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Dr Jurij Karlovsek is an expert in the field of Geotechnical Engineering, dedicated to advancing knowledge through research and fostering the development of the next generation of engineers. His comprehensive expertise spans various domains within Geotechnical Engineering, including:

1. Infrastructure Projects (Sustainable Underground Space Development - Tunnelling):

• Pioneering research in Sustainable Underground Space development.
• Expertise in Tunnelling, encompassing aspects such as Information Modelling (BIM in Tunnelling - IFCTunnel),
• Constructability, and Lifecycle Analysis.

2. Information Modelling:

• Proficiency in Information Modelling with a focus on BIM in Tunnelling (IFCTunnel).
• Expertise in Constructability and Lifecycle Analysis.

3. Non-Destructive and Spatial Techniques:

• Employing Non-Destructive and Spatial techniques for Infrastructure Projects.
• Specialized in Integrity and Localization through advanced technologies like GPR, SLAM, LiDAR, and InSAR.

Dr Karlovsek plays a pivotal role as an EAIT Faculty Lead and Co-Director at the Sustainable Infrastructure Research Hub, collaborating closely with the BEL Faculty. Additionally, he is the co-founder and area lead at the Infrastructure CoLab.

Within the School of Civil Engineering (SoCE), Dr Karlovsek serves as the course coordinator for key subjects:

• CIVL2210 - Soil Mechanics
• CIVL4525 - Sustainable Infrastructure Design
• CIVL6250 - Underground Structures

At the corporate level, Dr Karlovsek is actively involved in community engagement through the creation and implementation of associations. Currently, he holds the position of Vice-President of the National Committee of the Australian Tunnelling Society (ATS) and serves as the Past Animator (Chair) of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) Working Group 22 – Information Modelling in Tunnelling (BIM in Tunnelling). Locally, Dr Karlovsek contributes to committees at BrisBIM – Digital Community Group Queensland, Planning Institute of Australia Technical Group (PlanTech), Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB) and the Australian Shotcrete Society National Committee.

Beyond his organizational roles, Dr Karlovsek is deeply committed to mentorship, actively guiding undergraduate and postgraduate students. He supports their research endeavors, industry engagement activities, and overall ensures a enriching and profitable educational experience for each student under his mentorship.

Dr Danish Kazmi completed his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia. His PhD research investigated the potential use of crushed waste glass as a sustainable alternative to depleting traditional construction sands (natural and quarried) to backfill granular columns for in situ ground improvement. He is a pioneer globally in researching the potential use of crushed waste glass to backfill granular columns for ground improvement in clayey soil.

His research mainly focuses on developing sustainable geomaterials by recycling ever-increasing wastes as alternatives to diminishing and increasingly expensive natural aggregates in geotechnical construction, helping the transition to a circular economy.

Danish is a TEDx Speaker and delivered a TEDx Talk at TEDxBrisbane. He is also one of the youngest researchers ever from his centre at UQ to receive a PhD.

Danish won the prestigious Career Development Fellowship at UQ, funded by the Australian Government. He received the coveted UQ Global Change Scholar Award and Future Leader Award. He won the Young Science Ambassador Award for the Wonder of Science Program in Australia to help promote a STEM culture in Queensland schools. He is a passionate science communicator and a double award winner at the Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®) at the UQ’s School of Civil Engineering level. His PhD research has been featured in several Australian magazines and has led him to win several scholarships, alongside his selection to present at well-reputed live science communication events. Danish has published three high-definition UQ-branded Video Abstracts to communicate his research to the broader society and help maximise science outreach. Danish was interviewed by Inspiring Australia as part of Australia's National Science Week celebrations to help spark the interest of students in STEM education. He has successfully initiated cross-institutional research collaborations with world-leading national and international organisations and is an invited reviewer for various top-ranking scientific journals.

Danish currently works full-time as a Geotechnical Engineer in the Tunnels & Geotechnics Team (South Queensland Region) at GHD in the Australian industry. Previously, he worked as a full-time Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at UQ. He is passionate about helping to develop transformative civil and geotechnical engineering solutions through leading-edge research leveraging university-industry collaborations.

Danish is a UQ Global Change Scholar and Green Office Representative. He is an accredited Mental Health First Aider and a UQ Mental Health Champion. He is also a certified Carbon Literate. Danish cares deeply about the environment and believes planet Earth is our most valuable asset. Outside work, he enjoys volunteering for sustainability and social initiatives, connecting with nature, and spending time at the beach.

Australian Geotechnical Industry Experience Highlights

• Asset management, site inspections, construction quality assurance and compliance
• Dam inspections, monitoring, regulatory compliance and high-level reporting
• Geotechnical site investigations (including sonic drilling, auger drilling, etc.)
• Borehole and test pit logging
• In-situ sampling of soils and rocks
• Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
• Dynamic Cone Penetration Test (DCP) and PANDA® Lightweight Dynamic Cone Penetration Test
• Packer Test (to determine the average hydraulic conductivity of underground rock formations)
• Geotechnical instrumentation (standpipe and vibrating wire piezometers, data loggers, telemetry, etc.)
• Geotechnical cost estimation, report writing and proposal development

Dr. Partha Narayan Mishra obtained his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2020 with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding HDR theses. He was conferred with the Institute Gold and Institute Silver Medals from National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India during his graduation with a dual degree (B.Tech. Hons. In Civil Engineering and M.Tech. in Geotechnical Engineering) in 2015.

Research

Partha is a Geotechnical Engineer and researcher with research interests in the arenas of improvement of soft soils, behaviour of unsaturated soils, electromagnetic characterisation and monitoring of soil processes, biomediated geotechnical engineering and clay barrier systems in hazardous waste disposal facilities. Outcomes of his research have been summarised in 30+ technical articles in top tier international journals, conferences, and book chapters. In academic and research space, Partha has worked as a summer research fellow at IIT Guwahati, India (2013) and at IIT Madras, India (2014), research scholar at IIT Madras, India (2015-2016), casual academic/research assistant in Civil Engineering at UQ, Australia (2016-2020), adjunct lecturer in Civil Engineering at UQ, Australia (2020-cont.) and at UCSI university, Malaysia (2020-2021).

Industry

As a practicing engineer, he has worked on several projects pertaining to tailings storage facilities (TSFs) in Australia and overseas. His industry experience comprises of working as a consulting geotechnical engineer with Klohn Crippen Berger (KCB Australia) (2020- 2021) and as an owner’s engineer with Rio Tinto Aluminium (2021-2022). Through these roles he has developed an intimate understanding of the challenges encountered in engineering, operation, and management of TSFs, some of which he aims to address through his research.

Teaching

Partha has co-supervised 1 masters, 2 bachelors and 3 summer research thesis to completion at UQ. He currently co-supervises 2 PhD students. He has co-delivered Advanced Soil Mechanics (CIVL4230) at UQ in 2021. He has also tutored Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics (CIVL2210) and Geotechnical Engineering (CIVL3210) at UQ from 2016 - 2020. In 2020, Partha initiated the ‘Lecture Series on Advancements in Geotechnical Engineering: from Research to Practice’ (AGERP) in collaboration with Professor Sarat Das. The AGERP lecture series is a pro-bono attempt towards disseminating the coupled learnings from academia and industry on several key topics in Geotechnical Engineering. The AGERP lecture series has reached to participants (academics, practicing engineers and students) from over 125 countries. More on the AGERP initiative is here: https://www.age-rp.com/. Partha was conferred with fellowship (2021) and associate fellowship (2019) from the Higher Education Academy, UK for his teaching portfolio benchmarked against UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education.

Service

Partha is a member of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS), the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) and an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He regularly reviews technical articles (50+ so far) for top tier international journals in the discipline such as Geotechnical Testing Journal, Acta Geotechnica, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering etc. Partha was the President of UQU association of postgraduate students (2016-2017) and chair of the annual conference of the EAIT faculty of UQ (2017-2018). He has also sat in the UQ library advisory committee (2018) and student experience committee of UQ academic board (2017).

Dr Adnan Sufian completed his PhD at UNSW Sydney, spending one year as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Queensland, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London and has also worked as a geotechnical engineer with SMEC Australia. Dr Sufian's field of research is in the area of multi-scale and multi-phase mechanics of granular materials. His research aims to develop tools and guidelines so that geotechnical engineers can better handle, manipulate and construct with granular materials, and this can lead to innovative solutions to geotechnical issues surrounding the development of urban infrastructure. He is also interested in understanding natural phenomena associated with granular geomaterials such as landscapes affected by erosion, mass movement of materials in landslides, and mitigating the spread of contaminants in subsurface flows. Dr Sufian has strong expertise in the development of novel, efficient and rigorous multi-scale computational modelling techniques, including the Discrete Element Method, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Network Models, with a core focus on the interaction of water with soil particles. His research is naturally multidisciplinary and he currently collaborates with physicists, mathematicians and engineers to uncover emergent phenomena from the collective behaviour of granular particles.