I could not forget the excitement I had waking up in the morning and running straight to the Lego structures deciding how to build a certain structure and a daydream I had of imagining of actual being built in real life. / deciding how to build a certain structure.
The snapping and fitting of bricks, rods and gears captivated me for countless hours. Every Lego brick I laid down furthered my interest in designing and engineering. It seemed as though I lived in a double life, aside from the physican realm, I existed in a utopia of imagination. As I grew older, I realized that building a high tower or long bridge is not just a the imagination from the Lego structures but it could be created in my real life. This actually gave me tremendous passion
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I had first formal exposure to civil engineering in course “Architecture 1”. This course provided me the fundamental concepts of civil architectural principles such as designing procedure, architectural component’s layouts, functional spaces as well as environmental impacts. To strengthen my concepts I pursued the courses “Strength of Materials”, “Structural Mechanics” which gave me essential knowledge about the external and internal forces occuring in simple structural elements under action of various types of loading as well as fundamental concepts in structural analysis such as modellisation, classification of structures. I gained valuable exposure to the analysis of simple structures submitted to compound loadings by the application of the principle of superposition for such cases as: unsymmetric bending, combined bending and tension or compression, combined bending and torsion, general compound loading. Futhermore, I was fascinated by the force method and displacement method for analysis of statically and kinetically indeterminate structures. The most fascinating and challenging course, however, is “Applied Elasticity - Finite Element Method” which provided me with theory of stress, theory of strain, and tress-strain …show more content…
The project was about design of one-way and two-way slab. The basic steps are to determine applied load, to analyze resultant load and to calculate reinforcement steel bars.
The most significant part of my undergraduate studies is perhaps the graduation thesis. My thesis topic is “ Design Project of High-rise Building”. I had to design a 30 storey residental structure in ETABS and SAP as well as performed VBA modeling in Excel to obtain the Center of Rigid (COR) of the building to optimize steel requirements from the effect of torsion. Also, I was assigned to design two foundation types: shallow foundation and reinforced concrete pile foundation. Additionally, I had to prepare and delivered presentation on the importance of quality checks and safety at the construction site.
Armed with sound training in basic theories and applied technology, I put them into pratice by participating many summer interships. These practical experiences gave me opportunities to involve in all practical steps in design and construction of structures. However, the most important thing I learned was the differences between theory and practical application that I found out during these interships. Hence, combining theory with practice deeped my understanding of textbook knowledge as well as enriched my hands-on