CAREER: Soil Liquefaction Evaluations at Multiple Scales: Reshaping Research, Training, and Education Through Physics-Guided Data Science

该学院早期职业发展奖将调查和正式确定从岩土数据中学习的新方法，并为下一代液化评估工具提供信息。土壤液化仍然是世界范围内地震破坏的主要原因。地震的罕见构成了一个持久的挑战，地球系统复杂且难以采样，每个系统的独特性都需要现有数据库之外的预测性推断。由于尖端的仪器和实验、新的侦察方法和丰富的数据存储资源，岩土数据的可用性不断提高，再加上开源算法，为挖掘数据科学的潜力重塑我们的工程工具箱创造了一个机会。与NSF关于利用数据革命和融合研究的大想法保持一致，这一职业奖项将开辟新的途径，整合基于物理和数据驱动的方法，以加速岩土工程领域的发现，并开发强大的经验证的岩土技术工具，以促进与多种灾害分析能力的集成，并广泛地为降低地震风险和提高社会韧性做出贡献。还将通过制定满足经济限制的有效测试计划来提高实践标准。通过有机的教育计划，这项职业资助将培养四项核心能力，为未来的工作场所培养岩土工程师：(I)跨学科思维，以实现研究和实践中的创造性解决方案；(Ii)数据科学素养，以利用工程数据的力量，可视化地交流信息，并提供可重复和透明的产品；(Iii)多样性，以丰富的视角和经验开发地球工程解决方案，以及(Iv)参与团队合作和有效传播的沟通技能。所有数据将被存档并在自然灾害工程研究基础设施(NHERI)数据库中公开使用。该研究旨在通过使用丰富的数值和实验数据，在三个尺度上调查、证明和形式化物理指导的数据科学在液化评估中的应用。其目的是探索和发现在元素和离心机模型尺度上可液化土壤的土壤属性、载荷和响应的新的、高维度的相互作用，并探索将知识转移到现场案例历史。范围包括：(1)开发基于力学的可转移工程模型；(2)数值模型的定量验证框架；(3)减少实验和数值数据中可疑偏差的方法；(4)针对感兴趣的反应的关键预测因素的更智能的实验设计；以及(5)更智能的现场调查活动，以确定风险驱动的脆弱性。T型教育计划将制定教学方法，其中包括：(I)以案例为基础的混合教学模块；(Ii)向学生介绍地震工程和数据辅助决策的基本概念的互动用户体验；(Iii)培训和支持来自服务不足地区的地球科学教师；(Iv)面向学龄前女孩的外联和对女学生的阶梯辅导，以解决多样性和包容性问题；以及(V)建立一系列新的全系和全学院调查跨学科思维的活动。这项职业补助金还将为三名从事危险工程的研究生提供暑期支持，以使跨学科对话正式化，并相应地寻求创新的研究途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will investigate and formalize new approaches for learning from geotechnical data, and inform the next generation of liquefaction evaluation tools. Soil liquefaction remains a leading cause of earthquake damage worldwide. The rarity of earthquakes poses an enduring challenge, geosystems are complex and hard to sample, and the uniqueness of each requires predictive inferences beyond the existing database. Owing to cutting-edge instrumentation and experimentation, new reconnaissance approaches, and generous resources for data storage, the increasing availability of geotechnical data, combined with open-source algorithms, creates an opportunity to exploit the potential of Data Science for reshaping our engineering toolbox. Aligned with NSF’s Big Ideas on Harnessing the Data Revolution and Convergence Research, this CAREER award will open new avenues for integrating physics-based and data-driven methods to accelerate discoveries in geotechnical engineering and develop robust validated geotechnical tools that will facilitate integration with multi-hazard analysis capabilities and broadly contribute to reducing earthquake risk and increasing societal resilience. The standards of practice will also be elevated by formulating efficient test programs that meet economic constraints. Through an organic education plan, this CAREER grant will prepare the geotechnical engineers for the workplace of the future by fostering four core competencies: (i) interdisciplinary thinking to achieve creative solutions in research and practice, (ii) Data Science literacy to harness the power of engineering data, communicate information visually, and deliver reproducible, and transparent products, (iii) diversity to develop geoengineering solutions on a wealth of perspectives and experiences, and (iv) communication skills to engage in teamwork and effective dissemination. All data will be archived and made publicly available in the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Data Depot.The research aims to investigate, prove, and formalize the application of Physics-Guided Data Science in liquefaction evaluations by working at three scales with a wealth of numerical and experimental data. The objectives are to probe known, and discover new, high-dimensional interactions of soil properties, loading, and responses for liquefiable soils at the element and centrifuge model scale, and explore the transfer of knowledge to a field case history. The scope includes: (i) development of transferable mechanics-based engineering models, (ii) quantitative validation framework for numerical models, (iii) methodology for reduction of suspected biases in experimental and numerical data, (iv) smarter experimental design targeting key predictors for responses of interest, and (v) smarter site investigation campaigns to identify risk-driving vulnerabilities. The T-shaped education plan will develop pedagogical approaches that include: (i) case-based student-centered hybrid teaching modules, (ii) interactive user experiences introducing students to basic concepts of earthquake engineering and data-enabled decision making, (iii) training and support of Earth Science teachers from underserved districts, (iv) outreach to pre-middle school girls and ladder mentoring of female students to address diversity and inclusion, and (v) establishment of a new series of department- and college-wide activities investigating interdisciplinary thinking. This CAREER grant will also provide summer support to three graduate students working in Hazards Engineering to formalize interdisciplinary conversations and accordingly pursue innovative research avenues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.