The Unwavering Spirit of UC San Diego's Shake Table

Stop, drop, roll.

To many, this phrase elicits memories of the 2021 song by Ayo & Teo featured in Just Dance 2022 (proud to report I scored “Superstar” on my first attempt), but as a native Californian, “stop, drop, roll” initially meant something completely different. The two largest natural disaster threats to California are wildfires and earthquakes. Elementary students are trained to protect themselves during a fire with “stop, drop, and roll” reminding children of what they must do if their clothing catches on fire.

For earthquakes, school-age children as young as five participate in drills where students dive under their desks and cover the backs of their heads with a hand. The first few times I experienced the drills, I felt anxious as questions swam through my mind. What if I don’t get under my desk soon enough? What if I’m in the bathroom? If something fell on my desk, would that save me? Why do I have to put my hand over my head? Will my long legs be a problem? It is a child’s nature to ask many questions, but should they be asking such questions? It wasn’t until my first visit to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose as a 5th grader that the questions became different.

I vividly remember the “Engineering for Earthquakes” exhibit, where museum-goers stepped on a platform and selected earthquakes to experience. Some of the most fatal and historic earthquakes - Gujarat 2001, Alaska 1964, San Francisco 1906, and 1923 Tokyo - were simulated after participants had the chance to build structural-sound buildings out of blocks. My first time, I was so confident that my building would make it, but two jerks into the earthquake, all that was left was “rubble.” Shocked that my civilians lost their lives and homes, the importance of structural engineering dawned on my formable mind, and thus sparked my interest in seismology and architecture.

Though I did not pursue this line of study academically, I strove to understand more about structural engineering well into my undergraduate career at UC San Diego over nine years later. UC San Diego is home to the UCSD Shake Table, the world’s largest, outdoor earthquake simulators, capable of 6D motion. The Shake Table is truly the best of the best, designed to simulate real earthquakes and test buildings in the most stressful of situations. The Shake Table can test buildings up to 10 stories high, and collect data about new-age technologies and materials for futuristic buildings. Researchers worldwide have been taking advantage of this facility to make buildings safer, be more prepared for natural disasters, and design more resilient structures.

So to answer the questions my younger self had, UC San Diego has everything covered, as evidenced by the Shake Table, perhaps the world’s most foundational and unshakeable technology testing facility.