The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has eleven laboratories as of 2025. The Disaster Prevention Systems Laboratory views a city as a space where various systems interact, with particular attention to social infrastructure. It has been engaged in research on damage analysis and disaster‑prevention measures for earthquakes and water‑related disasters.

About ten undergraduate students are assigned to the laboratory each year, and usually one of them continues on to the graduate program. In the second semester, the laboratory consists of about twenty third‑ and fourth‑year students.

Third‑year students in the department are temporarily assigned to each laboratory every October, reflecting the recent trend toward earlier job‑hunting. For example, the laboratory considers the first six months—from October to the following March—as a period for third‑year students to learn the laboratory’s practices. In addition to conducting literature reviews, they develop their research ideas based on their own interests while using the laboratory’s research resources, including analysis software. Once they have secured the credits required to begin their fourth year, students refine and reassess their research plans by consulting past theses and current research trends. From April of their fourth year, students begin working on their graduation theses and give a midterm presentation at the end of the semester. In the second semester, students work toward completing their graduation theses, and in February, a final research presentation is held with the participation of faculty members and students from all laboratories.

In this laboratory, Prof. Suzuki first proposes several reference topics to help students formulate their own research themes. For example, in the 2024 academic year, following the Noto Peninsula Earthquake that struck in January, the professor presented topics for the third‑year students who had been provisionally assigned to the laboratory in October 2023 and were scheduled to give their thesis presentations in February 2025. These topics included analyses of seismic motion, ground conditions, and liquefaction based on data he collected through multiple field investigations in Ishikawa, Toyama, and Niigata—areas affected by the earthquake. In the following 2025 academic year, he presented a new set of topics for the third‑year students who had been provisionally assigned to the laboratory in October 2024. The topics focused on collecting and analyzing ground data from low‑lying areas in eastern Saitama, which also suffered significant damage during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Other topics introduced by the professor include issues related to the undergrounding of utility poles, water pipe bridges, and water supply and sewerage systems—areas in which he has been engaged through research activities outside the university. Students consider these topics when narrowing down and deciding on their own research themes.

As a distinctive approach of the laboratory, the professor also discusses comparing actual structural measurements taken with a vibration sensor to the analytical results produced by simulation software. Although he recognizes that software can easily produce analytical results, he does not fully trust them simply because they are calculations. Instead, he places importance on verifying whether those results match the actual vibrations of the structure, measured directly with instruments. The laboratory is equipped with two types of instruments: a basic vibration sensor and a high‑performance microtremor sensor. The former is used to compare measured vibrations with analytical results for fundamental structural models, while the latter is used for ground‑vibration measurements and thesis research that requires high‑precision data. He notes that relying solely on analytical calculations has limitations, especially when assessing structural deterioration. By using the high‑performance vibration sensor alongside the calculations, he hopes to detect “unusual vibrations” and obtain valuable data that would otherwise be overlooked.

He established the Disaster Prevention System Laboratory in 1993, and his first adoption of our software dates back to around 2000. He purchased the plane frame analysis program "FRAME (2D)" to use in structural design exercises that expanded on the structural mechanics course he was teaching at the time. He also introduced the 3D frame static and dynamic nonlinear analysis program "FRAME (3D)"—the predecessor of Engineer’s Studio®—for vibration analysis in his laboratory, particularly for studies on water pipe bridges and Shinkansen viaducts that suffered significant earthquake damage in the 2000s.

After that, he gradually introduced additional software in response to the calculation needs arising from students’ research themes: 2D dynamic nonlinear analysis of RC structures to assess damage, UC-win/WCOMD (the predecessor of WCOMD Studio); analysis of power‑pole settlement, manhole uplift, and pore‑water‑pressure increase associated with liquefaction, UWLC®; and FEM elasto‑plastic ground analysis to evaluate large ground deformation after earthquakes, GeoFEAS®.

The laboratory currently uses Engineer’s Studio® (ES) as its main tool, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. Undergraduate students mainly use ES to compare its analytical results with actual vibration measurements taken with the sensors. The current focus is on checking the consistency between the analytical results and the vibration measurements. For papers presented externally, it is standard practice to perform multiple rounds of verification and recalculation of the results, followed by further discussion.

Students likely need to use ES for at least a year, considering the time required to study related fields, before they can explain the calculation results on their own, Prof. Suzuki commented. In this laboratory, many students continue developing their undergraduate thesis topics—such as studies on water‑pipe bridges and diagonal bridges—after entering graduate school.

He has recently been researching the deterioration of water‑pipe bridges. In October 2021, the Musota water-pipe bridge over the Kinokawa River in Wakayama City collapsed, cutting off the water supply to about 60,000 households. A subsequent investigation found that the suspension rods had corroded and fractured, likely due to inadequate inspections.

Prof. Suzuki came up with the idea that combining vibration measurements with analysis techniques could be key to understanding the current condition. He continued his research, with a temporary interruption due to the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. A subcommittee on technologies for a resilient water‑circulation network was launched in the Japan Society of Civil Engineers in 2025. He joined the subcommittee because it includes a working group focused on inspection techniques for water‑pipe bridges.

He has also recently been focusing on aging and seismic measures for water and wastewater systems. He aims to understand the current deterioration and seismic vulnerabilities of these systems and to visualize the associated risks.

He applies Engineer's Studio® (ES) in both efforts. He aims to predict deterioration by validating calculated results, analyzing required computational conditions, and using vibration data from inspections and vibration analyses. He also seeks to develop a method for monitoring progress toward renewing aging water supply systems using the same approach. He said, "We now rely heavily on design software tools, but that is exactly why we must understand the fundamentals needed to interpret their calculation results."

Although software can easily generate calculation results, we still need the underlying knowledge to explain those results ourselves. He explains that even if AI becomes capable of providing clear explanations in the future, we will still need enough specialized knowledge to understand what it tells us. He tells his students that the goal is not to rely on easier calculations, but to study hard so they have the knowledge needed to understand the advanced results that software or AI can now produce so easily.

(Translation of the article written by Takashi Ikeno)