MEMBERS
Tracy Becker
Assistant Professor
Dr. Becker has significant experience in the field of structural control technologies, especially isolation. Her work includes: modeling and characterization testing of friction pendulum bearings, low cost isolation retrofit schemes, high-rise isolation, and hybrid testing of midlevel isolation among other topics.
Dr. Becker started at UC Berkeley in January 2019. She was previously an assistant professor at McMaster University (Canada) which she joined after spending a year and a half as a JSPS postdoctorate fellow at the Distaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University. She received her PhD and MS degrees at UC Berkeley and her BS degree at UC San Diego. Dr. Becker is registered as a Professional Engineer in Ontario.
Ahmed Abdelmasouk
2nd year PhD student - McMaster University
Ahmed is co-supervised by Dr. George Balomenos. He earned his B.Sc. degree and M.Sc from Cairo University in Egypt in 2014. His master’s research was in the evaluation of the response modification factor of high rise RC structures with dual systems. His research interests includes earthquake engineering and design and analysis of RC structures.
Camila Lopez Ruiz
1st year PhD student
Camila obtained her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University at Buffalo, SUNY in 2018. She was part of the 2018-2019 UC Berkeley SEMM program and is staying at Berkeley to pursue a PhD focusing on mechanical behavior of isolation bearings for bridges and hybrid simulation. Camila enjoys actively participating and organizing educational outreach activities.
Huy Pham
MS/PhD student
Huy received his BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His undergraduate research focused on optimization and design of ducted marine turbines. His current general research interests are earthquake engineering, and numerical modeling, and structure performance under extreme loading events.
Minesh Patel
2nd year MASc student- McMaster University
Minesh received his Masters' degree from University College of London (UCL) and worked as a Graduate Bridge Engineer in the UK. His main research interests include bridge engineering, bridge design, and earthquake engineering.
Richard Darlington
2nd year MASc student - McMaster University
Richard works on lifetime cost savings from column-top isolation as well as behavior and limits of bearings in these systems. Richard became interested in earthquake engineering during his time as a captain of the undergraduate seismic design team. He is now a graduate student advisor for the team. Richard recieved an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and an NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship for his research.
Josh Hoekstra
2nd year MASc student - McMaster University
Josh is co-supervised by Dr. Tait. His general research interests include incorporating vertical accelerations into isolation design. Josh was a member of the seismic design team during his undergrad and volunteered as an adviser to this year’s team. He recieved an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for his research.
Logan Hall
Undergraduate student researcher
Logan is an undergraduate in his junior year from Santa Barbara, California. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include bridge design, seismic engineering, and control systems.
Past Members
Yu Bao
PhD - McMaster University, finished December 2017
Yu's PhD focused on the performance of friction sliding devices under extreme events. His general research interests include earthquake engineering, numerical modeling, structural dynamics, and seismic protection devices. Yu is now an assistant professor at Wuhan University of Technology.
Yanqing Xu
visiting PhD student - Southeast University (China)
Yanqing is working on the optimization of TFP bearings under multiple hazard levels and types. He stayed with us for 1 year at McMaster University and has now returned to his home university.
Mohammadreza Najafi
MASc - McMaster University, finished May 2019
Mohammadreza was co-supervised by Dr. Dimitri Konstantinidis. He investigated benefits of adaptive vertical isolation systems for equipment under seismic loading.
Hossein Mohammadi
MASc - McMaster University, finished December 2018
Hossein looked at using material level architecture through heat treatment to designing steel components focusing on creating more ductile gusset plates for concentrically braced frames.
Bryanna Noade
MASc - McMaster University, finished August 2018
Bryanna's thesis focused on lifetime demands on bridge bearings. Bryanna recieved an NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship as well as ACI Scholarship for her research. She is currently working at Harbourside Engineering Consultants.
Adrian Crowder
MASc - McMaster University, finished June 2016
Adrian worked on the effects of substructure flexibility on seismic isolation systems, for which he won 2nd place in the Student Paper Competition at the 2016 CSCE Conference. Adrian also acted as a graduate student adviser for the McMaster Seismic Design Team. Adrian is now working at Bryson Markulin Zickmantel Structural Engineers.
Ashkan Ezazi
MASc - McMaster University, finished July 2015
Ashkan's research was a numerical study on an innovative isolation system called dual isolation, in which two layers of isolation at the base and mid-story are used for enhanced seismic protection of buildings. Ashkan is now working at exp Services Inc.
Xiaoyang Ji
MEng - McMaster University, finished Sept 2017
Andrew Dittrick
MEng - McMaster University, finished Dec 2016
Griffin Dow
Undergraduate student - McMaster University, finished 2017
Griffin worked with Yu Bao in the lab to study the performance of friction sliding devices under extreme events, especially helping with the sensor and data acquisition portion of the setup. Griffin is now working at Bryson Markulin Zickmantel Structural Engineers in Vancouver.
Mayank Batra
Summer undergraduate student - McMaster University, 2016
Mayank spent summer 2016 in our lab through the Mitacs Globalink Program, working on earthquake motion selection and OpenSees modeling of column-top isolation systems. Mayank went on to his masters at UC Berkeley and is now at Buehler Engineering Inc.
Jacquelyn Spadzinski
Summer undergraduate student - McMaster University, 2017
Jacquelyn is a part of the mechanical engineering department. She hopes to pursue a career in aerospace engineering after completing her degree.
As a recipient of the Summer Research Award, she worked with Bryanna Noade on research in structural health monitoring of elastomeric bridge bearings.