Good news for the Purdue Geotech group from the 2012 Geo-Congress which took place March 25-29 in Oakland, CA. The Geo-Congress, which is the top event of the year for the US geotechnical community, brought together  over 1000 participants, including more than 400 students.

One of the student activities - the poster competition - saw a Purdue student - Alain El Howayek emerge as the winner. 60 posters were submitted, of which 25 were accepted for the competition that also required a short (3 min) presentation.

The judging panel, which included faculty members from various universities, industry professionals and representatives from the Graduate Student Organization Student Leadership Council, ultimately selected Alain's poster entitled Characterization, Rheology and Microstructure of Laponite Suspensions for the top of three prizes that were awarded at the "Hero and Awards Luncheon" on March 27.

The poster summarizes the NSF sponsored research that Alain completed for his MS degree working with Professors Antonio Bobet, Marika Santagata and Joe  Sinfield of Civil Engineering and Professor Cliff Johnston of Agronomy.

Alain is currently pursuing his PhD degree in geotechnical engineering at Purdue.