The SimCenter actively participated in the 18th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE2024), June 30-July 5, 2024, in Milan, Italy. This year’s conference had over 4200 participants from academic/research institutions, industry, and the public sector, from over 80 countries. 161 technical sessions were led by 340 conveners from 70 countries. SimCenter contributions were referenced in plenary talks and featured in at least 16 presentations.

The WCEE is held every four years at different sites, and the conference provides a forum for the international scientific and practitioner communities to share knowledge and ideas in the field of earthquake engineering.

The conference's forward-looking themes align well with the SimCenter’s focus on quantitative recovery modeling, high-fidelity simulations for regional impact assessment, multi-hazard considerations, and innovative applications of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and surrogate modeling. With a future vision aligned globally across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the US, the conference highlighted tremendous opportunities for international research collaboration.

Plenary Talks that referenced SimCenter work include:

• FROM “SIMULATION-DRIVEN” URBAN DISASTER MITIGATION TO “GENERATIVE AI-POWERED” SEISMIC DESIGN
  Xinzheng Lu
• WHY SEISMIC HAZARD MODELLING HAS BECOME A RISKY BUSINESS
  Helen Crowley

Technical sessions and presentations where SimCenter team members contributed and SimCenter tools were used include:

SHR13/14 - HIGH-RESOLUTION SIMULATION OF REGIONAL EARTHQUAKE RISK AND RECOVERY, organized by SimCenter Conveners: G. Deierlein, M. DeJong, A. Zsarnóczay, and A. Taflanidis

• THE BENEFITS OF LARGE-SCALE SEISMIC RETROFITS IN THE HOSPITAL SYSTEM IN THE BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
  L. Ceferino, C. Kukunoor, A. Zsarnóczay
• ACCELERATE INNOVATION IN REGIONAL SIMULATIONS THROUGH SHARED COMPUTATIONAL WORKFLOWS AND DATA
  A. Zsarnóczay, G. Deierlein, F. McKenna
• PYRECODES: AN OPEN-SOURCE PYTHON PACKAGE FOR RESILIENCE ASSESSMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
  N. Blagojevic, B. Stojadinovic
• STOCHASTIC EMULATION FOR SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT
  S. Yi, A. Taflanidis
• SIMULATE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES IN TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS BY PLOM SURROGATE MODELS
  P. Lee, K. Zhong, G. Deierlein
• INFLUENCE OF FIDELITY OF REDUCED ORDER MODELS FOR REGIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT APPLICATIONS
  P. Toofani Movaghar, S. Yi, A. Taflanidis, C. Galasso

Presentations in other sessions:

AIM3 - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY OF MACHINE LEARNING IN NATURAL HAZARDS ENGINEERING

• BAYESIAN NEURAL NETWORKS BASED STRUCTURAL DEMAND SURROGATE MODELS FOR STEEL MOMENT FRAMES
  J. Fayaz, A. Zsarnóczay

BCI5 - LARGE-SCALE SIMULATIONS FOR VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE ANALYSES OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES

• A SURROGATE MODEL FOR THE HYSTERESIS BEHAVIOR OF RC COLUMNS - APPLICATION TO REGIONAL ASSESSMENT
  M. Gomez, A. Satish, M. DeJong

CMS6 - RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN SEISMIC DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF NEW AND EXISTING STEEL STRUCTURES

• HIGH-FIDELITY MODELING OF FRACTURE-CRITICAL WELDED STEEL BEAM-TO-COLUMN CONNECTIONS
  F.A. Galvis, G.G. Deierlein, C. Molina Hutt, J.W. Baker

EVO1/2/4 - ADVANCES TOWARDS FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY BASED DESIGN

• THE IMPORTANCE OF PARAMETER CHOICES IN QUANTIFYING POST-EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY MEASURES
  P. Kourehpaz, C. Molina Hutt, A. Zsarnóczay

EXP4 - EVOLUTION OF EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES IN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND EXPERIMENTAL DATA MANAGEMENT

• COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS TO INTEGRATE EXPERIMENTAL DATA WITH PERFORMANCE-BASED EARTHQUAKE SIMULATIONS
  G. Deierlein, M. DeJong

RES11 - SEISMIC RETROFIT FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

• THE ROLE OF EARTHQUAKE LOSSES AND FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY TIME ESTIMATIONS ON RETROFIT DECISIONS
  F.A. Galvis, O. Issa, G.G. Deierlein, A. Zsarnóczay, J.W. Baker

SDM7 - NONLINEAR METHODS OF ANALYSIS IN SEISMIC ENGINEERING

• A VERSATILE COMPUTATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPMENT OF REDUCED ORDER MODELS FOR BUILDING STRUCTURES
  A. Bangalore Satish, P. Toofani Movaghar, D. Patsialis, A. Taflanidis, F. McKenna, G. Deierlein

SHR4 - UNCERTAINTY QUANTIFICATION AND RELIABILITY METHODS FOR REGIONAL SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT

• STATISTICAL IMPUTATION OF MISSING BUILDING INVENTORY AND ITS IMPACT ON REGIONAL SEISMIC ASSESSMENT
  S. Yi, A. Zsarnóczay, A. Bangalore Satish, D. Giovanis, B. Cetiner, F. McKenna

SHR5 - FORWARD-LOOKING EARTHQUAKE RISK MODELLING AND QUANTIFICATION: RECENT ADVANCES AND PERSPECTIVES

• PROBABILISTIC, TIME-EVOLVING INVENTORIES AND HIGH-RESOLUTION MODELS IN REGIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT
  A. Zsarnóczay, G.G. Deierlein

TNM8 NATECH SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT, MANAGEMENT AND MITIGATION IN MAJOR HAZARD INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES

• OPENSRA: A SOFTWARE FOR SEISMIC RISK ANALYSIS OF NATURAL GAS INFRASTRUCTURE
  M. Largent, B. Zheng, J. Watson-Lamprey, J. Bray, N. Abrahamson, C. Bain, D.
  Hutabarat, K. Soga, J. Wang, P. Hubbard, S. Gavrilovic, F. McKenna, J. Rutqvist, T.
  Sasaki, Y. Zhang, K. Luu, P. Jordan, B. Foxall, E. Pantoli, T. Hutchinson, D. McCallen,
  S. Elfass, T. O Rourke, S. Lindvall, S. Thompson