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U of T team wins seismic performance category at Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition
Published: August 27, 2026
The University of Toronto's Seismic Design Team has won the Best Seismic Performance Award at the 2026 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition.
The competition, held in Portland, Ore. during the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, featured 47 student teams from around the world.
The U of T team's entry, a five-foot wooden tower named Cascade Crossing, received top honours in the seismic design category, which encapsulates seismic response – how well the tower reacts to an earthquake test – and accuracy of estimations. The team also secured 12th place overall.
The team comprised 33 undergraduate students from the department of civil and mineral engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science; the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design; and Rotman Commerce.
Team co-captain Naveen Black, a fourth-year civil engineering student, expressed gratitude to the team's faculty advisers, Professors Constantin Christopoulos and Oh-Sung Kwong, for their "infinitely valuable advice." The team also received mentorship from the U of T chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
