A Promise Made Not to be Broken

I am officially a college instructor last November in my hometown. I remember back when Im taking up my masteral units in UP Diliman, I always make appeal letter to the dean to allow me another semester because I wanted to teach and share my knowledge to the less privileged students especially those who cant afford going to UP Diliman. And finally, when I graduated last June, I fullfilled that promise. I got hired in the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela and now Im teaching three subjects one of which is a major subject.

I know some will be surprised why I choose in this university because the pay in the government is less than in private universities. But I followed my instinct of fullfilling my promise to UP. That I will teach to the less privilege and hopefully inspire them appreciate more civil engineering. I may not have the perfect lecture, the step by step procedure perfect for understanding the subject, but I have the passion to interrelate a subject to different subjects for better appreciation of the students.

Remember, a teacher is not supposed only to teach but to facilitate learning and to move the students to learn also on their own. Thats how I learned all my life. I didnt wait for my teachers to teach me step by step or spoonfed us. I searched in the library by myself with the motivation I got from my teachers. Thats how UP trained us also.

Anyway, my last post was about my graduation and today its my fulfillment of my promise prior to my graduation.

I Passed The Exam, Thank you Lord

All my review efforts were paid off after passing the exam last May. I remember of writing about my journey for the exam review. I will upload some of my graduation pictures later. Imagine, It took me 7 years before graduating in the Masters program. Its even longer than my undergraduate degree in TUP which I took in 5 years only. Biggest factor of this long schooling period is my full time job. Its really difficult working in a local company while pursuing a Masters degree in the most prestigious university in the Philippines. But its all worth it.

Although it took me that long, I am able to apply all my learnings in my seven year career. I understand easily the concepts of what Im doing as a civil and structural engineer.

Thanks to the very helpful library in Engineering for keeping me company.

On Elon Musk, Matrix Theory and Matrix the Movie

Just earlier, I read this news about Elon Musk saying we are living in a simulation. I can partly believe his hypothesis. I have delve into this topic a bit in my blog about Matrix. It just simply suggest that we are living inside a bigger Matrix. I fear of this conclusion of course and I dont like to believe in this but for the sake of being a thinking man, I entertain the idea without affecting my sanity.

Everything happening now is computer related. Every datas we showed to the world event the word I typed can be theoretically converted into a set of matrix leading to a bigger set of matrix which can guess my personality. Imagine that! I fear of that yet its amazing how some code in the apps on android can more or less depicts what you are thinking.

So..there is a substance on that news. Since I love the matrix subject during my postgraduate course.I am able to find the analogy of this with the way things are happening in our world. I may be alone on this kind of thinking, but thats how I am able to understand the concept of the subject. Thats how we are taught to learn a subject. It is by finding connection between the subject and other subject..and its connection I find is in the real world. After all, Matrix is a Mathematical term that has been incorporated in the programming world. Thats how powerful it is.

Id like to analyse the concept of Matrix and explain how I find its analogy in the real world in an outline like manner. But this endeavour is quite lengthy yet fulfilling..In short I am proposing a mathematical explanation of whats happening in the physical world... Amazing! #YOLO #justsaying

Dynamic Analysis of Building using IBC 2000

I am tasked to conduct a training in the office about Dynamic Analysis of the building using the latest code. Having studied Structural Dynamics as one of the major subject in Masters course, I am confident I can explain them in front of graduate engineers.  Again, before making any presentation, I need to determine first the audience. I need to focus on the graduate engineers who has no prior knowledge on the theory of structural dynamics. Thus, I plan to present the topics in the following order:

1. Explanation and Definition of Concepts - Structural Dynamics
2. Single Degree of Freedom Systems as the Basis of Derivation of Response Spectra in NSCP(National Structural Code of the Philippines)
3. Multiple Degrees of Freedom Systems with Manual Calculation to Explain How Software Computes the Period, Modes, and Base Shear of a structure.
4. Hands on Modeling of 20 Storey Building in ETABS/STAAD to simulate dynamic analysis.
1. Explanation of NSCP/IBC provisions while performing dynamic analysis
2. Comparison of Equivalent Static Analysis Procedure and Dynamic Analysis Base Shear.
3. Verification of Results using Softwares: ETABS/STAAD.
• This portion will highlight the discrepancies on each softwares.
• In short, a minor changes in structure stiffness and mass distribution in the building affects the software result through their manner of idealizing the model.
• However, item no. 3 above or manual calculation will explain the importance of theory regardless of software you used.
• Use of spreadsheet to verify software result and to minimize effort of manual calculation.
4. Member Design from Dynamic Analysis Result using Spreadsheet in Accordance to NSCP/IBC provisions.

I believe this training will help my audience appreciate the structural dynamics further since it gave a direct application in design of high rise building. As of this writing, more advance theories on structural analysis like Performance Based Design are emerging. But, it is my personal advise for interested engineers to study in depth first Structural Dynamics prior to learning Performance Based Design!

There was a paper recently published about the termination of Response Spectrum Analysis. 

This training surely highlight one of the reasons why they said so.

Civil/Structural Design Review Guidelines

Yesterday, March 4 2016, I held a training at the office for a Basic Design Review Guidelines procedure specific for Civil and Structural discipline.

Design Review is the process of checking the design made by General Contractor for the Client (which we represent) if in accordance with Design Intent and Criteria.

I focused on 3 basic criteria of checking and I called them CCC. Cs are for Completeness, Consistency and Code compliance.

Completeness is the first criteria for checking. I suggest that do not go into the detail of checking first but rather check the completeness of the submittal. For a graduate to do this, we made a bunch of list as criteria for completeness i.e. report should contain the following:

1. Design Criteria
2. Material specifications used
3. Codes used
4. Complete design of the following:
1. Beam
2. Slab
3. Column
4. Foundation

Thus, a certain submittal can be return back to the contractor's designer if an incomplete submittal is provided.

Another set of criteria is Consistency. Consistency is important to determine if the design is following the intent of Design Criteria, Material specification and the code requirements. There must be consistency with the drawing, design criteria, geotechnical report and of course design report. For example, if the design criteria states that NSCP should be used as basis for design. It should be reflected in the drawing on the general notes, in the design report and in each design calculation of structural members.

Thus, a certain submittal can be return back to the contractor's designer if an inconsistent submittal is provided.

The last criteria is Code compliance. This must be the most important criteria among the three. This will surely take a lot of manhours for a reviewer. Experience and research is required to conduct the review and to determine if the submittal is in compliance with the code.

Thus, a certain submittal can be return back to the contractor's designer if a submittal is found not complying with the code.