SimCenter Working Groups

Working Groups are a pivotal organizational component of the SimCenter that are composed of senior faculty, development staff, and interested external participants. The Working Groups’ tasks are to guide continuing software development, plan and conduct test cases, engage users through courses, outreach to other researchers, and to educate the community through webinars and mentoring of REU students. The primary activities of the Working Groups are to advise on software development priorities, use software in their teaching and research, and communicate with the research community about opportunities and capabilities of the SimCenter framework. Working Groups hold regular meetings and report to SimCenter Leadership in monthly meetings.

 

Working Group on Socio-Economic Impacts and Recovery +

Lead: Rachel Davidson (University of Delaware)
Members: Jack Baker (Stanford University), Ann-Margaret Esnard (Georgia State Univ.), Sarah DeYoung (University of Delaware), Adam Zsarnóczay (Stanford University), CHEER Project members
Developer Lead: Adam Zsarnóczay (Stanford University)

Charge: The SEIR working group is currently focused on two main goals: (1) Encouraging and supporting use of R2D as it currently exists; and (2) Identifying, prioritizing, and beginning to implement the next models and data to be linked or added to R2D. Towards these aims, we are actively soliciting input from a wide range of social scientists and engineers who may use R2D and/or contribute models or data in the future about how R2D can best serve their research and education needs.

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Adam Zsarnóczay <adamzs@stanford.edu>.

Working Group on Regional Simulation of Earthquakes +

Lead: Greg Deierlien (Stanford University)
Members: Pedro Arduino (UW), Henry Burton (UCLA), Laura Lowes (UW), Scott Brandenberg (UCLA), Marc Eberhard (UW), Jeffrey Berman (UW), Joel Conte (UCSD), Sanjay Govindjee (UCB), Jack Baker (Stanford University)
Developer Lead: Sang-ri Yi (UC Berkeley)

Charge: This task group is focused on guiding the development and research applications of software to simulate the effects of earthquakes on buildings, transportation and utility systems, and communities. The scope includes (1) developing data models and API’s to integrate earthquake hazard software and data (e.g., OpenSHA, OpenQuake, physics-based simulations) in SimCenter workflows, (2) coordinate with other SimCenter working groups on common issues concerning inventories, socio-economic effects, and UQ developments, (3) develop a data integration framework for multi-fidelity models (geotechnical, structural, socio-economic, civil infrastructure systems) into high-resolution regional simulations, and (4) develop and promote activities to engage the research and education communities in earthquake engineering, risk and recovery. The working group supports development of the following SimCenter tools: PBE/pelicun, R2D/rwhale, EE-UQ, and quoFEM.

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Sang-ri Yi <yisangri@berkeley.edu>.

Working Group on Regional Simulation of Hurricanes +

Lead: Tracy Kijewski-Correa (Notre Dame)
Members: Seymour Spence (Univ. of Michigan), Ahsan Kareem (Notre Dame), Ertugrul Taciroglu (UCLA), Stella Yu (Univ. of Michigan), Rachel Davidson (University of Delaware), Dimitris Giovanis (Johns Hopkins), Sarah DeYoung (University of Delaware)
Developer Lead: Barbaros Cetiner (UC Berkeley)

Charge:

  • Guide development and application efforts for regional hurricane simulations
  • Advise on data models and tools that can integrate SimCenter tools with wind and storm surge hazards
  • Coordinate with other working groups on common inventory, socio-economic, and UQ developments
  • Identify strategies to expand hurricane damage and consequence simulation tools for building, transportation and utility infrastructure components and systems
  • Advance capacity for multi-resolution simulation of structural performance/damage levels
  • Build a community of practice around hurricane regional simulation through engagement, education and outreach

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Barbaros Cetiner <bacetiner@berkeley.edu>

Working Group on Regional Simulations for Lifelines and Transportation +

Lead: Matt DeJong (UC Berkeley)
Members: Jonathan Bray (UC Berkeley), Ann-Margaret Esnard (Georgia State), Michael Shields (Johns Hopkins), Kenichi Soga (UC Berkeley), Ertugrul Taciroglu (UCLA), Stella Yu (Univ. of Michigan)
Developer Lead: Jinyan Zhao (UC Berkeley)

Charge:

  • Develop specification of metadata format for storing building/infrastructure data that is relevant to assessment of damage, consequences, and repair/recovery from natural hazards
  • Develop federated database of building exposure data
  • Develop AI-enabled tools and best practices for inventory generation and validation methods for prioritized building/infrastructure attributes
  • Coordinate development of data formats and tools with DesignSafe, RAPID, and STEER
  • Support regional hazard and socio-economic/recovery working groups and other researchers to develop inventory databases for model generation and validation
  • User engagement, education and outreach

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Jinyan Zhao <jinyan_zhao@berkeley.edu>.

Working Group on Wind and Water Simulation - Local Scale +

Leaders: Catherine Gorle (Stanford University) and Mike Motley (UW)
Members: Ahsan Kareem (Notre Dame), Patrick Lynett (USC), Pedro Arduino (UW), Andrew Kennedy (Notre Dame), Peter Mackenzie-Helnwein (UW), Seymour Spence (Univ. Of Michigan)
Developer Leads: Abiy Melaku and Justin Bonus (UC Berkeley)

Charge:

  • Guide development and application efforts for CFD modelling of wind and water flows and effects on structures at local scales
  • Develop simulation tools and best practices for computational wave tank (OSU) and wind tunnel (UF) to engage experimental researchers in simulations
  • Develop frameworks for leveraging CFD simulations to inform regional hazard models for wind, storm surge, and tsunamis (e.g., turbulent inflows, ADCIRC, GeoClaw)
  • Develop educational modules to increase user engagement and support education and outreach

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Abiy Melaku <afmelaku@berkeley.edu> and Justin Bonus <bonus@berkeley.edu>.

Working Group on Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in Natural Hazards Engineering +

Lead: Alexandros Taflanidis (Notre Dame)
Members: Joel Conte (UCSD), Greg Deierlien (Stanford University), Dimitrios Giovanis (Johns Hopkins), Sanjay Govindjee (UC Berkeley), Seymour Spence (Univ. of Michigan), Michael Shields (Johns Hopkins), Adam Zsarnóczay (Stanford University)
Developer Lead: Aakash Bangalore Satish (UC Berkeley)

Charge: The Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) working group facilitates the integration of computational statistics tools to address uncertainty characterization and propagation in natural hazards engineering problems. Developments coming out of the working group permeate across all SimCenter products for which uncertainty plays an important role. Topics of emphasis include the efficient uncertainty propagation for regional risk assessment applications, the integration of surrogate modeling and stochastic emulation techniques, and the Bayesian formulation of model calibration problems.

How to get involved: Inquiries should be sent to Aakash Bangalore Satish <bsaakash@berkeley.edu>.