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Following the success of last year's conference, this one-day event will feature the 63rd Rankine Lecture (2025), to be presented by Professor Kenichi Soga of the University of California, Berkeley, as well as the latest developments in various aspects of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, to be presented by academics and practitioners in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering.
Date: 18th December 2025 (Thursday)
Venue: Auditorium, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Room 102 Environmental Engineering Building (環工館), Guangfu Campus, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, 1001 Daxue Road, East District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan
Language: English
Profiles of Speakers
Professor Kenichi Soga is the Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering and a Distinguished Professor at the University of California Berkeley. He earned his BEng and MEng from Kyoto University in Japan and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining UC Berkeley in 2016, he was a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He has authored more than 500 journal and conference papers and co-authored the book "Fundamentals of Soil Behavior". His research focuses on infrastructure sensing, performance-based design and maintenance of underground structures, energy geotechnics, and geotechnics from micro to macro. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has received numerous awards, including the George Stephenson Medal and Telford Gold Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is also a Bakar Fellow of UC Berkeley, working to promote the commercialization of smart infrastructure technologies.
Professor Andy Y.F. LEUNG is currently Associate Head (Partnership) and Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the Immediate Past President of the Hong Kong Geotechnical Society. His research interests include soil-structure interaction, reliability of geotechnical and structural systems, probabilistic analysis approaches and novel geotechnical instrumentation technologies. He has been a member of various technical committees (TC) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), including TC 212 Deep Foundations, TC 304 Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management and TC 309 Machine Learning and Big Data.
Professor Chih-Chung CHUNG is Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering and Vice President of Student Affairs of National Central University. He received his PhD from National Chiao Tung University (now National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University). He received the Excellent Young Researcher Award from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan, 2023, Hogentogler Award of ASTM 2006, among many others. He is serving as AOGS IG Section President 2026-2028, Deputy CEO of Sino-Geotechnics since 2024, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of GeoEngineering, Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, and Landslides, a Committee Member of the Disaster Management Society of Taiwan. He also served as the Vice President of the International Consortium on Landslides 2024-2025.
Professor Jianye CHING is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University. He obtained his PhD in 2002 from the University of California, Berkeley. His main research interests are geotechnical risk & reliability, random fields & spatial variability, probabilistic site characterization & geotechnical data analytics.
He is the immediate past Chair of TC304 (risk) in ISSMGE and the immediate past Chair of Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet). He is Managing Editor of Georisk, Editor of Geodata & AI, Associate Editor of ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering & Canadian Geotechnical Journal, and Editorial Board Member of Structural Safety. He has published more than 150 papers in international journals.
Dr. Ching is the recipient of the Outstanding Research Award (2011, 2014), the Wu-Da-Yu Award (2009) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, and the Outstanding Professor Award (2024) from the Chinese Institute of Engineers. He was elected as the 7th ISSMGE Suzanne Lacasse Lecturer in 2022. He served as the Convener of the Civil & Hydraulic Engineering Program of the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan during 2021-2023, and as the President of the Chinese Taipei Geotechnical Society (a member society of ISSMGE) during 2023-2025.
Dr. Jung-Feng CHANG earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He was then involved in the construction of the Taiwan West Coast Expressway Project with major works in survey, supervision, in-house works, and quality management. Dr. Chang obtained his Ph.D. degree from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University in 2006 with a specialty in geotechnical engineering. Following the completion of his Ph.D. program, he works in the Geotechnical Engineering Department of MAA Group Consulting Engineers in Taiwan. He has been involved in various infrastructure projects, including MRTs, railroads, roadways, airports, harbors, and facilities, as well as building and land development projects in Taiwan, China, Macau, and Southeast Asia. His major works have focused on geotechnical engineering investigation/design, design review, consultancy, and project management. He is now a senior engineer and project manager in the company's Geotechnical Engineering Department.
Professor Albert T. YEUNG is currently Professor and Director of the Institute of Environmental Engineering, and the Director of International Affairs of the College of Engineering of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. He earned his BSc(Eng) from The University of Hong Kong, with his name placed in the First Class Honor List, and his MS and PhD from the University of California under the supervision of the late Professor James K. Mitchell. His extensive experience spans across academic, industrial, and public administration. He has served as full-time faculty at four universities in the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chief Engineer of Black & Veatch, and Assistant Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, United Kingdom, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and a member of the Chinese Institution of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering. He has received numerous awards from the United States, Hong Kong, and Japan. It is worthy mentioning that he is the 1st Asian to receive the prestigious Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award of ASCE in geotechnical engineering in 1996. He is also the 1st Chinese to receive the Samuel Arnold Greeley Award of ASCE in environmental engineering in 1999. His other awards include ASCE Region 10 Distinguished Service Medal Award 2023, IPA Research Grant Awards (3 times) from the International Press-in Association of Japan, Kumagai Prize 1994 of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award 1994 of the American Society for Engineering Education, Texas Engineering Experiment Station Select Young Faculty Award 1993, among many others.
Abstracts of Presentations
From Geo-monitor to Geo-adapt: Leveraging Distributed Sensing and Data Analytics for Performance-based Design, Construction, and Maintenance – By Professor Kenichi SOGA
Geotechnical engineers ensure the safety and cost-effectiveness of infrastructure assets by addressing uncertainties related to their lifespan and performance during hazards. Safety is often achieved by minimizing adverse outcomes through evaluating the probability of failure based on past experience and reliability analysis. At the same time, emerging technologies in sensing, communication, and computing now make it feasible to continuously and economically monitor geotechnical structures during construction and operation. This enables us to: (a) respond appropriately and effectively if a failure starts to happen, (b) cope with future unknown demands, and (c) find potential improvements for future design, construction, and operation of new infrastructure. The talk will present three case studies (tunnels, pipelines, and deep foundations) to demonstrate how distributed sensing data and data analytic techniques can provide geotechnical insights, enabling us to adapt to ever-changing demands.
Fibre Optic Sensing in Field Investigation of Socketed S690 High-strength Steel Pile Performance – By Professor Andy Y.F. LEUNG
Rock socketed H-piles are commonly adopted as the foundation solution in Hong Kong. Recent advances in steel manufacturing technologies open up opportunities for high-strength steel to provide cost-effective alternatives in construction. With a characteristic yield strength of 690 MPa, their adoption as H-piles may offer a competitive option for foundations. Improved understanding on interactions among the pile components involving steel and the surrounding grout and rock is essential, as they govern the geotechnical capacity of piles. In this presentation, the field test results of two socketed high-strength steel H-piles will be discussed. Fibre optic sensing with optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) was employed, leading to strain measurements along the piles at a high spatial resolution. These revealed details of bond stress developments between the pile-rock interfaces at various stages of loading and unloading. The implications to the foundation design practice will also be discussed.
BOTDR & DAS for Geo-Hazard Monitoring – By Professor Chih-Chung CHUNG
This research leverages state-of-the-art Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) technology to perform continuous, high-spatial-resolution safety monitoring of slopes and geological strata in Taiwan. DFOS transforms standard optical fiber into an extended array of sensors, providing "precision diagnostics" for subtle earth and structural changes. The system integrates three key sensing techniques: Distributed Strain Sensing (DSS): Measures minor strain and deformation along the fiber; Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS): Monitors precise temperature changes along the fiber; Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS): Converts the fiber into a long seismic array. Field deployment in Central Taiwan utilizes both DSS and DTS to provide 24-hour, high-precision monitoring of subsidence rate and strain distribution at various depths within ground subsidence hot zones. For landslide and slope stability assessment, fiber optic cables are installed in boreholes to measure potential sliding locations and strain volume using DSS, while the "invisible guardian"—DAS fiber—senses ground vibration along its path to analyze subsurface velocity changes. Additionally, the research employs DSS for structural safety monitoring, including real-time assessment of beam and column seismic behavior in large-scale physical tests, and ongoing evaluation of deformation in aging bridges post-earthquake or heavy rain. Looking forward, DFOS technology shows significant potential for extension into crucial underground applications like Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) and Geothermal Energy projects. This comprehensive deployment highlights the technology's effectiveness in advancing precise disaster prevention and structural health monitoring.
Role of Databases in Data-centric Geotechnics – By Professor Jianye CHING
First, this lecture demonstrates some databases (i.e., big indirect data, BID) available in the literature. The databases are classified into two categories: soil/rock property databases 2 & geotechnical performance databases. Second, this lecture demonstrates how to assist site-specific prediction using a generic database. In geotechnical engineering, site-specific prediction is challenging because site-specific data are usually very sparse. However, data from another site cannot be directly implemented to the target site due to site uniqueness. A central challenge in data-centric geotechnics (called site-recognition challenge) is how to make use the knowledge learned from a generic database to assist site-specific prediction. In this lecture, two examples will be used to demonstrate how to make use a database to address this site-recognition challenge. One example is a soil database with joint data of USCS categories and soil properties. It will be illustrated that this database can be used to assist site-specific soil-layer-delineation and soil-property-simulation simultaneously. The other example is an excavation database with wall deflection and ground settlement data. It will be illustrated that this database can be used to assist site-specific predictions for wall deflection and ground settlement when excavating a clay site.
Obstacles and Water Ingress in Taipei MRT Projects – Analyses and Solutions – By Dr. Jung-Feng CHANG
This presentation introduces two case studies from Taipei MRT projects where obstacles and water ingress were encountered. In the first case study, boulders and driftwood were discovered as obstacles during shield tunneling operations. The damage to the cutter bits and wheels was evaluated, and the TBM (tunnel boring machine) operational data were studied. This was followed by the proposal and implementation of specific countermeasures. The second case study illustrates water infiltration from rock strata during the deep excavation of an underground MRT station and end-track shaft. The induced ground settlement was assessed in accordance with the construction sequence. The subsequent drop in the groundwater level outside the site was observed and further analyzed to correlate with the measured ground settlements. Countermeasures were then proposed to mitigate the effect of the water ingress on the surrounding buildings. Conclusions are given at the end of the presentation.
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