Please see the announcement below and flyer attached from Dr. Frank Lombardo regarding the upcoming Tornado Hazard Wind Assessment and Reduction Symposium (THWARTS). Also, as a reminder, the 5th American Association for Wind Engineering Workshop will be held August 12-14, 2018 in Miami, FL. Early registration has been extended to July 27. See the workshop web page for more details (https://aaweworkshop.fiu.edu/). All are invited and we hope to see you at both of these upcoming events!
Announcement from Dr. Frank Lombardo
Tornado Hazard Wind Assessment and Reduction Symposium (THWARTS)
Tornadoes cause $ billions in property damage each year in the United States. This damage is directly linked to the wind field close to the ground, where the majority of damages occur. Yet the near-surface wind field in tornadoes is poorly sampled for a number of reasons, limiting our understanding of fundamental tornado science and inhibiting tornado design and mitigation efforts.
The disciplines involved in this problem are inherently related and need to work together. However, there has been a natural tendency in the literature and elsewhere to silo assessments of tornado hazards and impacts into individual disciplinary lenses. For these multitude of reasons, the wind engineering group at the University of Illinois, through funding from the National Science Foundation, is hosting a Tornado Hazard Wind Assessment and Reduction Symposium (THWARTS) September 26-27 at the iHotel and Conference Center with the goal of igniting discussion and long-term research collaboration between the multidisciplinary tornado communities.
Further details can be found at https://publish.illinois.edu/thwarts2018/