Articles

Past ITACET scholarship recipient Sandeep Nirmal and his colleague Ahmed Shaz recounts for us their adventures working in the Himalayas on a tunnel project. In early July, when most of India is under the influence of heat waves, we were standing on top ice laden Shinkunla pass at an elevation of 5054m, an unexplored, untouched axis connecting Himachal Pradesh to Zanskar (Ladakh). Snow around us, all white. It was a single lane rough, unmetalled road covered with debris, with loose adjoining slopes prone to failure, still not motorable at that point of time because of uncleared snow and avalanche debris on it – but thanks to the Lama who had at least built it in such extreme conditions. We were on a Recci visit for the Shinkunla tunnel.

Past ITACET scholarship recipient Sandeep Nirmal and his colleague Ahmed Shaz recounts for us their adventures working in the Himalayas on a tunnel project. From February 2021 the ITACET Foundation will be starting a new project – a monthly online lunchtime lecture series co-organised with the ITA-CET Committee and ITA! Every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 13:00 CET time, ITACET Foundation will be hosting short lectures online and accessible to all. The aim is to keep all those in the field abreast of new ideas and technologies, and to provide training on important subjects. The series will bring together top professionals from the ITA’s Working Groups and Committees, as well as industry representatives and project owners.

The Lunchtime Lecture Series has now been underway since February and has so far been very successful, with an average of 175 participants joining us online for each event! Due to the success of the series and our wish that as many people as possible have access to the series, we have decided that the series will remain free to watch live! That means, that anyone registering to watch the event can continue to do so free. For anyone in different time zones that may not be able to watch ‘live’, you can still register for the event and will still be sent a link to watch the recording of the session – but this link will only be valid for 24 hours after being sent. After this 24 hours, anyone wanting to watch the episode can do so by registering for the episode on our website on the corresponding Lunchtime lecture page under ‘Past sessions’, but there will be a small fee to watch.

Juan Sebastian Bolívar Vasco received an ITACET Foundation scholarship for the year 2019-2020, enabling him to undertake his studies at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Having completed his studies he wrote us the following letter to let us know how he was getting on :

ITACET Foundation scholarship student Mohamed Beghoul recounts the moment he decided to continue his tunnelling studies and his experience following the specialized Master's programme in Turin :

Last year, Maud Macary went to Kenya to lecture at an ITACET training session. Here she gives us her feedback from the session.

On 17th February and during the ITACET Foundation’s council meeting, HE Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel, the President of the ITACET Foundation, signed an MoU with the ITA President and Vice-President, Jenny Yan and Lars Babendererde respectively.

The ITACET Foundation recently cooperated with the International Road Federation (IRF) to organise a training session in Dubai on Tunnel Safety Management for the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai. The speakers were Catherine Larive from the Centre for Tunnel Studies in France and Philippe Fenain, a senior consultant on road infrastructure management, currently in Barcelona.

The ITACET Foundation, alongside the ITA-CET Committee is embarking on a new type of training session – with TBM simulators at the core of the training.

Annisa Renaningtyas Tadiyana, from Indonesia, was awarded an ITACET scholarship for the academic year 2019-2020. She has just completed her first term at the Warwick University on the 'Tunnelling and Underground Space ' Masters course. Here she gives us an update on her studies so far:

Daniela Zapata Franco, student at INSA, Lyon and originally from Colombia, received the ITACET Foundation scholarship for the year 2018-2019. The Foundation followed Daniela throughout her Masters and were lucky enough to attend her thesis defence back in September. Here she gives us a summary of the what her work entailed:

Former Foundation scholarship recipient Rodrigo Winderholler lets us in on what he's been doing since finishing his Masters:

The Foundation’s ‘Private Area’ now boasts close to 300 presentations given at past ITACET training sessions! Covering a diverse range of topics, new presentations are added on a continual basis and we hope that the Private Area continues to develop.

t is with great sadness that we learnt of the recent passing away of Dr Sherif Wissa Agaiby. Dr Agaiby had a prolific career as Director of the Geotechnical and Heavy Civil Engineering Department at Dar Al-Handasah Consultants, as well as having worked extensively as a university faculty member at the University of Cairo where he taught and conducted research.

We are pleased to present our new flyer which has been produced in collaboration with the ITA-CET Committee.

The WTC2019 in Naples played host to the annual ITACET Awards and, as is now customary, the Awards were given during the Opening Ceremony.

ITACET Foundation has now relocated its Head Office from Lausanne to Geneva!

Daniela Zapata from Colombia (pictured third from left), enrolled on the 2018-2019 edition of the Specialized Master's in Tunnels and Underground Structures, run by the ENTPE/INSA in Lyon, France, thanks to a scholarship granted by the ITACET Foundation. Here, she provides us with an update on her experience so far.

Former Foundation scholarship recipient Sandeep Singh Nirmal is behind the recent initiative to set up the young members group of the Tunnelling Association of India. Here he explains how the group was created and its current activities to date.

Since 2010, the ITACET Foundation for Education and Training has organised short courses within the scope of the World Tunnel Congresses, in collaboration with the host nation and the ITA-CET Committee.

Congratulations to Sweta Nemani who recently graduated from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy after having been awarded a scholarship from the ITACET Foundation to follow the post-graduate Masters in Tunnels and Tunnel Boring Machines. The Foundation wishes her all the best for her future career!