2024 Annual Meeting - Day Two - Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE

2024 Annual Meeting – Day One

September 4, 2024

2024 Annual Meeting – Day Three

September 6, 2024

Published by quakecore at September 5, 2024

Day Two of the QuakeCoRE 2024 Annual Meeting in Ahuriri Napier

Women in QuakeCoRE Breakfast

Day Two of the Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE 2024 Annual Meeting began with the annual Women in QuakeCoRE Breakfast. What better way to start the day than with a karakia and the sun breaking through cloud over the Pacific Ocean.

Brief messages of advice were shared by seven mentors before breakfast got underway and these words of wisdom provided fuel for the roundtable discussions that followed. Time passed very quickly with so much to talk about – career paths and zigzags, demarcating personal and professional lives, finding your unique contribution, the importance of working in supportive communities, and remembering that everything in life is about relationships.

There was a positive and appreciative buzz in the room throughout the hour and a half session. Organiser Lauren Vinnell says the Women in QuakeCoRE breakfast is fast becoming popular with registration numbers increasing every year.

State of QuakeCoRE

Always a highlight, Director Brendon Bradley's State of QuakeCoRE address gave a fantastic wide-ranging overview of QuakeCoRE's research accomplishments and current activities; showcasing the range of research that is taking place across the QuakeCoRE Research Programme.

To download Brendon's Research Accomplishments slides for 2024 click here (PDF, 10MB)

Communication, Education & Engagement

Associate Director Caroline Orchiston followed with a summary of the Communication, Education and Engagement (CEE) portfolio and the work underway.

Caroline highlighted the popular QuakeCoRE Research Stories published each month; the refresh of our YouTube channel playlists that showcase our monthly Seminar Series; the refresh currently in progress of the schools and communities resource ShakeKit - which provides opportunities to learn key earthquake risk resilience concepts and delve into STEM research that is relevant to each audience; and the upcoming geosciences conference in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Earthfest.

QuakeCoRE Student Chapters Lightning Talks

In the lead up to the Annual Meeting each of the QuakeCoRE Student Chapters held heats to establish the best of the best in this quickfire lightning talk format. This year did not disappoint with an excellent assortment of topics and speakers.

We heard talks from:

Kristian Azul (The University of Auckland)
Nathan Brutsch (The University of Waikato)
Chandrakumar Chanthujan (Massey University)
Julie Coanus (University of Canterbury)
Annal Dhungana (Massey University)
Balasubramanian Elankumaran (The University of Waikato)
Laura Gnesko (University of Canterbury)
Caroline Rowe (University of Otago)
Junrui Zhang (The University of Auckland)

There were a rang of visual metaphors employed in the Lightning Talks this year, from: how the humble kiwi meat pie can be an analogy for geotechnical data; how different earthquakes behave like different dancers, including some like "belly dancers - they're graceful but they still make us nervous"; the importance of clearly articulating uncertainty through the use of the 'uncertainty doughnut'; and finally from a self-professed 'gym guy' how kinesiology tape can be likened to structural elements tying buildings together.

The Judges and Audience Choice Awards will be conferred in the final Annual Meeting session on Thursday.

Plenary Session: Difficulties and Opportunities Related to the Retrofit of Vulnerable Buildings

Chair:

Santiago Pujol (University of Canterbury)

Speakers:

Umair Siddiqui (Wellington City Council)
Olga Filippova (University of Auckland)
Sergio Alcocer (Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México (UNAM))

This session examined the pressing topic of retrofitting large inventories of vulnerable building structures. Three different perspectives were provided:

Wellington City Council's experience when implementing regulations amidst diverse constraints affecting building owners
The state of California’s approach to the implementation of seismic retrofit policies
Engineers in Mexico City who have seen up close both challenges and benefits associated with building strengthening

These three unique perspectives not only showcased the numerous opportunities within policy and practice but also emphasized the crucial broader contexts in which building retrofits take place.

An open discussion followed the presentation.

Plenary Session: Demonstrated Applications of Machine Learning in Earthquake Resilience and the Path Forward

Chair:

Brendon Bradley (University of Canterbury)

Speakers:

Sjoerd van Ballegooy (Infinity Studio)
Brett Maurer (University of Washington)

Brett began by acknowledging that on this day in 2010 the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence began, which triggered his first visit to Aotearoa New Zealand to learn more. Brett’s presentation covered ‘why most AI models are ignored, and some that shouldn’t be’. He demonstrated how ‘quantum spookiness’ or confusing language often surrounds AI and what is (or isn’t) published about it, and that we should be suspicious when AI isn’t clearly anchored to reality.

Sjoerd provided a practitioner's perspective, outlining challenges related to the integration of AI models in geotechnical engineering practice. He cautioned against the indiscriminate use of AI as a solution in search of a problem, instead advocating for a problem-centric approach in selecting the appropriate tools. Emphasizing the pivotal role of data, Sjoerd highlighted that the quality and quantity of data are critical, underscoring that gaps in data can lead to inaccuracies or 'deep learning models that hallucinate'. This highlights the importance of scrutinising the use of the tool and its application, as well as the current limitations for engineers in utilising AI models within existing regulatory frameworks in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Poster Showcase Session

Congratulations to the presenters in our first Poster Showcase Session. Everyone rose to the challenge of explaining their research in under 60 seconds and we heard interesting presentations from:

Dan Bain (University of Canterbury)
Cesar Pajaro Miranda (University of Canterbury)
Ekin Gultepe (University of Canterbury)
Chin-Long Lee (University of Canterbury)
Andy Clifford (CRESCENT)
Kasra Habibi (University of Auckland)
Sajan Neupane (Massey University)
Amir Shariati (University of Waikato)
Shaila Arif (University of Auckland)
Raj Prasanna (Massey University)

Our final Poster Showcase Session will be held tomorrow, Thursday 5 September.

Poster Session

This year's Annual Meeting featured an unprecedented number of posters, this Poster Session offered attendees ample opportunity to review, connect, and engage in discussions about their ongoing research.

The full 2024 Annual Meeting Poster Abstract Booklet (PDF) is available for download here.

Quicker Safer Tsunami Hīkoi

Attendees had the opportunity to practice a safe tsunami evacuation route from the meeting venue with a Tsunami Hīkoi for the Quicker Safer Tsunami Evacuation Project (East Coast LAB, University of Canterbury, GNS Science and Massey University).

By sharing hīkoi data, attendees are helping to improve evacuation modelling.

For more information on the Quicker Safer Tsunami Hīkoi, start here (Doc download).