On October, 10 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall just south of Panama City, FL causing catastrophic damage from high winds and storm surge. This webinar will introduce a longitudinal investigation of this hurricane demonstrating how virtual and field data collection initiatives led by the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network and the NHERI RAPID Facility helped to spur follow-on research projects in the weeks and months that followed this historic hurricane. In addition to highlighting the learnings distilled from the perishable data collected by a range of technologies through these longitudinal efforts, the webinar will emphasize how attendees can leverage the now curated data from these efforts for their own investigations.
Tracy Kijewski-Correa, StEER Director and Linbeck Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
Tracy Kijewski-Correa is the Leo E. and Patti Ruth Linbeck Collegiate Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, and Associate Professor of Global Affairs. Her research focuses on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and civil infrastructure challenges posed by increased urbanization and vulnerability. Her interdisciplinary scholarship links science and technology to communities in greatest need, delivering scalable paradigms to enhance the resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure and inform the decisions of stakeholders such as homeowners, designers, planners, emergency managers and policymakers. She leads the NHERI SimCenter’s Working Group for Regional Simulation of Hurricanes and Tsunamis and currently serves as the inaugural director of the Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance (StEER) network.
David Roueche, StEER Associate Director for Data Standards and Assistant Professor, Auburn University
David Roueche is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Auburn University, and an Associate Director of the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) network, funded by the National Science Foundation. His research focuses on improving the performance of low-rise buildings under extreme wind loads, including hurricanes and tornadoes. David has research experience in large-scale experimental testing, numerical simulations, in-situ monitoring of low-rise buildings, and extensive post-disaster field investigations. He has conducted field research in the aftermath of some of the strongest wind events in recent history, including the major US-landfalling hurricanes of 2017-2021 – Harvey (2017), Irma (2017), Maria (2017), Michael (2018), Laura (2020), Sally (2020), Delta (2020), and Ida (2021) – and seventeen tornadoes. He is using the data captured from these events to develop better models of extreme wind loads and structural response, and ultimately strengthen the resilience of our communities to future events. He was recently awarded a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to continue his research in this area. David also serves on the Steering Committee of the ASCE/SEI/AMS Standard for Estimating Wind Speeds in Tornadoes and Other Windstorms.
Jeffrey Berman, NHERI RAPID Facility Operations Director and Professor, University of Washington
Jeffrey Berman is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. His research blends experimental, computational, and field methods to help develop the tools and understanding necessary for practicing engineers to design structures to resist the forces of earthquakes, blasts, and other hazards, including the development and implementation of practical and innovative structural systems. He participates in several large-scale interdisciplinary research efforts that integrate structural response into downstream estimates of natural hazard loss and community resilience that have impacted earthquake hazard mitigation efforts in the Pacific Northwest. He is also the Site Operations Director of the NSF supported NHERI Rapid Facility, a shared use equipment site supporting natural hazards reconnaissance headquartered at the UW.
