NCO Update
Published on July 30, 2018
Julio Ramirez
Director, NHERI NCO
Greetings and best wishes for a great summer! The latest quarter of the FY 2018 has been full of activity, and we would like to bring you up to speed.
2018 Structures Congress
In April, several of the NHERI components got together to participate in a session during the 2018 ASCE-SEI Congress in Fort Worth, TX. As we reported, that session was well received, and you may now access the presentations in on the DesignSafe-CI Data Depot.
NHERI REU
June was full of activity as well with the start of the REU program and the NHERI Summer Institute in San Antonio, TX, from June 4-6. The REU program this year received more than 100 applications, easily surpassing the target set by the NCO. We want to thank all the faculty and students for the great support of this program and the facilities for the strong partnership with the NCO to make this program a success.
We look forward to a successful completion of the current phase of the REU program and to a successful program next year. We also want to thank the Education and Community Outreach Committee with members from the facilities, NCO and the User Forum for organizing the program.
Summer Institute
Similarly, the Summer Institute was very well received by the attendees. Focusing on early career researchers and practitioners, the NCO was able to fund 23 participants this year from the earthquake, wind and coastal engineering communities, as well as social scientists. A total of more that 70 individuals, including NSF, facilities, NCO and self-supported participants joined in the 3-day program. The Summer Institute focuses on building the NHERI community, discussing the Science Plan, and building NHERI research and education.
11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering
NHERI was well represented at the 11CEE in Los Angeles with a session on NHERI research activities and cyberinfrastructure; the NCO represented NHERI on the panel: "Federal efforts to embed seismic policy into broader initiatives."
At the end of the 11NCEE, I had the pleasure of representing NHERI at the USC-hosted 4th PREEMPTIVE SAVI Workshop from June 29 to July 1.
More than 25 researchers participated in active breakout sessions and attended a half-day tour of iconic base-isolated buildings in Los Angeles, including the famous Los Angeles City Hall retrofitted in 2002 using an ingenious combination of rubber and hydraulic dampers.
This was the last workshop in the program and during it various strategies to continue the relationship were discussed and evaluated. We hope to hear more great news soon about this program led by Prof. Erik Johnson from the University of Southern California and Rich Christenson from the University of Connecticut.
