Omar Velazquez Ortiz

Area of Research / Academic Interests

Most of the research in the field of Earthquake Early Warnings (EEW) has been led by seismologists so far as the potential benefits of EEW hinge on successfully producing real-time estimation of ground-shaking intensity from a given earthquake source. However, the information provided by an EEW system could also be used by earthquake engineers to design engineering applications. These applications are the main focus of my PhD. Some examples are:

- Rapid assessment of building response using simplified structural systems.

- Interaction between structures and occupants' responses during an earthquake.

- Semi-active structural control to modify just-in-time the dynamic characteristics of a structure (building/bridge) to achieve the optimal seismic response.

My background on the topic is supported by my Master's degree in Earthquake Engineering with Disaster Management obtained at University College London. With the supervision of Carlos Molina Hutt, and Dr. Carmine Galasso (both members of EPICentre) my final project focused on the Impact of Uniform Hazard Spectrum versus Conditional Mean Spectrum on structural response. I have been awarded with Mexico's CONACYT funding to study both master's degree and PhD degree at UCL.

Regarding to working experience, I have been involved in construction and site supervision jobs in Mexico for two years (i.e. Supervision of a maximum security prison in Villa Aldama, Veracruz, Mexico). However, seismic design of structures and catastrophe modelling are my expected areas of work in the following years.

Keywords / Tags

Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Early Warning Devices, Semi-Active Structural Control