Local students devise novel roofing solutions in first FIU hurricane mitigation challenge


Sophomore Diego Dominguez and his fellow MAST Academy students pondered the challenge: What’s the best way to keep a vulnerable flat roof from blowing off a building during a hurricane?

They devised a solution that seemed effective, but admittedly didn’t look so good. They ran with it anyway, deciding that an ugly roof is better than no roof.

Last week, their deceptively simple and inexpensive roofing solution carried the day at FIU’s first International Hurricane Research Center Wall of Wind Mitigation Competition, involving 10 teams from five local high schools. The proposals were evaluated by a panel of judges, including television meteorologists John Morales of NBC 6, Craig Setzer of CBS4 and Max Mayfield from ABC 10.

The MAST Academy team went home with a $500 donation to their school, $500 in gift cards to Best Buy and a big trophy. “I’m very, very proud of them,” said their engineering teacher, FIU alumna Melissa Fernandez ’05. “It is great that the university gave them an opportunity to do a project that has real application.”

Each high school team saw their roof put to the test under a small-scale version of the Wall of Wind. Most of the roofs could withstand only 25-30 mile per hour. But it was the spackle and wire-mesh creation from MAST Academy Team 1 that held at maximum speed, 50 miles per hour. You can read the details of their roofing solution here.

As the IHRC engineers cranked up the Wall of Wind speed on the team’s flat-roof building prototype, the audience of students, teachers, and FIU hurricane researchers crowded in closer and closer. At 50 miles per hour, nothing happened – exactly the point of the exercise.

Dominguez beamed. “Did you see that?” he said to his classmate. “All of the engineers were smiling and nodding and one of them said, ‘It’s amazing.”

South Florida is lined with miles of flat-roof buildings, most of them strip malls. They are considered especially vulnerable to wind damage because the sharp corners of the roof create mini-tornados when wind hits them. Those tornadoes peel the roofs off the buildings. Rain can easily penetrate through the peering and damage the internal content easily causing significant damage, said FIU engineering professor Girma Bitsuamlak, who oversaw the technical judging of the contest. The building industry needs economical and viable solutions to protect flat-roof buildings, he said.

The WoW challenge asked the students to find a way to soften the corners and deflect the wind off a 14-inch square cube, representing a flat-roof structure. The submissions reflected real ingenuity, according to the judges. Some students built elaborate roof structures with louvers. One team used angled sheet metal and others built crown molding along the roof edges.

“They did an outstanding job,” said Mayfield, the former director of the National Hurricane Center. “We need to do a better job of growing a culture of hurricane preparedness. It has got to start with young people.”

Sunset High teacher and FIU alumnus Robert Carballo ’88, MS 96 worked with his students on their plan to encircle the roof with plastic elbow pipe fittings. The team took second place. Carballo joked, “As long as they hire one of my kids, they can use our design.”

Along with Dominguez, the winning team included sophomore Alan Campbell, freshman Alejandro Santacoloma, junior Lexus Guerrero and sophomore Stephanie Jawitz. The team spent weeks on the design and concentrated on finding a solution that would be viable.

“From the beginning we thought about the community first,” Guerrero said. “We didn’t come here to expecting to win. We came here expecting to improve our community and with that we thought of cost first.”

Deborah O’Neil MA ’09

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