Episode 6 We Grew Up On An Island Surrounded By Water, So That Calls For Trouble

For two engineering undergrads from Puerto Rico, working on the beach is a dream job. In this week’s edition of DesignSafe Radio, host Dan Zehner meets up with these two students, who took part in NHERI’s 2017 Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Civil engineering students Hector Colon Delacruz and Peter Rivera Casillas talk to host Dan Zehner about their summer working at Oregon State University’s Hinsdale Wave Lab, one of NHERI’s eight experimental sites. Both students attend the University of Puerto Rico. Hector Colon De la Cruz, a senior, plans to earn his master’s degree in coastal engineering. Doing hands-on research at OSU confirmed his desire to be a coastal engineer. He wants to explore using mangrove plantings to prevent coastal erosion. Similarly, Peter Rivera Casillas, a surfer, says his summer experience convinced him earn an advanced degree in a profession that involves the sea: coastal engineering or oceanography. In the Hinsdale Wave Lab, the students worked on several research projects, including a multi-university effort that examined how tsunami waves are affected by conical islands. Much of their work involved creating and validating computer models; they describe using Matlab and a new tool called Celeris (https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.05984) , an open-source program that can compute wave paths, and visualize them, at the same time. Peter, who had experience in coding, helped Hector learn Matlab over the course of the summer. As for their experiences in natural disasters, Peter describes surfing in 12-foot foot hurricane swells – and getting dragged out to sea by the current. Fortunately, he was able to reach shoreline rocks and climb out. Hector describes his own sea-going scare when a sudden series of waves appeared and threatened to capsize his small boat. Waves can be scary -- but not as scary as tornados, they say!