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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Engineering students from Oregon State University recently won the Seismic Design Competition sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

The contest, held at the 63^rd annual meeting of this professional organization in San Diego, included 28 teams from around the nation and three international teams.

In the event, undergraduate students build model structures that are supposed to survive the ground motions presented by several historic earthquakes and one simulated earthquake that is especially damaging.

"With a unique and aesthetic building design, the stiff and strong OSU building survived the earthquake loadings that others did not," said Thomas Miller, an associate professor of civil engineering at OSU. "The team's predictions of deflection and acceleration were very close to the actual responses."

The contest is one of several that OSU civil engineering students compete in annually.

"These combine engineering principles with hands-on skills, and they demonstrate student's readiness to enter the workforce with a good theoretical foundation and a practical mindset," Miller said.