Statement of purpose for review

My lifelong passion for engineering and architecture, coupled with a desire to contribute towards creating an affordable housing system in Ethiopia, is the driving force behind my choice to pursue Structural Engineering at graduate level. Having experienced firsthand the effects of lack of affordable homes, I am acutely aware of the prevalent housing problem that threatens my nation. The high material, labor and machinery input costs balloon the overall construction expenditure, making house ownership a privilege for the few. Meanwhile, the majority lives in small shacks or pays an unfairly high rent incommensurate with the quality of the houses they reside in. Needless to say, there is a critical need for low-cost, high-quality houses, particularly targeting the lower and middle classes.

In lieu of a formal introduction of my research interests, I offer a summary of my undergraduate thesis which earned my team second place at the annual Ethiopian National Thesis Competition. This first venture to find an economical, high-strength and ductile material to strengthen reinforced concrete and address the increasing number of earthquake-prone structural failures in Ethiopia confirmed my passion for structural design. In working on this thesis titled ‘Property Determination and Analysis of Micro-Reinforced Concrete,’ my project team leveraged locally available micro-reinforcements to improve the properties of concrete. Specifically, the study investigated the flexural and ductility enhancement of Reinforced Concrete beams strengthened by welded steel wire mesh with varying depths and number of layers. I worked out the mix design and rotational and moment capacity prediction of the beams. I also analyzed the experimental results and failure modes of the RC beams, presented the conclusion displaying that wire mesh system can significantly increase the aforementioned properties of Reinforced Concrete and made a recommendation for further experimentation. My cogent analysis of failure mode and cracks of each beam as well as the capacity of the control and experiment beams revealed that flexural capacity increment of 5.35% and 12.52% for single layered and double layered micro-reinforcements respectively.

Following graduation, I was involved both in structural design and construction sites supervision, which gave me a holistic view of the field. I designed structures ranging from small residential houses to highway bridges using plastic design, moment redistribution and limit state design theories. Furthermore, being responsible for payment certificates and bills of quantity (BOQ), material testing supervision and quantity survey of one of the major projects in the city, taught me optimal design and material use as well as waste management in construction sites.

After my work in Zamra Construction, I joined the public strategy consulting team at the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA). My experience in the Analytics Team, has enhanced my project management, data analysis and stakeholder management skills. I take on multidisciplinary, client-focused projects that transform various industries and sectors. This has given me the opportunity to develop innovative solutions and recommend pragmatic interventions to address key sector-wide issues. These problem solving skills have given me the tools to approach any issue with analytical, logical and critical thinking and will be valuable not only as I navigate applicable alternatives of economically efficient structures, but also in my effort to bring about an effective reform through innovation and research in my community and nation at large.

I am particularly drawn to Berkeley’s Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials program, which I believe is an ideal learning environment largely due to its outstanding faculty and top-tier research facilities and projects. If admitted, I plan to focus on developing tools to design faster and better-performing structures that are quicker and more economical to design and build. I will leverage the large menu of elective courses particularly Architecture, Material Science and Public Policy to broaden my content knowledge. Furthermore, I plan to collaborate with current initiatives by research centers such as the Pacific Earthquake Engineering and Green Building which focus on developing standards with researches such as the Tall Building Initiative and promoting sustainable building designs. I believe this will provide me a comprehensive and well-rounded experience to achieve my career goal of contributing towards affordable housing.

If admitted, I would like to explore the topic of ‘Economically efficient and durable concrete structures’ in research in order to find low-cost strengthening materials for concrete to enable construction of simple yet durable structures that can be implemented in developing countries like Ethiopia. Furthermore, to maintain structural integrity of already constructed structures, I would like to investigate mechanisms that control failure of engineering materials, monitor structural health and detect damage. Focusing on early detection of structural failure to minimize permanent damage and infrastructure loss, I would explore various detection instruments and vibration mechanisms that can be applied as a safety measure in structures prone to failure due to environmental disasters such as earthquake.

Not only does Berkeley has the relevant programs that fit my interest to integrate strong and durable designs with economic efficiency but also has existing researches whose findings related to the aforementioned topics I could leverage to deepen and widen my understanding. A particular example would be the research on ‘Building Energy Efficient Communities: A Research Agenda for California’ which integrated energy efficiency and urban planning. Furthermore, it is my conviction that the wide range of available elective courses, coupled with the cross-disciplinary nature of Berkeley’s graduate program – including access to world-class tuition in the other graduate schools – would best equip me to be a versatile and multi-skilled engineer ready to take on the challenges of providing affordable housing to those in need back home in Ethiopia, and beyond.