BUSINESS BRIEFS

Sefton joins advisory board

Don Sefton of Fallon joined the Community Foundation Advisory Board on July 1.

Sefton has worked in computer programming in a variety of capacities since 1967. He founded Systems Consultants in 1979, and has accumulated extensive experience in systems design and analysis in developing application software for a wide variety of industries. Don Sefton first began working with the Community Foundation Nevada Dream Tags Fund. He developed the software for the annual NV Dream Tags ticket sales and draw.

Sefton is currently involved in the evaluation, design, development and project management of all computer systems developed by Systems Consultants. These systems typically utilize microcomputer technology, and encompass database, telecommunications, graphics, computer based training, financial applications and mathematical and statistical analysis and bridging technology. He has authored a book and several magazine articles in addition to providing consulting services to a number of Fortune 500 companies.

University receives funding on soil and earthquakes

The seismic safety of nuclear facilities and systems will be examined in a new multi-year, multi-million dollar, federally funded project to study the influence of soil on building behavior during earthquakes. The University of Nevada, Reno’s world-renowned Structural Engineering Laboratories are at the center of the project that will first construct one of the world’s largest soil box/shake table systems, and then use it to investigate soil-structure interaction at a scale not previously possible.

“This grant will allow us to build a new, even larger, shake table than the ones we have in our earthquake engineering lab, as well as one of the world’s largest soil boxes,” said Manos Maragakis, dean of the College of Engineering.

“This will be a huge box, holding about 500 tons of soil. It will be unique in the world at this scale. Results from smaller boxes don’t translate into the real world as well as experiments at the scale we will be using.”

The new shake table and massive soil box will be located in the Rogers-Weiner Large-Scale Structures Laboratory. This high-bay lab, with its 35-foot-high ceiling, will accommodate the 25- by 25-foot table and box, which will have an approximate height of 20 feet. Large hydraulic actuators, or rams, will shake the soil in simulated ground motions of various levels of intensity.