In the News: Steve Mahin and NSF's "Doomsday Machines"

Professor Steve Mahin

Professor Steve Mahin's 2010 contest that pitted computer modeling vs. shake table tests is featured in a Science article on the powerful machines that help prepare us for disasters.

In 2010, a contest at the San Diego shake table pitted 41 teams of experts running models against a real-life test of a 7-meter-tall bridge column topped with 236 metric tons of concrete blocks. The computer results were all over the place, says Mahin. On average, they underestimated how much the column would sway by 25%. “You can’t quite trust the computer results yet,” Mahin says.

This contest helped pave the way for the $280 NSF initiative to construct a network of "doomsday machines," i.e., big powerful machines that can simulate hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

However, with the advances in machine learning and cloud computing, Mahin foresees bright prospects for modeling. In time researchers will be able to create models capable of simulating not just single buildings but entire communities.

See These disaster machines could help humanity prepare for cataclysms (Nature, July 14, 2016)

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