GESO Fall 2006 Report The Geotechnical Engineering Student Organization (GESO) had an outstanding reception at its inauguration during the Fall 2006 semester. The GESO has hosted numerous officer meetings to promote organization, general meetings, discussion groups, field trips, open-member competitions, and community interaction to raise awareness to the community of this organization. In the first semester of its inception, the GESO has grown from 8 members to 32 members – quadrupling its initial registration. Among these members include alumni, current graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty who display a keen interest in the workings of geotechnical engineering and its importance to the engineering community. The officers of the GESO have established a permanent website and official recognition with the GEO-INSTITUTE of ASCE. Chairpersons have been elected to organize official events such as general meetings, discussion group sessions, and field trips. A summary of these events follows: Membership in Geo-Institute of ASCE – 11/04/06 GESO represents the Graduate Students Organization of Geo-Institute which is the Geotechnical Engineering section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This membership was approved by the board of governors of Geo-Institute. First General Meeting – 11/07/06 Rick Deschamps, Head of Engineering for the Nicholson Construction Company presented a lecture on the “Emergency Underpinning of the Mandalay Bay Casino & Limitations in the Back Analysis of Shear Strength from Failures.” The case history of Mandalay Bay Casino provided insight on the use of micro-piles in the case of poor ground conditions, sensitive surroundings, restricted vertical clearance, and difficult access. The lecture on back-analysis of shear strength from failures provided useful information in demonstrating that, for the geotechnical engineer, interpreted shear strength could be significant in un-conservative error. The primary concepts of these lectures were expanded to the architect-structural engineer-geotechnical engineer interaction. First Discussion Group Meeting – 11/23/06 Camilo Quiñones-Rozo presented the first topic of discussion for the GESO which considered the use of novel techniques to monitor excavation progress. The material
presented original computational procedures involving the procurement of web-based imagery (e.g. web-cams) to determine the progress of excavations. As urbanized areas such as Chicago increase in demand to expand, so must future developments expand earthwards and require deep foundations. Numerous student and faculty members of the GESO attended this lecture to hear of this new method and to provide constructive criticism of the proposed work. First Field Trip – 12/01/06 A field trip to a Hayward-Baker construction site was organized for the late Fall semester with cost partially covered by the GESO. The first field trip was planned for December 1st, 2006 at St. Louis. This excursion was focused on: (1) installation of rock anchors for construction of a new cement plant; (2) installation of stone columns in liquefiable soils; and (3) stone columns and drilled shafts in low-overhead clearance conditions, and augercast piles. Over 15 members registered for the event, but due to contractor restrictions the organization was only allowed to bring 11 of the non-executorial members. The organization decided to award registration on a first-come, first-serve basis. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, the contractor decided to cancel the field trip. Construction workers and GESO Officers alike felt that it would be risky to be working in such conditions and decided to postpone the field trip. As a result, the GESO has decided to plan numerous “mini-field trips” at sites local to the Champaign-Urbana area while simultaneously planning a “traditional field trip” which will most likely occur outof-state. Logo Design Contest – 12/08/06 In order to have a representative logo for the organization as well as actively involving the members in the development of GESO a logo design contest was announced. Four designs were received which among them the design which most symbolized geotechnical engineering was selected as the winning design and the main logo of GESO. The winner was awarded a color-changing American Society of Civil Engineers mug and a certificate. Engineering Open House – 12/09/06 The GESO has already registered to present demonstrations of the importance of geotechnical engineering in practice. During the Engineering Open House (EOH) of 2007, the members of the GESO will demonstrate the effects of liquefaction of soil on a standard structure, as well as the student model of a reinforcement wall accepted by the Geo-Denver Conference. These exhibitions will demonstrate the importance of
geotechnical engineering as a discipline and will also inspire new youths to pursue such an occupation in geotechnical engineering. Financial Support for Members Traveling to Conferences GESO received financial aid from Student Organizations Resource Fee (SORF) to support three of its members to attend an academic conference at Denver, CO in February, 2007. The rest of their expenses will be covered by GESO. Participating in Nationwide Competitions In order to involve in nationwide student activities in Geotechnical Engineering, GESO organized a team of undergraduate and graduate students to compete in the mechanically stabilized earth wall (MSEW) contest which will be held during the GeoDenver2007 conference. The team which will be representing the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign was qualified to compete by submitting a design paper to the competition. The traveling expenses of the team members to the competition are partially funded by the Department of Civil Engineering and GESO. Summary – Fall 2006 Semester Since its inception, the GESO has seen a 400% increase in members. These members include graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members of many disciplines of Civil Engineering. It is the hope of this organization that more members of Civil Engineering, and more members of the Engineering Disciplines, become acquainted with their fellow engineers and the importance of the work they perform.