February 5, 2001
NSF PR 01-10

Media contact: Amber Jones (703) 292-8070/aljones@nsf.gov
Program contact: Joy Pauschke (703) 292-7024/jpauschk@nsf.gov

EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH SPEEDED BY NETWORKING
National Network to Change the Shape of Earthquake Engineering
Research

Researchers and engineers from New York to California are
forming a collaborative network via the Internet to speed
the design of structures that minimize earthquake damage and loss
of life.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced 11
awards totaling $45 million to fund shake tables, centrifuges and
other experimental equipment that can be shared across the nation
to study earthquake effects.

"The past decade has seen immense devastation from major
earthquakes around the world," said Priscilla Nelson, NSF
division director for civil and mechanical systems.  "We can't
control the destructive forces of nature. But this equipment can
help us design and construct buildings, bridges and other
structures that can better withstand those forces."
>
The awards are part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for
Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES).  NEES is a
collaboration designed to improve the seismic design and
performance of the U.S. civil and mechanical
infrastructure.  NSF plans to spend up to a total of $81.9
million by 2004 under NEES to enhance earthquake engineering
research equipment in the United States and to build a high
performance Internet network to connect the equipment facilities.

The current equipment awards, totaling $45 million over four
years, will fund construction, expansion and modernization of
equipment at 10 universities that will include capabilities for
remote observation and operation.  The equipment includes new and
upgraded shake tables, centrifuges, a tsunami wave basin,
largescale laboratory experimentation systems, and field
experimentation and monitoring installations.
NSF hopes to grant a second set of equipment awards in the
future.  All equipment is expected to be operational by late
2004.

A six-month scoping study already underway is defining user
requirements, hardware and software technologies, and support
infrastructure needed for the network.  The University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign leads the scoping team.

Eventually, a community-led consortium will be selected to
manage and operate NEES for at least 10 years.

The NEES program was renamed in November 2000 by an Act of
Congress to honor the late George E. Brown, Jr., former chairman
of the House Science Committee and a champion of engineering and
science in Congress for over 30 years.

                                          -NSF-

Attachment:  NEES Equipment Awards

For more information, see http://www.eng.nsf.gov/nees


                       NEES EQUIPMENT AWARDS

Oregon State University - $4.78 million
Principal Investigator: Solomon Yim
Upgrading Oregon State's Multidirectional Wave Basin for Remote
Tsunami Research

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York  $2.38 million
Principal Investigator: Ricardo Dobry
Upgrading, Development and Integration of Next Generation
Earthquake Engineering Experimental Capability at Rensselaer's
100 g-ton Geotechnical Centrifuge

State University of New York at Buffalo - $6.16 million
Principal Investigator:  Michel Bruneau Versatile High Performance Shake
Tables Facility Towards RealTime Hybrid Seismic Testing

State University of New York at Buffalo - $4.38 million
Principal Investigator:  Michel Bruneau Large-Scale High Performance
Testing Facility Towards Real-Time Hybrid Seismic Testing

University of California at Berkeley - $4.27 million
Principal Investigator:  Jack Moehle Reconfigurable Reaction Wall-
Based Earthquake Simulator Facility

University of California at Davis - $4.61 million
Principal Investigator: Bruce Kutter
A NEES Geotechnical Centrifuge Facility

Unversity of California at Los Angeles - $2.65 million
Principal Investigator:  John Wallace
Field Testing and Monitoring of Structural Performance

University of Colorado at Boulder - $1.98 million
Principal Investigator:  Benson Shing
Fast Hybrid Test Platform for the Seismic Performance Evaluation
of Structural Systems

University of Minnesota - $6.47 million
Principal Investigator:  Catherine French
A System for Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing

University of Nevada at Reno - $4.40 million
Principal Investigator:  Ian Buckle Development of a Biaxial Multiple
Shake Table Research Facility

University of Texas at Austin - $2.94 million
Principal Investigator:  Kenneth Stokoe II Large-Scale Mobile Shakers and
Associated Instrumentation for Dynamic Field Studies of
Geotechnical and Structural Systems