Since its founding “Clean Water for Every Syrian” has been a driving strategic initiative and a staple in every strategic plan cycle. For many years, access to clean water in regions of Syria has been an ongoing crisis. The UN has recently reported generally on the need to ensure all people have access to clean water and sanitation by 2030, as demand for water and water shortage both continue to increase. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres notes: “unsustainable water use, pollution and...

Free public domain CC0 photo. As the images of devastation continue to come out of Turkey and northern Syria, it is clear that earthquakes can result in formidable damage with the power to haunt affected areas for years to come. In order to make cities in earthquake-prone regions more resilient, engineers rely on simulation models to help predict the potential effects of seismic activity to buildings and other key pieces of the built-environment and community infrastructure. Such models...

The devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey has been followed by two recent seismic events worlds apart of a magnitude 6.7 in Ecuador also affecting Northern Peru. A few days later a magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattled much of Pakistan and Afghanistan on March 22, 2023, sending panicked residents fleeing from homes and offices and frightening people even in remote villages. At least nine people died The US Geological Survey reported Ecuador’s earthquake in the coastal Guayas region. The tremor...

As you’ve likely heard, Americans just witnessed the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history with bank regulators shutting down Silicon Valley Bank. But what does this mean for the jobs market in engineering and technology? And how might it affect your talent strategies?   Three times weekly, the SAEA earthquake response task force meets to review damage survey and condition assessment requirements with an eye toward repair, strengthening, and rehabilitation of aging and outdated buildings...

SAEA was consulted regarding equipment commonly used in None Destructive Testing & Evaluation (NDTE) in forensic engineering. For earthquake damage assessment NDTE equipment are very useful in the preliminary visual condition assessment and forensic evaluation of concrete structures subjected to damage. The summary provided below is a list of the most relevant equipment to evaluate earthquake damage in reinforced concrete and masonry buildings and structures. SAEA has a complete report...

SAEA Members in the civil and structural engineering profession have expressed interest in the development and use of unmanned or uncrewed aerial system technologies, and how they are shaping our built environment. Several members are also engaged in the mechanical and electronic systems of drones via graduate research or current employment They engaged with an ASCE Interchange Live featuring Blaine Wruck, a transportation engineer for Deschutes County, Oregon, who specializes in Unmanned...

Dr. Ozgun Numanoglu of Schnabel Engineering and Professor Tugce Baser of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign visited Turkey to conduct a site reconnaissance mission after a series of earthquakes hit Southern Turkey and Syria on February 6. Their work was part of the multi-organizational response to the series of earthquakes that occurred in the region, which SAEA is actively contributing to through its timely earthquake response task force on technical engineering solutions for natural...

SAEA members who work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) combined and reviewed all the relevant standards from the three organizations pertaining to the damage survey and condition assessment of reinforced concrete and masonry structures. The task force objective is to develop a comprehensive data gathering and visual assessment form to record observations and document the...

The fifteen-member task force is led by six specialized civil/structural engineers with a combined experience of over 180 years in the analysis design and construction of reinforced concrete buildings. The other 11 members of the task force combine additional decades of experience in the electrical, mechanical, IT, environmental engineering. Task force Members identified damage surveying and condition assessment as SAEA’s top priority for emergency response. Qualification of buildings for...

Syrian American Engineers Association members prepare to respond to the earthquakes and aftershocks which devastated Turkey and Northwest Syria on February 6th 2023. An intense 7.8 magnitude earthquake was followed by tremors and aftershocks, destroying many structures and harming people. The death toll has not yet been determined but it is in the thousands, along with thousands more injured. Tens of thousands of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. SAEA board of directors held emergency...