Before cities can construct a new school, highway overpass or even an airport tower, they need the expertise of structural engineers—that’s where William (Jun) Luo (CivE 1T2, MASc 1T4) and his passion for concrete come in.

Luo graduated this month with a master’s in civil engineering—one of 386 engineering students who received a degree this fall.

Working with supervisor Professor Frank Vecchio (CivE), his graduate research focused on understanding and experimentally verifying the seismic behaviour of high-performance, steel fibre-reinforced concrete.

“The experimental data from this [research] will be important, as available literature in this area is limited,” said Luo, who also completed his civil engineering undergrad degree at U of T.

Luo’s desire to become a structural engineer was cemented in Professor Vechio’s third-year course on reinforced concrete design, where Luo later became a teaching assistant.

He credit’s U of T’s new Structural Testing Laboratory as a crucial reason he chose to complete his MASc at U of T Engineering: “The [lab] is widely recognized as one of the best such facilities in North America. It provided me with the tools, machines and technology necessary for producing high-quality experimental data.”

Now a structural engineer-in-training (EIT) at an engineering startup firm in Central Alberta, Luo is working on designs and 3D modelling of dozens of commercial, industrial and residential buildings across Alberta.

“I find my work meaningful knowing that the structures I helped to design will be around and safe for many generations to come,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to stroll through the highway and see these buildings standing and occupied.”

See this month’s other graduating students in our Convocation Fall 2014 photo gallery.

With files from Jelena Damjanovic.