As a PhD student in structural engineering at York University and a recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Austin investigates the use of new and emerging materials in constructing shear walls—an essential component of buildings used to protect against lateral forces from destructive events. This research helps understand how structures perform when subjected to winds or seismic events.
Research for a better Canada - Austin Martins-Robalino - Transcript
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[Text on screen: Research for a better Canada: How Canadian researchers are shaping our world.]
[Interview with Austin Martins-Robalino]
[Text on screen: Austin Martins-Robalino
Canada Research Chair in Advanced Digital Primary Health Care
Ph. D Student at York University]
My name is Austin Martins-Robalino. I am Ph.D. student at York University in the first year of my Ph.D. studies.
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My research investigates improving the structural behaviour of reinforced concrete structures, using novel materials so that they experience less damage after seismic events and require little to no repair. My work will help to provide options to build structures that are more environmentally and financially sustainable for communities as well as overall improving the quality of life by reducing the downtime of said structures after a seismic event.
My advice to aspiring researchers in my field is to always try to help out other researchers with their work even if it’s unrelated to yours as this will expose you to new ideas, be that new approaches, new practices, or new experimental testing. This can be both invigorating because it gives you more inspiration for why you enjoy research, as well as enlightening in the fact that now you have a new way to approach problems that you might have been working at before in a new light.
What led me to structural and seismic engineering was insight from professors as well as my familial roots. One of my professors once described civil engineering as a way to improve the physical world around us for the better. Combine this with the fact that my family immigrated from the Azores and Ecuador, two regions that were prone to seismic activity, and this provided me an avenue to improve the lives and safety of people during and after earthquakes. In a way this allows me to feel like I am giving back to those that came before me and improve on the experiences that they might have lived in their own lives.
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“What led me to…engineering was insight from professors as well as my familial roots. One of my professors once described civil engineering as a way to improve the physical world around us for the better.”