Grand Challenges in Earthquake Engineering Research--A Vision for NEES Experimental Facilities and Cyberinfrastructure Tools

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) will complete ten years of National Science Foundation (NSF) support for operations and research at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2014. To develop the next-generation earthquake engineering research agenda and research infrastructure needs beyond 2014, a National Research Council (NRC) committee, convened by the NRC's Division on Earth and Life Studies, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, will organize a community workshop on the Grand Challenges for earthquake engineering research. This workshop will bring together experts to address (1) the high-priority Grand Challenges in basic earthquake engineering research that require a network of earthquake engineering experimental facilities and cyberinfrastructure, and (2) the networked earthquake engineering experimental capabilities and cyberinfrastructure tools required to address these Grand Challenges. Workshop attendees will be asked to describe the experimental infrastructure capabilities and cyberinfrastructure tools in terms of requirements, rather than by reference to any existing or anticipated located future facilities, and will consider emerging technical and conceptual advances with the potential to influence future earthquake engineering research directions, such as early warning systems, new materials, sustainability, high performance computing and networking, modeling and simulation, sensor and monitoring technologies, and other factors identified by the workshop steering committee. The workshop will be held in fall 2010 at the National Academies Beckman Center in Irvine, CA. The NRC committee will prepare a workshop report summarizing the Grand Challenges and the requirements for networked facilities and cyberinfrastructure. The workshop report will be completed in early 2011. The ultimate goal of the Grand Challenges in basic earthquake engineering research that will be defined by this workshop is to mitigate the effects of future earthquakes and decrease societal risk. This award is part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).