Gabriel San Martin 2nd place graduate student winner of the 2023 SERAD Student Safety Innovation Challenge

Congratulations Gabriel, Civil and Environmental Engineering, for his paper being accepted as the 2nd place graduate student winner of the 2023 SERAD Student Safety Innovation Challenge. He will be awarded and will present his paper during the IMECE 2023 conference in New Orleans, LA on October 29-November 2, 2023.

2023 Student Paper on Safety Innovation Challenge Contest

Annually, Safety Engineering, Risk, and Reliability Analysis Division (SERAD) hosts a challenge to undergraduate and graduate students to submit papers on Safety Engineering, Risk, and Reliability Analysis topics, including papers already submitted to the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) 2023. The papers are peer-reviewed by experts in these areas. The top winning papers in each of the undergraduate and graduate groups will be presented in a SERAD session co-located with IMECE and honored at a SERAD awards banquet during the conference. Recognitions also include cash honorariums for first-place winning authors, and reimbursement with a limit for the conference-related expense (registration) for all students presenting their paper at the special session.

California Energy Commission awards a $5.7 million research grant to UCLA Risk Institute on Assessment of Safety and Integrity of Hydrogen Blending in Gas Infrastructure for Decarbonization

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has awarded a $5.7 million research contract to UCLA Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences on Pilot Testing and Assessment of Safety and Integrity of Targeted Hydrogen Blending in Gas Infrastructure for Decarbonization. The Goal of the project is to develop the knowledge base and integrated assessment that will help natural gas utilities introduce hydrogen in the current California natural gas pipeline network, and therefore help California meet its decarbonization goals. The multidisciplinary research involves a number of other leading research centers and public and private sectors providing an additional match fund of over $1.4 million in support of the project.  

“The project has a broad scope including extensive large-scale testing, modeling and simulation, and techno-economic analysis to assess the readiness of gas infrastructure for hydrogen blending, and use by the industry” said Professor Ali Mosleh, the project’s Principal Investigator, and Director of the UCLA Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences. The project Co-PI is Prof. Vasilios Manousiouthakis, from Chemical Engineering Department.

The project draws from expertise in multiple departments at Samueli School of Engineering and Anderson School of Business, as well as teams form UCI, Sandia National Lab, DNV, and several California utilities, including SoCalGas, and PG&E.    

SMART Health Co-Director Appointed the Neria and Manizheh Yomtoubian Endowed Chair in Cancer and Risk Sciences

(Photo courtesy of UCLA Samueli School of Engineering)

On Wednesday, November 9, 2022, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering hosted the celebration of the newly Neria and Manizheh Yomtoubian Endowed Chair in Cancer and Risk Sciences, which was appointed to Dr. Arash Naeim.

Dr. Arash Naeim, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine in both Divisions of Hematology-Oncology and Geriatric Medicine at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine as well as a Professor of Bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. He is Co-Director for the Center for SMART Health under the Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences (GIRS) in partnership with the UCLA Institute for Precision Health (IPH) and the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

He serves multiple leadership roles at UCLA: Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Research for UCLA Health, Co-Director of the CTSI, and a Senior Leader and Associate Director at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests included outcomes research, cost-effectiveness analysis, modeling of health and frailty, and the use of technology and data in risk stratification of population and for personalization of healthcare. He is the site Principal Investigator for a PCORI-funded pragmatics trial focused on personalized risk-based breast cancer screening, called WISDOM, CO-PI on a CDC contract looking at risk perception and nudging strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and completed an AHRQ R01 looking to use sensor and wearable technology in at-risk frail populations.

Full Article by UCLA Newsroom

Installation of Evalyn Knight Chair in Engineering

On November 2, 2022, UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering celebrates Prof. Ali Mosleh as the holder of the Evalyn Knight Chair in Engineering. Endowed chairs empower the school to recruit and retain faculty members of distinction whose work exemplifies UCLA’s mission of education, research and public service.

Dr. Ali Mosleh is a Distinguished University Professor. He is the Director of UCLA’s B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences. Previously he was the Nicole J. Kim Eminent Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center for Risk and Reliability at the University of Maryland. He conducts research on methods for probabilistic risk analysis and reliability of complex systems, holds several patents, and has authored or co-authored over 650 publications including books, guidebooks, and technical papers. Dr. Mosleh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 and is a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, and the American Nuclear Society, recipient of several scientific achievement awards, including the American Nuclear Society Tommy Thompson Award. He has been technical advisor to numerous national and international organizations, including appointment by Presidents Bush and Obama to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. 

Wadie Chalgham 2nd place graduate student winner of the 2020 SER2AD Student Safety Innovation Challenge

Congratulations to Wadie Chalgham, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, for his paper being accepted as the 2nd place graduate student winner of the 2020 SER2AD Student Safety Innovation Challenge. He will be awarded and will present his paper during the IMECE 2020 conference in Portland, Oregon on November 15-19, 2020.