Last year the IGS Foundation (IGSF) supported the work of the IGS Educate the Educators (EtE) program to repackage its ‘Introduction to geosynthetics’ lecture, normally only delivered in-person, into a series of on-demand videos for students and educators.

The new resources built on an initiative already spearheaded by IGS Brazil in its EtE programs since 2020 – the use of virtual teaching sessions.

Thanks to a grant from the IGSF, the one-hour in-person lecture was reimagined as five bite-size videos. These were delivered by former IGS President Professor Jorge Zornberg while complementary videos presented by IGS Brazil Vice-President Maria das Graças Gardoni guided educators on how they could structure and present the virtual lessons to make them more interactive.

Less than a year into their launch, the impact of the initiative on its audience, users and creators has been significant.

 

 

Prof. Gardoni, an undergraduate professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, described the development of EtE in Brazil as “the realization of a dream”, knowing students would take the knowledge they gained into the diverse industries they were set to enter. Ensuring the videos were as interactive as possible was a key focus for Prof. Gardoni.

She said: “The video of the practical class on the application of geosynthetics in engineering works was created by me with the specific objective of consolidating the knowledge learned in the theoretical classes. But this class should have a dynamic and interactive character. I had been testing this interactive method – Integrated Panel and Geosynthetic Design – for many years in my undergraduate courses in civil and environmental engineering, and the results have always been outstanding. The results obtained with them in EtE have also been exceptional and the participants evaluate it as one of the best parts of the course.”

She added: “When I delivered these videos to the IGS I felt an indescribable happiness of someone who fulfilled their duty and, therefore, reached the goal of teaching with joy and lightness. When I received the final formatted video and saw those students analyzing and discussing each type, function, and main properties of geosynthetics, in another language, but with great enthusiasm, I must confess I was very thrilled and my feeling was ‘mission accomplished’.”

Prof. Zornberg similarly described delivering the videos as “an awesome experience”.

He said: “I have been delivering this content for quite some time, both as part of the EtE programs and to my own undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Austin. However, in this case I took the opportunity to rethink the educational strategy. You will see that I have made significant use of ‘inking’ [live annotation] as I believe this approach allows students to be ‘active’ while watching the video.”

Both acknowledged adopting a didactic approach to communicating the information was key for clarity and international accessibility.

Prof. Zornberg said: “Pedagogy and clarity were the overriding objectives in these videos because the goal was to ultimately reach every single undergraduate civil engineering student on the planet. This was not an easy goal, but the content needed to be such that it was understood by a wide range of students with different backgrounds.”

Prof. Gardoni said the use of videos – already a method of teaching in IGS Brazil’s EtE program since 2020 – scored highly with students when they evaluated quality of learning, quality of content, and course satisfaction.

Prof. Gardoni added: “I’d like to thank the IGSF and its donors for helping make this initiative possible. This pioneering project has elevated EtE to its rightful level, given the importance to have the ‘Introduction to geosynthetics’ information included in undergraduate university courses.

“I hope that the companies that invested so wisely in geosynthetics education at the beginning of the IGSF’s work will continue in this direction because education requires time to produce its fruits. There is no better way to reach a high goal in geosynthetics engineering than by means of education.”

Prof. Zornberg added: “Education is a long-term goal hard to quantify and value within the rewards system of typical corporations and industry partners. That’s why it is so important that the IGSF has stepped up to fill the gap on a need that may not have been emphasized enough by our industry because the results will not be immediately quantified on the balance sheet.

“I hope Chapters will be encouraged to conduct full-scale EtE programs and that educators will request such programs. Ultimately, I hope that all undergraduate students would graduate having heard (at least once) the term ‘geosynthetics’.”

IGSF Treasurer Boyd Ramsey said: “IGS Brazil pioneered virtual EtE teaching and thanks to the help of our generous donors we can develop and extend the benefits of these resources worldwide. This is another example of our donations in action, making such a widespread impact, and is why the Foundation does what it does.”

If you would like to donate, or request funding, simply visit the IGSF website.

*** IGS Brazil is set to hold its third EtE online in August, this year. Stay up-to-date with the chapter’s activities by visiting its website here.

Pack your hat and sunscreen and head to the IGS’s newest conference this June – GEOANZ#1 in Brisbane, Australia.

Hosted by the Australasian chapter of the IGS, known as ACigs, the three-day event gathers eminent speakers and masterclasses themed around the topic of ‘Advances in Geosynthetics’.

The conference, which aims to be a biennial event, was a natural development following many successful ACigs education and outreach activities over the last few years including 30-plus webinars, Educate the Educator events and more.

Running June 7-9 at Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, the program begins with three masterclasses on advances in design and construction with geosynthetics for:

• Hydraulic structures and environmental containment
• Retaining structures, slopes and roadways
• Mine tailings and closure applications

Keynote talks on the other days are set to cover topics including geo-environmental applications, reinforcement and stabilization, geosynthetics for mining, and sustainability, durability and innovation. There will also be a conference dinner and site tours.

Speakers include John Cowland, Boyd Ramsey, and Professors Craig Benson, Malek Bouazza, Timothy Stark and Jorge Zornberg.

Abstracts are also welcome with a deadline recently extended to February 28, at 5pm AEDT. Selected papers will be programmed for presentation in 20-minute slots giving a more informal structure to these sessions, encouraging greater involvement and a wider range of topics.

Ten student scholarships have been made available for ACigs members to attend GEOANZ#1 for free thanks to a donation from the IGS Foundation (IGSF), a charitable body set up to support the IGS’s educational aims. Apply here by March 31 if you qualify.

Chapter President Siamak Paulson said: “We’re incredibly excited to bring this new conference to members and the wider IGS and geosynthetics community. It’s important to be aware and maintain knowledge of developments and trends in the industry – that is how we improve and innovate – and this event is an ideal opportunity to learn about current challenges and solutions.

“We’re also delighted to be able to offer 10 student scholarships to members and we thank the IGSF for making this possible.

“While the conference is in the Australia/New Zealand region, we have invited distinguished speakers from overseas and are expecting participation from many surrounding countries such as Papua New Guinea and South East Asia. Also, we have so far received several abstracts from overseas presenters from Europe and the US who are expected to attend the conference.

“We aim to stage GEOANZ every two years and hope our inaugural event will be a lively and informative start to a key fixture in the IGS calendar.”

To register for GEOANZ#1, click here.

The IGS Foundation welcomes Kent von Maubeuge to the Board of Trustees.  Kent has been involved in the geosynthetics industry for more than 30 years.  Across these decades, von Maubeuge has been a strong advocate for geosynthetics. He has served actively with various engineering professional associations and standards bodies, such as DIN, CEN, ISO, The Geosynthetic Institute and ASTM International. He has also served on the IGS Council, helped establish the IGS Technical Committee on Barrier Systems, and contributed numerous papers and lectures to technical conferences and professional societies around the world. For more than 20 years, he has lectured on engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Ostwestfalen-Lippe and for the past 8 years he has also lectured at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld.  He is a leader in the geosynthetics industry and his participation will help the Foundation and our industry grow and advance.