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This project supports foundational research that explores and creates collaborative processes to foster community resilience. Current approaches that characterize resilience are engineering-based and predict possible infrastructure damage in the face of acute and/or chronic stressors. When resilience is more broadly reframed as the interdependence between the built, social, and information...

The ability of an organization to mobilize knowledge when and where it is needed is fundamental for organizational performance. When done effectively, this ability can help organizations reduce repeated mistakes, spread innovation and best practices, and avoid dedicating resources to problems that have been solved previously. To date, various organizational...

Sustainable infrastructure that is used and maintained by communities over time, and resilient networks that can support infrastructure construction and repair in times of crisis, are sorely needed. Unfortunately, conventional approaches in post-disaster reconstruction focus primarily on rapid and recognizable results (e.g., number of houses built), over long-term results, causing...

This research aims to build a comprehensive theory of pathways to recovery following a disaster by linking pre-disaster measures of causal conditions to recovery outcomes. Despite efforts to improve community resilience to disasters, the number and economic impact of disasters has increased each year over the past 25 years. At...

This engineering education research project seeks to learn why the engineering service organization Engineers Without Borders is successful at attracting a large number of women volunteers and thus better understand the factors that can help recruit women into engineering degree programs. The project uses the constructs of self-efficacy and outcome...

Social knowledge sharing networks are central to organizational success, but with the growth in distributed global organizations, many firms are struggling with the challenge of creating and maintaining relationships that cross geographic, disciplinary, national, and cultural boundaries. This study investigates communities of practice within multinational engineering and construction organizations to...