Safer, Stronger, Healthier

Withstanding winds

In Hale County, Alabama, students studying at Rural Studio, an off-campus design-build program
in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, are hard at work on Mark’s Home, a onebedroom, one-bathroom prototype house designed for disaster-prone regions. Led by Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Emily McGlohn, students are building a durable, energy-efficient home that features a FEMA-compliant saferoom.

Meanwhile, the Front Porch Initiative, one of Rural Studio’s research-based outreach arms, is
creating affordable housing that can mitigate damage from a hurricane or tropical storm. Front Porch
researchers are working with community organizations around the country, including on the Florida
Gulf Coast and in Selma, Alabama, to build more resilient houses — energy-efficient structures that can
withstand intense wind and rain, minimizing water or roof damage.

Engineering for storms

David Roueche, a distinguished faculty member in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, is an expert on engineering structures to better withstand damage from hurricanes and tornadoes.

As part of his National Science Foundation Early Career Development Program project, Roueche is blending the reconnaissance data his team has collected with numerical simulations and established theories to comprehensively understand why individual homes perform as they do in hurricanes and tornadoes.

Additionally, he and his team are developing a framework to estimate wind speeds in hurricanes and tornadoes from videos that show the motion of objects carried by high winds.

Roueche is sharing his findings with the Florida Building Commission and other code agencies, highlighting specific gaps in current codes and standards and recommending ways to educate the public on preventing storm damage.

Growing resilient roots

A team of researchers in the College of Agriculture is leading the Alabama Irrigation Initiative, a program that helps farmers boost crop production through irrigation practices. This ambitious five-year research study combines different types of data to provide farmers with projections of yield and profitability, customizable down to a 2.5-square-mile parcel of cropland.

To help Alabama farmers decide whether to invest in irrigation equipment, they have recently developed a prediction model that combines weather and economic data to determine if the investment will pay dividends — or cost more than it’s worth.

Additionally, faculty and students working in the Crop Physiology Lab, led by Alvaro Sanz-Saez, and the peanut breeding program, led by Charles Chen, are developing a drought-tolerant peanut plant. Since only 35% of U.S. growers — and even fewer in Alabama — have irrigation capabilities, this research is vital to the $1.5 billion peanut production industry. Sanz-Saez, Chen and their colleagues are using greenhouses to replicate drought conditions when peanut plants are forming pods and beginning to fill with seeds. They are currently conducting detailed RNA-sequencing experiments to fully understand the physiological and genetic mechanisms of different breeds of peanut plants.

Strengthening minds

An associate professor in the College of Human Sciences, researcher Diana Samek has dedicated her career to identifying the factors that increase or reduce the likelihood of mental health symptoms and problematic substance use in adolescents and young adults. Samek looks at the impact of relationships, social context and personality on the development of adolescent and young adult health.

She has also studied how inadequate sleep and stress contribute to college students’ symptoms of depression and has identified mindfulness practices and stress reduction techniques that can mitigate those impacts. Samek’s research has led to the development of an evidence-based substance use prevention and mental health promotion program, and she is currently working with middle and high school students in rural Chambers County, Alabama.

Securing digital futures

More than two dozen faculty members are making the country safer through their collaborative research at the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Engineering. These researchers — from engineering, business and other disciplines — are dedicated to pioneering advancements in AI-driven cybersecurity solutions and tackling the most pressing challenges of the digital age.

Through innovation and collaboration, their research is helping to create a safer, more secure future through the development of cutting-edge technologies.

Additionally, the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, a nonpartisan think tank, connects practice and policy to protect and advance our nation’s interests in cybersecurity.

A current project with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will create a pilot research and operations center to protect the electric power grid against cyberattacks. They’re also applying research findings to enhance cybersecurity training for the U.S. Secret Service, the first line of defense for the nation’s financial infrastructure.

Frontline Pest Defense

Professor Lori Eckhardt of the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment has extensive knowledge about forest health and disease. Now, she’s putting her expertise to work developing a sentinel garden at Alabama’s Port of Mobile, which will act as an early warning system for invasive pathogens and insects that threaten the state’s industries, ecosystems and economies.

Invasive species cause major economic losses, with the forest industry losing $4.2 billion annually. Mobile’s sentinel garden will allow port authorities, citizen science groups and Eckhardt’s students to monitor the plants for early detection of these potential invaders and mitigation of the economic, ecological and agricultural damage caused by threatening pests
and diseases.

By developing innovative solutions across diverse disciplines, our researchers are leading the way in building resilient communities.