Click to edit Master title style “Promoting Innovation in the

Geotechnical Profession”

Sarah Springman ETH Zürich

Tuesday September 3rd, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Click to edit Master title style John Davidson & Lord William Rees Mogg (1996) on

innovation & technology

• Contrary to the general assumption that technology is an offshoot of science, the primacy is really the other way around

• …… great advances in science occur after technical innovation has given the human mind access to a broader range of innovation

Click to edit Master title style Learning from French Geo-Innovation

• Genie - ingenious – innovation

• Terre Armée, Pressuremeter

• French contractors

– Underground space creation

– Ground improvement

– Slope stabilisation

• Engineers solve problems that present themselves through innovation

Henri VIDAL

(1924 – 2007)

Louis MÉNARD (1931 – 1978)

(CFMS)

Click to edit Master title style Scale, frequency & return on innovation?

Duration & Health??

(Image courtesy of American Society of Plant Biologists)

(Weber et al., 2010)

Click to edit Master title style Innovation in academe

• it should be our daily bread? – Research – most applications for funding require statements on innovation foreseen … – we have already heard of many great examples when it has worked (T-bar, ball penetrometers) – often no consequence when we do not do it … – but why don’t we follow up?

Click to edit Master title style Innovation in academe

• it should be our daily bread?

– Transferable ideas - application – tangible impact – possible products - spin offs – value creation? – how many great ideas lying unfulfilled / unconverted in our papers and workbooks? – often the weakest link is how to? – IP, financial benefits, time, knowledge… ISSMGE?

Click to edit Master title style Innovation in academe

• it should be our daily bread?

– Teaching – ‘Highly Qualified Personnel’ (MEng & PhDs) flow to industry – legacy – essential for future society – impact hard to quantify – do we teach our students so they can learn best to fulfil their roles as geotechnical engineers over next 40 years? (hands-on, discovery, self-motivation, data, information age)

Click to edit Master title style Innovation in academe

• it should be our daily bread? – great opportunity for industry / practice to take on students taught based on benefits of latest research… – subsequent challenge: openness of more experienced engineers to methodological innovation coming to practice in this way?

Click to edit Master title style Multidisciplinarity – new areas – new frontiers

• solving the world’s problems

• energy, water, space, mobility…

• geothermal

• bio-engineering

• learning from Social Science

• Ng (centrifuge) via 1g to 1/3 g

• different unfamiliar, even challenging, environments?

THMCO??

Click to edit Master title style Individuals, interaction & innovation

• Marlow & Wilson (1997) argue 'innovation occurs, in part, as a result of an individual or group of individuals having courage to highlight their relative cognitive diversity'

• Diversity can bring conflict ...creating barriers to innovation

• Defending own turf & relationships

• Existing power structures

• Normative or regulatory framework – SIA Swisscode versus Eurocode…

Click to edit Master title style Overcoming barriers?

Click to edit Master title style So what should we do, personally?

• be creative in our daily lives

• set up opportunities to be ‘fertile’….. – sabbatical

– visit

– join a network

– attend colloquia, seminars, conferences

• in Paris, identify your idea & find a colleague / exhibitor with whom you can develop it further

www.mygeoworld.com

Click to edit Master title style Think 360°! Modern innovation can also emerge from past innovations

Click to edit Master title style In the words of our Chairman…

Connect with us!

and innovate

…. together