10
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Fig. 14 Traffic on the new ISSMGE web site over the last 10 months.
16 LEXICON
The Lexicon was started around 1953 with the translation of
geotechnical engineering terms in three languages: English,
French, and German. This was very quickly recognized as a
very valuable resource and had reached 8 languages by 1981
(5th edition). It had stayed that way until about 3 years ago
when I asked Dimitris Zekkos and the Innovation and
Development Committee (IDC) to transform the paper copy into
an electronic and addressable Excel spread sheet and if at all
possible increase the number of languages. We now have an e-
Lexicon on our web site with 12 languages. Note that the e-
Lexicon was a huge amount of work and is a great example of
team work across country borders by many member societies
and enabled by a platform developed by Geoengineer.org. The
e-Lexicon includes a web-based application that allows users to
query the database and find the translation of a total of 1590
geotechnical terms in 12 languages, specifically: English,
French, Spanish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional and simple),
German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Persian (Farsi), and
Finnish.
17 THE ISSMGE BULLETIN
The ISSMGE Bulletin was remarkably well handled by Ikuo
Towhata as Editor in Chief and his team of editors. The Bulletin
grew significantly in size and content under his leadership.
Furthermore it went from 4 issues per year to 6 issues per year.
We are very grateful to him for this enormous responsibility.
18 THE SECRETARIAT IN LONDON
Neil Taylor was our Secretary General for the period and faced
his responsibility with great poise. I could always count on Neil
to tell me what the bylaws said. Paloma Peers was his assistant
and continued to be a rock in a soil’s world. I also want to thank
my assistant Theresa Taeger for being so reliable and dedicated
to perfection.
19 THE FINANCES
The finances of ISSMGE are in very good shape. The Members
Societies dues have not changed during the last 4 years yet we
have started new free programs for our members such as the
webinars. Our budgets over the last 4 years have been
approximately balanced and our reserves are healthy. This gives
me a good occasion to thank the United States National Society
and the Geo-Institute of ASCE for contributing to my yearly
budget.
20 THE PARIS CONFERENCE
The 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering will take place in Paris from 2 to 5
September 2013 and judging by the outstanding preparation, it
will be a magnificent success. Our professional family will get
together, to learn from the best, to exchange ideas and practices,
all this in a classy, distinguished, yet relaxed and fun
atmosphere. We are very grateful to our host: the French
member society and its sponsors. Most of the members of the
organizing committee are shown in Fig. 15 including Philippe
Mestat, Chair of the Committee (center front row).
Fig. 15 The 2013 ICSMGE Paris conference organizing committee and
its chair Philippe Mestat (center front row).
21 THE PROGRESS REPORTS
Communication helps to solve problems and to generate a sense
of belonging. This is why I started the monthly progress report
in November 2009. The other reason was to tell you what was
being accomplished. Since I got elected on 9Oct2009, my
monthly report came on the 9th of each month. It required a
tremendous discipline and dedication to not miss any of them
but it provided a regular self evaluation of my work and our
progress.
22 FUTURE OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
It is always very difficult to predict the future. A 20 year
forecast is easier than a 100 year forecast and a 1000 year
forecast is nearly impossible. Yet if we go back in history about
1000 years ago to the time of the Tower of Pisa, we then realize
that designing a foundation for that Tower today would be a
very simple exercise. Then we wonder by extrapolation what
geotechnical engineering will be like in another 1000 years.
Will we have?
1. complete non intrusive site investigation of the entire soil
volume,
2. automated 4D computer generated design by voice
recognition and based on a target risk,
3. tiny and easily installed instruments to monitor
geotechnical structures,
4. unmanned robotic machines working at great depth,
5. significant development of the underground,
6. extension of projects into the sea,
7. soil structure interaction extended to thermal and magnetic
engineering
8. failures down to a minimum,
9. expert systems to optimize repairs of defective geotechnical
engineering projects,
10. geospace engineering of other planets,
11. geotechnical engineers with advanced engineering
judgment taught in universities,
12. no more lawyers because of the drastic increase in projects
reliability (Fig. 16).
Fig. 16 Improved reliability of geotechnical projects (courtesy
of
George Nasr, Lebanon)
