Hiba Baroud, deputy director of the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy, and Climate (VSEC), is co-principal investigator on a research team that’s received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore ways to build resilient cities for the future.
The project, “AccelNet Implementation Phase 1: International Networks Towards Future Resilience of U.S. Urban Socio-Technical Systems,” brings together experts from across the country and around the world to look at a holistic approach to urban resilience challenges.
The project focuses on three interwoven dimensions: technology, examining the integration of AI-enabled systems into infrastructure and mobility networks; people, exploring the complex and evolving interactions between humans and technology; and environment, addressing the rising frequency of extreme natural events that disrupt urban systems, with the goal of improving predictive modeling, disaster preparedness, and the development of urban digital twins.
By combining these perspectives, the team aims to generate new insights into how technology, society, and climate interact, and to chart pathways toward resilient, sustainable, and livable cities.
“Urban resilience is one of society’s most pressing challenges,” said Baroud, A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation Faculty Fellow and associate chair of civil and environmental engineering. “I’m proud to be part of this collaborative effort that will not only advance scientific understanding, but also equip students and early-career researchers with global leadership skills.”
The team has identified multiple global strategic partners. Baroud will lead the partnership with the 4TU Resilience Engineering Centre in the Netherlands, where she was a Resilience Fellow hosted by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
Other research team members are PI Xiao Liu (H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech), and co-PIs Linyin Cheng and Song Yang (University of Arkansas), Jennifer Pazour (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Yisha Xiang (University of Houston), and Xiang Zhou (Harvard University).
Last year, Baroud was selected as a fellow of the International Science Council in recognition of outstanding contributions to promoting science as a global public good.