4:10 p.m., May 14, 2010----Deputy Provost Havidán Rodríguez participated in the Workshop on the Advancement of Societal Responses to Mega-Disasters Afflicting Mega-Cities, held May 5-8 in Tapei, Taiwan. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the National Science Council in Taiwan.

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In the 20-member U.S. delegation were faculty members, researchers and practitioners, including representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A similar group of individuals from Taiwan and several other countries in the region participated in this joint workshop.

Other sponsors of the U.S.-Taiwan workshop included National Taiwan University (NTU), the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), the Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute, the Disaster Management Society of Taiwan and the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR).

The goal of the workshop was to promote U.S.-Taiwan multi-disciplinary research collaborations focusing on the development of infrastructure and societal resilience, as well as seeking mitigation solutions for large-scale disasters in mega-cities. Keynote presentations were delivered by the minister of the NSC and by FEMA representatives, among others.

Four working groups were formed to focus on methods to forecast natural hazard occurrence and the impacts on societal systems; technology to increase societal and infrastructure resiliency when exposed to major natural hazards; assessment techniques to quantify the risk posed to individual infrastructure and systems of infrastructures; and post-event management plans that minimize the socio-economic impacts of natural hazards.

A final report with a series of recommendations aimed at increasing interdisciplinary and cross-national research collaborations between the U.S. and Taiwan will be submitted to NSF and NSC.

National Taiwan University

During his stay in Taiwan, Rodríguez also visited National Taiwan University (NTU), National Taipei University, the Central Emergency Operations Center and NCDR. UD's College of Engineering signed a collaborative agreement with NTU's College of Engineering in 2008. Chin-pao (C. P.) Huang, the Donald C. Phillips Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dean Michael Chajes and Deputy Dean Thomas S. Buchanan, among others, have taken a leadership role in building this partnership with NTU. Currently, UD's College of Engineering has five exchange students from NTU (two graduate students and three undergraduates). During the next academic year, five new exchange students from NTU will come to study at UD.

In order to continue to foster and strengthen institutional collaborations between NTU and UD in engineering and other academic and research areas, Rodríguez met with NTU's dean for international affairs, Tung Shen; the dean for academic affairs, Been H. Chiang; and the dean for student affairs, Joyce Yen Feng. During these meetings, the participants discussed potential collaborative initiatives, including faculty and student exchanges as well as study abroad programs. The group also discussed potential research collaborations focusing on the social science aspects of disasters.

National Taipei University

Rodríguez also visited National Taipei University where he met with the institution's president, Charles Hou, and Chuen Jim Sheu, professor in the Graduate School of Criminology.

During his stay in Taiwan, Rodríguez had an opportunity to meet with Hsien-Ho (Ray) Chang, a battalion captain in the Taipei County Fire Department. Ray completed master's degree in fire service administration at Arizona State University and was recently admitted to UD's new Ph.D. program in disaster science and management, which will begin in the fall. Capt. Chang and Teseng WeiWen, assistant professor at the Central Police University and secretary general of the Taiwan Chapter for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, escorted Rodriguez during his visit to the Central Emergency Operation Center.

During his visit to NCDR, Rodríguez and a group of faculty members and researchers, including Walter Gillis Peacock, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University, and Liang-Chun Chen, director of NCDR, discussed a number of research initiatives at their corresponding research centers and discussed potential collaborative initiatives, focusing on the social and economic dimensions of disasters.