Disasters

Spring Break travelers reflect on disaster recovery, a different approach to transportation, and water quality challenges after week abroad

Students from the International Disaster Reconnaissance Studies course walk through ruined buildings in Old Beichuan, China. The city has been left as a memorial to those killed when it was rocked by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in central China. The site was one of the places students visited in China and Japan over Spring Break as they considered the impact of disasters and how communities rebuilt. (Photo Courtesy: Lynnae Luettich and Katie Popp)

For several dozen School of Civil and Environmental Engineering students, Spring Break was a packed week of mind- and perspective-stretching experiences in South America, Europe and Asia. The students worked and explored alongside professors and graduate students as part of three classes affiliated with Tech’s global engineering leadership minor.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Tien, Lee win top paper award at Resilience Week 2018

Graduate student Cynthia Lee, left, and Assistant Professor Iris Tien with their first-place infrastructure paper aware at Resilience Week 2018. (Photo Courtesy: Iris Tien)

Two Georgia Tech researchers have won the first-place paper award in infrastructure at Resilience Week 2018 for their work using a variety of data sources to better understand and design infrastructure systems.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Silence to sound: Looking at Twitter posts from 2017’s Hurricane Harvey shows lack of activity can tell first responders where trouble’s brewing

Floodwaters cover Port Arthur, Texas, on August 31, 2017, following Hurricane Harvey. Staff Sgt. Daniel J. Martinez took this photo from a South Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during rescue operations following the storm. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Daniel J. Martinez, U.S. Air National Guard)

With another hurricane season beginning June 1 — and some forecasters predicting another busy one — researchers in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering are working on a tool to help first-responders use Twitter activity to identify developing crises after a storm while also helping civilians more effectively plug in to disaster response efforts.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

40 students, 3 continents, 9 days. Experience engineering classes' spring break abroad in the travelers' own words and pictures

Students collect samples along the Choqueyapu River in La Paz, Bolivia, over spring break. They were one of three classes that traveled to three different continents this year. (Photo Courtesy: Joe Brown)

Dozens of CEEatGT students spent their Spring Break traveling to three very different parts of the globe to experience sustainable transportation in the Netherlands, learn about disaster recovery and resilience in China, and understand urban water quality in Bolivia. Share their journey through the pictures and words they sent back from abroad.

Monday, March 26, 2018

Documenting disaster: Group led by Tech experts gathers key data after major catastrophes to prepare for the next one

Alejandro Martinez collects data in Mexico after a major earthquake in September 2017. Martinez, MSCE 2012, Ph.D. 2015, was part of a team from the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association that traveled to the impact zone to gather “perishable” data about the earthquake to help scientists and engineers prepare for future events. (Photo Courtesy of Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association via the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine)

Just days after a major earthquake struck central Mexico in September 2017, Alejandro Martinez, MSCE 2012, Ph.D. 2015, found himself at the site taking vital measurements of the disaster. “It was a shocking day for everyone,” Martinez says.

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

In the wake of Maria, two Tech alumni lead effort to restore water and sewer services in Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria on Sept. 20, 2017, based on MODIS/Terra satellite image and processed by Antti Lipponen. (Photo Courtesy Antti Lipponen via Wikimedia Commons)

As leaders of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, Eli Diaz and Ryan Arrieta have found themselves at the nexus of Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane Maria, which slammed into the island Sept. 20, 2017. For months, they’ve been working diligently to devise ways to restore water and sewer services to the people of Puerto Rico despite the loss of electricity and communications.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Students showcase final projects using origami engineering for social good

The Yoshi Group used a single Miura-ori based Yoshimura origami pattern to design four unique structures. From left, Phoebe Edalatpour, Jared Williams, Maria Yagnye and Emanuel Ferro hold models of their designs. (Photo: Jess Hunt-Ralston)

Want to get all that toothpaste out of the tube? How about provide shelter for homeless people or disaster victims? Glaucio Paulino's Origami Engineering class presented their interdisciplinary final projects using origami engineeering for social good in the Mason Building lobby Dec. 14.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Smart Cities: Innovative approaches combining engineering, technology and the social sciences are boosting the urban IQ

Smart Cities graphic with a rendering of the city of Atlanta.

Georgia Tech has been intensifying its smart cities initiative, including membership in the national MetroLab Network and the launch of a new faculty council with members from more than a dozen university units. Tech has long been working in the, but the now the Institute is organizing all the research that’s happening to have a bigger impact.

Friday, July 21, 2017

Researchers work to make robots the first-responders after nuclear power plant disasters

International Atomic Energy Agency fact-finding team leader Mike Weightman examines Reactor Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on May 27, 2011. The team assessed damage from an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 that caused three reactors at the plant to meltdown. (Photo: Gregg Webb / International Atomic Energy Agency)

Disasters at nuclear power plants present all kinds of problems for search and rescue teams, from lethal radiation exposure to danger from weakened structures. Associate Professor Yong Cho has begun work on a new project that could one day put robots on the ground in the immediate aftermath of a meltdown or other catastrophe, helping to rescue people trapped in the plant and contain dangerous nuclear material in situations where quick action is critical.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Change agent: Many resist change, but John Taylor has made a career studying it

John E. Taylor, the new Frederick L. Olmsted Profession in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. (Photo: Jess Hunt-Ralston)

John E. Taylor joined the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the summer of 2016 as the inaugural Frederick L. Olmsted Professor. Taylor studies the dynamics where human and engineered networks meet, making him an ideal fit for an endowed professorship named for the father of landscape architecture and a designer who believed engineered infrastructure should be both functional and aesthetically appealing, serving society’s needs while also creating more livable and healthy communities.

Monday, December 12, 2016

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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278