On February 1 and 2, six members of the CHEER Hub participated in the second annual NHERI Computational Symposium at UCLA.

The purpose of the conference, which was hosted by the Computational Modeling and Simulation Center (SimCenter), one of CHEER’s research partners, was to provide a platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing between experts in various natural hazards engineering disciplines. 

The Hub was well-represented at the event. Principal investigator Rachel Davidson and Ertugrul Taciroglu, leader of the Hub’s buildings thrust, spearheaded the group. They were joined by their students, University of Delaware’s Christopher Alegbeyele and Nii Otu Tackie-Otoo and UCLA’s Mohammad Askari.

Christopher Alegbeleye, Mohammad Askari, Hesam Soleimani-Babakamali, and Nii Otu Tackie-Otoo represent the CHEER Hub at the 2024 NHERI Computational Symposium on February 1 and 2.

Alongside Taciroglu, Askari and postdoctoral researcher Hesam Soleimani presented their research at the symposium. Their poster, Deep Ensemble Learning for Rapid Large-Scale Post-Earthquake Damage Assessment — Application to 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes Satellite Images, focused on using satellite imagery to evaluate rapid post-disaster damage. It also explored current challenges and strategies pertaining to the generalizability of AI models in such incidents.

“The symposium provided valuable insights into the latest advancements in mainstream hazard analysis and state-of-the-art machine-learning strategies,” said Soleimani. “This opportunity enabled me to ensure the solidity of the current CHEER roadmap and our capacity to make meaningful contributions to the field.”

Principal investigator Rachel Davidson presents to an audience of nearly 200 researchers and industry practitioners during the meeting’s plenary session on February 1, 2024.

Davidson spoke to an audience of nearly 200 researchers and industry practitioners during the meeting’s plenary session. Her presentation, titled Three Examples of Computational Workflows as Vehicles to Enhance Collaboration and Advance Research, described three regional-scale computational frameworks. The models were meant to highlight specific SimCenter resources and tools. The computational workflows also illustrated how modelers can leverage them to expand the impact and scope of their research. 

Two of the models, a regional wind damage and loss model and the Stakeholder-based Tool for Analysis of Regional Risk (STARR), are related to CHEER. 

The component-based building wind damage model framework is being integrated into the SimCenter tool, PELICUN, to facilitate regional hurricane wind damage estimation.

STARR contains modules of regional economies and governments, households, and insurer decision-making. It has the potential to be connected to SimCenter to take advantage of R2D’s regional loss modeling capabilities that those modules require as input.

“It’s not often that Hub members from different universities are able to meet in person,” said Davidson. “The symposium was a unique opportunity for our team to learn from each other and connect with the larger community of disaster risk modelers.”