About the Speaker
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    Kristopher Dane
    Director of Digital Design, Thornton Tomasetti

    Kristopher is the Director of Digital Design based out of the Seattle office of Thornton Tomasetti, an international structural engineering firm. Kris has 11 years of experience managing teams, administering technology, and developing custom tools to support the design of over 5 million square feet of structures around the world. In collaboration with the CIO, CTO, and business practice leaders, Kris oversees a group of staff guiding the implementation of BIM tools to improve structural workflows and strategic investment in future technology. Kris has also supported the sustainability practice through the development of Passive House Modeling Simulation tools. In his doctoral work at the George Washington University, Kris studied the influence of building geometry on active shooter events and is currently working to incorporate such simulations into the building design process.

    Dr. Dane will present his doctoral research, for which the abstract is as follows:
    Current building standards for protective design focus on a “fortress” approach that does not effectively protect against contemporary attack vectors such as active shooters. Furthermore, these standards provide little guidance to private building owners whose facilities are increasingly targeted by “active shooters.” This study combines the NetLogo agent-based modeling platform with the Autodesk Revit building design software to test key building geometry configurations for their impact on active shooter event casualties. The findings show that overall building geometry has an effect on active shooter casualties and that modifications to interior door alignment and the addition of direct exit doors can reduce the casualties in active shooter events. This research provides guidance to building designers who want to mitigate the risk of active shooter events with their building designs.