Fourteen CCEE students attended Geo-Congress 2023 on March 26-29 in Los Angeles, giving talks, presenting posters, and participating in Geo-Challenges — student competitions organized by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

 

Several CCEE students took home Geo-Challenge awards:

• Ph.D. students Cassie Gann and Nancy Ingabire Abayo won first and second place, respectively in the Geo-Poster competition, where students share their research outcomes through poster presentations. Gann’s poster was titled “Developing a Geology-based Shear Wave Velocity Model for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains,” and Abayo’s poster was called “Exploring the Effect of Soil Deposition and Fabric on Undrained Soil Behavior. 
• Gann, Ph.D. student Cristina Lorenzo-Velázquez, and undergraduate student Ariana Paul earned third place in the Geo-Video competition, where students produce a short video on any topic related to geotechnical education and practice. Their video was titled “”Site Conditions and the Amplification of Seismic Waves.”

“We are very proud of the great effort our students and faculty put every year into representing our program with the highest standards,” said CCEE Assistant Professor Ashly Cabas.

Another highlight of the event was a Geo-Pit lecture from Cabas on her new National Science Foundation-funded initiative E2SCALA. Cabas is creating a transnational alliance of geotechnical students, researchers, educators and other stakeholders with the goal of reducing seismic risk in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

 

In addition, Associate Professor Brina Montoya served as co-editor of the conference proceedings, and Associate Professor Idil Akin moderated a technical session.