The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), the world’s leading professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering, invites fire protection engineering professionals to the SFPE Engineering Solutions Symposium on Mass Timber construction on August 24—25, 2023, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
This SFPE symposium will provide engineering solutions on the topics of fire protection with new high-performance mass timber products, construction with encapsulated mass timber, competency needs for the fire-safe design of tall timber buildings, jobsite safety, and much more.
The symposium will include a site visit to One Young Street in Kitchener, Ontario, the first modern building in the Waterloo region featuring a mass timber structural system. The symposium will also highlight perspectives from the insurance industry and building officials, new research, case studies, panel discussions, ongoing fire tests, academic connectivity, and future research needs, with speakers as follows:
- Understanding Competency Needs for the Fire Safe Design of Tall Timber Buildings, by Jose Luis Torero, PhD, CEng, FSFPE, University College London
- Next-Generation Wood Construction – A Comprehensive Mass Timber Research Program, by Prof Ying Hei Chui, PhD, P.Eng, FCAE, University of Alberta
- Encapsulated Mass Timber: A New Construction Type for the 2020 NBC; Marc Alam, PhD, E.I.T., Canadian Wood Council
- Case Studies, Lessons Learned, and Regulatory Process, by Jack Keays, Vortex Fire
- Insurance Perspective, by Neil Chaudhuri, P.Eng., FM Global
- Mass Timber Buildings and the 2021 International Building Code, by John “Buddy” Showalter, PE, International Code Council
- Fire Dynamics and Testing, by Beth Weckman, PhD, University of Waterloo
- Large Scale Fire Tests, by Joseph Su, PhD, National Research Council of Canada
- Plus, two panel discussions on the role of building officials and industry-to-academic connectivity
This SFPE Engineering Solutions Symposium is made possible with the support of Conspec Controls, LMDG, The Pontem Group, and Senez Consulting; a limited number of sponsorships and exhibit opportunities are still available.
The symposium has limited capacity and is expected to sell out. Early-bird registration discounts are available through July 20. To learn more or to register for the SFPE Engineering Solutions Symposium on Mass Timber, visit www.sfpe.org/timbersymposium today.
