“111” webinar: Lecture by Professor Sai K. Vanapalli

Subsequent to success of the first session of“111” webinar of oversea experts, Prof. Sai K. Vanapalli from Department of Civil Engineering of University of Ottawa, invited by Prof. Ping Li, gave his on-line lecture on “Prediction of Soil-Water Characteristic Curve Using AI Aided Method” on January 15, 2002. Over 100 teachers and students attended thislecture.

Prof. Sai K. Vanapalli shared his most recent research work in his lecture, he innovatively applied the method of artificial intelligence (AI) in the prediction of soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) for sands. He explained the logical framework, prediction performance and pros/cons of two AI models (ANN and MARS), and discussed about future research on the application of AI method on fine-grained soils. He pointed out that AI method could have great potential in traditional geotechnicalapplications.

Prof. Sai K. Vanapalli is a well-known expert who contributed enormously to the study of unsaturated soils. He has been keeping close research collaborations and academic communications with Chang’an University since many years. He visited Chang’an University several times and received as co-supervisor many of our PhDstudents.

During the meeting, Prof. Sai K. Vanapalli had a lively discussion with the teachers and students about issues with respect to the lecture. This is the second session of the “111” webinar, which is under the support of “Western geohazards and geotechnical engineering oversea innovation project”. More oversea experts will be invited in the upcomingweeks.

（YU BO）