Rodrigo Silva-Lopez
PhD in Civil Engineering
I am Rodrigo Silva-Lopez, a recent Ph.D graduate currently working at One Concern, where we are exploring AI tools to develop business and community recovery metrics. During my doctoral research, I worked under the supervision of Jack W. Baker at Stanford University, focusing on managing complex transportation systems to improve their resilience against natural hazards, specifically earthquakes.
Looking into the future, my research aims to create a platform to foster the resilience of critical infrastructure by integrating different approaches focused on proposing equitable and efficient mitigation actions across complex interdependent systems and natural hazards.
I envision a world in which natural hazards do not become natural disasters. I hope that we will learn how to live in this world without being afraid of suffering major consequences of extreme events and that the vulnerability of our cities and our communities will not be the result of social inequalities.
Academic Interests
My research aims to develop an understanding of the following topics:
Community impact metrics related to lifeline disruption.
Earthquake engineering.
Natural catastrophe modeling.
Risk assessment of critical infrastructure.
Regional disaster management.
Development of people-centric metrics in disaster engineering.
Optimization under uncertainty.
Machine learning.
Artificial intelligence.
Equitable and Efficient Decision making.
Personal commitments in Academia
I have been lucky in my life. Through the opportunities I have been given, and the work of people that surrounds me, I have been provided with resources to pursue the highest levels of education. Considering this, I have a strong commitment to give back to the community that has put their faith in my personal development. The values that I embrace as a researcher are:
1- Developing research focused on providing solutions to marginalized communities. This is particularly important in disaster research, where we are faced with making public policies that directly affect vulnerable members of our community.
2- Embracing diversity. I strongly believe that it is our duty to embrace diversity in Academia as a way to compensate for historical marginalization. All genders, sexual orientations, races, nationalities and religions should have equitable access to academic opportunities.
3- Promoting science outreach. Access to knowledge is scarce and elitist, which is highly problematic. As a young researcher I think that science should be accessible to all people
News
February 2023
The work "Machine‐learning‐based optimization framework to support recovery‐based design," developed by my mentee, Omar Issa, which I helped supervise, was accepted in the journal Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics.
October 2022
I participated in the 2022 SURI-Blume affiliates meeting, hosted by Stanford University.
September 2022
I joined One Concern as a Data Scientist on Infrastructure Systems.
September 2022
I was awarded my Doctoral Degree in Civil Engineering at Stanford University.
September 2022
Rodrigo Silva-Lopez shared the opportunities and limitations of using AI Tools with engineers working at the CORE Studio of Thornton Tomasetti
August 2022
Rodrigo Silva-Lopez presented "Deep learning-based retrofitting and seismic risk assessment of road networks" at the 4th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering, hosted by the EERI Chapter of UC-San Diego.
July 2022
I presented a comparative analysis of retrofitting strategies for road networks at the 11 NCEE, Salt Lake City.
June 2022
I successfully defended my Ph.D Dissertation. Thanks to the members of my Committee: Jack Baker, Gregory Deierlein, Anne Kiremidjian, and Elisabeth Pate-Cornell
February 2022
I presented my work on Corridors at the 2022 LIfelines Conference.
January 2022
My work in deep learning applications on building recovery models was distinguished as an Outstanding Project of the Deep Learning class at Stanford University
October 2021
I presented my work in Corridors at the HayWired Volume 3 Rollout
October 2021
My research was presented at the 17th World Conference in Earthquake Engineering by Prof. Jack Baker.
September 2021
My work about neural networks was featured by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center newsletter.
August 2021
I presented my work on neural networks at the PEER Researchers' workshop.
June 2021
I became part of the PEER students council.
September 2020
My research was presented at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center Researchers' workshop by Professor Jack Baker.
June 2020
I successfully presented the research proposal for my PhD Dissertation, passing my general qualification exam.
March 2020
I became part of the Student Board of the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative.
March 2020
My work in bridge Corridors was featured in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center newsletter.
June 2019
I obtained my Master's Degree in Civil Engineering at Stanford University.