My Sabbatical Trip

Typically people take an Assistant Professor job and work for 6 years to get tenure. Right after that happens, they go do their first Sabbatical. But if you moved around during your Assistant Prof. period, that (both the tenure and sabbatical) can get delayed, which is my case. I started my career at South Dakota State University in 2010, really nice place, it is just a bit far away from everywhere. Spent 3 years there and moved to Colorado School of Mines (I got my PhD at Colorado State U in 2007 and did almost 3 years of post-doc). Got my tenure in 2018, but not quite ready to do a Sabbatical because that was the time I started the NHERI TallWood project. 

My wall test at SDSU using my start-up fund

Collapse Limits for Wood Frame Shear Walls: An Experimental Investigation | Proceedings | Vol , No

Now there is pretty much two options: 1-- Do a sabbatical while managing a big collaborative project (basically take a vacation to work) or 2-- Just delay the sabbatical until the Tallwood test is done

I definitely want to do option 2, because back in 2018, we don't know there will be this COVID thing coming in 2020. My co-PIs and myself all think we will finish the project in 2020! So it is not so crazy to wait for 2 years (we will be extremely busy during these 2 years anyway) for the break!

 This project was originally scheduled for 2016-2020!

NSF Award Search: Award # 1636164 - Collaborative Research: A Resilience-based Seismic Design Methodology for Tall Wood Buildings

But then 2 things happened:

1. COVID (no need for intro here... sadly!)

2. NHERI@UCSD upgrade (Basically UCSD shake table went from 1D to 6-DOF, but was shut down for about 2-3 years since 2019, so no test can be done!)

Around 2020 during the "lock-down", I basically did hundreds of Zoom calls to coordinate the design and donation for the 10-st test. So the UCSD table upgrade kinds of worked out for me timing-wise. By the spring of 2022, we have got enough donation on material and funds to start the project (to start, not finish!:)). The table was ready also, sort of.... So we are scheduled to go on the table in May of 2022. 

Someone suggested that I should take a Sabbatical to focus on the testing project.... Well, I didn't want to take a Sabbatical to work, so I decided to push it further: How about I finish this and then Sabbatical?

students and site workers placing foundation on the shake table in June 2022 

I should probably do another post on stories from the TallWood project. This one is about my Sabbatical trip. So I will keep it short: We built the building and tested it, very successful. Then we handed that building to a lot of other groups to do more tests on it, it was all good. By April of 2024, I paid all the bills I owe and was left with no $$, and ready to start my Sabbatical trip in May!

Successfully finish the 10-st test

I have been contacting folks I know from overseas universities around the end of 2023. I would like to go to Italy as it is where EuroCode was used and also has high seismic demands. Japan of course as I like their wood structures, culture, and food. New Zealand is on the mind since that is where post-tensioned wood system starts. Fortunately, over the years I knew some people there, so I asked to see if there are programs for me to visit.

And the words came back: Got a 1 month teaching job at University of Canterbury in Christchurch NZ (though Prof. Andy Buchanan); followed by a 3-month visiting professor job at Kyoto University through Prof. Hiroshi Isoda; and finally a teaching position for international timber design class at University of L'Aquila of Italy through Prof. Massimo Fragiacomo. Most of these researchers have helped me along the way on the Tallwood test, so this just happened naturally. But if you are planning Sabbatical, do let your collaborators know way ahead of time since these temp positions need to be applied way ahead😉

So the plan is to leave U.S. early May, stay in New Zealand for 1.5 months, then go to Japan and stay until mid-September, then finally Italy! 

New Zealand Visa is so easy! You just apply online and they just send you a PDF via email:) No need to go in! I arrived in Christchurch on May 3rd. I have only been to New Zealand North Island before (Auckland 2012WCTE). South Island during Fall/Winter months is a new experience. I did pack some thicker clothes...

What to do first when you land in Christchurch? I had to go to Christchurch downtown. It is a "posterchild" for how only code-compliant building design can be a problem if a large earthquake happens. It took many years for Christchurch downtown to recover from the 2011 earthquake. Even when I visited after 13 years, the Cathedral in the town center (from which Christchurch got its name) were still under repair!

Of course, I visited the local museum on the 2011 earthquake event

they have a diagram of the rocking wall I just tested!

At University of Canterbury, I was tasked to teach timber design module of their design class. This class has 3 components, concrete, steel, and timber. The class meets EVERY DAY for 2 hours each. So this is far more intense than the U.S. design classes (meeting typically 3 times a week for 1 hour each).

UC campus is nice, even for winter

I covered mostly New Zealand code, including a prescriptive code NZS3604 similar to IRC in the U.S. Then NZS 1720, which is more like NDS in the U.S., but has its format more aligned with EuroCode. The plan is to cover both codes in one month time, that is why we meet every day for 2 hours. Two of the days is dedicated on what they call as "Tutorial", which is similar to what we call "in-class practices" where we go over example calculations and HWK answers, instead of lecturing new material.

Considering students are doing this for Steel and Concrete BEFORE I came, I could say this schedule of the class is very intense. I asked if the faculty like this type of arrangement, it turns out nobody likes it (I asked the steel and concrete instructors), students dont like it. I learnt that in the past, they used to have separate classes of different material so students are not pushed so much with condensed delivery. 

But why are they still doing it? Or why changed into this format?

The answer is complicated. Basically UC is a public school, so there are some government agencies that regulates all universities in NZ. Some genius from above decided that it is a good idea to have a uniform number of credit hours for all classes at this level. That number happens to be too large for a single topic, and not enough for squeezing all in (or barely enough). Upon my departure, I did write a letter to the school to express my honest opinion on this. A design class is not like a fundamental mechanics class. Students need some room in time to digest and practice the material. But hey, I am just teaching 1/3 of a class, so just my opinion.

Another thing sticking out to me is the connection design provision in NZ code, especially the detailed method, is too complicated compared to the U.S. code. I had thought that we got it bad here in the U.S.... Sorry AWC guys, I should not thought that way! I changed my mind and NDS is a great balance between simplicity and accuracy! 😘  

That pretty much did it for the teaching. what I really like about the trip is the people I met:

Daniel is a colleague who works on roads and pavements

Dan invited me out for lunch while the weather is nice, and showed me the famous "Bush" place near campus, where there is a natural reserve in the middle of the city, and a historical house now as a cafe. He is a local Kiwi and surely know the neighborhood!

Elizabeth the department manager

I could never finish all the paperwork and getting the tax code stuff without Elizabeth's help! In fact she's been there for so many years that I even hear people talking about her stories in Rome!

Of course, as an experimentalist, I have to visit the labs where ever I got a chance. The UC has some decent lab space within the engineering building itself

Structure Lab in the eng. building

They also have the largest structural lab in the ENTIRE southern hemisphere (!) as a separate building not far from the Eng. building. From which a lot of timber papers came out, including the earlier PressLam studies that directly led into my work on the 10-st test.

Last but not the least, there are a set of lab space in Forestry department ran by my new friend Thomas Lim (who is a good friend of @minghao-li), who was at the time of my visit, the only wood structural engineer in UC faculty (surely hope they hire more people in wood). Thomas and his students did a great job keeping the wood research alive there...

 So that summarizes up the labs at Univ. of Canterbury.

If I am going to a conference, it is relatively common to just dine out everyday. You will have enough friends and colleagues to hang out anyway. But a sabbatical for weeks by yourself is a different story. Firstly you dont have that kind of $, secondly, you are living in a residential area (Great accommodation arranged by UC by the way, a modern new 3-story town house with more bedrooms than I could use. My host thought I will bring family but it is my kids school time still...), and no one will go out with you everyday for 1.5 month.

So you need to cook for yourself!

I actually like that, since I do cook at home. Now I need to just do it for myself, it is even simpler. The key is to get really good quality ingredients, do simple recipes, and keep it balanced!

When I was in San Diego overseeing the TallWood project, I stick to a very simple, time-saving, and balanced routine on food:

1. Cold Milk and Cereal for break fast (take me 5 min)

2. sour-dough bread and pepperjack cheese and plain water for lunch (do it during my 30min lunch break)

3. meat (I typically just pan fry a steak, or do a stew type) and rice/noodle (mostly instant noodle) and veggie for dinner + a beer or something (this needs more cooking)

So I pretty much did the same routine in NZ. However, in Christchurch they got fresh seafood... so I had to change it up a bit...

I am very glad you enjoyed your trip to Christchurch! 

@minghao-li I had thought Christchurch would be a bit bigger. The place I lived was by the side of the Hagley park. There are a TON of car dealers around there... I am quite astonished about the number of car dealerships in about the center of the town 🙄 

Funny the reason is NZ does not have their own car industry, so they don't charge a lot of import tax on used cars, everyone is driving 2nd hand Japanese cars with Japanese GPS map loaded... a lot of time it will show that you are in Osaka...lol

Back to the food. There are some of my dishes 😋 :

I did a couple of talks while I was in NZ. First to Timber Design Society, which is the primary organization in NZ for wood design. We borrowed the downtown office of BECA, which is likely the largest design firm there as well. The talk is basically my introductory TallWood talk with main test findings. People really liked to see how PT in wood, a concept born in New Zealand, was realized in such a scale.

A good tradition from Eng. school: Nobody sits in the front row 🤣  But in the end the seats filled up full

After this talk, the host at BECA felt a lot of their colleagues can also benefit from this information. So I was booked for another talk for BECA engineers (there are more than 100 of them in person or remote from Auckland!). I dont have a picture, but it did happen:)

In collaboration with colleagues in NZ, organized by Thomas Lim at UC, we also had a work-shop style event: Mass Timber Design Innovations in U.S. and New Zealand. It was a fun event and NZ timber legend Andy Buchanan also showed up. Andy is actually the guy who hook me up for the NZ visit 😎 

Other folks also talked in the event: I covered U.S. academic, Thomas is NZ academic, Eric McDonnell for U.S. Engineers, and Bjorn Stankowitz for NZ engineering, Great event and interesting roster!

Oh, right, I also did the Engineering Structures online seminar talk while in NZ. I think that's all the talks:)

Enough business talk! What I do for fun in NZ? 😎 What about the "lying on the beach" part of the sabbatical?

Christchurch does not have subway or train within the city, just buses. But I rent a bike from a student and used that to go around. It is not a large town, very "bikeable". My host house is about 20 min ride to school. When the weather is nice, it is very pleasant ride!

Christchurch has an old downtown area, where the Univ. of Canterbury humanity departments are located. There is also a museum of the Nobel Prize winner of Chemistry Ernest Rutherford from UC. Very nice building that I cannot teach in, but had a lot of fun exploring 😎 

Nice afternoon walk around the UC downtown campus