The Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center was founded in 2020 with the mission of achieving adaptive capacity and resilience for the communities affected by natural and societal disasters such as hurricanes and pandemics. As a multi-disciplinary research center established in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, RIDER unites engineers, social scientists, social workers, and health, public policy, communication and information specialists synergistically towards developing emergency plans to meet the distinct needs of both urban and rural communities to solve the real-world problem of “resilience divide.” Our researchers address a myriad of inter-related infrastructure design and management challenges that affect community resilience — designing innovative materials and structures that are resistant to extreme wind events and seawater rise, identifying critical escape and emergency response routes, improving processes to manufacture and supply goods and services, predicting behavior of wildfires and hurricanes, and exploring the impact of climate and landscapes on hydroclimatic extremes and water quality.
At RIDER, one of our main goals is to assess the underlying causes of disaster vulnerability in communities while accounting for civil and social infrastructure characteristics, focusing on local and regional economic development, and assessing their significance through innovative technologies.
With nearly $6 million in external funding in 2025, RIDER faculty do research through a variety of multidisciplinary projects funded by external funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, Florida Department of Transportation, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
RIDER hosts a diverse range of faculty across many disciplines and research areas. As of April 2026, we have 16 affiliated engineering faculty, more than 100 graduate students, 16 post-doctoral research associates, nearly 40 collaborators from other colleges at FAMU and FSU, and four staff members.
RIDER adamantly keeps working on its part to help our communities become resilient against disasters and self-sustainable for environmental and infrastructure challenges. The approach we take at RIDER is one of teamwork and our multi-disciplinary approach is prominent within every aspect of our work from human-centered research projects and creative education opportunities for students, to extensive community outreach and broader impact. I am honored to be part of this extraordinary team, and it is my sincere hope that we will continue to work together in harmony towards achieving our goals regardless of the challenges we face.
Eren Erman Ozguven, Ph.D.
Director
