Urban Risk Lab showcases PREPHub at MIT Openhouse

April 23, 2016

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The Campus PREPHub is part of a public space campaign for campus preparedness that facilitates community action following a disaster such as a hurricane. Able to operate entirely off -grid, the hub is built around the short-term and immediate need for energy, communication, and supplies. Designed to be used both in the everyday as well as for emergency purposes, the Campus PREPHub project will be integrated into existing Campus Safety Programs but also be used for playful innovative outdoor campus activities.

Urban Risk Lab at 5th International Forum 2016 – “Infrastructure Space”

April 7, 2016

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Prof. Miho Mazereeuw was invited as a subject expert on the Risk, Governance and Infrastructure at the 5th International Forum for Sustainable Construction dedicated to “Infrastructure Space” organized by lafargeholcim-foundation, the conference was held in Detroit, USA.

"The three-day symposium and examined how to deliver long-term infrastructure that is aligned with sustaining human habitat. Leading thinkers from architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, social science, business, and industry from 40 countries met in Detroit. The conference focused on interdependent, overlapping infrastructures through three dominant themes: water, energy and risk."

"Pani Pati Guthi: Public Infrastructure for Community Resilience in Nepal" receives honorable mention

March 11, 2016

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Hugh Magee presented the project at MIT water Night 2016. The project received honorable mention in "Teaching in Water, Management, and Human Development" category

This project embodies ideas of disaster preparedness with community activity by embedding smarter systems into the existing Pati's of Kathmandu Valley. This approach will help to them function well on a day-to-day basis and create a Social Hub in the heart of small communities. In a disaster situation its ability to store and treat water, house supplies and communication infrastructure as well as generate energy via PV technology allows this shared public infrastructure to become a lifeline for its community. 

This project is supported by TATA Center for Technology and Design.

3.11: Five Years After the Triple Disaster in Northeastern Japan

March 10, 2016

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Prof. Miho Mazereeuw was invited to discuss the current state of Northeastern Japan, five years after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown along with panelists Richard Samuels (MIT, Political Science), Tatsujiro Suzuki (Former Vice Chairman of Japan Atomic Energy Commission of the Cabinet Office), Kenneth Oye (MIT, Political Science & ESD) and Akinobu Murakami (University of Tsukuba). This program was hosted by STARR Forum, and supported by MIT-Japan Program, Center for International Studies

International Workshop on social housing and landscape of risk in Lima, Peru

March 4, 2016

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Prof. Miho Mazereeuw was invited to speak at LIMAPOLIS 2016, an international workshop in Lima, Peru. 

Lima became the laboratory of housing for disadvantaged sector between the 1950s and 1970, Some notable examples of that can be seen in the publications of John Turner and PREVI International Competition, However despite this lack of safe housing is a critical issue facing the city today. LIMAPOLIS is a platform for theoretical reflection, debate and an opportunity to project the ideas for safe housing on the slopes of peripheral Lima. As a part of the conference, Claudia Bode, Research affiliate with the Risk Lab, also ran a workshop with students from several universities from Latin American to brainstorm ideas for solutions to the housing challenge of Lima 

Urban Risk Lab will be showcasing Emergency Preparedness Hub at Market Street Prototyping Festival

Apr 9 -11th., 2015

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The Emergency preparedness hub is a novel public disaster preparedness kit designed to build resiliency at the community level. It will act as the urban counterpart to the personal preparedness kit building directly on the SF72 platform for disaster preparedness. It is a prototype for collective emergency response around which off-grid utilities and resources can be managed in the event of an earthquake. This unit also functions as a locus for gathering hyper local narratives that revolve around environmental concerns, resources awareness and community action.

Workshop on using Landsat data processing by Miguel Villarreal

Dec 4., 2014

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Miguel Villarreal (PhD) is a Research Geographer at the USGS who focuses on Ecosystem Modeling in long-term dynamics of landscapes. Miguel received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Arizona and B.A. from the University of California, Davis. This workshop was offered for the students of MIT Architecture and focused on various techniques of understanding land-use change by using open sources datasets and Landsat imagery.

Urban RISK Lab at UN Resilience by Design conference

Dec 4., 2014

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Prof. Miho Mazereeuw was invited at the Resilience by Design conference organized by United Nations and hosted by Open Online Academy in New York. The conference aimed at the work that addresses post-disaster architectural design. 

The event also marked the first anniversary of typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and emphasized the need for sustainable solutions in response to the increasingly adverse effects of climate change.

Urban RISK Lab Lunchtime Lectures: Charlie Hailey

Nov 14, 2014

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Charlie Hailey is Assistant Professor at the University of Florida’s School of Architecture. He is the author of ‘Campsite: Architectures of Duration and Place (Louisiana State University Press, 2008)’ and ‘Camps: A Guide to 21st Century Space (MIT Press, 2008). Through his research on campsites, he develops a global perspective on campsites as spaces of freedom, emergency, and reform, Spaces that tackle the questions of identity, permanence, control, safety, and mobility.

Urban RISK Lab Lunchtime Lectures: Vyjayanthi V. Rao

Oct 31., 2014

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Vyjayanthi V. Rao is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New School for Social Research, New York. Previously she held positions at Yale University and at the University of Chicago where she received her Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology. For three years she served as a co-director of PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research), an innovative urban think-tank based in Mumbai. She works on cities after globalization, specifically on the intersections of urban planning, design art, violence, and speculation in the articulation of the contemporary global city.

Urban RISK Lab Lunchtime Lectures: Matthew Jelacic

Oct 29., 2014

Matthew Jelacic is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design and an Adjunct Faculty member of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities at the University of Colorado. His research includes improving the design of shelter and planning for displacement caused by natural disasters, climate change and other conflicts. Prof. Jelacic received his architecture degrees at Pratt Institute, where he received the AIA Henry Adams Medal, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, was a Harvard Loeb Fellow in 2003-4, studied international human rights law at Oxford University in 2008 and was a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Scholar in Residence in 2009. From 1991-2001 he worked in the atelier of Louise Bourgeois and in 2004 he became a licensed contractor.

Hacking Social Media to Survive Climate Change: A GeoSocial Intelligence Approach

Sept 17., 2014

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MIT Urban Risk Lab hosts Etienne Turpin and Tomas Holderness from PetaJakarta.org

PetaJakarta.org is a research collaboration initiated by Dr. Etienne Turpin and Dr. Tomas Holderness of the SMART Infrastructure Facility. The project brings the scientific expertise of the SMART OSGeo Lab and the SMART GeoSocial Intelligence Research Group together with the Jakarta Emergency Management Agency and the United Nations Pulse Lab Jakarta for applied research and integrated testing of social media for infrastructure co-management. The project is supported financially by the University of Wollongong Global Challenges Initiative and the Australian National Data Service; it has received additional support through a Twitter #DataGrant, awarded through the Twitter OSS Engineering Division.

Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day at the White House

August, 2014

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Prof. Miho Mazereeuw was one of the guests at the White House to participate in the Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day. 

The workshop sessions were aimed at identifying challenges where open data, social media, predictive analytics, sharing economy platforms, standards, and user-centered design can be applied to improve disaster preparedness, and disaster response and recovery efforts.