Educate the Educators on Geosynthetics, China
Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China, 18th – 19th August 2016
With the great support of IGS, the IGS China Chapter and the China Techncial Association for Geosynthetics and IGS council members, the Educate the Educators (ETE) program was held on 18th – 19th August, 2016 in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China. This program was first of its kind in China. Prof. Chungsik Yoo, Vice President of IGS, delivered a speech in the opening ceremony to introduce the objectives of IGS and this program. Over 70 people attended the training program, who were from more than 30 colleges and institutes of China. Through this event, Chinese Chapter recruited more than 30 new members of IGS.
ETE is a program developed by the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS). It is a geosynthetics education program specific to supporting educators. It provide core geosynthetic content, background information, and materials for use in the classroom so that participants may include geosynthetics in their engineering curricula.
Lectures were provided by Prof. Chiwan Wayne Hsieh (National Pingtung University of Science and Technology), Prof. Chungsik Yoo (Sungkyunkwan University), Prof. Guangxin Li (Tsinghua University), , Prof. Chao Xu (Tongji University), Prof. Guangqing Yang (Shijiazhuang Railway University), Mr. Boyd Ramsey (GSE Lining Technology Inc.) and Mr. Pietro Rimoldi (World Tech Engineering/Maccaferri), five (5) of whom are IGS council members.
Lectures include types, function and properties of geosynthetics, reinforcement, application of geosynthetics in roadway and railway systems, hydraulic and erosion control, environmental protection, etc. It is expected that EtE program will promote the development of geosynthetics in China and tight the relationship between IGS and her Chinese Chapter.
The program was sponsored by Maccaferri (China), GSE Environmental, Hongxiang New Material, Hock Technology and Taian Modern Plastics. All of them are IGS corporate members. Each of sponsors provided showcase of their products in various project applications during the training program.
Besides knowledge of geosynthetics, attendees also had educational discussions on geosynthetics courses for undergraduates and postgraduates. A sample book including 33 types of geosynthetics was provided to attendees for their educational usage upon returning to their institutions.
Sponsor certificates were issued to sponsors, and Prof. Chao Xu, Chair of Chinese Chapter, extended thanks to IGS, respected lecturers, the sponsors and all attendees in the closing ceremony.
The CCIGS has received very promising feedback on this event. We are now looking forward to more activities in the future.
For questions or comments on the ETE Program, contact the IGS Secretariat: IGSsec@GeosyntheticsSociety.org.