The ISSMGE Technical Committee 105 (TC 105), Geomechanics from Micro to Macro, hosted a student video competition in the first half of 2026. The goal of the video competition was to provide a platform for masters and Ph.D. students to gain exposure throughout the TC105 community more frequently than during the quadrennial international symposium organized by the technical committee. The video competition, which TC105 plans to organize on an annual basis, is envisioned as providing an annual opportunity for students to show their best work to peers and gain exposure that may lead to future collaboration or employment opportunities.
The competition had 8 entrees in an experimental category and 11 entrees in a computational/theoretical category. Judges were solicited from the TC105 community and selected to ensure technical expertise and to avoid any conflicts of interest no judges were mentors or prior collaborators with student participants whose videos were assigned to judge. The two-stage evaluation process involved assignment of 8 judges to review each 10-minute video from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in categories of clarity, technical depth, originality, and communication quality. The average of each videos scores from the two judges assigned to it was used to down-select to the top 3 experimental and the top 3 computational/theoretical videos. Three judges then scored all 6 finalist videos in the same categories. The averaged scores for each video clearly distinguished the winner in each track. While winners were clearly distinguished through this rigorous judging process, the judges noted that many videos were excellent, reflecting the outstanding quality of work within the TC 105 community.
The overall winners, to receive £250 each, and finalists were:
Computational/Theoretical: Zhangliang Song (Tsinghua University) - Geophysical Mass Flow over Complex Micro-topography: Bridging Grain-Scale Mechanics and Continuum Models.
Experimental: Wenzheng Su (Tsinghua University) - Deep learning-based particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) for spherical and non-spherical particles.
Finalists were: Zhangliang Song, Wenzheng Su, Peerzadi Imtiyaz, Yongxin Wang, Aizhan Zhakupova, Zimo Zhao.
The competition will be held again in 2027.
