Following the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes in Türkiye, the scientific collaboration between Turkish and Chinese academics is set to propel innovative projects across various fields, focusing on earthquake response strategies and technological advancements.
Under the auspices of the Bilateral Cooperation Program initiated by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), eight projects have been greenlit, encompassing a diverse array of areas, ranging from recycling demolition waste to advancing post-earthquake strategies and technology.
The selected projects reflect a range of critical research topics:
Professor Sinan Akkar from Boğaziçi University and Chaolie Ning from Tongji University will lead a project focusing on implementing lessons learned from the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes.
Ali Bozer from Eskişehir Technical University and Yun Zhou from Guangzhou University will collaborate on enhancing earthquake resistance in reinforced concrete buildings and formulating post-earthquake evaluation strategies.
Baki Öztürk from Hacettepe University and Chunwei Zhang from South China University of Technology will co-lead a project centered on enhancing seismic resistance through innovative foundation isolation and damping systems for new and existing structures.
Orhan Kaplan from Gazi University and Yongwei Zhang from Nantong University will conduct a project involving search and rescue UAVs based on communication technology.
Erdal Panayırcı from Kadir Has University and Zheng Ma from Southwest Jiaotong University will delve into basic wireless communication technologies research for UAV emergency communication networks in mountainous areas post-earthquake.
Çağlar Akkaya from Istanbul Technical University and Tianyu Xie from Southeast University will work on techniques for recycling construction and demolition waste of concrete structures post-earthquake.
Zeynep Değer and Decheng Feng from unspecified universities will research basic technologies for rapid damage detection, efficient repair, and strengthening of buildings in earthquake zones.
Alper Ilki from Istanbul Technical University will collaborate with Xianglin Gu from Tongji University to conduct a seismic evaluation of existing reinforced concrete frames with infill walls and strengthen them using innovative methods.
This collaboration signifies a concerted effort toward comprehensive earthquake preparedness, innovative technological solutions, and lessons learned from seismic events.