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（Career）奖将调查和正式确定从岩土工程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。地震的罕见性构成了一个持久的挑战，地球系统是复杂的，很难采样，每个系统的独特性需要超越现有数据库的预测推断。由于先进的仪器和实验、新的侦察方法和大量的数据存储资源，岩土工程数据的可用性不断增加，再加上开源算法，为挖掘数据科学的潜力创造了机会，重塑了我们的工程工具箱。与美国国家科学基金会关于利用数据革命和融合研究的大构想相一致，该职业奖将为整合基于物理和数据驱动的方法开辟新的途径，以加速岩土工程的发现，并开发强大的经过验证的岩土工程工具，这些工具将促进与多灾害分析能力的整合，并广泛地有助于降低地震风险和提高社会恢复力。实践标准也将通过制定符合经济限制的有效测试程序来提高。透过一项有机教育计划，这项职业补助金将透过培养以下四项核心能力，为岩土工程师的未来工作做好准备：(1)跨学科思维，在研究和实践中实现创造性的解决方案；(2)数据科学素养，利用工程数据的力量，以视觉方式传达信息，并提供可重复的透明产品；(3)多样性，在丰富的观点和经验基础上开发地球工程解决方案；(4)沟通技巧，参与团队合作和有效传播。所有数据将存档并在自然灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）数据仓库中公开提供。该研究旨在通过在三个尺度上使用丰富的数值和实验数据来调查、证明和形式化物理指导数据科学在液化评估中的应用。目标是探索已知的，并发现新的，高维相互作用的土壤性质，载荷，并在元素和离心机模型尺度液化土壤的响应，并探索知识转移到现场的案例历史。范围包括：(i)开发可转移的基于力学的工程模型，（ii）数值模型的定量验证框架，（iii）减少实验和数值数据中可疑偏差的方法，（iv）针对感兴趣的反应的关键预测因子的更智能的实验设计，以及(v)更智能的现场调查活动，以识别风险驱动漏洞。t形教育计划将发展包括以下内容的教学方法：(i)以案例为基础的以学生为中心的混合教学模块，（ii）向学生介绍地震工程和数据支持决策的基本概念的交互式用户体验，（iii）对服务不足地区的地球科学教师进行培训和支持，（iv）向学前女生提供服务，并对女学生进行阶梯辅导，以解决多样性和包容性问题。（五）在院系和学院范围内开展一系列新的活动，研究跨学科思维。这项职业补助金还将为三名从事危害工程工作的研究生提供夏季支持，以正式开展跨学科对话，并相应地追求创新的研究途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.