Seminars, Workshops and Conferences
8 February 2005: 'Geotechnical Aspects of Gujarat Earthquake of January 2001' lecture will be held in room N240, SCE Building at 2:30 p.m.. The lecture will be conducted by Dr. S. K. Prasad, S.J. College of Engineering, India.
Abstract
The earthquake of January 2001 in western India created major awareness among the politicians, Engineers and researchers in India. It caused severe damage of all kinds. This presentation focuses on the geotechnical aspects of the loss suffered with particular reference to foundation behavior, performance of dams and harbor structures. A visit to affected sights and some field investigations carried out after the earthquake will be discussed. Some model testing carried out using 1g shaking table to understand the mechanism of failure and possible mitigation measures will also be dealt with.
About Speaker
Dr. S. K. Prasad is currently working as Senior Lecturer at S. J. College of Engineering, Mysore, one of the popular Technical Institutions in South India. He has nearly 20 years of experience in teaching and research. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering in 1982 from the University of Mysore securing a First Rank. This achievement helped him to secure Four Gold Medals from the University. He obtained his master of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1985 with Geotechnical Engineering as specialization. He has a doctorate from the University of Tokyo in Japan obtained in 1996 with earthquake geotechnical engineering as the specialization. He has over forty technical papers to his credit in conferences and journals. He was recognized as Visiting Professor for the year 2000 from Indian Society of Technical Education. He has been awarded many research grants and projects by organizations such as Department of Science and Technology (India), All India Council for Technical Education. He has established an earthquake engineering laboratory at his institution and has so far guided over 40 masters students and is currently guiding 3 doctoral candidates.
15 February 2005: 'Road Safety in USA: Trends and Issues' lecture will be conducted by Prof. Stamatiadis, Visiting Professor, TRE/SCE in Room E220, SCE
Building at 2:30 p.m.
Abstract
Traffic safety is a fundamental issue and concern for any nation. A significant amount of resources and funds are typically allocated to identify problem areas and countermeasures to improve roadway safety. Over the past decades, the total number of fatalities in the US has been somewhat steady to approximate 45,000 fatalities. Moreover, there is a significant number of crashes which are in the range of 3.5 million per year. Recent studies in the US indicate significant improvements in some areas but there are still several aspects of traffic safety that merit further exploration in order to develop appropriate means and countermeasures to improve safety. Some of these areas include young and older drivers, roadway designs that guide the drivers to properly determine their operating speeds, specific vehicles types including motorcycles and sport utility vehicles, alcohol consumption, and driver education. These areas of concern have been the focal point of significant research efforts and new means to improve roadway safety are continuously evaluated to improve overall roadway safety. A recent mandate by the US
Department of Transportation has set as a goal a 20% reduction in fatalities by 2010 which indicates the seriousness of the issue. At the same
time, the need for proper crash databases is paramount to further understanding the issues and determine the potential contributing factors to
the crash involvement of these drivers and vehicles.
In general, the seminar will present trends and issues related to roadway safety and discuss potential countermeasures for improving safety. First, a brief historical overview of the safety trends in the US over the past decades will be presented followed by a discussion and identification of the potential areas of concern regarding both fatalities and other crash types. Past research has indicated that there are
specific age groups of drivers that are more prone to be involved in crashes and the reasons for the increased involvement of these specific
driver groups will be presented. Programs such as the Graduate License for teenagers or periodic reexamination for older drivers have been
implemented and have shown promising results. There are several new concepts in roadway geometric design that have either been implemented or being considered for implementation that could have a significant impact on roadway safety. Some of these concepts, such as median dividers and access control, can reduce fatal crashes while others, such as roundabouts, can reduce the severity of crashes. Finally, a new concept of examining traffic safety as part of the built environment, where lifestyle choices and conditions play an important role in transportation needs and mobility, will also be discussed.
18 February 2005: 'Geo-Hazards: The Sleeping Giants Threatening Asia' Colloquium will be conducted by Associate Professor Ulrich Glawe Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering FoS/SCE. The event will be held at 12:00 noontime in Room E220, SERD Main Building.
10 -12 March 2005: International symposium on 'Role of Water Sciences in Transboundary River Basin Management ' will be held in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. The symposium will be organized by the United Nations University with the support of AIT, Thammasat University, and a number of related organizations.
The symposium is an academic meeting that will serve as a venue for information exchange among transboundary water stakeholders working on Asia's international rivers especially on the Mekong Basin. In this symposium, we expect to bring water professionals together to share case studies emphasizing both risks and paths to cooperation.
For further information, please contact:
Dr. Satiraporn Sirisampan
Secretariat, Local Organizing Committee of the Symposium
RNUS, SCE, AIT
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang
Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Tel: 02 524-6418
Fax: 02 524-5565
E-mail: rnus@ait.ac.th
6 - 10 June 2005:
International Conference on 'Modeling Tools for Environment and Resources Management (MTERM)'. The conference will be coordinated by the Water Engineering and Management (WEM) FoS staff in cooperation with the faculty members of the Modeling Tools for Environment and Resources Management (MTERM) and will be held at the AIT Conference Center.
Interested persons are invited to submit their research/technical papers related but not limited to the broader themes listed as follows:
- Integrated Water Resources Management
- Modeling of Water Resources
- Water Quality Management and Modeling
- Air Pollution Modeling
A two-day pre-conference training workshop on 'Governance of Transboundary Waters' will also be conducted in collaboration with 'The Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters' (http://waterpartners.geo.orst.edu)
For further information and details, please visit http://www.mterm.ait.ac.th. For other enquiries, please e-mail: mterm@ait.ac.th,
http://www.mterm.ait.ac.th