IABS National Groups
According to the By-laws, a National Group (NG) of IABSE consists of all Association members within one country. IABSE is present in 93 countries and is represented by 60+ National Groups—which is growing. Please keep sending your NG news and updates to Brindarica Bose at [email protected]. Below is a comprehensive report of National Group events onsite and online that took place within the last few months. For future events organized by the NGs, please refer to: www.iabse.org/events.
Hong Kong, S.A.R., People's Republic of China
On 25 March 2024, IABSE Group of Hong Kong, S.A.R., People's Republic of China, chaired by Naeem Hussain organized a meeting with Jin-Guang Teng, who is the President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Poly U), and his fellow professors to discuss IABSE and its activities in the NG and a possible Young Engineers Colloquium. During this meeting, Eugene Brühwiler from Switzerland was also present, and has also been a co-organiser for the Young Engineers Symposium (YES) in Switzerland in the last decade. He was on a lecture visit to Poly U, and took the opportunity to meet the NG in Hong Kong. Those who were present from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University at this meeting included Kaiming Bi, Xiao Lin Zhao, Ahmed Elghazouli, Siwei Liu, Yong Xia and Songye Zhu. IABSE connects structural engineers from practice and academia worldwide.
Hong Kong meeting
Japan
The Japanese Group of IABSE, chaired by Yozo Fujino, had a steering committee meeting on 14 March 2024 in Tokyo. The steering committee (see photo) reviewed the activities and memberships in 2023. Many Japanese members participated in the committees and IABSE Task Groups. The Japanese National Group contributed to the successful completion of the 3rd YEC East Asia, held in Seoul in 2024. They are now busy preparing for the IABSE Symposium that will take place in Tokyo in 2025. YEC East Asia 2025, in collaboration with Germany, is also being planned to take place one day before the IABSE Symposium Tokyo 2025. The February 2025 issue of SEI will have a special feature on recent structures and research from Japan.
Japanese NG meeting, Right to Left: S. Nakamura, Y. Fujino, K. Takanashi, A. Wada, Y. Ichinohe, M. Inoue and A. Sato. Online attendants (from right to left top): Y. Okui, A. Kasuga, T. Takeuchi, T. Nagayama, M. Akiyama and I. Shibata
Spain
On 1 March 2024, a seminar based on “Sustainable and Innovative Reinforced Concrete Structures: Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Reinforcements” was held, dedicated to FRP reinforcements as an alternative to steel ones in concrete. The event was organized jointly by many institutions, e.g. the Spanish Group of IABSE chaired by Dolores Pulido, the Central Laboratory of Structures and Materials (CEDEX) and Owens Corning. International institutions collaborated, such as ACI (American Concrete Institute) from the United States; national manufacturers, RTHP, and international manufacturers; national universities, such as the University of Girona and the Technical University of Catalonia, and from abroad, the University of Miami. Representatives from international companies such as Acciona, Neos Maritime Consulting and Holcim España participated, along with public administrations, such as the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, and representatives of the Port Authority of Barcelona and State Ports. The event, which was very successful and had more than 200 participants, generated interest in the topic and was good for networking.
Spanish NG co-organized seminar on “Sustainable and Innovative Reinforced Concrete Structures: Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Reinforcements”
Colombia
In October 2020, the Executive Committee of the Colombian IABSE Group, chaired by Juan Andrés Oviedo Amézquita, created the BST Initiatives, which aim to positively impact the education and interaction among academia, design practitioners and engineering associations in Colombia. The motto of the initiatives is “IABSE and its impact on Educational Transformation in Colombia”. BST stands for “Bridges for Social Transformation” (Puentes para la Transformación Social in Spanish). The initiatives focus on creating knowledge connections across the entire country, thus spreading engineering experience and technical knowledge, and encouraging students to continue in the structural engineering field. To achieve this goal, the Colombian IABSE NG joined hands with national universities in Colombia to develop BST initiatives. Each BST initiative is composed of two main activities: (a) a private and specialized lecture to the student community of the university contacted, conducted by an IABSE expert, and (b) a public webinar where both the international IABSE expert (joining online) and a professor of the university (onsite) take part. The two main activities can also take place on the same day. A BST initiative is composed of the following two phases.
Phase 1 focuses on creating knowledge, connections across the entire country, thus spreading engineering experience and technical knowledge, and encouraging students to continue in the structural engineering field.
BST online lectures by IABSE experts in association with the university, organised by the Colombian NG
Phase 2 focuses on providing vulnerable communities with engineering assistance to solve a particular basic problem related to civil engineering. For that purpose, special engineering brigades will be formed by IABSE members, university students and professors.
BST 4 with Bruno Godart, France, on 19 February 2024. Topic: Bridge Failure Analysis: Pathology of Prestressed Concrete Structures.
BST 5 with Laurent Rus, Spain, on 29 January 2024. Topic: Bridge Failure Analysis: Shallow and Deep Causes.
These lectures can be viewed at www.iabse.org/eLearning/Lectureseries
United States
The US Group of IABSE, chaired by Mariagrazia Bruschi, has organized a technical presentation for 25 April 2024 on the topic “Technical Presentation—An Architect’s Role in Bridge Design—Ben Addy and Ezra Groskin”. This event will be followed by another onsite presentation on 29 April 2024, by Gernot Komar, Dipl-Ing, PE, who presented on the precast and cast-in-place segmental concrete project “Improvement of Al Shindagha Corridor with Infinity Arch Bridge in Dubai”, at the University of California San Diego. The hybrid event was free for members and non-members and provided one Professional Development Hour (1PDH), which was free for IABSE members and $20 for non-IABSE members.
The Philippines
The Philippines Group of IABSE, chaired by Andres Winston Oreta, has been organizing webinars in their mission to spread knowledge, and on 18 January 2024, the topic of their webinar was “Drones: Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems for Engineering Investigation Application”.
Chile
On 11 January 2024, the Chilean NG, chaired by Matias Valenzuela, organized a seminar talk on digitalization by Dr Kristian Schellenberg from Switzerland. Those who took part included experts from the Ministry of Public Works, Road Department and Airport Department of Valparaiso region. The Road Director of Valparaiso, Eng. Daniel Diaz also attended the lecture, adding to the list of dignitaries present at the seminar.
Chilean NG event
