News & Upcoming Events
Strong Earthquake Strikes Central Italy
An M6.3 earthquake struck in the L' Aquila area of Central Italy on April 6, 2009. Nearly 300 people have been reported killed, with 1,500 injured, 17,000 displaced, and 10,000 buildings damaged to date. MCEER offers the following resources:
- Preliminary Damage Reports from MCEER reconnaissance team members
- Ground motions from Italy's National Accelerometric Network (RAN)
- A L'Aquila Earthquake, Central Italy page compiling near real-time links to news, images, videos and statistics by MCEER's Information Service. The page will be updated daily.
- A seminar: L'Aquila Earthquake in Italy was given by Gian Paolo Cimellaro on April 15, 2009 at the University at Buffalo. Cimellaro, a graduate of the University at Buffalo's doctoral program in earthquake engineering, is currently a visiting professor in the UB Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. He is on leave from his position as assistant professor in the Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering at Polytechnic University of Turin (Politecnico di Torino) and plans to visit L'Aquila to report on the damage. The seminar is part of the Seminar Series sponsored by the UB department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering, the UB-EERI student chapter and MCEER, and was webcast live. An archived webcast will be made available in the near future.
Seminar Series Event
Reinhard Ludke, S.E., Vice President, Creegan & D'Angelo Infrastructure Engineers; and President, Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, presented Infrastructure – Economic Stimulus Possibilities: Barriers Removed Allow Engineering and Construction “Miracles” as part of Seminar Series sponsored by the UB department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering, the UB-EERI student chapter and MCEER. The event was held on March 20, 2009 at the University at Buffalo.
MCEER Research Focuses on Improving Earthquake Response of Substation Equipment
MCEER researchers are working on a series of studies supported by $1.2 million from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the California Energy Commission (CEC). The research will continue a long-time MCEER focus on the seismic resilience of electric power substation equipment. The projects are led by Andrei Reinhorn, in collaboration with Andre Filiatrault and Michael Constantinou. They also include a project advisory committee comprising industry participants that will provide continuing guidance to the research program.
New Report Explores Issues in
Multi-Hazard Bridge Engineering
A new report, Design of Highway Bridges Against Extreme Hazard Events: Issues, Principles and Approaches, is the first in a series dedicated to exploring the key issues and challenges facing the bridge community in developing multi-hazard design principles for highway bridges. The report's eight contributors offer perspectives from academia, private practice and government agencies, that can serve as the basis for the development of a comprehensive research agenda in this important area.
Filiatrault Elected MCEER Director
Andre Filiatrault, Ph.D., Eng., a professor at the University at Buffalo and leading expert on shake-table testing of structural and nonstructural building components, has been elected to a two-year term as director of MCEER. Filiatrault previously served as deputy director of MCEER. He succeeds Michel Bruneau who stepped down from his MCEER post at the end of August.
Post-Gustav Reconnaissance Available
MCEER's post-Hurricane Gustav reconnaissance team investigated various aspects of hurricane-stricken Louisiana. The investigation focused on two specific topics:
The emergency preparedness team was funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Daniel Hess, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo and Lucy Arendt, School of Business, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Ronald Eguchi of ImageCat, inc. and the MCEER Remote Sensing Institute led the remote sensing effort.
Links to current news, images and statistics and the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season are updated daily by MCEER's Information Service at its Recent Disasters Page.
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