Sean Ahdi, a Ph.D. candidate in Geotechnical Engineering under the advisement of Dr. Scott Brandenberg and Dr. Jonathan Stewart, has advanced to the semi-finals of the UCLA Grad Slam. Sean’s presentation, “Did You Feel It? How Earthquakes Shake Us Differently ” describes how different types of soil and rock interact differently with earthquake waves, causing variations of shaking intensities at the ground surface. His research seeks to quantify the seismic properties of different types of geology at or near the ground surface in order to better constrain models that utilize recordings of past earthquakes to estimate ground shaking levels in future events.
The UCLA Grand Slam is a campus-wide competition that showcases and awards the best 3-minute research presentations by graduate students. The competition not only helps foster the important career development skill of articulating graduate research in an understandable and engaging way to those inside and outside the academic community, but it also highlights the excellence, importance and relevance of UCLA graduate students and their research. The presentations are free and open to the entire campus community and general public. Sean will compete in the semi-finals taking place on February 28th from 2:00pm – 4:00pm in the Charles E. Young Research Library Room 11360. Visit the website for further details and to keep up with the latest results.