Hello word...!!
I have to say that lot
of things have happened since my last entry, which was almost a year ago, so I promise
that I will write a few posts so you can know where I have been and what I have
done within my PhD journey 😊.!
In
this entry, I will explain my views and anecdotes on what it was my first
international conference as a Marie Curie Research Fellow. The name of the conference
was: International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP) which is a volunteer
organization of professionals and experts in asphalt engineering whose goal is
to share the latest in leading edge asphalt pavement technology worldwide. ISAP
conferences occur every four-years having its first appearance in 1962 at Ann
Arbor, Michigan. Fifty-six years later, I had the great opportunity to attend
the thirteenth ISAP conference held in Fortaleza, Brazil between the 19 and 21
of June 2018.
Figure
1: ISAP
Conference Venue at Hotel Gran Marquise
For
any pavement engineer, it was for me at least, see the name of key-speakers
such as Andre Molenaar (UT Delft, Netherlands), Hervé Di Benedetto (University
of Lyon / ENTPE, France), Kim Jenkins (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa),
and many others, was already worth attending the conference and off course,
they did not let the attenders down with their presentations. Professor Molenaar
walk us through “Pavement Design, where did we come from and where are we
going?” which I enjoyed very much. From his lecture, I truly connected when he
mentioned that we will not move further if we keep making assumptions, wrong most
of the time, on the performance of basic inputs for pavement design which in a
way motivated me to talk to him, privately, and explain him the idea behind
SmartEcoPave. All in all, Andre showed interest on my topic and shared some of
his bibliography plus he put me in contact with two of his former PhD students.
Figure
2: Professor Andre Molenaar on the left and your blogger, Mario.
If
I keep talking of all the researchers I met during ISAP this post might turn,
in length, as a chapter of my Thesis and right now we do not want that 😉.
Nevertheless, I would not like to miss the opportunity to mention some of the
people I met and had a talk. Figure 3 shows Richard Kim (North Carolina State
University, USA) top left-side, Kim Jenkins (University of Stellenbosch, South
Africa) top right-side, Luis Guillermo Loria-Salazar (LANAMME-UCR, Costa Rica)
bottom left-side, Emmanuel Chailleux (IFSTTAR, France) bottom centre, and
Breixo Gomez (University of Nottingham, UK) bottom right-side.
Figure
3: World-class speakers at ISAP Conference.
As
an overall conclusion, I gained knowledge from all the presentations I attended
where I also had the chance to dream on how my Piezoelectric Sensors will enter
in the non-stopping development’s world of pavements. Also important, had the
time to relax and to strength relations with colleagues from Spain and Chile.
Figure
4: Colleagues from Spain and Chile during our last dinner together.
Stay tuned and
see you soon pavement lovers!
Mario Manosalvas Paredes.
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