Since its inception, the GRC has established a strong reputation for industry focused research in areas such as contaminant transport, landfill engineering, buried infrastructure, geo-chemistry, geo-environmental engineering, soft clay engineering, rock mechanics, tunneling, and concrete dams on rock foundations. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, the GRC hosted a Geotechnical Symposium on July 7-8 to celebrate the career achievements of Professor Kwan Yee Lo, the Centre's current Director. The K.Y. Lo Symposium ( www.eng.uwo.ca/kylosymposium ) was attended by about 100 academics and engineers from the UK, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, the US and Canada. The symposium was a great success, highlighting the international impact of the GRC.

Pius Ko (OPG) presenting a commemorative plaque to Professor K.Y. Lo (K.Y. Lo Symposium Gala Dinner).

The GRC has undergone significant change with the recent addition of three new researchers. In May 2003, I joined the GRC after seven years as a consulting engineer, most recently with Acres International in Niagara Falls. My research programs include soft clay engineering, mechanisms of progressive failure of earth-fill structures, soft ground tunneling and applied optical instrumentation. Denis O'Carroll joined the centre in July 2005; he is a hydrogeologist with research interests in the fields of subsurface contamination by non-aqueous phase liquids, and subsurface remediation. Dr. Tim Newson joined us in January 2005. He was formerly an assistant professor at the University of Dundee (Scotland) and Director of the Dundee Centrifuge Centre. Tim specializes in scaled centrifuge modeling, offshore and mining engineering, unsaturated soil mechanics and buried infrastructure.

Our research complements that of existing GRC members such as Professors Kwan Yee Lo (tunneling, concrete dams on rock foundations, soft clay engineering and slope stability), Hesham El Naggar (foundations and dynamics soil-structure interaction), Julie Shang (soil improvement and soft clay engineering) and Ernest Yanful (mining and geo-environmental engineering).

By adding new members, the GRC injects new ideas and approaches to both research and teaching. A good example of this is the Mini-Centrifuge being developed by Dr. Newson. The Mini-Centrifuge is a novel teaching tool that permits students (and sometimes engineers from industry) to study and learn from the failure of retaining walls, foundations, tunnel headings and slopes.

Mini-Centrifuge - still photo showing the failure of a tunnel heading in clay.

In Ontario, the link between industry and academia is gaining importance. Over the past three to five years, the demand for junior engineers has increased, both in consulting engineering and in academia. In most engineering companies, this trend is evident in the number of young engineers and technicians that have been recently hired. In contrast, the number of high school students applying to engineering programs in Ontario has declined sharply since 2004. Recognizing the need to gain access to well-trained junior engineers, some engineering companies have established and strengthened their ties with universities such as Western.

At the undergraduate level, programs such as Western Engineering's Industrial Internship and summer co-op programs provide a means for industry and Western to link up. Recently, in recognition of Canada's future reliance on highly trained professionals, the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) initiated the Industry Postgraduate Scholarship Program (IPS). This NSERC program is targeted toward producing highly qualified engineering graduates with industry experience. Participating companies commit at least $6,000 per year to sponsor a student and NSERC contributes $15,000 per year. The student is required to propose a research program that is relevant to industry and to work for the industry sponsor for 12 weeks per year.

As noted on the NSERC website (www.nserc.ca), the main objective of the IPS program is to strengthen Canadian innovation and to foster closer relations between universities and industry. Such relationships are becoming increasingly important for engineering companies to maintain a highly trained workforce and to remain competitive in a global market place.

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