<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Dear Respected
Colleagues,</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Recently, hospitals have come under scrutiny for
their ability to absorb many types of disasters and continue to function with
minimal impact. The primary focus of the current experimentation and research
is to take a more holistic approach to generate more robust hospital resilience
data.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Tokyo Metropolitan Resilience Project sponsored
by National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
(NIED), Japan, will attempt to measure and classify functionality and the
current resilience in a hospital setting by using: (1) a full-scale
representation of a complex two-building multi-story hospital with both a fixed
and isolated base, (2) various nonstructural components and (3) critical
medical equipment.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">The testing will take place in December 2020,
which presents an opportunity to host a multi-phase blind prediction
competition. Each phase of the contest will highlight a different challenge:
(a) Phase I: Prediction Techniques and (b) Phase II: Modeling and Verification.
Students, researchers, and practicing engineers are encouraged to participate. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Please find rules,
timelines, construction progress and the signup sheet at the </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/2020bpc/overview?authuser=0" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Blind Prediction Competition website</span></a><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Sincerely yours,</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Masahiro Kurata, Ph.D.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Associate Professor, DPRI, Kyoto University</span><br>
<span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Principal Investigator, 2020 Blind Prediction
Contest for Integrated Complex Structural/Non-Structural Assessment on Steel
Hospital Building, Tokyo Metropolitan Resilience Project</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><br></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p></div><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=12XbEVKyTmNxWz2zhiLdBZVYuFfNlVaKQ&export=download" width="95" height="96"><br><br></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><img src="https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1U6b8ybB1nOSy5YOpLZMx0Skjv2IyAi_R&export=download" width="200" height="66"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>