My name is Mark Skepasts ’22, and I am a Structural engineering Major pursuing a certificate in the Applications of computing. I am from Vancouver, Canada, and some of my hobbies include hiking, playing the drums and cooking. With regards to the AEC industry, my interests lie in timber construction, computational design, prefabrication/modular construction, and sustainability. Consequently, my senior thesis with Professor Sigrid Adriaenssens and Professor Stefana Parascho is centred around timber-steel hybrid construction. More specifically, I plan to study the role of a cast steel node as a connection to modern-day timber-steel structures. As a case study, I hope to analyze the difference between a more traditional steel connection and a cast connection in a grid shell. Overall, I am very excited to be a part of this lab and to explore this traditional method of construction. I am looking forward to see what role casting play in geometrically complex and modular construction.