The Colorado School of Mines Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling hosted the inaugural Geotechnical and Structural Instrumentation, Monitoring, and Information Engineering short course on March 16-18. This course, designed for industry professionals, brought together more than 80 participants from a variety of disciplines including civil (structural and geotechnical), construction, mining, transportation, and pipeline/utilities.
According to attendee Tony Simmonds, international projects manager for Geokon, Inc., “the course was a resounding success, and enjoyed by all. It also provided an opportunity for instrumentation vendors and service providers to meet with old and new customers alike, in a focused and professional forum. Geokon looks forward to participating in future courses as they become available.”
Owners, engineers, technicians, professors and students engaged in interactive classroom presentations given by the industry’s top experts on topics including instrumentation and monitoring methods, planning, data management and visualization, and using information for proactive risk management. In addition, several “State of Practice” talks were presented to educate the audience on the latest methods used in specific applications, including dams and levees, mining, tunnel and urban excavation construction, structural health, and pipeline/utilities.
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Participants also had the opportunity to engage in hands-on demonstrations with several of the industry’s leading instrumentation hardware and monitoring software providers in the vendor exhibit hall. This also provided great networking benefits for both attendees and vendors alike. The course concluded with an interactive group exercise where participants identified the top challenges, needs and opportunities in instrumentation and monitoring.
Pierre Choquet, vice president of market development at RST Instruments Ltd., described it as “an excellent course covering all aspects of available technologies, data management and state of practice for instrumentation and monitoring of civil engineering and mining structures as well as geohazards.”
This course is the first of a suite of annual industry short courses being offered by the Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling. Upcoming courses include Underground Grouting and Ground Improvement (May 16-20, 2016), Tunneling Fundamentals, Practice & Innovations (June 20-23, 2016), Shotcrete Fundamentals and Applications (Sept. 7-8, 2016), and Geotechnics for Trenchless Construction (Nov. 1-4, 2016). More information about these courses can be found on the SPACE website csmspace.com.
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