CEE faculty, Arindam Gan Chowdhury, Amir Mirmiran, and Emil Simiu, received a highly competitive award from the Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Program for $200,000 (with an already approved 50% matching by the industry, the funding will be $300,000). The project, which is a joint effort with Dr. Steve Cai of the Louisiana State University, will develop innovative load transfer mechanisms to reduce hurricane-induced failures in new and existing residential construction. The project combines the full-scale load testing at the Structures and Construction Laboratory, full-scale wind loading at RenaissanceRe Wall of Wind, and the wind tunnel testing at the Louisiana State University.

Combined with recent funding from the National Science Foundation (http://www.eng.fiu.edu/cee/CEE-NSF.htm), the wind/structural program at FIU has gotten to a good start in this academic year.