Webinar series brings awareness to geoenvironmental engineering issues around the world
The global pandemic has changed the way people work, attend school, communicate with one another, conduct research, and approach daily tasks. For Krishna Reddy, professor of civil, materials, and environmental engineering, the pandemic has challenged him to take a new approach to bringing awareness to geoenvironmental issues around the world.
With people required to stay at home and conferences canceled, the UIC professor decided to launch a series of weekly webinars to keep people connected, bring attention to the interdisciplinary nature of geoenvironmental engineering, and develop creative solutions for environmental protection, sustainability, and resiliency worldwide.
“Realistically, I would not have organized these webinars if there was no pandemic, as I was not familiar with online meeting platforms,” he said. “I usually do not have enough time as a result of hectic in-person activities, meetings, travel, and more. The pandemic helped everyone around the world become familiar with online platforms, hear from inspiring presenters, and reach people in remote areas of the world.”
The Geoenvironmental Engineering Webinar series started in mid-January and the professor has hosted 16 to date, which have been attended by people from more than 20 countries.
“The webinars are open to everyone,” Reddy said. “They are targeted toward faculty, graduate students, and industry members worldwide who are involved in geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering and science, and other related areas.”
The series covers a wide-range of issues associated with land contamination, waste management, and sustainability and resiliency, and allows attendees to understand diverse geoenvironmental problems that are prevalent worldwide, become aware of and learn from research projects that are being performed to address the issues, be part of a network of geoenvironmental engineering researchers worldwide, and inspire people to pursue research.
“I have been getting very positive responses and thank-you notes from numerous participants,” Reddy said. “I’m very happy to be disseminating the much-needed knowledge on geoenvironmental engineering issues and connecting with more people around the world. I’m confident this will have a bigger impact on research as our networking grows.”
A list of upcoming seminars can be found on the CME Events page.
All of the previous webinars have been recorded and they are available on YouTube at Geoenvironmental Engineering Webinars.
More information about Reddy and his research can be found on his laboratory website.