In most animal species, if a major artery is cut off from the heart, the animal will struggle to survive.
In most animal species, if a major artery is cut off from the heart, the animal will struggle to survive. The same can be said for many of our critical infrastructure systems, such as electric power, water and communications. They are networked systems with vulnerable connections.
This vulnerability was on display in September 2017 when Hurricane Maria wrecked Puerto Rico’s electric power grid, leaving almost all of the island’s 3.3 million people without electricity. The months-long blackout that followed was the worst in U.S. history.
Claire Trevisan, then a civil and environmental engineering undergraduate student in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment at the University of Virginia, took note of Puerto Rico’s plight. She asked her fourth-year capstone advisor, professor and associate director of the UVA Environmental Resilience Institute ANDRES CLARENS, if they could use her project to study the problem.
Read more at: University of Virginia
