Geosystems Student Activities
- 2020 Nov: Our Annual Fall Geotechnical Student Poster Symposium in partnership with the Georgia ASCE
Geo-Institute Chapter took place over a video conference in the form of a 90-second pitch competition
this year.
- 2019 Nov: Our Annual Fall Geotechnical Student Poster Symposium in partnership with the Georgia ASCE
Geo-Institute Chapter took place at the Georgia Power building in Atlanta this year. More information on
the event and posters presented is available here.
- 2018 Nov: Annual Fall Geotechnical Student Poster Symposium is coming! Check it here.
- 2018 May: Fangzhou Liu was selected as CEE Future Faculty program.More details can be found here.
- 2018 spring break: David Frost's International Disaster Reconnaissance Studies class visited areas
shattered by earthquakes and landslides as well as ancient infrastructure made to deal with floods. They
saw the giant pandas of Chengdu. And they visited Hiroshima.
- 2017 June: Xenia Wirth was selected as one of first three New CEE Future Faculty program. More details
can be found here.
- Fangzhou Liu was recently chosen to study at the elite Landslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation (LARAM)
school in Salerno, Italy. Fangzhou was one of only 40 students selected worldwide to attend the two-week
long school. More details can be found here.
- Fawad Niazi was recognized recently with top honors from two national organizations:
the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (CEE NEWS Release)
- Fawad received acceptance to the COPRI PORTS'13 Student Paper Contest Program as one of the top authors.
It provides complimentary conference registration, $500 travel grant, and possible additional cash prize
based on my presentation at the conference.
- Alejandro Martinez has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2012 Anchor QEA Scholarship.
He will receive $500.00 from the school.
- Fawad Niazi was selected as a winner of the 22nd Annual SAIC Georgia Tech
Student Paper Competition Award sponsored by Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC) based on his paper
titled "Calibration of hybrid SCE-CSSM analytical model for piezocone
penetration in clays." A total of 105 papers were submitted for this
competition which included contributions from all of the GT colleges. In
recognition of his accomplishment Fawad and his faculty advisor Dr. Paul W.
Mayne received framed certificates at the awards banquet organized at the
Georgia Tech Hotel on November 08, 2011. In addition Fawad will also receive
a $500.00 monetary award.
- Congratulations to Fawad Niazi, who has been selected as the winner for the
nationally contested Deep Foundations Institute Education Trust 2011 Student
Paper Competition, based on his paper titled "Axial Pile Displacement
Evaluations from Seismic Piezocone Data and Back-analysis of Load Tests." In
recognition of winning this competition, Fawad is being awarded with the
following: (1) free full registration and ticket to the awards banquet for
the DFI 36th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations, Boston, MA, (2) free
lodging at the Seaport Hotel, (3) stipend for travel to/from DFI Conference,
(4) library of up to 20 DFI publications in print, (5) two years individual
membership in DFI good through December 2013, and (6) invitation to make a
presentation at the conference based on his paper. In addition, Fawad will
also be presented with a plaque at the awards banquet.
- Mr. Fengshou Zhang and Mr. Patrick Callahan were each given a travel grant to present their posters at
the NSF Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovations Conference in January 2011. The conference will
highlight the technical challenges and research needs in energy management and sustainability-a topic of
global importance today -and thereby stimulate new ideas for scientific research and technological
innovation. Furthermore, the involvement of graduate and undergraduate student researchers in the
conference will serve to intellectually stimulate them and enhance the probability of their pursuing
graduate work in the areas of energy management/production and sustainability. Fengshou's poster is
titled "Pattern Formation of Fluid Injection into Granular Media" and Patrick's poster is "Feasibility
of Geological Sequestration of Algae Suspensions."
- Mr. Taeseo Ku and Mr. Joan M. Larrahondo delivered presentations at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the
Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists (AEG). Mr. Ku's talks were titled "Hierarchy of
Shear Wave Velocity Modes in Soils" and "Difficulties in Evaluating Geotechnical Stress State at
Savannah River Site, South Carolina". Mr. Larrahondo's presentation was "Diagenesis of carbonate
sediments: coupled softening-hardening processes in the Southeastern US.
- Congratulations to Fawad Niazi for having his technical paper titled "Evaluation of EURIPIDES pile load
tests response from CPT data" published in the ISSMGE "International Journal of Geoengineering Case
Histories." The paper relates to Fawad's current research work on evaluating pile response to axial
loading from SCPTu data. It presents a case-study of an extensive axial pile load testing program
(series of static compression, tension and cyclic load tests at multiple penetration depths) conducted
under a joint industry project by Fugro Engineers of The Netherlands and Geodia S.A. of France on a
highly-instrumented 0.76m diameter pipe pile driven in dense sands at Eemshaven, The Netherlands. The
project known as EURIPIDES (European initiative on piles in dense sands) was undertaken to improve
offshore pile design criteria.
- Ye Lu and Dr. David Frost received the Best Paper on Soil Behavior and Geo-Micromechanics Award at the
Geo-Shanghai 2010 International Conference. The conference, held every four years in Shanghai, took
place June 3-5 and was sponsored by the Chinese Institution of Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical Engineering
and the Shanghai Society of Civil Engineering. The title of their award-winning paper is
“Three-Dimensional Discrete Element Modeling of Triaxial Compression of Sands.
- Fawad Niazi received Anne Robinson Clough Conference Grant (sponsored by the Anne Robinson Clough
International Student Endowment Fund) to attend GeoHalifax 2009, the 62nd Canadian Geotechnical
Conference and 10th Joint CGS/IAH-CNC Groundwater Specialty Conference. The Conference was held in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada from September 20-24, 2009. Fawad presented his paper on "Seepage
assessment of Hattian Bala landslide dam using hydrological data" during the conference.
- Fawad Niazi received travel grant from ASCE Geo-Institute to attend the GeoFlorida 2010 congress in West
Palm Beach, Florida, USA from February 21 - 24, 2010. Fawad presented his paper titled "Application of
Electrical Resistivity for Subsurface Characterization of Hattian Bala Landslide Dam," and participated
in Students Poster Competition at the conference, presenting his current research work on "Application
of Seismic Piezocone Data for Pile Foundation Response."
- Fawad Niazi received travel grant from Graduate Conference Fund sponsored by the Graduate Student
Government of Georgia Institute of Technology and Doctoral Student Professional Development Fund
sponsored by the College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology to attend the 2nd International
Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, CPT'10, organized by ISSMGE held in Huntington Beach, California,
USA on May 9-11, 2010. Fawad presented his paper titled "Case history of axial pile capacity and
load-settlement response by SCPTu" during the conference.
- Joan Larrahondo was awarded an ASCE travel grant to attend GeoFlorida.
- Joe Thomas was awarded an Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award from the College of Engineering
- Fawad S. Niazi, Dr. Paul W. Mayne, and Mr. David Woeller's paper titled "Evaluating Drilled Shaft O-Cell
Response at Golden Ears Bridge from In-Situ Seismic Cone Tests" was accepted for publication in the ASCE
Geotechnical Special Publication honoring Clyde Baker.
- Ross Cutts & Dr. Susan E. Burns' paper titled "Evolution of Surface Area-to-Volume Ratio for a Water
Meniscus Evaporating Between Contacting Silica Spheres" was accepted in Sept. 2009 for publication in
the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.
- Dr. Paul Mayne & Fawad Niazi's paper titled "Evaluating Axial Elastic Pile Response from Cone" was
accepted for publication in The Journal of the Deep Foundations Institute (May 2009).
- Congratulations to Fengshou Zhang who was awarded first prize in the biennial competition for Young
Engineers in Tunneling at the 2008 North American Tunneling (NAT) Conference in San Francisco on June
7-11. The NAT 2008 ?Tunneling Prize is offered by the Underground Construction Association of the
Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). The competition is open to all engineering
students and young professionals 30 years of age or under. The winner is judged based on both the
manuscript and presentation at the conference. First place prize includes $1000.00 and free attendance
at the conference.
- Congratulations to Catherine McGillivray who was awarded a $3,000
scholarship from the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors (ADSC)! One of
only 12 students chosen to receive the scholarship, the award includes
travel expenses to attend the ADSC annual meeting in Palm Springs, Calif.,
in February 2008. There, McGillivray will publicly accept the award at a
special ceremony during the President’s Luncheon.
- Congratulations to James Schneider (former student) who received the 2006
Deep Foundations Institute Award! The paper is titled, "Impact of
Offshore Site Investigation Practice on Reliability of Axial Pile Design in
Siliceous Sands", and discusses the evolution of the API RP2A pile design
method for sands and is complemented by a brief history of the development
of offshore cone penetration testing. This discussion follows on to the
evolution of CPT based design of piles in sand, resulting in presentation of
the formulation for the UWA-05 pile design method for driven piles in
siliceous sands.
- Congratulations to Holli Jones who received the 2005 W.J. van Reenen
Fellowship Award! The award was presented to her August 19, 2005.
- PhD student Greg Hebeler was awarded an East Asia and Pacific Summer
Institute (EAPSI) fellowship jointly by the US-NSF and the Australian
Research Council. This fellowship supported his trip to Perth, Australia
(June - August 2004) to conduct research with Mr. James Schneider
(former student) and Dr. Barry Lehane at the Centre for Offshore
Foundation Systems (COFS) centered at the University of Western
Australia (UWA). The collaborative research focused on the use of the
multi piezo friction attachment to the CPT to investigate parameters
affecting the development of friction on a penetrometer during (i)
steady state penetration, (ii) cyclic loading and (iii) static loading
following effective stress equalization.
- Catherine Black was one of nine PhD students chosen for a NSF travel
fellowship to the 5th International PhD Symposium. The Symposium took
place in Delft, The Netherlands on June 16-19, 2004 . At the symposium,
Catherine presented a paper titled "Lubrication of Interfaces.
- A group from Geosystems Students attended Soil and Rock America
(SARA) 2003 conference at MIT, Boston, MA. Atendees were: Catherine
Black, Greg Hebeler, Alec McGillivray, Andrew Fuggle. Click here to see
pictures.
- Rajesh Chanpura (former student) received the ARMA award for best
PhD thesis of the year.
- Research Assistant, Alec McGillivray (and Professor Paul Mayne)
assisted Dr. Paola Monaco and Prof. Silvano Marchetti in conducting
seismic flat dilatometer tests (SDMT) at the Venice embankment test site
for the Italian Ministry of Research in Italy June 9-17, 2002.. The
Georgia Tech group is working in joint research collaboration with the
University of Aquila, University of Bologna, and Padova University.
- Congratulations to Jennifer Knapp who was selected as one of four
Mid-America Earthquake Center students for the 2002 Taiwan Field
Mission. The students visited Taiwan May 17-25, 2002.
- Scott Deaton and Prateek Goel have joined Dr. J.
David Frost as members of the Mid-America Earthquake Center team of
scientists and engineers studying building performance, ground surface
rupture, and aftershocks related to the January 26, 2001, earthquake
(Magnitude 7.7) in India's District of Gujarat. The team visited India
in response to an invitation from the Indian Institute of Science and
Technology for Advanced Studies and Research to assist the government in
post-earthquake studies and assessments. [This research was from
February 9-19, 2001.]
- Congratulations to Sal Romero
who received a 2001 Georgia Tech - GE Foundation Faculty Coupon Award!
The award consists of a $20,000 "coupon" that Sal may redeem when she
accepts a faculty position at a U.S. college or university.