The preliminary programme of the ALERT Workshop and Doctoral School 2021 in Aussois/online is now available.
Download the Workshop and School preliminary programme.
More information and the link to the registration script can be found here.
Dear ALERT community,
I am pleased to inform you that the registration for the ALERT Geomaterials Workshop and School 2021 is now open! The preliminary program of the School is available here, and the one of the Workshop should soon be posted online.
As sanitary conditions are improving, it was decided to propose you two alternatives for your registration to the workshop and doctoral school: either you can come and participate in Aussois, or you can attend those remotely. Don’t worry, your choice can always be modified later on, as the sanitary conditions may change. As a reminder, the restrictions for entering France will depend on your country of departure and your vaccination status (more information here).
Please read the hints in the registration form! After filling the form and pressing the button “Register”, a window will open with your invoice. Please print the window with the invoice for your records! You will also get an email with the registration data afterwards. If you are an ALERT members, the corresponding representative of your ALERT institution will receive the registration data too.
Click here to register for the ALERT Workshop and School 2021.
The deadline for the registration is the September 17th! The accommodation in Aussois will be processed in the order of the registrations (see the hints in the registration form). Please note that the number of rooms in the CNRS “Centre Paul Langevin” is limited.
See also hints on how to get to Aussois.
Looking forward to (safely) meeting you in Aussois!
The preliminary programme of the ALERT Doctoral School 2021 in Aussois/online is now available. Be aware that changes can still occur. The programme of the Workshop will follow soon.
Download the School preliminary programme.
More information and the link to the registration script can be found here.
Dear ALERT community,
As sanitary conditions are improving, certainly thanks to the vaccination, we are confident that it will be possible to meet again in September 2021 in Aussois.
However, it cannot be ruled out that travel restrictions will still be in place at that time, particularly from outside the EU. The conditions for entering France will depend on your country of departure and your vaccination status (https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coronavirus-advice-for-foreign-nationals-in-france/#sommaire_1 ).
Therefore, for the first time in the history of ALERT, the decision was taken to organize the workshop and the doctoral school in hybrid mode in 2021. It means it will be possible to attend these events while being present in Aussois or remotely. This way, we hope to meet the expectations of both those eager to meet and those unwilling to travel.
In the coming weeks, you will be able to register and choosing one of these two options (which can be modified if necessary).
Keep staying safe, long life to ALERT-Geomaterials!
Dear ALERT members,
the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, and for us all moments of stress alternate with moments of hope. We can expect an improvement in the coming months with vaccination, but the pandemic has so often overturned all forecasts that, as of today, no certainty is allowed.
We all wish to meet again in Aussois at the end of September in order to share scientific discussions or simply a coffee (or a beer). The Bureau will let you know the final decision on the organisation mode by the end of June, but be sure that this year all our activities (including the three workshop sessions) will take place – in the worst case, remotely!
Please find attached our Spring 2021 Newsletter.
Following this confirmation of our willingness to organise all our activities in 2021, the deadline to send title and abstract of presentations for the Workshop 2021 has been extended to 20 June 2021.
From September 27 to September 29 (hopefully in Aussois, possibly online).
Session 1 “Forecasting landslide displacements”
Coordinators: Sabatino Cuomo (UniSa), Jean Vaunat (CIMNE), Núria M. Pinyol (UPC)
Dear Colleagues,
the Workshop is organized in the framework of the agreement between ALERT Geomaterials and the international LARAM School (LAndslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation, University of Salerno).
Geomechanics-driven models will be presented, including issues like incrementally non-linear behaviour of soil, hydro-mechanical coupling, weathering process, rate- and thermal effects. These models are widely applied for slope analysis at local scale, especially for back-analysis of failures, individuation of the key factors for failure, investigation of triggering mechanisms, modelling of post-failure and tempo-spatial evolution of slopes. Contributions about small-strain approaches for cohesive soils, large-displacements approaches for slope failures evolving into flows, or landslide propagation analysis are welcome.
Engineering-oriented procedures will also presented in the context of landslide risk theory to provide relevant information for early-warning systems, urban planning maps, countermeasures against landslide movement and land control tools operational, both at slope scale and over wide areas.
The two classes of tools are really complementary and they should be ideally integrated to effectively tackle the forecasting of landslide displacements. And, in fact the Workshop aims at reinforcing the links between the scholars coming from ALERT and LARAM communities.
DEADLINE: 20 June 2021 to send title and abstract of presentations (only abstract respecting the format suggested by ALERT, can be accepted).
SUBMISSION: please send your abstract to: scuomo@unisa.it
Best regards, see you in Aussois
Sabatino, Jean and Nuria
Session 2 “ Machine Learning and Geomechanics ”
Coordinators: Ioannis Stefanou (EC-Nantes) and Felix Darve (3SR)
Machine Learning (ML) is a promising ensemble of mathematical tools and methods that have already lead to astonishing results in science and technology.
The objective of this session is to demonstrate that machine learning can be used to bypass some of the current limitations of several experimental and numerical methods in the field of geomaterials, geomechanics and more generally in solid mechanics.
There is hope that this new approach may lead to more realistic, physics-based models with several applications in geo-energy resources (e.g. geothermal energy, oil and gaz extraction, …), in nuclear waste disposal, in CO2 sequestration, and in the prediction and prevention of natural risks (e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, rockfalls, snow avalanches, debris flows, …).
The session will consist of invited talks only. Renowned invited speakers will share their experience on ML showing the large perspectives of the method in solid mechanics and geomechanics.
Session 3 “Bridging the gap between experiments and modelling: from laboratory testing to material models prediction”
Coordinators: Béatrice Baudet (b.baudet@ucl.ac.uk) (University College London, U.K.), Federica Cotecchia (federica.cotecchia@poliba.it) (Politecnico di Bari, Italy), Cristina Jommi (cristina.jommi@polimi.it) (Politecnico di Milano, Italy) and (C.Jommi@tudelft.nl) (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
At this point in time, when soil laboratory testing has advanced to the extent that we can determine the contact behaviour between two sand grains and coarse soils can be modelled at the microscale with realistic particle properties, it may be a good time to pause and ask: are we modelling real internal processes for either coarse or fine soils? This day session attempts to address this issue.
The sub-sessions will concern the laboratory testing providing evidence of a micro to macro behavioural framework. Both consolidated soils, either coarse or fine, whose structure developed through sedimentation and consolidation in saturated conditions and compacted soils, deposited and loaded in partially saturated conditions, are of interest. The afternoon sub-sessions will be focused on the modelling of micro- and macro-processes, including the differences between the micro-structure of consolidated and compacted soils, which will be emphasized with experimental data to serve as platform for the modelling. Examples of how some of that evidence is integrated in modelling should be provided. The morning and afternoon sessions will be centred around two invited lectures each, complemented by selected presentations. Extra discussion time will be scheduled.
Three sub-sessions are foreseen: 1. Experimental evidence of physical processes in soils and their experimental characterisation; 2. Modelling micromechanical properties and processes with discrete mechanics; 3. Continuum modelling of micromechanical processes with macromechanics. The modelling sessions should focus on models that actively account for experimental observations.
The organisers would like to invite you to participate in one of the sessions above in the form of a 20-minute presentation.
DEADLINE AND SUBMISSION: Abstracts are invited to be submitted to the organisers by 20 June 2021 (respecting the format suggested by ALERT). Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to give a presentation within the appropriate mini-session.
The ALERT Workshop 2021 (31st Edition) should be held in Aussois from 27th to 29th September, 2021. Abstracts can now be submitted. Please submit your abstracts by email directly to the coordinators using the Workshop abstract form (doc). If you wish to publish your presentation after the Workshop on the ALERT website, do not forget to agree by ticking the corresponding box in the abstract form.
Since time for the presentations is limited, only a part of the submitted abstracts can be chosen for the oral presentations. Therefore, we invite you to submit your abstract as soon as possible. The presentation can also be submitted as a poster. The abstracts of the posters will be published in a separate booklet (ISSN registered).
The deadline for the abstract submission is May 17, 2021. For any communication about your participation to the workshops, please contact the coordinators of the workshop sessions directly.
Note that if the sanitary situation does not allow us to meet in Aussois at the end of September 2021, the workshop will not be postponed again but will be held online.
Dear Alert friends,
As you know, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and after careful consideration, the Bureau and the BoD have decided to cancel the ALERT workshop in 2020 — it will take place in 2021 (from September 27 to September 29).
But the Doctoral School, the PhD Prize as well as the Invited Lecture will take place online (via one of the several available platforms for distance teaching).
The doctoral E-School on “Point based numerical methods in geomechanics” is organized by Pr. Manolo Pastor and Pr. Wei Wu (see description). It will take place remotely every morning from September 28th to October 1st.
The PhD prize and the Invited Lecture will take place remotely on Tuesday September 29th, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm (CET) for the ALERT PhD prize 2020 and from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm (CET) for our ALERT Invited lecturer, Pr. Chris Spiers.
All these events are free of charge and available for ALERT and non-ALERT members. However, the registration is mandatory.
It is thus my great pleasure to announce that the registration for the 2020 ALERT Geomaterials events is open now! After filling the form and pressing the button “Register”, you will get an email with the registration data. In case of the registration of the ALERT members, the corresponding representative of the ALERT institution will receive the registration data too.
Registration is now closed.
Stay healthy,
Frédéric COLLIN, ALERT Director.
Dear Alert friends,
As you know, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and after careful consideration, the Bureau and the BoD have decided to cancel the ALERT workshop in 2020 — it will take place in 2021 (from September 27 to September 29).
But the Doctoral School, the PhD Prize as well as the Invited Lecture will take place online (via one of the several available platforms for distance teaching).
The doctoral E-School on “Point based numerical methods in geomechanics” is organized by Pr. Manolo Pastor and Pr. Wei Wu (see description). It will take place remotely every morning from September 28th to October 1st.
The PhD prize and the Invited Lecture will take place remotely on Tuesday September 29th, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm (CET) for the ALERT PhD prize 2020 and from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm (CET) for our ALERT Invited lecturer, Pr. Chris Spiers.
All these events are free of charge and available for ALERT and non-ALERT members. However, the registration is mandatory.
It is thus my great pleasure to announce that the registration for the 2020 ALERT Geomaterials events is open now! After filling the form and pressing the button “Register”, you will get an email with the registration data. In case of the registration of the ALERT members, the corresponding representative of the ALERT institution will receive the registration data too.
Registration is now closed.
Stay healthy,
Frédéric COLLIN, ALERT Director.
Dear Alert friends,
first of all, the Board of Directors and the Bureau hope you (and your family) are doing well in these weird and difficult times…
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and after careful consideration, the Bureau and the BoD have decided to cancel the ALERT workshop in 2020 — it will take place in 2021 (from September 27 to September 29).
Concerning the OZ course, we propose to postpone it to April 2021.
The election of the Board of Director was supposed to be organized this year and after discussions, it is decided to postpone it in 2021. The current Bureau and the Board will remain in charge by a prorogation of their mandate for the ordinary matters.
*All the other activities will be organized remotely:*
– for the doctoral school, we have decided to keep it for this year– it will be taught and attended remotely, though.
– we have decided not to postpone also the PhD prize as well as the invited lecture, also these two events will take place online (either pre-recording it or giving it online via one of the several available platforms for distance teaching).
You will find more information in the Editorial of the Newsletter but you can imagine how painful this decision was. It will be the first time since 1994 that we will not meet in Aussois !
Keep staying safe!
Frédéric COLLIN
ALERT Director