MECHS (Multi-Hazard Engineering Collaboratory for Hybrid Simulation) is an NSF-funded Research Coordination Network focused on broadening the community of researchers that are engaged in hybrid simulation projects, and aiming to foster new research initiatives to tackle emerging scientific challenges.

Hybrid Simulation is a cyber-physical technique used to examine the behavior of structural systems that may be too large or complex to test in the laboratory. Physical specimens are linked with computational models. A challenge is to ensure that this combined system is tested under realistic conditions. Thus, boundary conditions at the interface between the physical and computational portions must be enforced, and hydraulic actuators are frequently used (see figure below).

The MECHS research coordination network aims to facilitate the scientific advances needed to establish the theory of and expand the capacity for hybrid simulation as it applies to multi-hazard engineering.