US-Japan Center-to-Center Cooperative Research on Advanced Technologies for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation

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9604614 Shinozuka This is a three-year continuing award supporting a collaboration between engineering research centers in the United States and Japan. The U.S. principal investigator is Professor M. Shinozuka, Chairman of the Southern California Earthquake Center's (SCEC) Standing Committee on Advanced Technologies for Earthquake Disaster Mitigation. This Center is located at the University of Southern California. The Japanese collaborator is Professor K. Irikura who is located at Kyoto University's Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI). The project is jointly funded by the Japan Program of the Division of International Programs and the Earthquake Hazard Mitigation Program, Division of Civil and Mechanical Structures, Directorate for Engineering. The grant aims at developing new strategies for earthquake disaster prevention and mitigation based on experiences gained during the Kobe and Northridge earthquakes. Research will involve utilizing advanced and emerging technologies including smart materials, micro-sensors, precision actuators, micro-computers, GPS, wireless and telemetric communication and advanced robotics technology. The objectives of the project are: 1) to establish a university- based US-Japan center-to-center research entity that will identify, develop, and promote advanced technologies for earthquake disaster mitigation; 2) to develop a computer- aided support system that provides prompt and effective emergency response and crisis management decisions based on the rapid assessment of many factors for coordination uses by national, regional and local governments; 3) to develop a prototype integrated real-time monitoring system to detect post-earthquake fire, damage, and malfunction; and 4) to develop prototype intelligent robots to be used for search and rescue, fire-fighting, and emergency demolition and repair. The Principal Investigators will be supported by an Executive Committee consisting of eight researchers, four from each country, with responsibility for major research management, policy, and strategy development and a Technical Committee consisting of twenty experts on various fields, ten from each country, with responsibility for advice on technical issues. Three workshops will be held, one a year, to disseminate research results and accelerate the development and utilization of the advanced technologies in both countries and then throughout the world. This award supports research visits within Japan by U.S. senior investigators, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.