ADVANTAGE STEEL SUMMER 2019 | 19 HITS THE ROAD THE CISC STEEL CENTRE, an industry–academic hub for education and research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, took wing to the West Coast this past November. Graduate students and professors visited a number of notable steel construction projects and learned firsthand from the engi- neers and fabricators behind them. The Steel Centre travelled to Vancouver and Seattle, partnering with firms in the area to get backstage access to the design and construction process for award- winning steel structures. This unique learning opportunity exposed students to the realities of steel construction throughout the process chain, and inspired these young engineers to strive to create exciting and technically impres- sive steel structures in their future prac- tice—perhaps even winning a CISC Steel Design Award of their own! Students and professors from the Steel Centre learned from a week of back-to-back visits with fabricators, consultants, and erectors. While most were steel buildings, students also saw some other interesting applications of steel: Dynamic Attractions builds large-scale 4D robotic theatre boxes for theme parks like Universal Studios; another department is working on precision-engineering the world’s largest telescope enclosure, working at tolerances in the sub-millimetre scale. The Robson Square Domes, pictured, are part structure and part art; the fabricator and engineer invested considerable time in creating clean, visually attractive connections. Students saw steel in several modes, and as far more than a way to keep buildings upright. Will they build rollercoasters, convention centres, or skyscrapers? These varied examples of engineering in action sparked conversations and opened up new and creative lines of thinking. The focal point of the trip was the Rainier Square Tower, a 60-storey Seattle skyscraper that will be the first building to use the innovative SpeedCore hybrid steel–concrete shear wall system. The engineering world has its eye on this project, and the Steel Centre got priority access to the fabrication facility, construction site, the engineering firm that designed the system, and the firm’s CEO. This level of firsthand access to a global landmark is extremely rare in university education. First, in Vancouver, the group saw the fabrication in process at Supreme Group’s facility. As a founding member of the Steel Centre, Supreme Group is very closely involved in the Steel Centre’s research and education programs, and it is exciting to see their involvement in such a high-profile project. The sheer scale of the project is evident upon seeing the pieces at arm’s length. Supreme Group developed new methods to efficiently fabricate the project’s hundreds of thousands of welds. This creative thinking demonstrates the response to challenges