NCST Advisory 

Committee Meeting

November 8, 2021

NCST Advisory Committee Meeting, November 8, 2021

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MEETING GOALS:

• Review NIST’s progress in DFS readiness, 

• review the status of the NCST investigation of Hurricane Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico, 

• introduce the new NCST Champlain Towers South investigation, and

• develop the Committee’s annual report to Congress.

June 10, 2021

Time (EST) Topic Discussion Leader

Opening Remarks

11:00 am – 11:05 am Call to Order

Roll Call 

Ben Davis

Management and Program Analyst, Disaster & Failure 

Studies Program

& NCST Designated Federal Officer

NIST

11:05 am – 11:15 am Welcome

Opening Remarks 

James K. Olthoff

NIST Acting Director

11:15 am – 11:25 am Meeting Goals

Review of Agenda

Reggie DesRoches

NCSTAC Chairperson

Provost

Rice University

Disaster and Failure Studies Program Updates

11:25 am - 11:40 am DFS Updates on Enhancing the Readiness of 

Teams

Tanya Brown-Giammanco

Director, Disaster & Failure Studies Program

NIST

11:40 am - 11:50 am Committee Discussion of the DFS Updates Reggie DesRoches
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Hurricane Maria NCST Updates

11:50 am – 12:10 pm Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation Update Joseph Main

Team Lead, Hurricane Maria NCST

NIST

12:10 pm – 12:25 pm Committee Discussion of the Hurricane Maria 

NCST Investigation Update

Reggie DesRoches

12:25 pm – 12:55 pm LUNCH BREAK

Champlain Towers South NCST Investigation

12:55 pm – 1:20 pm Champlain Towers South NCST Investigation 

Overview

Judy Mitrani-Reiser

Team Lead, Champlain Towers South NCST

NIST

1:20 pm – 1:45 pm Champlain Towers South NCST Investigation 

Update

Glenn Bell

Associate Team Lead, Champlain Towers South NCST

NIST

1:45 pm – 2:15 pm Committee Discussion of the Champlain Towers 

South NCST Investigation

Reggie DesRoches

2:15 pm – 2:25 pm Summary Remarks Joannie Chin

Acting Director, Engineering Laboratory

NIST

2:25 pm – 2:55 pm Public Comment Period Ben Davis

2:55 pm – 5:00 pm NCSTAC Preparation of Annual Report to Congress Reggie DesRoches

5:00 pm ADJOURN Ben Davis
Disaster & Failure Studies 

Updates on Enhancing the 

Readiness of Teams

Tanya Brown-Giammanco, Ph.D.

Director, Disaster and Failure Studies Program

National Institute of Standards and Technology

U.S. Department of Commerce

NCST Advisory Committee Meeting, November 8, 2021

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Research Thrust

• Research program focused on 

disaster metrology, including 

structural performance and 

social sciences

• Coordinate research activities 

with NIST EL Groups, 

Disaster Statutory Programs, 

NIST EL Divisions, and other 

NIST Labs

• Coordination with the Center 

of Excellence for Risk-Based 

Community Resilience 

Planning on field studies

• NSF/NIST Disaster Resilience 

Research Grants Program

• Outreach and dissemination

Statutory Thrust

• Evaluate hazard events 

against deployment criteria

• Manage identification, vetting, 

and onboarding of NCSTAC 

members

• Develop agenda, manage 

logistics, and set frequency 

for NCSTAC meetings

• Create annual NCST reports 

to Congress

• Coordinate statutory activities 

across programs related to 

disasters.

• Conduct field studies under 

various authorities

Procedures Thrust

• DFS Standard Operating 

Procedures

• HOT Team membership, 

training, and credentials

• Field and safety protocols

• Human subjects protocols 

• Manage equipment for 

disaster metrology and 

personnel protection

• Data preservation, security, 

and management

• Field tools (NDA’s, 

permissions, survey 

instruments)

• MOUs with other agencies, 

academics, and others

• NIST Disaster Working Group

NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies Program
Research Thrust

• Research program focused on 

disaster metrology, including 

structural performance and 

social sciences

• Coordinate research activities 

with NIST EL Groups, 

Disaster Statutory Programs, 

NIST EL Divisions, and other 

NIST Labs

• Coordination with the Center 

of Excellence for Risk-Based 

Community Resilience 

Planning on field studies

• NSF/NIST Disaster Resilience 

Research Grants Program

• Outreach and dissemination

Statutory Thrust

• Evaluate hazard events 

against deployment criteria

• Manage identification, vetting, 

and onboarding of NCSTAC 

members

• Develop agenda, manage 

logistics, and set frequency 

for NCSTAC meetings

• Create annual NCST reports 

to Congress

• Coordinate statutory activities 

across programs related to 

disasters.

• Conduct field studies under 

various authorities

Procedures Thrust

• DFS Standard Operating 

Procedures

• HOT Team membership, 

training, and credentials

• Field and safety protocols

• Human subjects protocols 

• Manage equipment for 

disaster metrology and 

personnel protection

• Data preservation, security, 

and management

• Field tools (NDA’s, 

permissions, survey 

instruments)

• MOUs with other agencies, 

academics, and others

• NIST Disaster Working Group

NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies Program
Disasters Scored June 2021 – October 2021

Date Event Event Consequence 

Score (max=5.0)

Evacuation & Response 

Score (max=5.0)

06//2021 Chicago Metro, Illinois Tornado 2.6 3.0

06/24/2021 Champlain Towers South partial collapse* 5.0 5.0

07/14/2021 Dixie Fire (WUI), California 3.0 1.0

08/14/2021 Haiti Earthquake 3.0 5.0

8/29/2021 Hurricane Ida 4.1 5.0

*NIST deployed a team

Events Scoring

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NIST SciServer: Collaborative Science Platform

SciServer is a system allowing scientists and researchers across 

multiple domains to host and share their datasets and provide 

query and analysis tools for collaborative work.

s 

NIST-JHU PREP Project

• Project Goal: add computer science 

capacity to NIST disaster statutory 

programs via the NIST’s Professional 

Research Experience Program (PREP)

• NIST Associates: Prof. Alex Szalay, Dr. 

Gerard Lemson, and Dr. Arik Mitschang

• Project Scope: adopt data semantic 

standards and foster interoperability 

between other disaster repositories; 

design a public database that can easily 

be managed by NIST; combine 

traditional data management and 

access services with computing 

resources (e.g., Python and R).

http://www.sciserver.org/

(with permission from Prof. Szalay) 8
Automated Event Scoring through SciServer

Implementation of coordinated activities across disaster statutory programs for NCST event scoring:

fully automated workflow to calculate “Event Consequence” score during NWIRP’s phase zero
Automated Event Scoring through SciServer

Forecast storm surge: National 

Hurricane Center

Forecast track: National 

Hurricane Center

Forecast wind field: National 

Hurricane Center

Census data: US Census Bureau

Building stock data: not yet 

defined

Social Vulnerability Index: 

Centers for Disease Control

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Automated Event Scoring through SciServer: Results

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Landfall
NCSTAC Membership

● 7 current members (12 allowed)

○ Current expertise in infrastructure, structural engineering, codes and 

standards, earthquakes, sociology, public health, disaster response

○ 5 current members’ 2nd terms expire between July 1-September 30, 2023

● TARGET: recruit and onboard 3-5 additional members by FY22 Q2

○ fire

○ forensics

○ geotechnical

○ materials science

○ wind

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Research Thrust

• Research program focused on 

disaster metrology, including 

structural performance and 

social sciences

• Coordinate research activities 

with NIST EL Groups, 

Disaster Statutory Programs, 

NIST EL Divisions, and other 

NIST Labs

• Coordination with the Center 

of Excellence for Risk-Based 

Community Resilience 

Planning on field studies

• NSF/NIST Disaster Resilience 

Research Grants Program

• Outreach and dissemination

Statutory Thrust

• Evaluate hazard events 

against deployment criteria

• Manage identification, vetting, 

and onboarding of NCSTAC 

members

• Develop agenda, manage 

logistics, and set frequency 

for NCSTAC meetings

• Create annual NCST reports 

to Congress

• Coordinate statutory activities 

across programs related to 

disasters.

• Conduct field studies under 

various authorities

Procedures Thrust

• DFS Standard Operating 

Procedures

• HOT Team membership, 

training, and credentials

• Field and safety protocols

• Human subjects protocols 

• Manage equipment for 

disaster metrology and 

personnel protection

• Data preservation, security, 

and management

• Field tools (NDA’s, 

permissions, survey 

instruments)

• MOUs with other agencies, 

academics, and others

• NIST Disaster Working Group

NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies Program
• Recruitment and credentialing of 

new Hot Team Members based 

on Membership Decision Process 

enacted in September 2020

• Development of regular, recurring 

training regimen to be 

administered proactively in 

winter “off-season”

• Development of “Go Kits” to 

collect all PPE in single package 

for easy deployment

DFS Procedures: Hot Team

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HOT TEAM 

MEMBERS

CREDENTIALS 

AND BADGES

SAFETY TRAINING 

AND EQUIPMENT

DFS 

Readiness
• As a result of Champlain Towers South NCST Investigation

• Rapid PRA clearance for interviews of witnesses, survivors, 

emergency responders, maintenance personnel, etc.

• NCST Volunteer Agreement

• MOU with NSF

• IAA with USACE

• Development of Evidence Tagging Procedures

• PRA generic clearance for decision science data collection

• Initial discussions to develop contract for Wind Speed 

Modeling for FEMA Mission Assignments

• Standup of NIST Disaster Working Group

DFS Procedures: New Developments

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Research Thrust

• Research program focused on 

disaster metrology, including 

structural performance and 

social sciences

• Coordinate research activities 

with NIST EL Groups, 

Disaster Statutory Programs, 

NIST EL Divisions, and other 

NIST Labs

• Coordination with the Center 

of Excellence for Risk-Based 

Community Resilience 

Planning on field studies

• NSF/NIST Disaster Resilience 

Research Grants Program

• Outreach and dissemination

Statutory Thrust

• Evaluate hazard events 

against deployment criteria

• Manage identification, vetting, 

and onboarding of NCSTAC 

members

• Develop agenda, manage 

logistics, and set frequency 

for NCSTAC meetings

• Create annual NCST reports 

to Congress

• Coordinate statutory activities 

across programs related to 

disasters.

• Conduct field studies under 

various authorities

Procedures Thrust

• DFS Standard Operating 

Procedures

• HOT Team membership, 

training, and credentials

• Field and safety protocols

• Human subjects protocols 

• Manage equipment for 

disaster metrology and 

personnel protection

• Data preservation, security, 

and management

• Field tools (NDA’s, 

permissions, survey 

instruments)

• MOUs with other agencies, 

academics, and others

• NIST Disaster Working Group

NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies Program
DFS Research

• Planning for Wave 5 data collection for Lumberton, NC longitudinal 

study with Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community 

Resilience Planning

• NSF/NIST Disaster Resilience Research Grants Program awardees to 

be announced soon

• Upcoming outreach:

• 9th Forensic Engineering Conference-November

• ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure-December

• Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience 

seminar-December

• Lifelines Conference (San Fernando Earthquake Conference - 50 Years of 

Lifeline Engineering)-February 2022

• Americas Conference on Wind Engineering-May 2022

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NCST Advisory Committee Meeting, November 8, 2021

Questions?

Please ‘raise your hand’ using the Blue Jeans 

Participant window and unmute your audio and video

Tanya Brown-Giammanco

Director, Disaster and Failure Studies Program

tanya.brown-giammanco@nist.gov

Contributors: Shane Crawford*, Judith Mitrani-Reiser*, Alex Szalay^, 

Gerard Lemson^, and Arik Mitschang^

*NIST

^Johns Hopkins University PREP Associates

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