Shideh Dashti News

How prisons fall short in protecting the incarcerated from climate disasters

Susan Glairon — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:42:32 +0000

How prisons fall short in protecting the incarcerated from climate disasters Susan Glairon Thu, 11/07/2024 - 14:42

In a new paper, drawing on accounts from nearly three dozen previously incarcerated people, CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers reveal a disturbing story of how prisons and jails in Colorado have failed to provide humane protections from growing environmental hazards brought on by climate change.

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Shideh Dashti wins Campus Sustainability Award

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 22:02:10 +0000

Shideh Dashti wins Campus Sustainability Award Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/25/2024 - 16:02

Shideh Dashti, an associate professor of geotechnical engineering and geomechanics, has won a Green Faculty award through the 27th annual Campus Sustainability Awards Program. The award was given to Dashti for her leadership in establishing Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RISE), a research initiative focusing on climate change, disaster resilience and sustainability, notably shedding light on the climate vulnerabilities of incarcerated populations in Colorado.

The Campus Sustainability Awards program recognizes outstanding individuals and departments who demonstrate a sincere commitment to enhancing CU �鶹ӰԺ’s longstanding commitment to sustainability. Awardees exhibit innovation that directly reduces the university's ecological footprint, enhances social cohesion and equity in the campus community and/or integrates sustainability into the culture of �鶹ӰԺ and our local communities. This year, there are eight campus sustainability awardees

Awards will be in the form of a 100 percent recycled-content plaque presented by campus leadership at the 31st annual Campus Sustainability Summit on April 25.

Associate Professor Shideh Dashti won a Green Faculty Award through the Campus Sustainability Awards Program for her leadership in establishing RISE, a research initiative focusing on climate change, disaster resilience, and sustainability, highlighting climate vulnerabilities of incarcerated populations in Colorado.

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Colorado prisons vulnerable to natural disasters but may be ill-prepared

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:15:00 +0000

Colorado prisons vulnerable to natural disasters but may be ill-prepared Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/25/2023 - 14:15

Seventy-five percent of incarceration facilities in the state are vulnerable to climate-related hazards, such as wildfires, extreme heat, floods or landslides, and many are ill-equipped to handle them, new research by Geotechnical Engineering Professor Shideh Dashti suggests.

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Shideh Dashti: What Libya’s floods, Morocco’s earthquake can teach us about resilient infrastructure

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:03:36 +0000

Shideh Dashti: What Libya’s floods, Morocco’s earthquake can teach us about resilient infrastructure Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/20/2023 - 09:03

In this interview with Shideh Dashti, an associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, Dashti shares her thoughts on the recent and devestating floods in Libya and earthquake in Morocco, what engineers can learn from these events and how countries can build resilient cities.

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Assoc. Prof. Shideh Dashti & Prof. Abbie Liel on Incarceration in a Warming World panel, Sept. 29, 3-4:30, DLC 1B70

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 16:11:26 +0000

Assoc. Prof. Shideh Dashti & Prof. Abbie Liel on Incarceration in a Warming World panel, Sept. 29, 3-4:30, DLC 1B70 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/15/2023 - 10:11

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Turkey earthquake a ‘poster child’ for what could happen in Southern California

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 19:09:38 +0000

Turkey earthquake a ‘poster child’ for what could happen in Southern California Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/14/2023 - 12:09

Shideh Dashti, an associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering and acting associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, says the geology underlying Turkey and Syria shares a lot in common with the West Coast of the United States.

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Video: Pioneering resilient infrastructure in the wake of earthquakes and climate-related natural disasters

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 15:14:15 +0000

Video: Pioneering resilient infrastructure in the wake of earthquakes and climate-related natural disasters Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/27/2022 - 09:14

Engineering a sustainable and equitable future takes innovation and collaboration.

Shideh Dashti is the Acting Associate Dean of Research at CU �鶹ӰԺ's College of Engineering & Applied Science, as well as an Associate Professor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department.

Dean Dashti's research is specifically focused on geotechnical engineering, centrifuge modeling, and designing resilient infrastructure in the wake of earthquakes and climate-related natural disasters.

Shideh is also a Co-Director of the College's Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing (CIEST), as well as the Director RISE - an interdisciplinary research collaboration at CU �鶹ӰԺ to explore the intersection of resilient infrastructure, sustainability, and equity.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUww6HOz8A8]

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Dashti selected as Acting Associate Dean for Research

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 15:14:25 +0000

Dashti selected as Acting Associate Dean for Research Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/15/2022 - 09:14

Acting Dean Keith Molenaar has selected Shideh Dashti to serve as the acting associate dean for research in the college. Dashti will start in May 2022.

“I am honored to be selected and to serve in this important role in our own community and the broader research community on campus,” Dashti said. “I look forward to learning from, collaborating with, and supporting all of the researchers in our college as we strive to achieve our collective mission to become a top research institution in the world.”

With the appointment, Dashti becomes the first female associate dean for research in the college’s history. She will lead the Research Support Office team in offering support across the life of research proposals from idea to submission, execution, and publication.

Dashti immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1999 and completed her undergraduate work in civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University with subsequent graduate work at the University of California Berkeley. She joined CU �鶹ӰԺ in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering in 2011 and currently serves as an associate professor. Her research focuses on performance-based evaluation and mitigation of geotechnical hazards affecting structures and lifelines during earthquakes and compounded climate extremes.

Dashti has held several leadership roles in the college, serving as the co-director of the Center for Infrastructure, Energy and Space Testing and as the director of the Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RISE) Interdisciplinary Research Theme. Nationally, she is a co-principal investigator and steering committee member of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association – a National Science Foundation group that leads post-disaster geotechnical engineering reconnaissance efforts around the world. She has received a number of awards for her research contributions, most recently the 2021 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Dashti will hold the position while Professor Massimo Ruzzene serves as acting vice chancellor for research for the campus. She said a top priority will be continuing new publication recognition and reputation efforts, coordinated pre- and post-award support for large and strategic grants, and tailored support and engagement opportunities for junior faculty.

“I also want to prioritize and continue relationships with our local national lab partners during my time,” she said. “And reimaging opportunities for outreach to alumni, industry, foundations, and other donor communities around our incredible research portfolio.”

Molenaar said Dashti is an accomplished researcher and leader and will be a tremendous advocate for all researchers in the college.

“Professor Dashti’s combined interdisciplinary research experience and leadership skills make her an extraordinary selection for this position. I look forward to seeing what she accomplishes and where the Research Support Office goes from here,” he said.

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Engineers deploy drones to survey Marshall Fire, gather lessons for future disasters

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:09:41 +0000

Engineers deploy drones to survey Marshall Fire, gather lessons for future disasters Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/14/2022 - 09:09

The drone whirs to life on a driveway in the Spanish Hills neighborhood of �鶹ӰԺ County. Its four spinning motors lift it to nearly 200 feet above the ground. Below, the cul-de-sac comes into view, revealing the stone chimneys and blackened foundations that dot the hillside—what remains of many of the houses in this neighborhood after flames swept through on Dec. 30 and into the morning of Dec. 31 during what would become known as the Marshall Fire.

Brad Wham trudges through the snow to join about a dozen other researchers who have gathered to watch the flight this morning. They’re wearing hard hats and neon safety vests. As an engineer at CU �鶹ӰԺ, Wham studies how water pipelines and other “lifelines” can maintain their functionality during natural hazards, such as earthquakes and wildfires. He also lives in Louisville, Colorado, and had to evacuate his own home on that same day.

“I’ve deployed to Japan and New Zealand to study disasters very shortly after they occurred,” said Wham, an assistant research professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). “It has been a different experience to have them happen in my hometown.”

The Marshall Fire, which spread throughout much of �鶹ӰԺ County including the towns of Superior and Louisville, became the most destructive fire in Colorado’s history. More than 1,000 homes were lost, and approximately 6,000 acres burned. One person remains missing while another was confirmed dead.

In coordination with local officials, Wham and his colleagues from Oregon State and Purdue universities have been surveying the damage since first-responders extinguished the flames. The effort is part an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) called Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER), which deploys researchers to disaster sites around the world. The team hopes to better understand the disaster from a uniquely engineering perspective: Why did some houses burn, for example, while neighboring homes survived? How did critical services like water, gas and electricity hold up during one of the worst disasters in �鶹ӰԺ County’s history?

Time is of the essence. Soon, bulldozers and excavators will crawl through the impacted areas to begin the slow process of rebuilding—and much of that information will be gone forever.

“I think that what we’re doing here is going to be beneficial in the future, especially with other communities that are going to have fires,” said Jessica Ramos, a senior at CU �鶹ӰԺ who’s working on Wham’s research team.

The Marshall Fire swept through this cul-de-sac in the Spanish Hills neighborhood. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

Heat map

More information

For CU �鶹ӰԺ community members experiencing physical, financial or emotional impacts of the Marshall Fire, CU �鶹ӰԺ fire resources are available.

Fire resources

CONVERGE is hosting a series of virtual forums to discuss research on the Marshall Fire. Tune in for the next forum on Thursday, Feb. 17 from 2-3:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

Join the forum

Erica Fischer, a structural engineering professor at Oregon State University who leads the GEER team along with Wham, joined the researchers in Spanish Hills on this windy morning in January.

In many ways, the neighborhood shows why people have flocked to �鶹ӰԺ County in recent decades. Its rolling hills offer a startling view of the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus and the Flatirons beyond. But, Fischer notes, wildfires have been an inescapable part of these kinds of beautiful landscapes since long before humans settled here—and, as the climate warms in Colorado, they’re likely to grow worse.

“I would love to have this view,” she says, standing on a snowy hillside. “This is incredible, but beautiful scenery is created out of disaster. That’s how mountains are formed. That’s how lush forests are created. Understanding that is important.”

She and her colleagues are hoping to help people to live more safely within this dynamic environment.

They’re taking a multi-pronged approach to the research. They’ve utilized laser sensors to create 3D models of homes and retaining structures burned in the fire. They’ve also deployed flying vehicles like the quadcopter drones—on loan from the NSF-funded RAPID facility at the University of Washington.

This kind of interdisciplinary reconnaissance related to a wildfire has never been done before by GEER,” said Shideh Dashti, an associate professor in CEAE who leads an interdisciplinary research effort at CU �鶹ӰԺ called Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity. “The solutions we come up with need to be holistic.”

As one part of that fast-moving effort, the group is working to recreate a heat map of the path the fire took through towns like Superior and Louisville.

Fischer explained that as concrete heats up, it changes color, turning pinker the warmer it becomes. Students from Oregon and CU �鶹ӰԺ are inspecting the foundations of homes in the region, using custom-made color swatches to try to estimate how hot the flames got—giving them a better sense of what happened inside those homes as they burned.

Members of the GEER team watch a drone take off from the Spanish Hills neighborhood. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

Team members survey damage from the Marshall Fire. (Credit: Casey Cass/CU �鶹ӰԺ)

The team plans to publish its initial findings through a publicly-available report in March.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to bring together lessons learned from the Marshall Fire for other communities across the West. Fischer noted that recommendations like the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code and the National Fire Protection Agency's FireWise Program have long laid out how homeowners can safeguard homes from wildfires. Building a gravel skirt around your house, for example, can help to buffer it from flames. But many of those recommendations are expensive to put into place, she said, and no one knows which ones give you the biggest bang for your buck.

“In 2018, there was a big hailstorm in �鶹ӰԺ County. A lot of people replaced their roofs. Did certain roofing materials help more than others? Did some siding materials help more than others?” Fischer said. “If homeowners have one dollar for rebuilding, where should they put it?”

Urgent response

Wham understands the urgency of the effort. At 2 p.m. on Dec. 30, he packed a bag and left his house in Louisville as flames licked the ground just a couple hundred yards away. His house made it through the night, but many others nearby didn’t.

“The fire destroyed structures all around us, to the north, the west, the south,” he said from Spanish Hills, a mile and a half from his home. “But the response is the same as if it were in another community. We want to help in any way that we can. We want to support the local institutions that are making decisions to get people back to their homes and recover from this as safely and as efficiently as possible.”

As part of that, Wham and his colleagues are also striving to understand how humans responded to this unprecedented disaster. The team has interviewed emergency management personnel and other local leaders to learn more about the decisions they made during and after the fire—how did residents evacuate neighborhoods, and how did cities and the county prioritize restoring vital services? In Louisville, for example, the local water treatment plant lost power, natural gas and communication services during the fire, severely limiting its capacity to get water to firefighters. Local officials trucked in natural gas from the surrounding area to restore the facility’s critical water pressure demands.

Lori Peek is a sociologist who directs the Natural Hazards Center at CU �鶹ӰԺ and an associated NSF-funded effort called CONVERGE, which coordinates research on natural disasters. She has a lot of experience collecting perishable data in the immediate aftermath of events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 BP oil spill.

“One of the keys to doing ethical disaster research is making sure that work is grounded in the local cultural context,” Peek said. “This team multi-disciplinary team of engineers had those deep ties and has the opportunity to do grounded research that makes a scientific contribution but is also immediately useful to local leaders.”

Wham, for his part, has already taken one big lesson away from the Marshall Fire.

“People from all over the state and even from outside the state came in to fight the fires and help restore water service and power systems,” he said. “Those are really important relationships and connections that support the recovery process.”

He hopes that same wider community will help residents of the impacted neighborhoods as they begin the slow process of rebuilding their homes and their lives.

Other participants in the GEER study include CU �鶹ӰԺ professors Abbie Liel and Amy Javernick-Will of CEAE and Andrew Whelton of Purdue. Students Nicolas Berty, Jacob Klingaman and Hailey-Rae Rose of CU �鶹ӰԺ and Amy Metz and Dae Kun Kang of Oregon State are also aiding the effort.

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Seed grants fund research into sustainable living, disruption from construction

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 19:18:27 +0000

Seed grants fund research into sustainable living, disruption from construction Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/05/2021 - 13:18

The Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Interdisciplinary Research Theme is funding two new projects this summer through its seed grant initiative.
Interdisciplinary Research Themes in the college are made of faculty, staff and students. They help researchers coordinate faculty hires, share facilities and use seed funding to leverage work that could provide transformational societal impact. Seed grants in the RISE IRT are open to all affiliated faculty and come in a variety of formats.

IRT Director Shideh Dashti said she is looking forward to seeing the results coming out of these two projects in the future.

“We started this IRT to leverage, support and build on the world-class expertise in disaster resilience, sustainable design and social justice across engineering and the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus,” she said. “Both these projects match that goal nicely.”

Understanding construction impacts on pollution, health and social structure

Major construction projects across the U.S. are necessary for large-scale change, however they may also result in negative health impacts to local communities and create disruptions. Things like noise and air pollution and added traffic, for example, can have an outsized impact on community health and social structure.
This project, run out of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering by Yu-Hong Wang, partners with three environmental justice communities in Denver to understand and help mitigate disruptions. It focuses on two major projects: a highway reconstruction project and related neighborhood redevelopment.

The goal is to create a socio-technical system that equips community members with sensors to monitor air and noise pollution and a set of smartphone apps to report their individual wellbeing and social relations.

The home as a learning-living lab

The second project is a collaboration between several groups at CU �鶹ӰԺ and Tuskegee University. It aims to create a participatory engineering design model that explicitly addresses historical and institutional racism.

Using land provided by Harvest Dreams, a community nonprofit organization, the two institutions will create a learning-living lab around a hybrid "Earth ship" container home concept. Proposed elements of the home include using recycled materials in construction, solar power and rainwater catchment with collected water stored in barrels and then buried for insulation.

Other design aspects include recycled materials for lighting, geothermal heating and cooling, and hydroponic methods to grow fruits and vegetables. Leadership at CU �鶹ӰԺ includes Scholar-in-Residence Jessica Rush Leeker, and participating groups are the College of Engineering and Applied Science, Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and the Program in Environmental Design.

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