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