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Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
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Page 95
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
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Page 96
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
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Page 97
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
×
Page 98
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
×
Page 99
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
×
Page 100
Suggested Citation:"5. Education and Technology Transfer." National Research Council. 1993. Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1995.
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Page 101

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5 Education and Technology Transfer This chapter addresses the issues concerning wind-engineering education for university students and practicing professionals. Education and training issues are discussed first, followed by recommendations for improving technology transfer. EDUCATION AND TRAINING It is important that future generations of wind engineers be developed for the growth and expansion of wind engineering. As the awareness of the nation's wind vulnerability inevitably increases and the importance of wind engineering is more widely recognized, the need to ensure a sufficiently large pool of engineers with win]-relater1 training will hP.~nmf~ mire ~nn~r~nt ~ ~ _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ., ^ ~ ^ _ ~~ ~ ~^ ~ ,, ~ . Indeed, education Is one of the cornerstones of any National Wind Science and Engineering Program proposal. The nurturing of future wind engineers can occur at both graduate and _ _ _ 1 _ . 1_ _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ undergraduate levels, through advanced courses in wind engineering by engineering schools and introductory wind-engineering courses designed for related fields, such as meteorology and social sciences. A concerted effort is needed to attract talented individuals to the wind-engineering field and improve the personnel infrastructure in this area. One specific strategy to accomplish this would be to establish a number of undergraduate fellowships-perhaps 20 or so—to encourage students early in their academic careers to pursue the wind-engineering profession. The National Science Foundation might provide an appropriate funding source for such fellowships. At present, only a handful of universities offer a graduate-level course in wind engineering, while a few other schools offer wind engineering as a part of other courses dealing with, for example, waves and earthquakes. The pressing need in w~nd-engineering education is for an expansion of course offerings, as well as for new, exciting, adequately funded research projects to attract graduate students. Computers and laboratory (including wind tunnel) facilities are both critical elements in this invigoration of wind-engineering educational opportunities. At the undergraduate level, an introductory interdisciplinary course that synthesizes fundamentals of meteorology, aerodynamics, turbulence, structural mechanics and design, structural vibrations, and probability and statistics is desirable. Wind-engineering-based design concepts should be incorporated to help students to experience the actual practice of wind-engineering knowledge and skills. In the technical courses, time should be allotted for the study and use of building codes and specifications and how they affect the design implementation of a professional work product. Graduate programs with concentration in wind engineering should 95

96 Wnd and the Built Environment Graduate programs with concentration in wind engineering should emphasize structural analysis and design or fluid dynamics. An effort to enhance and better advertise the existence of job opportunities in w~nd- related fields In academia, goverurnent laboratones, or the private sector is also important. Better career opportunities wall make the w~nd-engineenng specialty a more attractive option among graduate students. For individuals already in the design profession, there is a need to hone those skills specifically related to wind design and analysis. This can be accomplished by circulating research abstracts widely and by creating seminar genes, short courses, television courses for industry, v~deo-based continuing education, interactive courseware, intelligent computer-aided instruction, and university internships. Seminar series and short courses can help design professionals learn of recent advances as well as the theoretical background of the practical aspects d. · ~ ~ or wmc engmeenng. Continuing education also can be effectively pursued through audio and video interactive courseware. Hypermedia presentations embedded with artificial intelligence can be powerful tools for teachers and students. In this approach, an expert's thinking process can be encapsulated in a computer knowledge base, allowing both the knowledge and the reasoning behind the knowledge to be tapped. Enhancing the interaction between universities and research institutes and industry ~l also benefit the w~nd-engineering field. Universities and research institutes should provide opportunities for practicing engineers to serve as research residents or interns with emphasis on wind engineenug. Similarly, faculty or researchers should be offered opportunities at design arms to gain experience in practical engineering problems. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER A coordinated effort is needed to focus on the transfer of the existing knowledge base in wind engineering through traditional and innovative means. This objective is especially critical in a multidisciplinary area such as · · ~ wmc eng~neenng. Educators must train personnel as well as conduct basic research in wind eng~neenng. The knowledge `derived from this research is needed by practicing architects and engineers responsible for designing buildings and structures; scientists and engineers for manufacturing materials and building components; individuals for developing testing standards; and associations for representing building products manufacturers. Perhaps the most important targets of all for w~nd-engineering technology transfer are the personnel who adopt, publish, and promulgate the use of building codes, such as Building Officials and Code Administrators International, International Conference of Building Officials, Southern Building Code Congress International, and the National Fire Protection Association's Life Safety Code. Development of a user-friendly knowledge base, effective communication with codes and

Education and Technology Transfer 97 standards organizations, establishment of a w~nd-engineer~ng inflation center, distribution of technical literature and monographs, and the adoption of advances in related fields are important vehicles to facilitate effective dissemination of w~nd-engineenng research and development activities into actual practice. It is the knowledge base that helps design and construct economical and reliable structures. An essential prerequisite for such a knowledge-onented field is to package inflation for immediate dissemination to the users in a conveniently codified form. Computer software packages and networked computer bulletin boards can be instrumental in this task. With personal computers becoming increasingly powerful and versatile, software can be made available to expedite the transfer of the state of the art in wind engineenug and to provide quick feedback for improvements. Effective communication with the organizations responsible for promulgating building codes and standards can accelerate the implementation of a good knowledge base into these codes. To ensure the transfer of proper, uniform technology from model-construction-code organizations to professional designers, contractors, and construction code enforcement personnel, the existing educational programs administered by the three model-code organizations must be expanded and coordinated. Plans to automate the w~nd-related sections of codes and standards in a computer data base should be instituted. When completed, this process wall lead to the broader application of a more consistent and technologically advanced set of codes and standards. A wind-engineering library is vital for gathering and archiving pertinent texts dealing with all aspects of wind engineering and its subdisciplines, as well as journals, conference proceedings, reports, and theses. The library should also focus on data gathering for both full-scale and laboratory experiments, damage assessment information, and available software related to different aspects of wind engineering. Such a library could perhaps be modeled on the successful example of the Earthquake Engineering Library and the National Information Service on Earthquake Engineering computer applications of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, there should be a periodic review describing all w~nd-eng~neenng research activities, such as that published in the And Eng~neenng Research Digest (WERD) in the late 1970s (only three volumes of WERD were published before funds ran out). This publication served as an effective medium to quickly disseminate information on ongoing research rather than waiting several years for this information to appear in technical journals. It thus encouraged researchers working on similar topics to communicate and interact. Today, the Wind Engineering Research CounciT's publication, The Anal Engineer, is a potentially effective means for transferring technical information, provided it is received by those who need the information. A useful abstract program could consist of news releases to industry, including results of recent research and development activities within wind-engineering

98 Wnd and die Built Environment circles. Circulation of such abstracts wall keep practicing engineers up to date and may motivate them to participate in future short courses addressing recent topics in wind engineering. A discussion of technology transfer remains incomplete without addressing the transfer of existing technologies in related fields. For example, the use of technologies in electronics could enhance w~nd-eng~neer~ng practice, and the use of remote sensing and Doppler radar boundary-layer profiles would advance w~nd-speed measurement. Utilization of recent developments in sensor technology (e.g., piezopolymers) and advances in computer architecture, intelligent digital signal interpretation and processing, and information storage and retrieval capabilities promise to improve our measurement capabilities and assessment of the performance of the built environment. The potential for advancing the state of the art in wind engineering utilizing knowledge-based systems is addressed below. POTENTIAL IMPACT OF COMPUTERS In the decade ahead, there is a potential for significantly advancing the state of the art in wind engineering as personal computers and software become more powerful and flexible. Personal computers are available at reasonable cost, and there has been an impressive growth in the field of artificial intelligence and expert systems during the past decade. The so- called knowledge-based system can offer intelligent assistance to designers and planners in accomplishing a wide spectrum of tasks, including risk assessment. Knowledge-Based Expert Systems A knowledge-based expert system (KBES) is a computer program designed to mimic human thought processes by utilizing a specific domain of knowledge, facts, and procedures to solve complex problems at an expert level of performance for such generic tasks as design, diagnosis, interpretation, monitoring, and planning. One main feature distinguishing a KBES from a conventional algorithmic and typically numerical program is that the knowledge pertaining to a specific problem is explicitly encapsulated in a knowledge base rather than being part of sequentially executable statements. Recent exploitation of expert systems has been facilitated by the development of software "shell" and production systems for mainframe and personal computers. These enable engineers to develop their own expert systems without extensive prior computer-programming experience and have facilitated the availability of numerous methods for achieving expert system design and implementation at various levels of sophistication. Though they are not without their limitations, the potential applications of KBESs in wind engineering are many. They may include analysis and prediction of extreme winds, risk and damage assessment, design and

Education and Technology Transfer 99 synthesis, mo~toring and control, and decision making for hurricane response, among others. A few examples of these applications are given below. Extreme Winds: Analysis and Prediction It is expected that more comprehensive field measurements of the wind distributions in tornadoes and hurricanes wail be obtained during the 199Os. By using such data, a KBES could be designed to produce physically consistent distributions of wind speed or pressure in convective vortices. Another KBES could then be developed for w~nd-hazard analysis. Expert systems could also be developed using wind profiler and Next- Generation Radar (NEXRAD) data to identify those severe thunderstorms (out of an ensemble) most likely to spawn tornadoes within one to two hours. In addition, a predictive system could be applied in wind engineering to forecast expected extreme events on the basis of current information. This forecasting system would rely on a combination of experience, models, and procedures. Wind-Loading Assistant Many of the mnd-Ioading provisions of building codes and specifications can be automated. A KBES "wind-Ioading assistant" based on these computerized data could offer advice to design professionals who must use the provisions of building codes and specifications. An expert system called WINDLOADER, which is under development, incorporates the Australian Wind Loading code. Similar efforts to incorporate U.S. codes and design specifications into a KBES system should be pursued. Risk and Damage Assessment The determination of hazard, vulnerability, and significance of the facilities, and the analysis of damage potential constitute the essential prerequisites for risk assessment. A synthesis of these attributes leads to the development of a hazard-vuInerability-damage mode] for risk assessment. The assessment of vulnerability and damage potential of a built environment involves the use of qualitative knowledge that is often vague, uncertain, and · ~ mpreclse. The integration of information on wind hazards and facilities at risk is an analytical task based heavily on experience. Therefore, a knowledge-based expert system offers an ideal solution. Based on observations from past storms, inductive and inexact inference mechanisms can be utilized to encapsulate the body of information concerning damage patterns, often expressed in the form of causal relations or rules in the knowledge base.

100 Hand arid the Built Environment Artificial intelligence tools can significantly improve the design process by better and more explicit knowledge representation and definition of the design goals and constraints. A typical design cycle is one of design-evaluate- redesign. Although this iterative design cycle has proved itself in structural engineering, the incorporation of wind criteria as part of this analysis has not yet been accomplished. An expert system may help to configure a structural system and its components to resist Wind' 1~ for heath the c~r~n^~ah;l;`r LEA survivability limit states on the basis of a set of alternative possibilities. Design ~ An, ~~ ~4 ·~ ~_4 V 4~_~~I-J111~~ ~1~ Monitoring and Control In the field study of full-scale structures, surface pressures, accelerations, and strains at various locations are monitored. The primary objective of such measurements is to validate or compare laboratory, computational, or analytical predictions of structural behavior in winds. Data monitoring and control expert systems can help to automate wind tunnel and full-scale expenments by the process of continuous or intermittent interpretation of signals. Such a system could observe the experimental progress and alert the user if there is a departure from the expected. At the same time, the system may help to derDne appropriate actions in response to the monitoring. For example, unusual readings from a pressure transducer may be detected and remedial action suggested for the continuation of the experiments. These systems would my ze downtime and the need for repetition of experiments In which faulty data are discovered during the analysis. Urban Planning The planning of a new urban development can be facilitated and improved by means of an expert system. For example, the knowledge needed to ensure human comfort with regard to the w~ndflow around buildings at plaza level is generally not available to urban planners. This knowledge, once coded into an expert system, could be more easily accessible to architects and urban planners in the early stages of development. Another potential application may involve the building layout of coastal communities to provide optimal shelter configurations to enhance structure performance in hurncanes. Decision Making for Hurricane Response Many local government agencies, private businesses, and military installations use personal-computer-based software to incorporate hurricane ~ , _ the dec~s~on-mak~ng process, using official watch/warning information from the National Hurricane Center. For forecast uncertainty Into

Education and Technology Transfer 101 example, a bar chart can be generated indicating that there is a 10 percent chance of a storm's sustained winds exceeding 120 mph in the next 24 hours. This graphical approach to forecast uncertainties helps users to comprehend the concept of forecast error and to deal with uncertainties in a quantitative fashion. Decision makers often need assistance in integrating forecast information with other factors to arrive at an overall assessment of risk and an evaluation of response alternatives. Some software is accompanied by a questionnaire posing a set of specially constructed hurricane threats. Based on the users' response to the hypothetical threats, a regression mode! is denved to reflect their decision process, which is then integrated into the software to generate possible responses to real threats. Additional incorporation of knowledge gleaned from a host of past hurricane experiences spanning a wide range of scenarios will result in transforming the current aIgonthm~c approach to a knowledge-based approach within the context of an expert system. RECOMMENDATIONS The following recoTnrnendations are developed from the discussion presented in this chapter. 1. Enhance continuing education for design and construction professionals by creating seminar series, short courses, television courses, v~deo-based classes, interactive courseware, intelligent computer-aided instruction, and university/industry internships and by circulating research abstracts. 2. Revitalize undergraduate and graduate education in wind engineering by widening the availability and breadth of coursework and by providing competitive undergraduate fellowships for pursuing w~nd- · — englneenug programs. 3. Educate decision makers at the national, state, and local levels through briefings, workshops, and personal contact on the imminent risks of wind hazards and the benefits of research and development. 4. Promote media programs, in nontechnical language, to educate the public on the likelihood and consequences of wind hazards and on effective mitigation measures. 5. Encourage active participation by design professionals in the formulation of codes pertaining to wind-Ioad provisions, and develop automated w~nd-related codes and standards in a computer data base. 6. Establish a w~nd-engineering information center for archiving pertinent matenals dealing with all aspects of wind engineering, including laboratory and full-scale data, damage assessment information, and software. Develop, using the latest technology, knowledge-based systems for real-time problem solving related to meteorological predictions of extreme winds, risk and damage assessment, and decision making for hurricane evaluation. ~ . ~ ~ . ~ . .

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Wind and the Built Environment: U.S. Needs in Wind Engineering and Hazard Mitigation Get This Book
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This book assesses wind engineering research studies in the past two decades to identify an interdisciplinary research agenda and delineate an action plan for evaluation of critical wind engineering efforts.

It promotes the interdisciplinary approach to achieve collaborative research, assesses the feasibility of formalizing undergraduate wind engineering curricula, and assesses international wind engineering research activities and transfer approaches for U.S. applications.

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