Tuesday, May 30, 2023 

Event Program:

• 5:30 PM – Cocktails and Socializing
• 6:30 PM – Dinner and Award Ceremony
• 7:30 PM – Lecture

 Disclaimer: 

Government Employees ticket category is reserved for professionals employed at Government Institutions, such as but not limited to MTO, MOE, TTC, Regions, Municipalities, Cities, etc.

Lecture:

Performance-Based Design in Geotechnical Engineering Practice

Abstract

The use of performance-based concepts for seismic design has increased greatly over the past 20 years. The performance-based approach is based on the idea that structures and facilities can now be designed and constructed in such a manner that their performance under anticipated seismic loading can be predicted with acceptable accuracy. The large uncertainties involved in characterizing anticipated ground motions, along with those associated with prediction of system response, physical damage, and losses have led most approaches to performance-based geotechnical design to be formulated in probabilistic terms, although the probabilistic approach is not absolutely required, and not consistently used in current practice, at least in the United States.

Performance-based design of structures and facilities can be accomplished in many different ways. In this paper, the term “structures” will be used in a generic sense to describe systems that could include buildings and bridges, but also earth structures such as embankments, levees, earth dams, natural slopes, foundations, etc. The paper will review probabilistic geotechnical response prediction methods, explore alternative approaches to performance-based design, discuss their implementation in practice, and show how their benefits can be realized in a framework that most practitioners are already familiar with.

Distinguished Speaker:

Steve Kramer, Professor Emeritus

Steve Kramer received his B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977, 1979, and 1985, respectively. Between his Masters and Ph.D. studies, he worked for a geotechnical consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, concentrating on seismic problems and problems involving soft clay settlement/stability. His Ph.D. research at Berkeley, supervised by the late H. Bolton Seed, dealt with flow slides caused by static liquefaction.

Kramer joined the geotechnical group in the University of Washington Department of Civil Engineering in 1984. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in geotechnical engineering, and advised numerous graduate students on Masters and Ph.D. research projects. His primary research interests include soil liquefaction, site response analysis, seismic slope stability, and hazard analysis. Much of his current research work is in the area of performance-based earthquake engineering, specifically the integration of probabilistic response analyses with probabilistic seismic hazard analyses. He has conducted research for the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the U.S. Geological Survey. He retired from the UW in 2020 but remains active as Professor Emeritus.

Kramer has been the recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award from ASCE, a Walter Huber Research Prize from ASCE, two Norman Medals from ASCE (in 2009 and 2017), Academic Engineer of the Year award by the Puget Sound Engineering Council, the M.J. Nigel Priestley Prize from the European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering (EUCENTRE), the 2018 H. Bolton Seed Medal from ASCE, and the 2018 Nabor Carrillo Lecture Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineering. Most recently, he was named as a Distinguished Member of ASCE, and Honorary Member of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering, and elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Kramer was a Senior Research Scientist in the International Centre for Geohazards at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) in 2003, and is also a member of the faculty of the European School for Advanced Studies in the Reduction of Seismic Risk (the ROSE School) at the University of Pavia in Italy.

Kramer is the author of the book Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and co-developer of the computer programs, ProShake, EduShake, and WSliq. He has served on the Executive Research and Executive Management Committees of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. He has participated in several post-earthquake reconnaissance investigations, and is a member of the Advisory Panel for the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association.

Kramer has served as News Correspondent for the Geotechnical Division of ASCE, chaired the organizing committee for the 1998 Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics conference held in Seattle, and served on the editorial boards of the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering and Earthquake Spectra of EERI. He is also active with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Seismological Society of America. He also served on the recent National Research Council Committee on State of the Art and Practice in Earthquake Induced Liquefaction Assessment.

Kramer has served as a consultant to private firms and government agencies on projects in the U.S. and abroad. He has consulted on high-rise structures and bridges in the Seattle area and served on consulting boards for nuclear waste treatment plants, nuclear reactors, dams, seawalls, levees, underground structures, and offshore structures/facilities.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Notes:

• Tickets are sold based on first come first served.
• There is a maximum of 10 tickets available for students and 10 tickets available for government employees.
• No refund is possible from 24 hours to the start of the event.
• Host sponsor’s ticket include one patron ticket.
• Sponsorship tickets do not include a patron ticket.

Sponsorship Benefits:

• Gold, Silver, and Bronze Sponsors will be acknowledged during the session and their logos will be presented on screen at the start, end, and during breaks.
• The Host Sponsors will have a prominent logo presentation and exposure at both Women-in-CGS and the Annual Award Dinner during announcements. Each Host Sponsor patron will also come with one complimentary ticket to the CGS CCLT Dinner Lecture.