DesignSafe Radio
by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure
We all have experienced natural hazards in our lives: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunami, floods: they impact our society at the most fundamental levels. Through rigorous testing and outreach programs, the team at the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure is committed to making sure the next natural hazard doesn't have to be a disaster for you and your family. From the National Science Foundation and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: This is DesignSafe radio!
Episodes
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CFS10 Instrumentation and data
Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June and July of 2025. In this episode, earthquake engineers Tara Hutchinson, of UC San Diego, and Ben Schafer, of Johns Hopkins University, explain how they collect data from the CFS10 shake table...
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Beyond building code with cold-formed steel
Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June and July of 2025. In this episode, earthquake engineers Tara Hutchinson, of UC San Diego, and Ben Schafer, of Johns Hopkins University, discuss the long-term nature of seismic engineering...
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Introduction to CFS10 project with Hutchinson and Schafer
Note: This podcast interview was recorded before the CFS10 shake table tests, which took place in June 2025 at UC San Diego. The landmark NSF-funded Cold-formed Steel 10 research project, CFS10, is evaluating the seismic performance of tall buildings framed with sheet steel members and modules.…
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Hurricane recon deployments 101
University of Florida Professor and research engineer Nina Stark dives into the logistics of post-hurricane data collection. In 2024, as part of the Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER) team, Stark deployed to the west coast of Florida before and after Hurricane Helene. As she tells her...
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Post-Hurricane Reconnaissance
Specializing in geotechnical engineering and coastal science, Nina Stark studies soil mechanics and soil responses to coastal and riverine stresses -- like hurricanes and related flooding. During hurricane season, you will find her in the field, collecting perishable data with NSF-supported…
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10-story cold-formed steel shake table test
Johns Hopkins earthquake engineer and cold-formed steel researcher Ben Schafer introduces the NHERI CFS10 project underway at the NHERI UC San Diego shake table facility. Tara Hutchinson, Schafer’s co-PI on the project, is a research engineer at UC San Diego. (We will meet Hutchinson in an…
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Stealthy strength of cold-formed steel
The seemingly outsized strength of cold-formed steel is not well-known. In this episode, earthquake engineer Ben Schafer, Johns Hopkins University, describes a research-industry collaboration with the automotive industry resulting in code changes for high-strength sheet-steel. Sheet steel has…
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Intro to cold-formed steel as resilient framing material
Meet Johns Hopkins University engineer Ben Schafer, authority on cold-formed steel (CFS), also known as sheet steel or thin steel. Schafer explains that CFS is both strong and ductile – and therefore a remarkably high-performance structural framing material. Builders use CFS in a variety of ways…
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The Future of Wildfire Mitigation
Research engineer Erica Fischer wraps up by noting that engineers, such as those in the NSF NHERI natural hazards community, are working on multiple fronts to leverage their skills and knowledge to reduce damage from future urban-wildland conflagrations. Follow Erica Fischer on LinkedIn:...
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Homeowners Can Mitigate Wildfire Risk
On the policy level, states first must define and map the wildland-urban interface; then states formally define risk-categories and mitigations required. Examples: clearing combustible material within five feet around the house and updating roof and siding with non-combustible materials. Fischer...
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Collecting data after an urban-wildfire event
To understand damage, engineers examine things like water-system piping. To understand the fire itself, they gather physical clues that help them determine “heat flux,” or fire intensity. They collect data such as distance and direction between structures, siding and roofing material, and the...
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Engineering for urban conflagrations
Interview with Oregon State University research engineer Erica Fischer. As wildfires increasingly affect communities and civil infrastructure, structural engineers apply their expertise in interdependent lifeline systems and structures. Fischer says engineers are primed to investigate “urban...
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Installing the Sentinel mobile weather station
University of Florida engineer Brian Phillips describes the procedure for installing the Sentinel mobile weather station directly on the beach. Assembly starts with drilling a 20-foot auger hole. Once the foundation is secure, the team raises the 33-foot carbon-steel-fiber mast, fully…
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Brian Phillips intros the Sentinel mobile weather station
University of Florida engineer Brian Phillips updates us on NSF-funded efforts to capture vital data during landfalling hurricanes. For decades, UF researchers have deployed mobile weather stations. Now, Phillips describes the newly designed Sentinel weather station. The 33 feet tall tower,...
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Multipurpose Wind-Wave Experimentation
The goal of the proposed NICHE facility: To understand the joint destructive forces of wind and waves —at full scale — in order to design infrastructure capable of resisting damage from hurricanes, tornadoes, surge flooding, and related natural hazards. Among its capabilities, NICHE will enable:...
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Designing the World’s Largest Wind-Wave Research Lab
Plans are afoot to build the world’s largest wind-wave research lab, capable of generating 200 MPH hurricane winds and 5-meter-high waves. This NSF-funded facility will enable full-scale investigations into structural and coastal resilience — and a secure future in the face of destructive natural...
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Protecting liquefaction-prone soils in the PNW
Geotech engineer Diane Moug is an authority on microbially induced desaturation, known as “MID.” This technique, developed at Arizona State University, prevents soils from liquefying in an earthquake. Moug describes how microbes desaturate soils, the benefits of the process, and her own, ongoing...
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Diane Moug, One CAREER Award story
Obtaining an NSF CAREER Award is a milestone for academics in the sciences. Early-career geotechical engineer and researcher Diane Moug shares her experiences writing and applying for – and then (finally) successfully winning, a CAREER Award.
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Improving the Cone Penetration Test Featuring Diane Moug.
The cone penetration test (CPT) is a standard tool for geotechnical engineers; it's used for measuring soil sheer strength, stress history and type. Leveraging her NSF CAREER award, Portland State U researcher Diane Moug plans to improve the CPT, so engineers can make better interpretations of…
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Decision-making in disaster risk models Featuring Rachel Davidson
CHEER researchers focus on understanding decision-making among all the players involved in sustaining a resilient coastal community. Davidson details how stakeholders – insurers, government agencies, and residents -- have different, reasonable, and conflicting goals. CHEER’s goal is to find…
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STARR software framework featuring Rachel Davidson
Working with the NHERI SimCenter and DesignSafe, the CHEER team is developing a software framework called Stakeholder-based Tool for the Analysis of Regional Risk, or STARR. STARR modeling extends regional loss models like R2D, INCORE, and Hazus to include a focus on decision making. STARR models...
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The CHEERHub: A new approach to coastal resilience Featuring Rachel Davidson
Rachel Davidson is a research engineer at the University of Delaware and principal investigator for the “Coastal Hazards Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience Hub,” or CHEERHub. The five-year, $16M, NSF-funded, multi-disciplinary research network is tackling the complexity of coastal...
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Mentoring at UC Davis
Mentoring at UC Davis How do geotech students gain experience? Laura Luna and José Luis Caisapanta discuss the UC Davis Geotechical Graduate Student Society, a nationally respected mentoring program. In an intentional “laddering” fashion, grad students new to the UC Davis program learn from more...
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Modeling EQs in a centrifuge with UC Davis graduate students
Civil engineering grad students from NHERI UC Davis join Dan Zehner to discuss research at the renowned Center for Geotechnical Modeling, a geotech lab equipped with a nine-meter centrifuge. Master’s student Jose Louis Caisapanta describes soil experiments with the centrifuge – which can deploy a...
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The WOW Challenge and the future of wind engineering Featuring Erik Salna
In our final episode with FIU meteorologist Erik Salna, we learn about the Wall of Wind Challenge, an annual event for high school students. NHERI researchers provide a specific wind mitigation challenge. Student teams design and build a protective structure, and then get the chance to test their...
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Wall of Wind: Testing civil infrastructure Featuring Erik Salna
FIU-based meteorologist and educator Erik Salna relates some unusual but important WOW experiments to test the effects of wind loading on civil infrastructure such as construction cranes and electrical power towers. One unique project used flying debris in the wind tunnel to derive an algorithm…
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Wall of Wind & Hurricane Research Featuring Erik Salna
Meteorologist and educator Erik Salna provides nitty-gritty details on the gigantic, NSF-funded wind research lab called the Wall of Wind, or WOW. Located at Florida International University in Miami, the WOW facility is part of the NSF-funded NHERI network. Each of WOW’s 12-fans are six feet in...
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Snakeskin-inspired piles and tech transfer Featuring Alejandro Martínez
UC Davis professor Alejandro Martínez is moving his bio-inspired snakeskin piles into industry practice. The novel pile-surface employs “frictional directionality” characteristic of snakeskin. Field trials provided better than expected results, and Martínez is now working to get his new design…
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Engineering with Evolution Featuring Alejandro Martínez
UC Davis professor Alejandro Martínez explains how biogeotechnical engineers leverage solutions from lifeforms like worms, trees, and bacteria. It starts with fundamental, cross-disciplinary work with biologists. Then, at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM), centrifuge tests fill…
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Biogeotechnics: Engineers leverage, learn from nature featuring Alejandro Martínez
Geotechnical engineer Alejandro Martínez joins us to discuss a new and multidisciplinary engineering subfield called biogeotechnics. “Bioinspired” research examines and mimics ways that plants, animals and bacteria successfully interact with soil. For example: how tree roots successfully resist...
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Conferences, reconnaissance opportunities for NHERI grad students
Meet Nurullah Bektaş, engineering PhD candidate and research chair with the NHERI Graduate Student Council. He talks with Dan Zehner about the virtual GSC Mini Conference, slated for May 31, 2024. Bektaş, who is earning his PhD from Széchenyi István University in Hungary, encourages grad students...
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Sustainable Functional Recovery: A New Engineering Design Paradigm with Andre Barbosa
Episode 3: Sustainable Functional Recovery: A New Engineering Design Paradigm The novel Converging Design research project merges post-earthquake functional recovery with sustainability. Project PI Andre Barbosa discusses potential results from this effort, such as building code updates and new...
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Shake-Table Testing Earthquake-Resistant Building Components with Dr. Andre Barbosa
Episode 2. Shake-Table Testing Earthquake-Resistant Building Components Earthquake engineer Andre Barbosa joins us to describe the fascinating NHERI Converging Design project, currently testing earthquake-resilient building components on the NHERI at UC San Diego shake table. Barbosa describes...
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Improving seismic resilience and sustainable design with Andre Barbosa
Andre Barbosa Professor, Structural Engineering Oregon State University Episode 1. The NHERI Converging Design project merges functional recovery with sustainability. Project PI Andre Barbosa of Oregon State University joins us to discuss how the shake table experiments at UC San Diego shake…
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Lehigh University's ATLSS Facility with Alia Amer Part 2
Alia Amer Postdoctoral Researcher NHERI Lehigh Facility ATLASS Research Center Lehigh University Hybrid simulation at Lehigh tests structural resilience In our second episode with NHERI Lehigh engineer Alia Amer, find out how this engineering lab performs real-time hybrid simulation, RTHS. This...
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Lehigh University's ATLSS Facility with Alia Amer
Alia Amer Postdoctoral Researcher NHERI Lehigh Facility ATLASS Research Center Lehigh University Research engineer Alia Amer gives us an overview of ATLSS research center, core of the NHERI facility at Lehigh University. Amer shows examples of complex, large-scale tests – multi-hazard simulations…
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Testing novel pressurized sand dampers at NHERI Lehigh with Nicos Makris
Makris episode 2 Testing novel pressurized sand dampers at NHERI Lehigh Nicos Makris explains his innovative protective damper system made with pressurized sand, which obviates problems presented by traditional dampers that use oil. In partnership with the NHERI Lehigh experimental facility…
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Nicos Makris: Dampers: shock absorbers for buildings
Nicos Makris, Professor and Chair of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering Southern Methodist University Makris episode 1 Dampers: shock absorbers for buildings Earthquake engineer Nicos Makris joins us to discuss protective dampers, large-scale devices that function like shock...
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SPECIAL EPISODE: NHERI Science Plan (Spanish Audio)
Este episodio se publicó originalmente en 7 nobiembre 2023. Formas de aprovechar las instalaciones financiadas por la NSF en la investigación sobre riesgos naturales Acaba de publicarse la 3ª edición del Plan Científico del NHERI. Esta completa guía de investigación de 130 páginas describe las...
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SPECIAL EPISODE! NHERI Science Plan, Part 2
Special Episode 2 November 13, 2023 SCIENCE PLAN SPECIAL EPISODE: Moving civil engineering research into practice Editor Ian Robertson provides details on using the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition, as a practical guide to successful civil engineering research, including technology transfer and...
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SPECIAL EPISODE! Introducing the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition
SPECIAL EPISODE! Introducing the NHERI Science Plan, Third Edition Ways to leverage NSF-funded facilities in natural hazards research Just released: the NHERI Science Plan, 3rd Edition! This comprehensive, 130-page research guide outlines ways researchers can use NSF-funded facilities to study...
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Understanding major storms: key to coastal resilience
Episode 3 Understanding major storms: key to coastal resilience Understanding the behavior of coastal systems requires specialized researchers, including engineers, to instrument shorelines before a major storm — and to collect and analyze the resulting data. Woods Hole scientist Britt…
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NEER Episode 2 : Nearshore breakwaters and unintended consequences
Britt Raubenheimer, PhD Senior Scientist, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Principal Investigator, Nearshore Extreme Event Reconnaissance team, NEER Episode 2 NEER: Nearshore breakwaters and unintended consequences Coastal scientist Britt Raubenheimer...
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NEER: Improving resilience of the nearshore during extreme events
Britt Raubenheimer, PhD Senior Scientist, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Principal Investigator, Nearshore Extreme Event Reconnaissance team, NEER NEER: Improving resilience of the nearshore during extreme events Woods Hole scientist Britt Raubenheimer...
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Frank Lombardo Episode 3
Episode 3: A new experimental facility for simulating windstorms The National Science Foundation is funding a new, multihazard experimental facility called “NICHE,” still in the planning stages. As a co-principal investigator, Frank Lombardo is to helping to design methods for re-creating...
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Frank Lombardo Episode 2: Triangulating clues to tornadoes
Episode 2: Triangulating clues to tornadoes Although dust devils can provide clues to tornado winds, U of Illinois wind engineer Frank Lombardo says tornadic behavior is still largely a mystery – and a bigger risk than researchers previously thought. He details ways wind engineers are piecing...
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Episode 1: Wind engineers hunt dust devils with Frank Lombardo
Episode 1: Wind engineers hunt dust devils Dust devils! Understanding how these short-lived whirlwinds behave may help wind engineers understand tornadoes. In field studies, U of Illinois wind engineer Frank Lombardo collects data on dust devils, which occur more frequently – and are easier (and...
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Pedro Fernandez-Caban: Full interview
Wind engineer Pedro Fernández-Cabán conducts experiments at the NHERI University of Florida wind tunnel, trying to discover how to prevent roof failure in low-rise buildings during hurricanes. In this episode he describes how he uses a special component of the UF wind tunnel that creates large…
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Pedro Fernandez-Caban: Episode 2: Wind tunnel research to protect low-rise buildings from hurricane winds
Episode 2: Wind tunnel research to protect low-rise buildings from hurricane winds In this episode, Pedro Fernández-Cabán describes specific ways roofs can be altered to redirect windflow and reduce suction pressure – and roof damage. Parapets, for instance. Another goal for his project: use the…
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About this show
We all have experienced natural hazards in our lives: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunami, floods: they impact our society at the most fundamental levels. Through rigorous testing and outreach programs, the team at the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure is committed to making sure the next natural hazard doesn't have to be a disaster for you and your family. From the National Science Foundation and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure: This is DesignSafe radio!
Hosted by
Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure