The testing program is extending the data available on large-span point-supported systems, including other variables such as openings in the panels and facade support. It is supported by a Wood Innovations Grant, but earlier phases of testing were funded through the REACTS Consortium. There is continued interest in point-supported panel structural systems, also known as “post-and-plate”, because buildings using post-and-plate designs are efficient in terms of their utilization of space and their construction.

Several projects in California and British Columbia have been built using point-supported panel systems, and this research project is intended to add to the body of knowledge that enabled those constructions and aid future work with these systems by providing evidence of their performance. As Dylan described it, “The research that we’re doing now [is] directly connecting with stuff that people want to do in the industry.”

Dylan’s thesis is going to focus on the point-supported panel testing. He decided to focus on mass timber for his graduate work in part due to exposure to the subject in classes like Dr. Barbosa’s, which emphasized the potential of mass timber as a building material, and highly visible mass timber projects like the Portland Airport. 

They gave him an idea of what might appeal to him in future work. “I started getting stoke about wood and I feel like it connected with my background, with the outdoors, [and my interest in] renewable resources.” He decided to stay at OSU after completing his undergraduate degree due to the depth of mass timber research in progress in the region. 

We are happy for opportunities to display current mass timber research and its ability to inspire future researchers to purse innovation in the sector.