Dr. Chukwuma Ekwueme is a Principal in the Los Angeles Office of Thornton Tomasetti, a consulting firm with over 1,500 engineers, scientists, architects and other professionals collaborating from offices worldwide. He has an extensive background in the design and analysis of a wide variety of structures, including concrete and masonry construction, steel and aluminum structures, and light-framed wood buildings. He has provided expert witness services on numerous projects focusing on structural failures, damage investigations, and construction defects. Dr. Ekwueme also lectures in the Department of Civil Engineering at UCLA where he teaches classes on reinforced concrete and masonry design. He is a registered structural engineer in California and Nevada.
Dr.Ekwueme will present overviews of projects he has worked on over a thirty-year career as a structural engineer focusing on the design of new buildings, the seismic retrofit of existing buildings, and forensic investigations after earthquakes and other catastrophic events. Projects to be discussed include the design of the new airport traffic control tower in McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, the seismic retrofit of the First Church of Christ in Pasadena, and the investigation of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York. With each project, Dr. Ekwueme will highlight experiences that are pertinent to engineers in the early part of their careers. Dr. Ekwueme will also present views on the future of structural engineering practice, including the potential impact of artificial intelligence, machine learning and genetic optimization.