Georgios Tsampras, an assistant professor in the Department of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego, is spearheading a $397,000 collaborative research effort between UC San Diego and Lehigh University (Co-PI Paolo Bocchini) to bolster community resilience in the face of natural disasters. 

Tsampras’s project represents one portion of a $7.1 million research allocation that is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Disaster Resilience Research Grants (DRRG) program. Each associated project shares a common objective: to advance the resilience of infrastructure, buildings, and communities in the face of natural hazards. Additionally, the grants will support the education of future engineers, ensuring they have the tools needed to protect communities.

Although entirely eradicating the risk of natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other events is impossible, scientific advancements provide practical avenues for community preparedness and the alleviation of common pain points. 

Tsampras is at the helm of one of the eight projects funded by NIST, titled "Development of an efficient and practical design method that integrates resilience and performance criteria", with the primary goal of curtailing the costs and ramifications of disasters on the built environment, including both commercial and residential buildings. This project aims to develop, validate, and assess a practical design method that seamlessly incorporates resilience and performance criteria into building systems. The ultimate goal is to encourage the widespread adoption of high-performance earthquake-resilient building structures. 

Unlike traditional building systems that rely on rigid structural connections between structural components, his research focuses on building systems utilizing reusable force-limiting deformable connections, such as those between floors, walls, and foundations. These connections offer the advantage of quicker post-earthquake functionality. 

Currently, there is a lack of efficient and practical methodologies for designing such buildings with resilience in mind. What distinguishes Tsampras’s project is its dedication to integrating functionality and resilience considerations from the outset of the design phase. The broader impact of Tsampras’s research is geared towards safeguarding critical societal functions and minimizing both immediate and long-term financial losses from earthquakes, while the overarching research initiative hopes to improve planning, policy, codes, and standards related to the design of buildings.