The Italian Science Fund (FIS, Fondo Italiano per la Scienza), established to support research of excellence in Italy, has recently awarded a grant of over 1.3 million euros to Professor Gerard J.O’Reilly, Professor of Construction Technology at the IUSS School for Advanced Studies in Pavia, for the SONATA project. His project, called SONATA (Sensor-driven statistical tools to evaluate risks and manage safety in the built environment), stands out for its innovative approach to seismic safety in the built environment, combining advanced sensors, artificial intelligence and experiments on the system with 9 degrees of freedom of Fondazione Eucentre and IUSS.
The recognition of the FIS undoubtedly testifies to the high scientific value of Professor O’Reilly’s research in seismic risk mitigation. In the following interview, Prof. O’Reilly discusses the objectives of the SONATA project and its potential impact on the safety of our cities.
Professor O’Reilly, congratulations on the funding obtained for the SONATA project. Can you explain in simple terms what it is and what its objectives are?
It is essentially a study on the safety of the built environment concerning earthquake hazards. So, it looks at quantifying how safe the buildings we live in each day would be during possible earthquakes while harnessing the benefits of newer technologies like advanced sensors and AI to improve our knowledge and help us prepare better.
What are the main innovations that SONATA will introduce in evaluating seismic risk?
The main innovations come in the technologies used and the key concepts they will unlock to conduct and develop further research. The idea that a building is something we can equip with sensors is not new, but what kind of sensors to use, where to put them, and, more importantly, what kind of data outputs to utilize and how to use them to help us increase our knowledge are key aspects. The main innovations are learning and adapting to this new data to create intelligent buildings that learn from new dynamic data sources and can also inform other buildings of the risks faced concerning earthquakes.
Non-structural elements are often neglected in earthquake-resistant design. Why is it important to study them, and what problems can they cause during an earthquake?
Because they are often the ones that cause the most problems! Historically, we in earthquake engineering have focused on ensuring buildings do not collapse during earthquakes, which is a priority to prevent casualties. Still, collapse and fatalities are not always the primary concerns in many countries where seismic regulations have been adopted. In many cases, damage, economic losses, and indirect losses caused by downtime and interruption have been major factors following earthquakes. These issues are often driven by the performance of the non-structural elements because they directly impact a building’s functionality. The non-structural elements can represent up to 80% of the monetary losses in buildings but are the driving force behind functionality losses in most cases. We have repeatedly seen this in past earthquakes worldwide.
The project involves the use of advanced sensors and artificial intelligence. How will these technologies help improve building safety?
Smart sensors and AI are crucial aspects of the SONATA project. In the case of sensors, it is not only about being great at making accurate measurements quickly but also understanding what you are measuring and how to get the most out of your data. This can help improve sensor placement and reduce installation cost by being more clever while increasing the value of the information gained in decision making. In the case of AI, this is a fascinating aspect with huge potential. In many cases, damage observations come from post-earthquake inspections by engineers to judge damage levels and decide whether a building is safe. This undoubtedly requires time to mobilise teams of experts. Here, we seek to automate some of this work with AI technology that can quickly distinguish and classify damage based on basic images and, together with the sensors, form a much richer data source in real time and help decision-making. These images can be obtained from simple sources like crowd-sourcing (i.e., people taking pictures of their homes) to more advanced sources like drone footage, which the Eucentre Foundation is already actively developing. AI offers huge potential in this context as it greatly reduces delays in arriving at a decision and can offer a more harmonised and digital data source to develop in future research.
How will the 9-degree-of-freedom system of Eucentre and IUSS be used to test the models developed in the project?
The 9D System facility offers unique possibilities since it is the only experimental facility in the world dedicated to studying non-structural elements and their impacts in such a manner. The flexibility of the setup means that different element types and configurations can be tested quickly and economically. This is thanks to the 9D System facility’s unique configuration, which means that it is no longer necessary to construct and test the whole building, just the part, which in this case are the non-structural elements you are interested in.
What could be the practical applications of SONATA for engineers, public administrations and companies?
There are many practical applications, but one of the first is that it will help improve the understanding and applicability of building instrumentation, which is already quite a developed topic. The key developments here relate to efficiently and accurately measuring the data to help decision-making. This will ultimately impact the installation costs and help the end users make more informed decisions. The integration with AI and digitisation of the built environment in this way means that society is taking one step closer to this idea of digitally twinning, which is a big development in several other research fields at the moment. In terms of the society, it will allow a more direct and simplified way to inform building occupants on risks and what they should. It should not do following an earthquake, drastically reducing interruptions and indirect losses that have been such big hindrances in the past.
You have worked in various international contexts: how does Italian research on seismic safety compare to other countries?
When viewed more globally, Italian research is at the forefront of innovation. It is one of the main powerhouses of European research in earthquake engineering, which can be observed at any regional conference by the sheer number of Italian participants. Still, hosting the WCEE last year saw a record number of participants worldwide. In terms of research quality and support, Italian research finds itself in a unique position in that it thrives on innovation and solving real problems that are faced by not only this country but also other countries in the region, becoming a de facto reference point for many other countries with similar issues. The funding support from the Italian government reflects this, as does the success of Italian institutes when it comes to European research initiatives. Italy possesses a rich history of dealing with earthquakes and how to be better prepared, but at the same time, it takes measures to learn from experiences elsewhere in the world.
The funding obtained is an important recognition for his research. What will be the next steps of the project in the coming years?
It is an important recognition personally, yes, but also a reflection of my research group’s vision and ambition to innovate at IUSS. This is through research and development that is relevant for Italy, first and foremost, but also brings us closer to solving problems worldwide through our collaborations with researchers in Japan, USA and across South America, in particular. The next steps are to get the SONATA project off the ground and running in the coming months, both in terms of the research activities involving the Eucentre Foundation and other collaborations that will be key to the project’s success. The creation and support of a highly trained and qualified team with transversal skill sets and capabilities is key, given the diverse nature of the project and its ambitions.
What is your message for those involved in seismic safety and for the general public living in risk areas?
About the developments of the SONATA project at IUSS, data, sensors and AI are key developments in recent years that can be harnessed to promote a safer and more secure built environment concerning earthquakes. By acquiring better measurements, more data and, most importantly, through fundamental research with my research group, we can make notable changes that will greatly reduce these impacts and make us more prepared and resilient. The importance of research in this context cannot be understated because we could (and most likely will be in coming years as a society) be drowning in huge volumes of data from different sources. Still, it will remain a missed opportunity until we learn how to understand and exploit these for our benefit. These are the broader societal challenges that the SONATA project aims to address.
- Professor Gerard J. O’Reilly, born in 1989, is an Associate Professor of Construction Technology at the IUSS University School of Advanced Studies in Pavia. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering in Ireland in 2010 and 2013 respectively. During his career, he has carried out research periods at the University of California, Berkeley in 2012, and at the Kobori Research Complex in Japan in 2019. 2016 he obtained a PhD in Earthquake Engineering and Seismology from IUSS in Pavia. His main research interests include assessing, managing, and mitigating seismic risk, focusing on designing and evaluating risk-oriented structures and integrating innovative aspects of performance-based earthquake engineering. His research activities also include the characterisation of seismic hazard and the development of innovative methods for selecting accelerograms to assess risk at the level of individual structures and on a regional scale. An important aspect of his work concerns modelling existing structures’ fragility, vulnerability and risk, using advanced simulation methods and empirical observations of damage caused by past earthquakes to promote a safer and more sustainable built environment. In addition, Professor O’Reilly is engaged in experimental activities on structures and components essential for the built environment, critical infrastructure and industrial production, using state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and techniques. These efforts aim to improve future regulations and guidelines worldwide, as demonstrated by his contribution to the Sismabonus risk classification guidelines for buildings and the recent guidelines for the classification and risk management of infrastructure in Italy. Much of this research is carried out in collaboration with the EUCENTRE Foundation. Professor O’Reilly has participated in various European projects European projects including BRACED and DiSTEEL, funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel of the European Commission, and is currently the general coordinator of the ERIES project, which is a transnational access project funded by the EU with a budget of over 11.6M€ and 13 partners in 8 different countries, aimed at basic research and innovation in the fields of structural, earthquake, wind and geotechnical engineering.
- The Italian Science Fund (FIS) was established by the Decreto Sostegni bis (art. 61, Legislative Decree 73-2021) to support fundamental research through competitive procedures inspired by the model of the European Research Council (ERC). The FIS funds research projects of high scientific content, divided into three funding lines: Starting Grant for emerging researchers, Consolidator Grant for researchers at an advanced career stage and Advanced Grant for established researchers. In 2024, the third FIS call for proposals allocated 475 million euros to promote the development of fundamental research in Italy.