{"id":76052,"date":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/teaching-the-next-generation-of-engineers-how-to-make-puerto-ricos-infrastructure-resilient\/"},"modified":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:00:00","slug":"teaching-the-next-generation-of-engineers-how-to-make-puerto-ricos-infrastructure-resilient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2021\/03\/teaching-the-next-generation-of-engineers-how-to-make-puerto-ricos-infrastructure-resilient\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching the next generation of engineers how to make Puerto Rico\u2019s infrastructure resilient"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 15, 2021 \u2013 In the past four years, Puerto Rico has been decimated by hurricanes and earthquakes.<\/p>\n

Within a two-week span in 2017,\u00a0two major hurricanes\u00a0left the Caribbean island without power, clean drinking water and very few passable roads. As Puerto Rico attempted to recover, it was devastated again by multiple earthquakes between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020.<\/p>\n

Alesandra Morales-V\u00e9lez, who earned a doctorate in civil engineering from the 溏心vlog免费B站, is helping Puerto Rico’s infrastructure become more resilient by teaching engineering students at the University of Puerto Rico Mayag\u00fcez (UPRM) about sustainable practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs civil engineers, we can build the infrastructure around us, but our curriculum needs to introduce the importance of infrastructure that is climate-resilient,\u201d said Morales-V\u00e9lez, who has been\u00a0an assistant professor of geotechnical engineering since 2015.<\/p>\n

\"PR<\/a>
PR after Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Photo by Yuisa Rios\/FEMA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years ago, UPRM re-designed most of its engineering courses to take a cross-disciplinary approach to the design and construction of resilient infrastructure under extreme loads, such as powerful winds and earthquakes.<\/p>\n

UPRM also created a new minor in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. The first students to complete the program will graduate this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal has been to introduce multi-hazard analysis, sustainability and resilience to students early in their college careers,\u201d said Morales-V\u00e9lez.<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 alumna once sat in the seats that her students now occupy. After completing her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, she decided to continue her education in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

\"Alesandra<\/a>
Graduation First PhD Student: Alesandra Morales-V\u00e9lez at the graduation ceremony of her first doctoral student, Andres Villarreal Arango<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI knew very little about Rhode Island, but I knew about 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Chris Baxter through my adviser,\u201d said Morales-V\u00e9lez. \u201cMy adviser\u00a0went to college with Professor Baxter and they remained friends and colleagues. Professor Baxter’s\u00a0work with soil characterization, shear wave velocity and laboratory testing was exactly what I was looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of a program created by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, Baxter helped Morales-V\u00e9lez enroll in the doctoral program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to a great fellowship program started by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, I was able to recruit Alesandra to 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d said Baxter. \u201cThe program was designed specifically to recruit doctoral students from underrepresented groups in Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her first year at 溏心vlog免费B站, Baxter and Morales-V\u00e9lez co-authored a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation. The project, which was approved for funding, became the subject of Morales-V\u00e9lez\u2019s dissertation, \u201cEvaluation of Field Based Approaches for Calcareous Sands Using Shear Wave Velocity Measurements.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Morales-V\u00e9lez is optimistic about Puerto Rico\u2019s ability to rebuild and recover, she recognizes how much work there is left to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, the infrastructure is still in very poor condition,\u201d said Morales-V\u00e9lez. \u201cWe were struck by a 6.4 earthquake on January 7, 2020. The work that is needed to rebuild our roads, schools and hospitals is tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 15, 2021 \u2013 In the past four years, Puerto Rico has been decimated by hurricanes and earthquakes. Within a two-week span in 2017,\u00a0two major hurricanes\u00a0left the Caribbean island without power, clean drinking water and very few passable roads. As Puerto Rico attempted to recover, it was devastated again by multiple earthquakes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-76052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}