AUB - Geotechnical Engineering Team

Congratulations Abed Mikati on earning your Ph.D. We are truly happy for your success and proud of you. You have proven really your self-dedication and perseverance. May God bless you to achieve all the success that is waiting for you in your future.

Dr. Abed Mikati successfully presented his PhD thesis, entitled "Mechanics of Load Sharing in Soft Clays Reinforced with Sand Column Groups " under the supervision of Dr. Salah Sadek and Dr. Shadi Sam Najjar

Hard work pays off!

Great to mention that Abed spent one full year during his Ph.D. as an exchange international student at The University of Texas at Austin, where he worked on transparent soils, which benefited a lot his research at AUB.

Many thanks for Dr. Mounir Mabsout, Dr. Grace Abou-Jaoude and Dr. Muhsin Elie Rahhal for being members of the committee and special thanks goes to Dr. Jorge Gabriel Zornberg for the wonderful opportunity/collaboration between AUB and UT Austin.

The Geoteam will miss you❤️❤️❤️❤️

Congratulations on earning your PhD Roba Houhou. We are truly happy for your success. You truly have proved your self-dedication and perseverance. May God bless you to achieve all the success that is waiting for you in your Postdoc at EPFL, Switzerland .🥳

Dr. Roba Houhou successfully presented her PhD thesis, entitled "A Novel In Situ Test Setup for Measuring the Interface Resistance between Pipelines and Soil" under the supervision of Prof. Salah Sadek and Prof. Shadi Sam Najjar.

Hard work pays off!

Many thanks for Prof. Mounir Mabsout and Dr. Elie shammas, Dr. Muhsin Rahhal, Dr. Hussein Mroueh for being members of the committee.

The Geoteam will miss you❤️❤️❤️❤️

Geo-Team is currently working on:
1- Interface axial resistance between pipelines and seabed
2- Mechanics of load sharing in soft clays reinforced with group sand columns in a fully instrumented triaxial setup
3- Bio-cemented sand
4- Effect of spatial variability on the stability of an earthdam using Flac
5- Behavior of buried offshore pipelines under earthquake faulting
6- Energy Piles

Prof. Salah Sadek, AUB PHD students Abed Mikati (currently enrolled in an exchange program in Austin) and Roba Houhou attended the GeoCongress 2020 in Minneapolis Minnesota - USA.
Roba Houhou presented her paper in the Geo-System presentation Section
about " Drained interface strength between pipelines and clays using tilt table and Direct shear tests" and Abed Mikati presented his poster about “The drained response of soft clays reinforced with sand column groups”.
The geoteam met the alumni-student Reem Jaber (Currently enrolled in a PHD program at Virginia Tech) which has also presented her poster about “In-Situ Geotechnical Investigation of a short section of the Brazos River post Hurricane Harvey Using a Portable Free Fall Penetrometer”.
The Geoteam organized a dinner gathering with Prof. Lyesse laloui and Dr. Shadi El Mohtar, LMS-EPFL PhD students, Ray and Cristiano, and several lebanese students.
Geocongress was a great opportunity for the Geoteam to show their work in front of experts and students from all over the world.
They Learned from top leaders in the industry through special plenary sessions, and technical sessions. They networked with colleagues from around the block—and around the world.
You Made AUB proud Roba Houhou Abed Mikati Reem Jaber

We were delighted by the visit of Prof. Kenichi Soga, the Donald H. Mclaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering and a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California,Berkeley. Prof. Soga gave two seminars about "Smart Infrastructure and Construction" and " Material Point Method Concepts". We had the chance to meet such a brilliant and influencing researcher in our geotechnical lab. This was his first visit for Lebanon. Despite the economical crisis, he had a positive impression about Lebanon and appreciated the research efforts at AUB. He also celebrated Prof. Salah's birthday with us.

Hoping this will not be his last visit.

PS: Happiest Birthday Prof. Salah 🥳

Joseph Ghanem successfully defended his masters thesis entitled "Experimental Investigation of clCyclic p-y Curves for Rigid Walls Supporting Sands" under the supervision of Dr. Shadi Najjar.
Congratulations Joseph! You proved to all of us how dedicated and hard worker you are throughout 2 years at AUB. We are certain that you will have a successful life ahead😍🤩

Some pictures for our gatherings during the winter break so we have to say again:
Congratulations Ahmad for your Phd degree
Get well soon our lab manager Mr. Helmi
Enjoy your vacation our Geoteam Alumni 🥳🥳

Hard work always pays off! You made us all proud !
Dr. Ahmad Kahiel successfully presented his PhD thesis today ,entitled "The Effect of Sand Column on the Response of Clay under Cycled Loading Conditions" under the supervision of Prof. Salah Sadek and Prof. Shadi Sam Najjar.

Many thanks for Prof. Mohsen Rahhal, Prof. Mounir Mabsout and Prof. Grace Abou Jaoude for being members of the committee.

Many congrats for your PHD degree Ahmad! The Geogroup wish you all the success in your life ahead 🥳🥳

Congratulations Batoul Tarhini for defending successfully your thesis "Reliability-based Structural Design of Retaining Walls Supporting Spatially Variable Soils". We wish you success in everything you do!

Congratulations also to you and Ahmad Kahiel on your wedding.
May you have many happy years together!

The Geoteam was greatly honored by the visit of Prof. Robert Gilbert, Chair of Civil,Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Texas Austin. Prof. Gilbet gave a seminar on "Lessons from Forensic Geotechnical Engineering" on Thursday, 20th of June. Then, he visited the geotechnical laboratory where the geoteam members presented briefly their projects to him. They had the chance to discuss their ideas with such a brilliant person.

We hope that this will not be the last visit of Prof. Gilbert to Lebanon.

Here are some pictures of Prof. Gilbert's visit: during the seminar, in the lab and with Dr. Fadlo Touma.