The 22nd GFWA Prize for final year undergraduate projects in geomechanics at universities of Western Australia was held by the Australian Geomechanics Society on 11 November at the auditorium of Engineers Australia in Perth. This year’s master of ceremony was Colin Dickson who chairs the AGS WA Committee. Finalists in this year’s event were from UWA, Curtin University and ECU. This year’s winner, as chosen by the judges, was Julia Li from UWA whose presentation was titled “The capacity of CFA Piles in Perth Sand”. The best presenter, as chosen by the audience, was Hazim Abu-Taleb from Curtin University who presented “Modelling the Void Ratio of Fiber-Reinforced Sand”. The other finalists were Soo In Park from Curtin University, Matthew Ramm from UWA and Sergey Hunt from ECU whose presentations were respectively titled “Laboratory Investigation on Microfine Cement Permeation Grouting in Sand”, “A Hybrid Foundation for Subsea Infrastructure” and “Numerical and Analytical Analyses of Rock Slope Plane Failure”.

Top: Babak Hamidi presenting the winner’s prize to Julia Li. Bottom: From left to right Julia Li, Sergey Hunt, Soo In Park,Babak Hamidi, Colin Dickson, Matthew Ramm and Hazim Abu-Taleb