Geotec Hanoi 2016 offers a world-class playground for experts

Dr. Phung Duc Long, chairman of the Vietnam Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (VSSMGE) and co-chairman of the Geotec Hanoi 2016 Organising Committee, talked to VIR’s Hoang Thach about the event’s unique appeal that lead to its skyrocketing popularity.

What is the unique selling point of Geotec Hanoi as an international conference on geotechnics?

Scientific development in Vietnam has not been considered important up to now, especially construction science. The country also lacks professional organisers to host such international conferences.

However, Geotec Hanoi, an international geotechnical conference that has been held in Vietnam thrice, is highly appreciated due to its qualified and professionally capable organisers and has great ambitions to become a regular professional conference having great influence on the civil engineering science.

Geotechnics is a very broad field which is present everywhere, such as foundation engineering for civil, industry, transport, and infrastructure works, ports, hydropower plants, and irrigation, just to mention a few areas. Plenty of the high-rise buildings under construction are erected on soft soil or have unstable foundations. Complex, large-scale transportation projects are also executed under extremely rigorous geotechnical conditions. Bridges, ports, and irrigation dam projects are also growing bigger and longer. We often hear about destruction wrought by landslides which have claimed numerous lives in Vietnam as well as around the world. These are all related to geotechnics.

In many countries over the world, for example Sweden, which are prone to landslides threatening human lives, people often install automatic warning systems using in-situ ground movement monitoring equipment. Another problem that many countries, including Vietnam, have to face is climate change which make geotechnics even more relevant. For example, rising sea levels and salinity issue new and urgent challenges. There is an intensive subcommittee discussing this issue at Geotec Hanoi 2016.

The 2016 event received a record number of abstracts. Having been part of the organising committee for the last events, in what ways do you think the conference has grown?

To successfully organise international conferences, we have prepared very carefully, meticulously in every stitch. The subcommittees have to run professionally, day and night.

For instance, regarding scientific content, we have been preparing for a year. Keynote lectures are one of the key points for the success of a scientific conference. These lectures need to be given by world-leading experts carefully chosen, according to their credentials.

From 2011 till now, all keynote lectures at Geotec Hanoi have been given by world-leading experts, such as Prof. Sven Hansbo (Sweden), Kenji Ishihara (Japan), Harry Poulos (Australia), Pieter Vermeer (Netherlands), Alain Guilloux (France), Rolf Katzenbach (Germany), Fumio  Tatsuoka (Japan), Kenichi Soga (England), Helmut Schweiger (Australia), Bengt Fellenius (Canada), Buddhima Indraratna (Australia), Kazuya Yasuhara (Japan), Jamie Standing (Britain), and Chang-Yu Ou (Taiwan), just to highlight a few. This year, five scientists hailing from four continents will give lectures at Geotec Hanoi 2016.

The call for papers has to be done worldwide and very early in order to get a respectable volume of scientific papers. The preparation needs to be carried out in a professional way from call for abstracts, choosing papers by international experts, to editing, and publishing.

Until now, a growing number of international and regional experts have come to share the view that Geotec Hanoi is gradually becoming a prestigious conference and will be a highlight for civil engineering experts around the world. It stands as proof that Geotec Hanoi 2016 has received nearly 200 abstracts from 33 countries and territories all over the world.

With your long years of experience of working in the field of geotechnics both in Vietnam and around the world, according to your evaluation, do Vietnamese companies pay enough attention to geotechnics?

Most Vietnamese companies have a right evaluation of the importance of science and technology. Some of them pay particular attention to this field, such as Fecon, Telico, and Phan Vu. 

Perhaps the most outstanding of all is Fecon that has focused investment on science and technology to accelerate the application and transferring of new technologies into Vietnam. There is also a research institute in Fecon, which gives a chance to cultivate a local diaspora of experts. I feel very happy because there is a company like Fecon that considers science and technology as the key to success.

You have been one of the key people organising the conferences. How important is the conference to you, as a person?

As a scientist, I would love to be always busy organising such big scientific conferences in Vietnam. However, each event of this magnitude requires strong financial foundations that are not at the disposal of scientists.  Traditionally, international conferences in the world are often held by professional organisations with high conference fees. 

As a result, when Fecon approached me and VSSMGE about organising the Geotec Hanoi conferences, we responded immediately. 

The first successful Geotec Hanoi conference in 2011 has confirmed that together we could make it work in Vietnam.

Over the years, many international colleagues who have attended the two previous Geotec Hanoi conferences planned to come back to Geotec Hanoi 2016 because they enjoyed the previous conferences and find it helpful and exciting. Attendants at the Geotec Hanoi events are free to share their academic points of view, as well as access and exchange their experiences with colleagues around the world.

The deeper purpose of Geotec Hanoi is to further promote Vietnam and introduce our broad market as well as our geotechnical issues, such as climate change, coastal geotechnics, monitoring, inspection, and maintenance of underground geotechnic facilities.