This special webinar is being presented in  commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the tragic September 11, 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center towers

We are honored to present this special Engineering Ethics webinar.  This is not a conventional engineering ethics webinar. It combines engineering analysis, firsthand field investigation, and professional engineering ethics in examining one of the most consequential structural failures in modern history.

This Engineering Ethics webinar on the tragic collapse of the World Trade Center towers first examines the engineering aspects of their design and construction, the damage caused by the aircraft impacts, and the ensuing fires. Dr. Astaneh then summarizes findings from his NSF-supported reconnaissance and collection of perishable data in New York, followed by more than five years of analytical studies of the collapse. The final part of the webinar focuses on engineering ethics and examines ethical issues associated with the collapse investigation conducted by a team organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and funded by FEMA.

Dr. Astaneh spent a year (2001-2002) field investigating and documenting the debris from the WTC collapsed towers.  Then, in May 2002, he testified before the Committee on Science of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress on his findings.  After hearing his testimony, the Committee on Science provided him with the drawings of the WTC Towers so he could continue his studies of the engineering aspects of the collapse. The WTC Tower drawings were, and remain, under seal and are not publicly accessible.

Having received the drawings, Dr. Astaneh and his team of volunteers spent five years (2002-2007) and more than 4,000 hours performing structural analysis of the aircraft impacts on the north tower. The main conclusion of the studies was that the unusual structural system, which was “Steel Bearing Walls,” without a “framing system” used in both WTC towers, was at the root of their collapse. Because of the thin steel bearing walls in the perimeter of the towers, the airplanes easily entered the towers almost intact. They delivered a large amount of jet fuel to the core of the building, starting a fire that caused a reduction in the strength of the outside Steel bearing Wall and the steel joist trusses supporting the floors, leading to the towers' collapse.  The webinar will also discuss engineering ethics issues and potential conflicts of interest that arose in the investigation of the collapse.

References and Recommended Further Readings:

1. World Trade Center Archives from Professor A. Astaneh, Website at:  https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/wtc/ The above site contains Professor Astaneh’s documents, photos, reports, PowerPoints, and other material he generated to investigate the World Trade Center collapse sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
2. Trade Center Scrap Is Examined For Details on Causes of Collapse. Washington Post Story on Dr. Astaneh’s WTC post-collapse Field Investigation, October 2001. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/10/06/trade-center-scrap-is-examined-for-details-on-causes-of-collapse/79f1a58c-7c05-40d7-9baa-2de7f43a74ff/
3. World Trade Center: Anatomy of the Collapse” (TLC, 2002) on DVD. com.
4. Fresh Air’s Terry Gross Interview with Prof. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl on His WTC Reconnaissance, Public Broadcasting System, 22:13 minutes Audio Broadcast. https://freshairarchive.org/guests/abolhassan-astaneh-asl
5. WTC Hearing of Committee on Science of U.S. House of RepresentativesHearing (with Dr. Astaneh-Asl testifying on his findings),
6. https://www.hsdl.org/c/view?docid=2021
7. Code of Ethics for Professional Engineers, by National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/CodeofEthics/NSPECodeofEthicsforEngineers.pdf
8. ASCE Code of Ethics https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-images-and-files/career-and-growth/ethics/documents/asce-code-ethics.pdf
9. World Trade Center Poorly Built, Prof. Says, East Bay Times, 9/12/2007. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/09/12/world-trade-center-poorly-built-prof-says/

 

Date:  Thursday. September 17. 2026.  Starts: 2 - 4 pm ET

Credits: 2 PDH Units

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the attendees should understand:

• What was unusual about the structural system of the World Trade Center towers?
• What fire-protection systems were provided, and were they adequate?
• Were the exits and stairways adequate for timely evacuation during a major fire?
• Were the towers designed for aircraft impact, as was claimed?
• Is there engineering evidence supporting claims of explosions or blasts?
• What was the engineering cause of the collapse?
• Would towers designed using a conventional structural system rather than the unusual Steel Bearing Wall system have survived the attack?
• What ethical issues and potential conflicts of interest arose in the investigation of the collapse?

Special Webinar Instructions

After payment, please visit this webinar page, click "Start Course" and fill out the Webinar Registration Form.  You'll receive email notification and details on how to join the webinar.  You will then be able to access the webinar slides, test your system and receive webinar reminders.  After completing the webinar requirements, your certificate of completion will be saved and available for download in your profile.<

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Group Discounts Available

Biography: Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh is a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2013 Minner Faculty Fellow in Engineering Ethics and Social/Professional Responsibility in the College of Engineering. He won the 1998 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the most prestigious award in his field.

>He is a licensed civil engineering Professional Engineer (P.E.) in California. Dr. Astaneh is currently a structural engineering and bridge engineering consultant. He has been an expert witness in several court cases on structural and bridge engineering and construction failures. He continues his research and publication and gives lectures and seminars in structural engineering, earthquake engineering, bridge engineering, and engineering ethics. He has published over 300 journal papers, conference proceedings, technical reports, and book chapters. He has had hundreds of press interviews on technical aspects of subjects in his expertise.

He has been involved in design and construction and has done extensive research and studies of buildings and bridges for 53 years, including buildings of up to 73 stories and long-span bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Dr. Astaneh has performed the failure analysis of several collapsed structures, including the World Trade Center Towers and the Florida Pedestrian Bridge. Both cases involved engineers not abiding by the first canon of engineering ethics, which says engineers should hold safety paramount.