2025 02 18 CAPG MEETING
ISSMGE – CAPG Minutes of Meeting
February 18, 2025 – Discussions for Vienna 2026
The attendees who spoke during the meeting are:
- Roger Estephan
- Ricardo Justiniano
- Aline Kahwaji
- Shehab Wissa Agaiby
- Chris Martin
- Daniel Berro
- Simona Rebottini Studio Prof. Marchetti
- Abir Awad
- Reginald Hammah
- Alexandre Pinto
Meeting Notes:
- Meeting Introduction: Roger introduced the meeting, mentioning the previous work and activities done over the last few months. He emphasized the importance of focusing on the Vienna 2026 event and the need to advance on that front.
- Vienna 2026 Event Preparation: Roger and Shehab discussed the progress and priorities for the Vienna 2026 event. Shehab mentioned having a list of exhibitors and sponsors for the event, and they agreed to identify who could present and participate in representing CAPG.
- Introduction of Participants: Roger facilitated the introduction of participants, including Simona, Aline, Shehab, Abir, Daniel, Ricardo, Alexandra, and Chris. Each participant briefly introduced themselves and their roles.
- Simona's Introduction: Simona introduced herself as a representative from Studio Marchetti, an Italian company producing and distributing equipment for site investigation. She attended the meeting on behalf of Engineer Marchetti.
- Aline's Introduction: Aline introduced herself as a senior geotechnical engineer at Dar Beirut office, specializing in foundation design, project management, digitalization, and spatial management of databases.
- Shehab's Introduction: Shehab introduced himself as a senior geotechnical engineer at Dar Cairo office, providing recommendations and specifications for geotechnical problems and foundation design for mega projects worldwide. He is also an associate professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Cairo University, Egypt.
- Abir's Introduction: Abir introduced herself as a geotechnical engineer at Dar, Beirut office, assisting CAPG in gathering contacts for potential new members and supporting the marketing campaign.
- Daniel's Introduction: Daniel introduced himself as a representative from Bentley, dealing with geotechnical products like PLAXIS, GeoStudio, and Leapfrog.
- Ricardo's Introduction: Ricardo introduced himself as a team leader at a company based in Lisbon, Portugal, focusing on geotechnical engineering projects.
- Alexandre's Introduction: Alexandre introduced himself as a representative from a consultancy company in Liverpool specializing in structural engineering. He is also an invited professor at the University of Lisbon.
- Chris's Introduction: Chris introduced himself as a director at Arup in London, leading the global ground engineering skills team with about 1000 consultants and designers worldwide.
- New Benefits for CAPG Members: Roger provided an update on the new benefits for CAPG members, including dedicated web pages on the ISSMGE website, reductions in registration fees for conferences, and priority in selecting booth locations at events.
- Dedicated Web Pages: Roger mentioned that each CAPG member will have a dedicated web page on the ISSMGE website to present their services, including a description, logo, and link to their company website.
- Additional Features: Roger highlighted additional features for platinum members and journal sponsors, including the ability to upload downloadable documents such as presentations, videos, brochures, or flyers.
- CAPG Website Progress: Roger mentioned that the CAPG website is currently being revamped with an expected completion by the end of March 2025.
- Conference Fee Reductions: Roger discussed the possibility of extending early bird registration fees for CAPG members until the last minute for conferences, allowing members to benefit from reduced fees.
- Booth Selection Priority: Roger mentioned that CAPG members will be given priority in selecting booth locations at events, as recommended by the board to event organizers.
- Ideas for Vienna 2026 Event: Roger shared ideas for the Vienna 2026 event, including comparing regulations from different countries, presenting outstanding projects, and standardizing engineering practices. CAPG's allocated session time is limited to 30 minutes.
- Regulation Comparison: Roger suggested comparing regulations from different countries to understand the diversity in industry practices and how they can be enriching despite obstacles to standardized geotechnical engineering.
- Outstanding Projects: Roger proposed presenting outstanding geotechnical projects that demonstrate challenging engineering practices and collaboration with universities and researchers.
- Sustainability and Innovation: Roger proposed presenting sustainability and innovation in geotechnical engineering by exploring evolving practices and emerging trends.
- Standardizing Practices: Roger discussed the idea of standardizing engineering practices by creating guidelines and preferred tools for common geotechnical calculations, supported by technical committees.
- Student Competition:Participants suggested engaging young students in a design competition to analyze projects using different methods and calibrate their designs with real site records.
- Project Presentations: Participants proposed having CAPG members present their outstanding projects, showcasing complex engineering solutions and innovative practices.
- Support for Early Career Members: Chris suggested supporting early career members by helping them build their networks and connect with people in other organizations. Roger mentioned the existence of a group dedicated to young members within ISSMGE. Shehab indicated that he had been a member earlier of The Young Members Presidential Group (YMPG).
- Project Challenges and Innovations: Daniel proposed adding project challenges and innovations that each company in the CAPG team is working on, as well as updates on new topics and resources. Roger mentioned the importance of focusing on challenges, innovation, and sustainability.
- Invitation to Publish in ISSMGE Bulletin: Roger mentioned the invitation for CAPG members to publish articles in the ISSMGE Bulletin, which is issued every two months. This would help promote their services and show the presence of CAPG in the bulletin.
- Heritage Time Capsule Project: Roger shared an update from Sukumar, who is asking for more CAPG members to contribute to the Heritage Time Capsule project and participate in a podcast on collaboration between research and industry in geotechnical engineering.
Follow-up Tasks:
- Vienna Conference Preparation: Send an email to all members who did not attend the meeting to collect their thoughts and ideas for the Vienna conference. Compile all collected ideas and present them to the board for feedback and preferences.
- ISSMGE Bulletin: Send an email reminder to all CAPG members about the opportunity to publish articles in the ISSMG Bulletin.
- Heritage Time Capsule Project: Share details of the Heritage Time Capsule project and the podcast invitation with all CAPG members via email.
