The 5th South African Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference

Reported by Dr SW Jacobsz Pr Eng, Chairman of SAICE Geotechnical Division

The 5th Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference (YGEC) to take place in South Africa was hosted at the Camelot Conference Centre in Hillcrest, Durban from 20 to 22 August 2008. The conference continues a proud tradition of Young Geotechnical Engineers Conferences organised every three or four years by the Geotechnical Division of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers. The conference was the seventh YGEC ever to take place on the African continent and was preceded by the Second African Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference which took place in Tunisia in 2007.

The YGE conferences in South Africa follow the model of the British conferences, the first of which was hosted at City University, London, in 1982 which was initiated and organised by Prof John Atkinson. The aim is to provide a less formal environment for young and first-time authors to publish and present technical papers in a conference environment. The conferences are open to engineers and engineering geologists of 35 years and younger at the time of submitting their abstracts.

South Africa is currently preparing to host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Final which led to the theme of the conference being “2010 and Beyond”. With undoubtedly the largest ever number of mega-projects currently under construction in South African history, the current boom in the civil engineering and construction industries contributed to the high standard of the papers received. All papers were peer reviewed by young engineers serving on the organising committee and returned to the authors for corrections (if required) before publication in the conference proceedings. Papers were limited to the length of 10 A4 pages printed double spaced. The South African Civil Engineering and Construction Industries contributed generous sponsorship to subsidise the conference registration cost. The platinum sponsor was ESOR (Pty) Ltd, a leading South African Geotechnical Engineering construction company. The gold sponsors were Steffanuti & Bressan (Pty) Ltd and Sanyati Piling (Pty) Ltd. Several generous sponsorships were also received from International companies currently active in South Africa, e.g. Bauer, Naue and others.

Read more from the ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 2 Issue 3 (p.21)
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View of Young Geotechnical Engineers

By Osamu Kusakabe and Pongsakorn Punrattanasin

Young Geotechnical Engineering Network

The young geotechnical engineering network was set up with a total number of 80 members during the ISSMGE Osaka Conference in 2005 but the group was not active in communication due to some technical reasons. The board of ISSMGE Bulletin really hopes that contributions from young members can provide good ideas to improve the ISSMGE and geotechnical society in the future. The board also hopes that young members can express, report their views and opinions as well as can report activities in the space of ISSMGE Bulletin and ISSMGE website.

What ISSMGE board members discussed at the ISSMGE Board Meeting at Saint Petersburg, Russia this June about the continuation of Bulletin and the role of young members are as follows: The board needs active and voluntary young geotechnical engineers to work closely with the Vice President in their region;

(1) to gather the regional information such as events, books, disaster, geotechnical achievements and to send it to the editorial board once in three months.
(2) to serve as a contact person for collecting contributions such as case history and Reminiscences, and
(3) to prepare the contributions from young generations in the region once in a year.

The first four members who are voluntary to run the new young geotechnical network are as follows:

1) Professor Deepankar Chudhury (India),
2) Dr.Imen Said (Turnisia),
3) Makoto Namba (Brazil) and
4) Dr.Pongsakorn Punrattanasin (Thailand).

The board also would like to extend an invitation to the interested young members from various countries to join the young geotech network. Interested members please kindly contact us via email to Professor Osamu Kusakabe (Kusakabe@cv.titech.ac.jp) or to Dr.Pongsakorn Punrattanasin (ppunrattanasin@gmail.com).

Download ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 2 Issue 3 (p.2)
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ISSMGE 75 years Anniversary

Address of Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto (Immediate Past President)

For the occasion of Orlando Board meeting on March 2009 the President Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto reminded that the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) had its origins at the 1936 International Conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So the 75th Years Anniversary would be in 2011.

During this unforgettable journey the geotechnics torch from Cambridge in 1936, which took place during the 1st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundations Engineering, has already crossed the following cities: Rotterdam, Zurich, London, Paris, Montreal, Mexico, Moscow, Tokyo, Stockholm, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Hamburg, Istanbul, Osaka and Alexandria (17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering), with a periodicity of four years.

The diversity of all 84 ISSMGE Societies, distributed over 6 Regions (see Figure 1) is our great richness and a source of inspiration. It is our great challenge, but also a unique opportunity to re-design ISSMGE, due to the changes of basic societal structure, in order to reach a new model. We need to recognise the
importance of dialogue to give our hands, to work together and to pursue perfection to reach the optimum solution. Figure 2 presents the changes in Membership and Member Societies of ISSMGE.

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Download ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 7 Issue 5 September 2013
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Address of Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto (Immediate
Past President)

For the occasion of Orlando Board meeting on March 2009 the President Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto reminded that the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) had its origins at the 1936 International Conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So the 75th Years Anniversary would be in 2011.

During this unforgettable journey the geotechnics torch from Cambridge in 1936, which took place during the 1st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundations Engineering, has
already crossed the following cities: Rotterdam, Zurich, London, Paris, Montreal, Mexico, Moscow, Tokyo, Stockholm, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Hamburg, Istanbul, Osaka and Alexandria (17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering), with a periodicity of four years.

The diversity of all 84 ISSMGE Societies, distributed over 6 Regions (see Figure 1) is our great richness and a source of inspiration. It is our great challenge, but also a unique opportunity to re-design ISSMGE, due to the changes of basic societal structure, in order to reach a new model. We need to recognise the importance of dialogue to give our hands, to work together and to pursue perfection to reach the optimum solution. Figure 2 presents the changes in Membership and Member Societies of ISSMGE.

Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto submitted a proposal at the Orlando Board meeting that there could be Special Sessions at each of the Regional Conferences during 2011, as a mark of celebration. This proposal was unanimously supported by the Board. Also a Special Session should take place during the 6th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEGE) in New Delhi, 8 -12 November 2010.

Figure 1: ISSMGE Membership

Figure 2: Changes in Membership and Member Societies of ISSMGE

The celebrations of the 75th Anniversary would then take place during a one full year from November 2010 to November 2011

– For the Special Session during 6 ICEGE, New Delhi, November 2010 (1 hour of duration), it was proposed to organize presentations such as
i) A selected Senior Member to speak about the Past
ii) ISSMGE President to speak about the Present
iii) A Young Geotechnical Engineer to speak about the Future.

– For the Special Sessions during Regional Conferences (1 hour of duration), similarly, it was proposed to organize presentations such as
i) A selected Senior Member from the Region to speak about the Past ;
ii) ISSMGE Regional Vice President to speak about the Present ;
iii) A Young Geotechnical Engineer from the Region to speak about the Future.

The involvement of young engineers is very important as ISSMGE has the responsibility to prepare the Young Geotechnical Engineers to face the real needs and the new challenges of Society, to reduce the gap between theory and practice, to help them explore their intuition and to teach them the importance of engineering judgement.

The tentative Conference dates were:

6th ICEGE, 8-12 November 2010, New Delhi
XIV Asian Regional Geotechnical Engineering, 23-27 May 2011, Hong Kong
XV African Regional Geotechnical Conference, 13-16 July 2011, Maputo
XV European Regional Geotechnical Conference, 13-18 September 2011, Athens
XIV Pan American Geotechnical Conference, 2-6 October 2011, Toronto
XI Australasia Geotechnical Conference, 8-11 November 2011 (later it was postponed to 15-18 July 2012), Melbourne.

In Orlando, Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto also proposed the publication of a Special Volume that would integrate the contributions of the Presidents, of the Regional Vice Presidents, of the Secretaries General, of the young geotechnical engineers, of the TCs chairpersons and of other International Societies, e.g. IAEG, ISRM, ITA, IGS, IACMAG, ICOLD, IUGS and photos from special events.

Later for the occasion of the Board meeting in New Delhi, on 7th November 2010, the Board proposed to publish a Special Issue of ISSMGE Bulletin in place of a Special Volume.

It is for me a great honor and pleasure to submit this short note to ISSMGE Bulletin summarizing the background of ISSMGE 75 Years Anniversary and I would like to profit this opportunity to express to all ISSMGE members a word of praise and gratitude for your contribution, wishing that ISSMGE continue to be a space of scientific interaction, sharing of experiences and launching of innovative ideas to open new avenues.

I believe that we, as human beings, have an enormous amount of choice to create the beautiful lives of our dreams. Fate and our choices work in concert to sculpt the look of our lives. >> Read more