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 Foundation (NSF), twenty interns from a variety of backgrounds and universities participated in the 2013 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, risk mitigation, urban planning, or public policy. The interns were matched with a combination of faculty, postdoctoral, graduate student, and professional mentors who help them complete a unique research project at one of the five partnering research sites for 2013: City and County of San Francisco, Stanford University, University of California-Davis, University of Washington, and University of California-Berkeley.

As a final research deliverable, each intern was required to prepare a final research report. PEER report 2013/25, “Earthquake Engineering for Resilient Communities: 2013 PEER Internship Program Research Report Collection” is a compilation of the final research papers written by the 2013 interns. Professor Stephen Mahin, the project PI, and Heidi Tremayne, 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 Washington

• – “Interface Strength between Roughened Precast Columns and Footing” was completed by interns Matt Brosman and David Lam under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Marc Eberhard and John Stanton, and graduate students Bryan Kennedy and Jeffrey Schaefer.
• – “Composite Action of Concrete Filled Tubes” was completed by intern Donovan Holder under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Dawn Lehman and Charles Roeder, and graduate student Max Taylor Stephens.
• – “Evaluation of the Optotrak System for Concentrically Braced Steel Frames” was completed by intern Kelli Slaven under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jeffrey Berman, and graduate students Molly Johnson, Dan Sloat, and Andy Sen.
• – “Evaluating a Welded CFT-to-Cap-Beam Connection Detail” was completed by intern Vivian Steyert under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Dawn Lehman and Charles Roeder, and graduate student Max Taylor Stephens.

University of California, Davis

• – “Effect of Fines and Plasticity on Evaluating Sample Disturbance” was completed by intern Shelly Dean under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jason DeJong and graduate student Christopher Krage.
• – “One-dimensional Compressibility of Intermediate Non-plastic Soil Mixtures” was completed by intern Sean Salazar under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Jason DeJong and Ross Boulanger, and graduate students Ana Maria Parra and Adam Price.
• – “Biostimulation of Native Ureolytic Bacteria for Biocementation of Sands” was completed by intern Salvador Tena under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jason DeJong and graduate student Michael Gomez.
• – “Risk Analysis of Levee Failure: Optimization of levee height and crown width” was completed by intern Elizabeth Jachens under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jay Lund and graduate students Rui Hui and Nathan Burley.

University of California, Berkeley

• – “Seismic Performance Assessment of Pre-1988 Steel Concentrically Braced Frames” was completed by intern Mara Minner under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Stephen Mahin, post-doctoral researcher Jiun-Wei Lai, and graduate student Barbara Simpson.
• – “Economic Loss Assessment for an Existing Tall Building” was completed by intern Melissa Quinonez under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Stephen Mahin, post-doctoral researcher Matthew Schoettler and Jiun-Wei Lai.
• – “Seismic Performance of an Existing Tall Steel Building” was completed by intern Lorena Rodriguez under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Stephen Mahin, post-doctoral researcher Matthew Schoettler and Jiun-Wei Lai.
• – “Performance of Concrete Shear Wall Boundary Elements under Pure Compression” was completed by intern Jorge Archbold Monterrosa under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jack Moehle and graduate student Carlos Arteta.
• – “Exploring Adequate Layout for Ductile Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls Boundary Elements in Compression” was completed by intern Daniela Martinez Lopez under the supervision of the following mentors: Professor Jack Moehle and graduate student Carlos Arteta.

City and County of San Francisco

• – “Seismic Safety of San Francisco’s Private Schools” was completed by intern Julia Pavicic under the supervision of the following mentor: Laurence Kornfield.
• – “Improving San Francisco’s Seismic Resiliency through Retrofits of Cripple Wall Homes” was completed by intern Jenny Taing under the supervision of the following mentor: Laurence Kornfield.

Stanford University

• – “Torsion-Induced Sliding Displacement in Isolated Light-Frame Structures” was completed by intern Curtis Fong under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Gregory Deierlein and Eduardo Miranda, and graduate student Ezra Jampole.
• – “Sliding Base Isolation for Light-Frame Residential Housing” was completed by intern Katherine deLaveaga under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Gregory Deierlein and Eduardo Miranda, and graduate student Ezra Jampole.
• – “Evaluating the Bonding Properties of Various Construction Adhesives to Determine the Best Overall Product for the Light-Frame Unibody System” was completed by intern Rakeeb Khan under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Gregory Deierlein, Ben Fell, and Eduardo Miranda, and graduate student Cristian Acevedo.
• – “Modeling of Light-Frame Unibody Residential Buildings” was completed by intern Geffen Oren under the supervision of the following mentors: Professors Gregory Deierlein and Eduardo Miranda, and graduate student Scott Swenson.

Funding for the 2013 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 2013 PEER Internship Program, visit:
http://peer.berkeley.edu/education/summer_internship_program2013.html.