Weekly Progress

	Week
Task	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Case Selection	x	x	x
Project Proposal	x	x
Research Comparison/Sorting		x	x	x	x
Final Report Planning					x	x	x
Presentation Planning					x	x	x	x
Final Report Preparation						x	x	x	x
Presentations									x	x

Week One - April 2nd-8th

• During week one, we individually researched several structural failures on our own.
• we met and shared each of these structures with the other members of our group. From there we decided the five of these structures to further research for our paper. 
• we figured out who would do each part of the design proposal. 
• we created Google doc so we could all work on the project and exchanged emails and phone numbers in order to be able to easily communicate as a group.

Week Two - April 9th-15th

• the design proposal was finished. 
• The five structures were chosen and the research was broken down between the members: One member will be researching legal ramifications, another the materials and systems of the structures, the third member will be researching why they failed and the consequences of it, and the final member will be researching the technical and ethical lessons from these failures. 
• Each member will write a brief personal take away for each structure and why they wanted to do the structures chosen which will be combined for the final report. 
• For Week three lab, each member will have researched their part (listed above) on one of the structures.

Week Three - April 16th-22nd

• During lab, the faculty Dr. Aghayere, mentioned three structure failures: Allen High school football stadium, Citigroup Center, New york, U.S., and Millennium Bridge, London, Britain.
• We went over our research and changed the five failure cases we were talk about in the  final report. The five new cases are: Sampoong Department Store, Seoul, South Korea; Lotus Riverside, Minhang District, Shanghai, China; Skyline Plaza, Virginia, U.S.; Bangladesh Garment Factory, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Hyatt Regency Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
• We re-divided the workload for the research: Moneerah will be doing the materials and systems were used in the construction of the structure, for all the cases.  Betsy will be doing the consequences and the causes for the structural failure for the five building cases.  Lindsey will be taking the legal ramification of the five structural building failures.  Nyein will take the technical and ethical lessons from the cases.  All group members will take the personal take-away from these failures. 
• Some information we found on the Lotus Riverside collapse:
• The materials of this build was PHC which stands for Pre-stressed, High-
  strength Concrete
• Eighteen of the development company’s shareholders were also employed in government
• 132 nearby households evacuated
• no walls to support the underground parking garage
• Some information we found on the Skyline Plaza:
• 14 killed; 34 injured
• The design system was a flat plate system structure
• The collapse caused a 60 foot gap in the building all the way down to the ground
• Premature removal of forms supporting the 23rd story slab when the concrete of that slab had a relatively low strength produced shear stresses in excess of the concrete capacity

Week Four - April 23rd-29th

•  We discussed about the teamwork assignment, as a class.
•  We compared information and research about Sampoong Department Store, Seoul, South Korea, Skyline Plaza, Virginia, U.S, and The collapse of Block 7 at Lotus Riverside, Minhang District, Shanghai, China.
• Betsy created a Google document for all group members to post or upload links that they think it is useful for each section whether it’s their section or not.
• We outline the upcoming weeks in regards of research and final report and presentation: A-    By next week we should have finished all research of the five cases. Started writing the final report. B-    By week 6 we should have written the final report and review the final report.
• We showed or explained what we found so far in research to Dr. Aghayere and Ms. Bita.
• Some information we found on the Sampoong Department Store:
• 937 injured
• Over 500 killed
• Floor columns had been weakened to meet fire regulations
• The fifth floor’s columns did not align with the columns underneath, leading to load being transferred from the column to the slab and through another column instead of column to column
• Flat plate is a two-way concrete slab connected directly on columns with reinforcement in two rectilinear directions
• The owner bribed the officials who are monitoring the building’s construction
• Twelve government officials were found guilty of receiving bribes
• The minimum wage for Bangladeshi garment workers was increased by 76% after the Rana Plaza collapse

Week Five - April 30th-May 6th

• We checked in about research on Hyatt Hotel and Rana Plaza.
• We went over blog with Bita.  She recommended we post some findings from the week’s research. 
• Some information we found on the Sampoong Department Store:
• The ASCE disciplined one of its members for the first time in the aftermath of the Hyatt Regency 
• The roof of the Hyatt Regency has previously collapsed in 1979.
• 114 dead: over 200 injured
• Preliminary sketches were interpreted as final drawings
• Over 130 lawsuits were filed in the aftermath of the collapse
• We looked further into materials used in the buildings; the rods that suspend the Hyatt Regency walkways were steel tension rods.

  
Picture of Hyatt Regency walkway design changes. 
From Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention, April 2006 

Week Six - May 7th- May 13th

This week, we focused on submitting the draft of our final report, and polished our blog.  The group accomplished the following:

• Created a template for the final report
• Chose which pictures would be included in the report
• We met outside of class to input each of our sections into the template
• We added more details and facts to the blog
• We each read over our report to check for formatting and grammatical errors 
• Our final report draft was assembled and submitted       

      

      

       

       This is one of the pictures we decided to include in our report.  It shows an angry

       mob following the Rana Plaza disaster.  Photo from the New York Times, 

       April 26, 2003. Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press.

Week Seven - May 14th - May 20th

 Week seven saw the group focusing on constructing the slide presentation.  The group accomplished the following:

• Assigned parts for who would present on which topic
• Decided on a theme and layout.  
• One aspect of the slide presentation that the group enjoyed is that it gives an opportunity to use a different tone and images than those in the final report.  
• Before and after picture comparisons were determined to have a dramatic effect, but were not available for all projects.

        Here are some before and after pictures for Rana Plaza, which we decided to use
        in our slide presentation:

         

                                                      Photo: Sean Robertson

         

                                                Photo: focus.bangla.com.bd