March was an eventful month for CSI Bangkok, featuring key academic engagements, industry collaborations, and critical discussions on seismic resilience.
Academic & Industry Collaborations
CSI Bangkok welcomed Dr. Subin Pinkayan, former Foreign Minister of Thailand and former Chairman of the AIT Board of Trustees. There was also a visit from Vital Strategies that focused on discussions for areas of possible collaborations.
In addition, a mini seminar was conducted at Chulalongkorn University, Civil Engineering Department, covering advanced structural analysis and the role of computational modeling in modern engineering practice.
Technical Webinars & Seminar
Two separate but equally successful webinars, one on Performance-Based Seismic Design Using ETABS and another on Design Verification using Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis based on ACI 318-19 were conducted in March. Each had over 300 attendees from across the world as they delved into insights that evaluated seismic design and performance of structures.
CSI Bangkok also organized a hybrid seminar on Industrial Building Design using SAP2000 and related tools in partnership with AIT Solutions. This seminar examined structural optimization strategies for industrial and warehouse facilities. This was a huge event that welcomed over 60 professionals from various companies in Thailand. As a hybrid event, the seminar the was also broadcasted on Zoom that had over 60 participants, globally.
Seismic Event & Structural Considerations
On March 28, a massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake took place in Myanmar. While not as devastating, it was still strongly felt in Thailand, particularly affecting high-rise buildings in Bangkok. The earthquake tremors created noticeable cracks and excessive, highly visible swaying of buildings. The earthquake also caused one construction building to collapse.
This event underscored the critical role of understanding earthquakes in the region and the need for strict seismic design in mitigating risks for urban structures.
Dr. Pramin Norachan, a structural engineer at CSI Bangkok discusses what happened and why it happened the way it did in an upcoming post in our knowledge hub. Stay tuned!
Looking Ahead
This completes our March recap as we gear up for April, which promises more technical discussions, a couple of major corporate events, industry-academia collaborations, and even an exciting Hackathon contest aimed at Thai university students.
As always, CSI Bangkok remains committed to sharing structural engineering knowledge and developing the industry.
We look forward to your comments and feedback, which you can leave by emailing us.
