We live in complex societies that continue to interact on many levels and evolve as mutually interdependent microcosms made up of sophisticated linked systems. This rapidly evolving societal complexity has not been met with a comparable system-level understanding in order to ensure the resilience of our interdependent systems. Without such understanding, the collapse of one system can lead to a cascading catastrophic sequence of failures that can lead to the entire network collapse. Recent global disasters clearly demonstrate that the traditional component-by-component design solutions have left our systems vulnerable at their interfaces.
To provide real solutions for complex societal grand challenges, we continue to assemble teams of international experts with unparalleled cross-disciplinary expertise. Collectively, the expertise of our team members cover the majority of natural and anthropogenic hazards as well as different infrastructure systems behavior and risk assessment tools. With different backgrounds and focus areas, our team shares one common vision: we are silo colliders who embrace interdisciplinary research as the way of making real changes in people’s lives.
Wael El-Dakhakhni
Wael El-DakhakhniDirector

Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng., F.ASCE