This week’s Studio Nation guest is Isabella Zapata, a PhD student from Columbia who is currently studying with Dr. David Garber at Florida International University in Maimi. Her research focus is on piles and bridges.
Isabella was one of the students chosen to take part in the 2020 Project Precast, and she talks about how much she enjoyed the experience here, even though she found it challenging.
“That was really challenging for me in different aspects,” says Isabella. O”ne of them was the language, but I liked interacting with all the students from different parts of the country. My team was really good. I liked having input from all the different perspectives. Normally my day is only dealing with engineers, so I liked hearing from construction management and an architect. It was a really good experience. I loved the precast show. When we saw all the industry and what they are doing with industry, that was really good too.”
Isabella is one of 1500 students who took part in PCI Foundation sponsored programs during 2020. Learn more about her experience here.