Upcoming Seminars
Wildfire Engineering: Integrating Models with Data to Advance Solutions
May 21, 2025 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Hamed Ebrahimian
Wildland fires are a critical part of a healthy ecosystem. However, the rapid expansion of the wildland-urban interface, coupled with climate change and human activities, has dramatically increased wildfire hazards in recent decades. Today, wildfires rank among the most significant natural threats to social, economic, ecological, and infrastructure systems. This presentation introduces the wildfire challenge to the engineering community and highlights our team’s recent advancements in wildfire simulation, data analysis, and risk assessment.
Simulating wildfires is a complex, multi-physics, and multi-scale process essential for both pre-fire risk assessment and active-fire emergency response. This presentation provides an overview of state-of-the-art wildland fire modeling techniques, emphasizing our contributions to fuel characterization and modeling fire spotting. To address the challenges of collecting observational wildfire data, we have developed a deep learning method that enhances the spatial resolution of satellite data. This new development supports the integration of computational models and data, advancing capabilities for wildfire digital twinning and enabling near real-time wildfire monitoring for emergency response.
Additionally, the presentation outlines the development of a probabilistic wildfire risk assessment framework, inspired by decades of progress in earthquake risk engineering. This framework accounts for uncertainties across different systems to quantify wildfire risk as the probability of loss. Finally, we explore key technical challenges in wildfire monitoring, simulation, and data assimilation and present a forward-looking vision for wildfire engineering research. The objective is to engage the engineering community in addressing this critical and evolving challenge through innovative contributions.
Past Seminars
Ingenuity in Geotechnical Design using Geosynthetics
October 30, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Jorge G. Zornberg
Even though geosynthetics are now a well-established discipline within geotechnical engineering, ingenuity remains significant in many projects involving their use. This is probably because of the ability to tailor the mechanical and hydraulic properties of geosynthetics in a controlled manner to address design needs in all areas of geotechnical engineering. This presentation focuses on specific geosynthetics advances in a wide range of geotechnical projects.
Safe and Sustainable Dam Infrastructure
October 23, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Vik Iso-Ahola
This presentation will focus on a short career bio and a discussion on engineering consulting as it is applied to large water infrastructure projects, demonstrated through several project case histories. Vik will include broad coverage of the engineering disciplines applied to these projects but also some interesting details on the challenging seismic and
structural evaluations performed. He’ll come prepared to answer your questions and have supplemental detail to present on other aspects of these projects and his related experience.
Tunneling, Design Considerations, and Innovations
October 16, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Jon Y. Kaneshiro
This talk will provide 1. an introduction to tunneling; 2. an introduction to liner design including geotechnical, and liner type considerations; and 3. some other design considerations of liners and cylinders including design innovations. The introduction to the tunneling topic will provide a brief overview of types of tunneling and ground supports. The liner design topic will provide some practical design considerations in terms of loading as well as implications for ground settlement.
Model Validation – A Different Approach
October 14, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Ziyad (Zee) Duron
Modern computational and modeling techniques offer powerful tools for evaluating the ability of large civil structural systems to withstand extreme and hazard loading conditions. Unfortunately, for many owners and operators of these large systems, a confidence gap exists between practical everyday operations and predictions of imminent failure. This talk will discuss reasons for why this gap exists, the state of the current practice, and offer an alternate or different approach that may begin to close this gap.
Seismic Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction in Unsaturated Ground
October 09, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Majid Ghayoomi
Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction (SFSI) evaluates the collective seismic response of a system containing the superstructure, foundation, and surrounding soil given the earthquake motion at the ground surface. During an earthquake, the seismic motion propagates upward and changes in characteristics, passing through the bedrock and layers of soil before reaching the soil surface and influencing the structural system through its foundation.
Design Considerations for Waterfront and Near Shore Structures
October 02, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: William M. Bruin
Coastal and waterfront developments situated in harsh marine environments require specialized design strategies to ensure long-term resilience. Key considerations such as material selection, site-specific siting, protective coatings, waterproofing, and accurate load analysis are critical for these complex projects. Waterfront structures face unique environmental loads, including wave action, currents, and tsunamis, alongside operational loads that differ significantly from those encountered in traditional buildings.
The Past, Present, and Future of Tall Timber Buildings
June 05, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Lorenzo Glielmi
Join us for an insightful presentation on the evolution and future of timber tall buildings, with a particular emphasis on developments in Europe. We will begin with a historical exploration of the roots of timber construction and tall buildings. From there, we will delve into the latest advancements in technology, focusing on innovative connectors and lateral systems. Our journey will include a series of case studies showcasing prominent tall timber buildings, highlighting key projects across Europe, including the tallest full-timber building in the world.
Advanced Numerical Modeling of Soil Structure Interaction
February 14, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Davide Forcellini
The assessment of the mutual interaction between the structure and the soil is an integral part of the seismic evaluation, especially for rigid structures that are particularly sensitive. In particular, Soil Structure Interaction (SSI) effects may consist of many components such as rocking, settlements and lateral spreading that potentially interact with the superstructure, affecting its seismic performance.
SE Distinguished Lecture
February 12, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: Aaron Freidenberg and Mehrdad Shokrabadi
Structural collapses can occur due to extraordinary events as well as design or construction errors. This presentation will include two case studies of partially collapsed reinforced concrete bridges, both of which occurred for reasons that are not immediately obvious. We’ll discuss the root causes of the failures and the parties at fault. We’ll discuss typical investigative steps, which include review of design documents, eye witness accounts, and an analysis of multiple possible failure sequences.
Inspection Considerations for Waterfront Structures
February 05, 2024 - 12:00 pm
Speaker: William M. Bruin
Nearshore and waterfront structures exist within the nuanced realm that combines building and bridge design elements, presenting distinctive challenges in their design, construction, and maintenance. These singular structures, exposed to the most severe environmental conditions, necessitate resilience against substantial loads and conditions induced by wind, waves, currents, earthquakes, and tsunamis.