NHERI Latest News

Hurricane Helene: NSF-Funded Natural Hazards Experts Ready for Comment
posted 10-03-24
Experts from the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) are available to discuss issues related to Hurricane Helene. NHERI researchers are authorities in infrastructure damage from wind and storm surge, damage mitigation efforts, post-event data collection, and societal impacts in hurricane-prone regions.

Designing the World's Largest Wind-Wave Research Facility
posted 09-16-24
In 2022, NSF awarded a $12.8M planning grant to design the National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events (NICHE) facility, an ambitious project that addresses the national research need for high-intensity and full-scale simulation of extreme winds combined with wave action and storm surge.

Research Symposium Caps Off the 2024 NHERI REU Summer
posted 08-22-24
NHERI undergraduate summer internship season closes with Research Symposium at UC San Diego.

NHERI Represented at Soil-Structure Interaction in OpenSees Meeting in Assisi, Italy, Sept 9-11
posted 08-12-24
Event features four speakers from the NHERI SimCenter, DesignSafe, and the NHERI Lehigh facility.

Wall of Wind Researchers Design, Test Hurricane Damage Solutions
posted 08-01-24
On NHERI’s DesignSafe Radio podcast, Florida International University meteorologist Erik Salna introduces the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Wall of Wind

SimCenter Welcomes 2024 Summer REUs
posted 07-31-24
Four undergraduate researchers join the SimCenter at UC Berkeley for an intensive ten-week internship where they complete independent research projects while mentored by domain experts on the software development team.

U.S. and Japan Renew Earthquake Engineering Research Partnership
posted 07-30-24
After two fruitful periods of collaboration, the NIED and NHERI programs have formally renewed the long-term partnership between Japanese and American earthquake engineers for a new five-year effort.

NHERI Partners with CHEER Hub on Hurricane Decision-Making Framework
posted 07-29-24
The STARR software will help coastal communities develop fair and workable policies for hurricane damage mitigation.

Geotech Research to Advance Knowledge of Hazard-Prone Soils
posted 07-24-24
NSF CAREER Award research at UC Davis will give geotechnical engineers better data for conducting site investigations in hazard-prone regions.

Natural Hazards Sessions at the 2024 AGU Meeting
posted 07-18-24
NHERI researchers are encouraged to consider attending, and perhaps presenting, at the 2024 AGU meeting, which takes place December 9-13 in Washington, DC.

Highlights from the 2024 NHERI Summer Institute
posted 07-17-24
This year, 29 early-career academics joined NHERI researchers for three days of information-packed sessions, hands-on practice developing NSF proposals, and valuable networking with peers and established researchers in natural hazards engineering.

NHERI Research on Tap at 18th World Conference for Earthquake Engineering
posted 06-27-24
NHERI community members will represent US earthquake engineering research at the 18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE) from June 30 through July 5, 2024, in Milan, Italy.

Tampa-Area Undergrad Conducting Engineering Research at NHERI UC San Diego
posted 06-19-24
The NHERI shake table facility at UC San Diego will be hosting Tampa-area civil engineering student Michael Morales this summer as their participant in the 2024 NHERI Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

Waisome Helps High School Educators Lean into Windy Lessons at University of Florida
posted 06-11-24
At the University of Florida NHERI Teacher Training Institute, teachers study storm-related vulnerabilities, create project-based lesson plans on wind resistance, and learn new ways to think about STEM teaching.

FIU, Wall of Wind, Bring Wind Engineering into Florida Classrooms
posted 06-01-24
Teachers across South Florida attended the Wind Engineering for STEM Teachers (WEST) workshop at the Florida International University Wall of WInd facility to learn wind engineering lessons they can bring back to their K-12 classrooms.

2024 Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge: High School Teams Design, Test Protective Wind Barriers
posted 06-01-24
South Florida high school students were on the edge of their seats as they watched their wind mitigation models perform against the FIU Wall of Wind at the annual FIU-hosted Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge.

Training to CONVERGE: Tabletop Exercise Advances Natural Hazards Reconnaissance and Research
posted 05-29-24
After five years of working together closely across disciplinary boundaries, the NHERI CONVERGE Leadership Corps decided to put their written plans to the test and convened a tabletop exercise in Atlanta, Georgia, featuring the CDC and NSF officials.

NSF NHERI Milestone: the 2024 National Hazards Research Summit
posted 05-29-24
The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded NHERI network kicked off the summer with the 2024 Natural Hazards Research Summit, May 14 and 15, at the University of Maryland with nearly 275 attendees from around the world.

NHERI at UC San Diego Hosts Turkish Delegation
posted 05-09-23
The NHERI at UC San Diego experimental facility recently hosted two teams of delegates from the Turkish Ministry of the Environment, Urban Planning, and Climate Change, and the Turkish National Natural Hazards Insurance Organization.

Release of the NHERI Decadal Visioning Study 2026-2035
posted 04-26-24
A new report provides the natural hazards engineering research community with emerging research and collaboration needs for improving the sustainability and resilience of civil infrastructure to natural hazard events

Sustainable Functional Recovery: A New Engineering Design Paradigm
posted 04-18-24
Oregon State University engineer and NHERI Converging Designs project PI Andre Barbosa joined Dan Zeher on the DesignSafe Radio podcast to discuss this milestone effort for understanding the behavior of mass-timber structures.

NHERI Science Plan, 3rd Edition: Key Updates on SimCenter, CONVERGE
posted 03-18-24
The latest NHERI Science Plan edition now presents the full scope of the NHERI network with enhanced experimental facility descriptions, research examples, and the new inclusion of major updates on the SimCenter and CONVERGE facilities.

CONVERGE Training Modules Surpass 10,000 Users
posted 03-11-23
The NHERI CONVERGE facility, headquartered at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, has reached a key milestone: More than 10,000 people are now registered for the CONVERGE Training Modules!

SimCenter Featured in the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition
posted 02-15-24
Throughout the latest edition, early-career users will find stimulating ideas that leverage SimCenter tools in natural hazards engineering research.

NHERI Researchers featured in PBS Home Diagnosis TV Show
posted 02-13-24
"Accidents Happen," the third season of popular online PBS program Home Diagnosis, tackles topics of disaster with the help of eleven NHERI researchers spread across five exciting episodes.

SimCenter, DesignSafe Host Key Meeting in Los Angeles
posted 02-07-24
More than 200 researchers conducting modeling and simulation in natural hazards attended the 2024 NHERI Computational Symposium.

Opportunities to leverage CONVERGE in the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition
posted 02-06-24
Early career researchers can build a research agenda that incorporates social science data and interdisciplinary approaches.

NSF’s Margulies Highlights NHERI Research, Data During Congressional Testimony
posted 02-05-24
Assistant Director of the NSF Engineering Directorate, Susan Margulies, spoke about the importance and value of the NHERI community during the January 30th House Research and Technology Subcommittee hearing.

NHERI CONVERGE Releases Twelfth Training Module: Indigenous Sovereignty in Disasters
posted 01-11-24
The latest CONVERGE Training Module offers original content and case studies that highlight how Indigenous sovereignty can help build resilience to hazards and disasters.

NHERI Network Informs Attendees at the 2023 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco
posted 01-10-24
Faculty and staff introduced AGU attendees to NHERI, NSF’s major commitment to shared-use infrastructure in natural hazards engineering. The booth’s hands-on demos engaged hundreds of visitors.

Call for NHERI-Themed Papers in a Frontiers in Built Environment Special Collection
posted 01-10-24
Abstract submissions are now open on the topic of “NHERI 2015-2025: a Decade of Discovery in Natural Hazards Engineering.”

SimCenter Profiles New Members of the Development Team
posted 12-22-23
In this article we feature postdoc scholars and domain experts Dr. Justin Bonus and Dr. Fei Pan.

SimCenter Featured in UNESCO Webinar
posted 12-21-23
The SimCenter was featured in a webinar hosted by the UNESCO Chair in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering at University College London (UCL) on November 16, 2023. A recording of the SimCenter presentation is available online.

SimCenter at ASCE-INSPIRE Conference
posted 12-21-23
SimCenter researchers participated in a panel session at the ASCE-INSPIRE conference on November 17, 2023, in Arlington, Virginia.

NHERI CONVERGE Reciprocity Training Module Now Available in French
posted 12-08-23
The NHERI CONVERGE facility, headquartered at the Natural Hazards Center in Boulder, Colorado, announced the release of its first translated training module. The Reciprocity in Hazards and Disaster Research module is now available in French.

NHERI Network at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco
posted 12-04-23
Stop by AGU booth #206 to meet NHERI faculty and staff and learn about NHERI facilities suitable for coastal and geotechnical research – and all fields that touch on natural hazards, such as social sciences and public health.

Explore DesignSafe's Enhanced OpenSees Resources
posted 12-04-23
OpenSees developer Silvia Mazzoni has joined the DesignSafe team to optimize a version of the full suit of OpenSees tools for integration directly into the DesignSafe website.

Early-Career Researcher Alia Amer Is All About Resilience – in Large-Scale Structures, and in the Engineering Profession
posted 11-27-23
Postdoctoral researcher Alia Amer shares in her own words the path she took to the NHERI community from Cairo, Egypt, to Lehigh University. Now a vital contributor to the NHERI Tallwood project, Alia reflects on her exciting career so far and gives advice for future hazards engineers.

NHERI Science Plan: A Guide for Future Research in Natural Hazards Engineering
posted 11-08-23
The Network Coordination Office (NCO) has released the much anticipated third edition of the NHERI Science Plan to help guide natural hazards researchers with best practices and tackling the grand questions of the community.

Planning Underway for New, National Extreme Winds Simulation Facility
posted 10-27-23
An Iowa State University-led research team has secured a $14 million grant from NSF to design and plan NEWRITE, a National Testing Facility for Enhancing Wind Resiliency of Infrastructure in Tornado-Downburst-Gust Front Events.

NHERI Grad Student Council Celebrates Two Years!
posted 10-27-23
For two years the NHERI Graduate Student Council (GSC) has provided a voice and helped organize over 450 students into the natural hazards community.

NHERI CONVERGE Defines Perishable Data in Extreme Events Research
posted 10-25-23
When CONVERGE training module developer Rachel Adams and her team discovered there was no clear definition of "perisable data," they were determined to solve that for the EER community.

NHERI's SimCenter PBE Application Now Integrates Functional Recovery Simulations
posted 10-20-23
NHERI SimCenter PBE software now leverages Arup’s open-source REDi Seismic Downtime Model, expanding PBE earthquake simulations to include functional recovery computations.

Disaster Researcher Natalie Coleman Uses Big Data to Understand Disproportionate Infrastructure Impacts of Natural Hazards
posted 09-12-23
PhD candidate Natalie Coleman answers questions about her research at the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, working with big data to analyze the intersection of natural hazards, equity, and infrastructure.

NHERI Research Leads to Technology-Transfer Successes
posted 08-23-23
NHERI researchers have published five papers in a Frontiers in Built Environment special Research Topic issue, illustrating a rich variety of approaches to technology transfer that demonstrate the difficult transition from research findings into real-world practice.

NHERI Computational Academy — Wrap Up
posted 08-08-23
THe NHERI Computational Academy, hosted by DesignSafe and SimCenter, was held at TACC within the University of Texas at Austin over three and a half days of intense workshop and presentation.

NHERI at UTexas REUs conduct research on the Big Island
posted 08-07-23
This year, three fortunate REU students accompanied their mentors Ken Stokoe and Diane Moug with the NHERI@Texas mobile shaker team to perform a range of tests around Kawaihae Harbor in Hawai'i.

NHERI at Lehigh REU students: immersed in hybrid simulation, multi-directional experiments
posted 08-03-23
The NHERI Real-Time Multi-Directional (RTMD) Experimental Facility (EF) at Lehigh University is excited to host three REU students this summer.

2023 NHERI Summer Institute connects new researchers to NSF resources
posted 08-02-23
In June, early career researchers gathered in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2023 NHERI Summer Institute, a three-day immersive experience with the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure, NHERI.

NHERI Lehigh testing shows effectiveness of rolling pendulum isolation systems in EQ damage mitigation
posted 08-02-23
Tests of a rolling-pendulum base-isolation system for mission critical buildings were performed as part of an NSF CAREER award utilizing the multi-directional real-time simulation capabilities at the NHERI Lehigh facility.

DesignSafe Radio Podcast: Hurricane-Proofing Low-Rise Roofs
posted 07-13-23
In this two-part series: it's low-rise roofs versus hurricanes. Wind engineer Pedro Fernádez-Cában deploys the NHERI-University of Florida wind tunnel to determine specific ways roofs can be altered to redirect wind flow and reduce suction pressure.

NHERI SimCente welcomes 2023 REU students
posted 06-20-23
Undergraduate researchers Geri Lynch and Christina Bocirnea join the SimCenter for an intensive ten-week internship. They tackle independent research projects, mentored by domain experts on the software development team.

Community Resilience from Earthquakes and Tsunamis
posted 06-20-23
Built, natural, and social environmental dataset wins 2023 DesignSafe Dataset award

Wall of Wind Challenge is Launching Pad for High School Students, Hub for Alumni
posted 06-08-23
Thanks to an FIU program, local high school students got a taste of the work engineers do to ensure safety and create rooftops that will resist hurricane-force winds at the Wall of Wind (WOW) Mitigation Challenge. (Republished from FIU News, by Erik Salna)

NHERI's Network Independent Advisory Committee, NIAC, Meets in San Diego
posted 06-07-23
NHERI's Network Independent Advisory Committee, NIAC, met at the NHERI UC San Diego facility in May to tour the facility and witness the Tallwood project in action during their latest in-person committee meeting.

California Flooding from the ARkStorm
posted 06-06-23
Climate-induced storm flood data wins 2023 DesignSafe Dataset awards.

Public Health in Extreme Events
posted 06-06-23
NHERI CONVERGE is proud to introduce the Public Health Extreme Events Research (PHEER) network, a federally funded effort for rapid response to public health crises.

Weather Sentinels Hit the Beach(opens a new window)
posted 06-02-23
Researchers at University of Florida have developed a fleet of ten-foot tall mobile weather monitoring stations called "Sentinels" for deployment in the field following tests at the Oregon State University wave laboratory.

NHERI Undergraduate Research Inspires Budding Eengineer to Pursue a Career in Natural Hazards
posted 05-31-23
Civil engineering major Daleen Torres-Burgos from Puerto Rico has participated in two NHERI REU programs, and in the fall of 2023, she will begin her PhD in wind engineering at the University of Florida.

NHERI Tallwood Project Media Day Photo Gallery
posted 05-09-23
The NHERI Tallwood team held a press conference at the UC San Diego facility. Reporters and visitors toured the shake table and the 10-story Tallwood building — and watched it undergo two simulated earthquakes.

Media Advisory: May 9 Seismic Test of NHERI Tallwood at UC San Diego
posted 05-05-23
NHERI researchers will shake a 10-story mass timber building — the tallest full-scale building to be tested on an earthquake simulator — at the UC San Diego facility and are inviting media to observe and cover the event.

An Experimental Platform to Study Wind, Hydrodynamic, and Biochemical Conditions in the Littoral Zone During Extreme Coastal Storms(opens a new window)
posted 04-27-23
Addressing a longstanding need to collect data in areas where storms severely damage civil and coastal infrastructure, researchers have developed a state-of-the-art monitoring station called a "Sentinel." Post-event data sets will be made publicly available through NSF's DesignSafe Data Depot.

DesignSafe Radio: UNC Engineer Stephanie Pilkington on Natural Hazards Data Reconnaissance
posted 04-18-23
In a two-part series, UNC professor Stephanie Pilkington joins NHERI's DesignSafe Radio podcast to introduce the Structural Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance group, known as StEER.

Excitement builds for seismic test of NHERI Tallwood at UC San Diego
posted 04-12-23
The NHERI Tallwood project will be using the UC San Diego shake table to simulate earthquake motions recorded during prior earthquakes and will cover a range of earthquake magnitudes on the Richter scale from magnitude 4 to magnitude 8.

Mini-Conference and Interdisciplinary Research Challenge from the NHERI GSC(opens a new window)
posted 04-03-23
The NHERI Graduate Student Council is pleased to host its first Mini-Conference and Collaborative Research Challenge on May 26th, organized by several of the GSC's committee chairs.

NHERI CONVERGE Releases New Training Module: Positionality in Hazards and Disaster Research and Practice(opens a new window)
posted 03-15-23
The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) CONVERGE facility is excited to announce the release of its eleventh training module: Positionality in Hazards and Disaster Research and Practice.

The NHERI Graduate Student Council Highlights Interdisciplinary Research(opens a new window)
posted 03-03-23
With the NHERI Graduate Student Council now more than 300 members strong, it's no surprise it has had great success in promoting a focus on interdisciplinary interactions and research.

From Medellín to Washington DC, Claudia Marin Blazes a Trail in Earthquake Engineering(opens a new window)
posted 03-03-23
Professor Claudia Marin of Howard University shares the path her career has taken in passive seismic protection, computational mechanics, experimental evaluation of large-scale structural and non-structural components, and structural health monitoring.

GEER-EERI reconnaissance team performs initial damage assessment after deadly quakes in Turkey(opens a new window)
posted 03-01-23
Purdue Engineering Professor Ayhan Irfanoglu joined three other U.S. experts as part of a GEER-EERI advance team dispatched to Turkey to review destruction from the quake and make first-hand observations to inform U.S. teams that may travel to the region in the coming weeks. The team made 20 stops along the quake's disaster zone spanning some 280 miles to determine what needs to be done when larger teams of structural engineers from the U.S. and across the globe begin arriving in March.

DesignSafe Data Depot Repository Announces CoreTrustSeal Certification(opens a new window)
posted 03-01-23
Maria Esteva, Research Scientist at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and DesignSafe's Data Curator, led the certification process along with the team responsible for managing and maintaining the DesignSafe Data Depot. DesignSafe is a comprehensive research environment that provides cloud-based tools to manage, analyze, understand, and publish natural hazards data. Esteva graciously shares the CoreTrustSeal certification process in a series of questions to help us understand what it took and what the certification means for DesignSafe.

Making Roofs More Hurricane-Proof Through Better Geometry(opens a new window)
posted 02-28-23
A new National Science Foundation (NSF) study by FAMU-FSU researchers and faculty may offer new options for better, stormproof resilient roofs in the future.

NHERI Tallwood: Advancing EQ resilience, sustainability(opens a new window)
posted 02-21-23
At NHERI UC San Diego, a full-scale, ten-story, mass-timber building rests on the platen of the world's largest outdoor shake table. It is the NSF-funded NHERI Tallwood project.

Smart Structural Health Monitoring(opens a new window)
posted 01-18-23
Pioneering researchers are using artificial intelligence to develop a more accurate, cost effective tool for monitoring the strucutral health of civil infrastructure

Frontier Precision Unmanned Aids Drone-Based 3-D Mapping of Hurricane Ian Damage(opens a new window)
posted 01-05-23
With the help of Frontier Precision, the NHERI RAPID facility was able to collect valuable data on Hurricane Ian damage in Ft. Myers Beach and Sanibel Island, Florida.