As most of you already know, I'm doing research for Professor Jack Moehle in order to have a Master thesis done by October 2013. Since I lost my flight back to Berkeley on Jan 3, that has been my main (not to say only) occupation. I've been studying a lot, as well as slowly modeling my building. Do you wanna see how it looks like so far?
The truth is that I will only learn most of the concepts I need to do this type of work throughout the following semester. However, I've been lucky enough to have people like my Mom or some phD students helping me all the time.
One day after I got back to Berkeley, I decided to follow Professor Fillipou's advice and go to CSi (Computers and Structures, Inc. - the company that develops the software I'm using too) to buy a book called "Modeling for Structural Analysis. Behavior and Basics" by Professor Powell. That book should help me understanding those concepts quicker. Professor Moehle, my advisor, told me he would pay for the book if I bought it for the research group, and not just for myself, so I went there and bought it.
The day after, I had to go back to CSi to extend the license for the software I'm using to model my building, PERFORM-3D. As soon as I got there, Sied, the guy who helps me with the software and who gave it to me for free because I belong to Professor Moehle's research group, came welcome me. He immediately complained about the fact that I bought the book the day before. He wanted to give it to me for free too. All in all, not only did he give me my money back, but he also gave me another copy of the book, this one for me, not for the research group.
Before I left CSi, Sied decided to introduce me to CSi CEO, Ashraf Habibullah, known to be a very friendly, smart and exuberant man. He couldn't have been nicer and decided to present me with two more gifts: Wilson's book "Statics and Analysis of Structures" (being Wilson the father of the Finite Element Method) and an invitation for the annual CSi party, usually hold for hundreds and hundreds of people. Not bad, uh?
Before being a researcher in Berkeley, I dreamed about it thinking that it would be awesome enough to have that line on my CV. Now I see that there are many more advantages. Everything is much more easily reachable. Lucky me!
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