//hiroki ota

Hiroki Ota is a fifth year student at the Pennsylvania State University. In May of 2009 he will graduate with a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering degree with a concentration in Structural Analysis and Design, and two minors: Architectural Studies and Engineering Mechanics focusing on material behaviors and non-destructive evaluation. He is also a member of the Student Society of Architectural Engineers (SSAE).

Ota has had various experiences pertaining to the profession of architectural engineering. He has taken part in the Sede di Roma Program in the summer of 2007 to study the aesthetics and physics behind ancient Roman architecture. That same summer he interned for Dominic Galicia Architects, a rising architectural firm in the Philippines and was given the opportunity to work on a reconstruction project of a church. During this internship Ota gained valuable experience of design, coordination, as well as the experience to work in a foreign environment and to work with some of the local leaders of the industry. He has also been working part-time as a research assistant for the Penn State Architectural Engineering Department since October of 2007 under Dr. Andres Lepage and Dr. Ali Memari; and has been involved in numerous projects dealing with different construction materials.

Ota has also been an avid practitioner of Taekwondo since the age of three and is a certified black belt registered the World Taekwondo Federation. He is a native speaker of Japanese and fluent in English, he is also an intermediate speaker of Tagalog (also known as Filipino).