Waste Water Sector Vulnerabilities through Green Infrastructure and Related Policies” was completed by intern Jason Naanos under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Peter May and Ashley Jochim.
• – “Disaster Resilience of Maritime Ports” was completed by intern Sarah Welsh-Huggins under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Peter May and Ashley Jochim.

Funding for the 2011 PEER Internship Program is provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EEC-1063138, as a part of NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Program.

For more information about the 2011 PEER Internship Program, visit:
http://peer.berkeley.edu/education/summer_internship_program2011.html.