When it comes to storm damage, Los Angeles County may not be the first place that comes to mind. But according to a new study, the area’s “hundred-year” flood risk is far greater than what the federal government currently estimates — and a disproportionate danger for Black residents in certain key areas. … And it may not just be L.A.
In a new study, co-authored by Moftakhari Rostamkhani, researchers at U.C. Irvine find that the cost of repeated nuisance floods over time can be similar if not higher than the damage done by a storm or hurricane.
“That stretch of the coastline [San Clemente and Capistrano Beach] has been starved of sand for decades,” said Brett Sanders, UCI engineering professor. “It’s now trying to survive with very little sand in the system. So the efforts that we are taking to put more sand in are going to be good for that whole stretch of coastline but we need to do more to restore it to a natural state.” Professor Sanders says Hilary could create runoff that eventually pulls sand toward the coast but it takes many years to fill back our beaches that have seen decades of erosion.
An array of sub-mm aluminum spheres fabricated on a wafer using microscale glassblowing technology.
Photo by: Alexander TrusovDr. Sunny Jiang, professor and chair of civil & environmental engineering discusses UC Irvine studying wastewater as a possible early warning for COVID-19. Read More
A new resilient solar-powered microgrid community has been launched by KB Home. The microgrid features interconnected solar, battery energy storage, and all-electric smart appliances. … KB Home is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy, SunPower, the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine, Southern California Edison, Schneider Electric, and Kia to test the energy-efficient and resilient new homes at the Shadow Mountain master plan area in Menifee.
The Structures Program emphasizes the application of analytical and experimental approaches to the investigation of the effects of earthquakes and other extreme hazards on constructed facilities. Areas of specific interest include reliability of engineering systems, random vibration, passive, active and hybrid control of structural vibration, elastomeric and sliding base isolation systems, dynamic behavior of liquid storage tanks, seismic response of equipment and other secondary systems, liquefaction fragility of lifelines, the retrofitting of buildings and bridges, and stochastic fatigue, fracture and maintenance of structures.
On March 10, aerospace manufacturing firm Pratt & Whitney announced it would help establish a center of excellence for solidification science and materials science at UCI, to be housed in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. … The center will focus on the metal and material processing challenges in the manufacturing of critical jet engine components, such as single-crystal turbine blades …. Diran Apelian, UCI Distinguished Professor of materials science and engineering, will be the center’s inaugural director.
"Standard epidemiological models rely on the presumption of strong mixing between infected and non-infected individuals, with widespread contact between members of those groups," said co-author Tryphon Georgiou, UCI Distinguished Professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering. "We stress, rather, that transmission occurs in geographically concentrated cells.
SPIE has announced that its 2022 SPIE Gold Medal winner is Michael Berns, co-founder and founding director of the Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic and a professor of biomedical engineering, surgery, and developmental and cell biology at the University of California, Irvine. The SPIE Gold Medal is the highest honor the Society bestows.