Topics That Structural Engineers Can Really Use

I’m very excited about the upcoming 2014 NCSEA Conference in New Orleans. This year, we once again focused on putting together a schedule of well-known speakers with topics that the practicing structural engineer can really use, and we continued last year’s practice of offering concurrent sessions that allow attendees a choice between topics. We also have several receptions, giving attendees the opportunity to meet and mingle with other practicing engineers and leaders of our industry. Plus, New Orleans is a great location – one of the most fascinating places you can visit!

The formal program begins on September 18 with our keynote speaker, Kelly Riggs with Vmax Performance Group. Mr. Riggs is a powerful speaker and dynamic trainer in the field of leadership, development, and strategic planning and will present Prepare Your Practice: Why Your Strategic Plan is Doomed to Fail featuring tips on how to create an effective strategic plan for your business or organization. This will be followed by a presentation given by a panel of speakers from NCSEA’s Code Advisory Committee entitled Prepare for the Future: Where Codes and Standards are Heading and promises to include lively discussion. Then Bill Coulbourne with the Applied Technology Council will present Prepare for the Unthinkable – Designing Buildings for Tornadoes. The presentation will use information recently developed from research and disaster assessments to illustrate how to perform calculations for buildings that are expected to survive a tornado.

After lunch, we begin our concurrent sessions. The first two sessions will be titled ACI 562 Building Code for Repair of Existing Concrete Structures and Wind Engineering Beyond the Code. Keith Kesner, a Senior Associate with WDP & Associates in New York and Chair of the 562 Code Committee, will speak about the development of the ACI 562-13 Code for evaluation, repair and rehabilitation of concrete buildings. Roy Denoon, with CPP Wind Engineering Consultants in Fort Collins, will speak about unique wind cases not covered by the code and provide insight on how to analyze these structures.

Our next two sessions are titled 2012 National Design Specification for Wood Construction Overview and Three Diverse Adaptive Reuse/Renovations. Michelle Kam-Biron, who is director of Education for the American Wood Council, will provide an overview of recent changes to the NDS code. Bill Bast, a Principal with Thornton Tomasetti in Chicago, will speak about the unique challenges faced on adaptive reuse projects. Our last two concurrent sessions on Thursday will be AISI Standard & Tech Notes and High Roller Observation Wheel. Vince Sagan, Chairman of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI), will focus on CFSEI’s recent Tech Note developments, intended to aid design engineers in the application of the AISI code. Brandon Sullivan with ARUP in San Francisco will discuss the unique design constraints and challenges faced designing the new Las Vegas High Roller – the world’s largest observation wheel at 550 feet with a maximum capacity of 1,120 passengers.

Friday morning, attendees can choose to either sit in on a presentation where each of the 44 NCSEA Member Organizations will provide updates on recent activities, or several presentations given by the vendors exhibiting at our trade show. The remainder of the morning will feature a panel discussion led by the NCSEA Young Member Group Support Committee, entitled Student to Teacher – Gaining Competency after the University. The session will focus on technical training programs and will include young engineer panelists as well as established structural engineers.

After lunch, we will have a presentation titled The Most Common Errors in Wind Design & How to Avoid Them given by Emily Guglielmo, an Associate with Martin/Martin in San Francisco and a member of the ASCE 7 Committee. Her presentation will include information on the future of the wind load provisions and how the practicing structural engineer can help focus the direction of the code. Following this presentation, we have The Most Common Errors in Seismic Design & How to Avoid Them. It will be given by Tom Heausler with Heausler Structural Engineers in Kansas City and a member of the ASCE 7 Seismic Provisions Committee. He will cover both low and high seismic design areas and how to avoid misapplication of the code.

Our next session, Practical HSS Design with the Latest Codes and Standards, will be presented by Kim Olson with FORSE Consulting in Eau Claire and a technical advisor to the Steel Tube Institute. The presentation will include a look at novel uses for HSS members, available software, and a look at potential upcoming changes to HSS design and capabilities. Our final presentation will be Practical Steel Connection Software Design Using 2010 AISC Standard. Our speaker, Steve Ashton with Ashton Engineering & Detailing in Kansas City and a former senior engineer with AISC, will focus on designing connections, including tips on how to quickly evaluate software results.

Friday evening, attendees will want to go to the NCSEA Banquet and Awards Presentation. The NCSEA Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards program celebrates our profession by annually highlighting some of the best examples of structural ingenuity throughout the world. The program also includes awards given out to engineers who have made outstanding contributions to the structural engineering profession.

We finish up on Saturday morning with the Annual Meeting of NCSEA’s 44 Member Organizations. This is an open meeting and includes reports on the activities of NCSEA’s committees. It is always interesting to hear updates highlighting the hard work everyone is doing to enhance our profession.

What started out as a meeting between the member organizations of NCSEA has grown to be so much more. To reflect this, it is our intent, starting next year, to call this the Structural Engineering Summit. I hope all of you will consider joining us. Registration discounts are available for young members (under 36) and first time attendees. Young members can also apply for scholarships. For more information, visit www.ncsea.com. I hope to see you in New Orleans! Laissez les bon temps rouler!▪

About the author  ⁄ Carrie Johnson, P.E., SECB

Carrie Johnson, P.E., SECB, is a principal at Wallace Engineering Structural Consultants, Inc., Tulsa OK.

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