Designing for Our Changing World: Structural Engineers Response to the Rising Toll of Disasters

The toll of disasters on society is rising globally, begging the question of how structural engineers working across research, policy and practice can work together to develop the interventions and strategies necessary to keep communities safe. Taken from the perspective of an engineer who leads global disaster responses, this seminar will explain the drivers of escalating disaster risk and illustrate the importance of effectively learning from each disaster. The speaker will then take the audience through the disaster learning loop, linking post-disaster field observations to rigorous research using federal shared research infrastructure to not only accelerate breakthrough discoveries, but also fast-track their translation into policy and practice. Vignettes will highlight the importance of collaborations with academia and practice to help communities not only build back better, but build better before the next disaster.

1 CE credit

Learning Objectives

• the key drivers rising disaster losses and their complex interplay
• the four stages of the disaster learning loop and the infrastructure supporting them
• effective “learning from disasters” through illustrative examples from recent events

Location

Cliff Dwellers Club
200 S. Michigan Ave, 22nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60604

Complimentary appetizers available:  5 – 6 pm
Presentation time:  6:00 – 7:00 pm

Registration

This event is FREE, and will be both in-person as well as live-streamed. You must RSVP in order to attend, whether online or in person.

About the Speaker

Tracy Kijewski-Correa
William J. Pulte Director - Pulte Institute for Global Development,
University of Notre Dame
Tracy Kijewski-Correa is the William J. Pulte Director of the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, where she also serves as the Academic Director of the Integration Lab (i-Lab). As a professor of Civil Engineering and Global Affairs, her research seeks to enhance the resilience and sustainability of hazard-exposed communities, with particular emphasis on climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. She currently serves as the inaugural director of the Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance (StEER) network mobilizing networks of engineers to assess disaster impacts globally.