NHERI Network Coordination Office
Technology Transfer Committee (TTC)
Technology Transfer Committee (TTC)
The NHERI Technology Transfer Committee (TTC) is a group of volunteer practitioners and decision-makers focused on strengthening ties between NHERI researchers and the engineers and planners who can implement NHERI-developed technology. The TTC members are experienced in contributing to the development of design guidelines, technical briefs, building/infrastructure codes and standards and technical seminars.
The TTC’s primary task is to review the results of NHERI research projects and identify findings that could immediately lead to improvements in the design process that will result in mitigation of risk due to natural hazards. Chair Bill Holmes provides an introductory overview in this video presentation.
Current Membership
- Bill Holmes, TTC Chair
- Graham Brasic (Flood, Wind)
- Joe Cibor, PE (Tsunami/Surge, Geotechnical)
- Kelly Cobeen, SE (Earthquake, Wind)
- Shane Crawford (General)
- Holly Davies (Flood, Social Science)
- Cherylyn Henry (Wind)
- William T Holmes, SE (Earthquake)
- Rod Iwashita (Ports)
- Gyimah Kasali (Geotechnical)
- Yazen Khasawneh (Geotechnical)
- Insung Kim, SE (Earthquake)
- Samir Nepal (General)
- Chris Rojahn (General)
- Mike Valley, SE (Earthquake)
TTC Chair Bill Holmes, SE
Earthquake engineer; Senior Consultant, Rutherford + Chekene; National Academy of Engineering member
NHERI Grant Research Database
The Tech Transfer Committee is pleased to offer this database tool for locating cognate — and potentially implementable — research projects within the NHERI natural hazards community.
Explore the NHERI Grant Research database
Do you need help bringing your natural hazards research into practice? The TTC can help you and your research group plan for implementation.
Connect with us: ttc-inquiry@designsafe-ci.org
Get up to speed with our tech transfer white paper and share our tech transfer flyer with your team.
State of NHERI Technology Transfer
Beginning in 2021, the TTC surveyed principal investigators of select CMMI NSF awards regarding plans for implementing technologies under investigation. The resulting reports provide, in two phases, succinct summations of the projects, data that may be of interest to engineering practitioners and researchers in cognate fields. The reports are available in the NHERI DesignSafe Data Depot:
Phase 1 review: State of Technology Transfer in the Natural Hazards Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Research: 2021 Annual Report | DOI: 10.17603/ds2-p51m-cb37.
This report documents the progress of NSF awards that the TTC deems to have significant prospect of implementation in the domain of natural hazards engineering.
Phase 2 review: NHERI State of Technology Transfer in Natural Hazard Research Infrastructure (NHERI)- Research: 2022 Annual Report | DOI: 10.17603/ds2-9as8-dt58. This second phase report investigated awards that appeared to the Technology Transfer Committee to have a low potential for implementation in the immediate or near future.
TTC Composition
Appointed by the NHERI Council, the TTC is composed of leaders in the engineering community with expertise in the behavior, design and construction practices using a diverse range of building materials and technical expertise. TTC Chair Bill Holmes of the NHERI Network Coordination Office (NCO) is appointed to keep the NCO leadership apprised of TTC activities. The committee consists of 15-20 individuals with 2-year terms, with the opportunity of re-appointment by the NHERI Council. In addition, the NHERI User Forum appoints one member. TTC members are selected from the following design communities with the intent of representing as many as practical:
- Earthquake and tsunami
- Wind
- Coastal Engineering
- Concrete design and construction
- Masonry design and construction
- Wood design and construction
- Stone design and construction
- Geotechnical design and construction
- Architectural (building envelope)
- Lifeline infrastructure (electric power, communications, water, wastewater, gas and liquid fuel, and transportation systems and components [including roads, bridges, railroads, and harbors])
- Social sciences and policy
Organization
The committee is led by a chair, initially a representative of the NCO Strategic Committee. Subsequent chairs will be elected from within the committee although a representative of the NCO Strategic Committee will always be a member. The TTC forms four interest groups: Earthquake, Wind, Tsunami/Storm surge, and Geotechnical. Members may serve on several of these interest groups. Each interest group will have a leader, selected by the committee chair. The committee chair and the four interest group leaders form an executive committee that facilitates organized and coordinated reviews of NHERI research by the committee members.
TTC Project Review Process
TTC’s primary objective is to identify key research projects that have been completed in recent years in the broad subject areas of wind, surge, tsunami, inundation, and earthquake that could lead to new design, construction, or assessment guidelines and/or standards that will reduce the risk to civil infrastructure.
Ongoing (or completed) NHERI research projects will be assigned to the appropriate TTC interest group or groups by the executive committee. Publicly available descriptions of the research will be reviewed to judge the potential for implementable findings. Since the direction and detail of many research projects could change during the life of the project, ongoing review may be necessary by following the Experimental Facility website and reviewing papers or reports.
When appropriate, promising results or conclusions will be described by the interest group in an Initial Review Report (IRR), about one page, to include the site and Principal Investigator, the general nature of the project, the specific conclusions or finding that may be implementable and the logical group or committee that would interested in implementation. It is not anticipated that direct contact with the researcher will be made at this review level.
Twice a year (or more frequently if justified) the IRRs will be reviewed by the whole committee to decide 1) if the researcher should be contacted for further information or clarification, 2) if the research conclusions/findings should be forwarded to the appropriate implementers, and 3) the nature and extent of the material to be forwarded. These review efforts will be managed and coordinated by the TTC Executive Committee.
Additional TTC Presentations & Reports
White paper: Mechanisms for Implementation of NHERI Research Results
April 2020
This paper summarizes the most common processes for implementation of research results. It’s useful for all investigators interested in transferring their research into practice, particularly early-career researchers.
NHERI TTC Committee at the Summer Institute for Early Career Researchers
2024 and 2022
In 2022 and 2024, members of the NHERI Technical Transfer Committee attended the NHERI Summer Institute, an event for early-career researchers held each June at the University of Texas San Antonio. The TTC representatives find great value in attending the SI and look forward to continued involvement. The Summer Institute provides an opportunity to connect directly with researchers, explain what the committee does, and advocate for proactive technology transfer in the proposal development process.
- TTC report from the NHERI 2024 Summer Institute | TTC presentation slides from the NHERI 2024 Summer Institute
- TTC report from the NHERI 2022 Summer Institute
Report from the TTC's November 2019 Meeting
In November 2019 the Technology Transfer Committee held an in-person meeting of committee members in Alexandria, Virginia. Topics included the presentation of several NHERI projects the committee has identified as having implementation potential, the discussion of a proposed publication of TTC findings, and plans for future TTC tasks. A report about the meeting has been released, and the presentations shown have been published to the DesignSafe Data Depot.
Other TTC Activities
Other activities related to strengthening ties between NHERI researchers and the broader user committee will be identified and prioritized by the committee. These activities could include:
- TTC members Bill Holmes and Kelly Cobeen introduce technology transfer concepts at the October 2025 NHERI Graduate Student Council general meeting. View their talk. Holmes also presented at the November 2021 GSC meeting. View his talk.
- Determining appropriate topics for webinars to the community and proposing day-long, by invitation, web-based workshops (or in-person workshop with support of the NHERI Council) with the purpose of reviewing the results of key projects.
- If requested, the TTC could review newly awarded or ongoing projects to advise investigators on how the results of the project can be more-easily implemented into practice. This advice may include suggestions for new/revised experimental parameters, additional simulations, key presentation venues, etc. Such reviews could also be made pre-submittal.
- The TTC could also establish a database of practitioners willing to participate as industry partners on research projects. This database would be available for researchers wanting to include a qualified practitioner in their research proposal team. In this way, the TTC may become a critical resource for natural hazard researchers, especially for early-career faculty with less experience implementing research results into practice.