Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge

The International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC), located on the campus of Florida International University (FIU), has developed the Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge (WOW! Challenge) for South Florida high school students. The WOW! Challenge is a judged competition and the high school teams are challenged to develop an innovative mitigation concept and solution within a well-defined problem scope developed by the IHRC. The mitigation concepts are then tested by the Wall of Wind, located at FIU's Engineering & Computing Center. The objective for the 2015 Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge was for the students to design a wind mitigation barrier that would provide the best wind mitigation for a Miami Beach hotel property. The competition has real world applications and benefits society as a whole by developing hurricane mitigation techniques that can lead to human safety, property loss reduction, insurance cost reduction, and a “culture of preparedness” for natural disasters advancing the mission of Weather-Ready Nation. Kait Parker, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel; video story: http://www.ihrc.fiu.edu/media/latest-media-coverage/2015-wall-of-wind-challenge-the-weather-channel/ Clara-Meretan Kiah, FIU News; video story: https://news.fiu.edu/2015/05/high-school-students-test-engineering-skills-at-wall-of-wind-challenge/88448