Volume 5, Issue 3 September 2020

Young Members Column
Hoang Thi Lua
Ph.D. Student, Kanazawa University
My name is Hoang Thi Lua and I am Vietnamese. I received my bachelor's degree in Hydraulic Engineering in 2011 andmy master's degree in Geotechnical Engineering in 2014 at Thuyloi University. After graduation, I decided to pursue ateaching and researching career in the field of Geotechnical Engineering, so I came to Japan to start my Ph.D. course atKanazawa University since 2017, and I am now a final year Ph.D. student.
My country, Vietnam - a developing country with a population of over 97 million - isexperiencing a period of rapid economic growth. To make Vietnam an attractive
destination for foreign investors, Vietnam has been investing a lot in human capitaland infrastructure. In densely populated places such as big cities and industrialzones, new construction projects including residential buildings, hospitals, schools,roads, offices, factories and commercial centers are becoming increasingly commonrequirements. This calls for the need of civil engineers, especially geotechnicalengineers to find safe, efficient, and economical construction solutions. While theneed for infrastructure development is urgent, Vietnam also needs to address
related challenges regarding local geological and geotechnical features, and natural
disasters such as soft soil, complex groundwater, ground subsidence, soil erosion,landslides, and flooding. These demands require workers in the construction sector
to improve their performance, learn from experiences, and update technology fromdeveloped countries to adapt to the demands of the country in the new era.
Ms. Lua (left side) at Geotechanoi 2019
My research topic focuses on pile foundation engineering, especially piled raft foundations supported by displacement
piles which will be one of the economical and promising foundation solutions for the construction industry of Vietnam.
As an important part of my research topic, I pay attention to pile-related issues. I have attended some geotechnicalengineering conferences, read related papers to keep up with new information on the field of foundations in general anddisplacement piles in particular. Fortunately, Prof. Matsumoto introduced me to the International Press-in Association(IPA) as well as The Second International Conference on Press-in Engineering (ICPE) 2021 which will be held in Kochi. ICPE
2021 is really exciting to me, and searching on the internet, I have found useful information related to the IPA and ICPE,
and the topic of ICPE really attracts me. I believe that I will gain a lot from IPA to improve my research. I will also introduce
IPA to my colleagues so that more people may have opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills towards a moresustainable country development.

Wentao Guo
Master Student, Kanazawa University
Originally from Tianjin, China. Now I am a master student of Environmental Design atKanazawa University, located in Hokuriku. Prior to that, I studied in the School ofArchitecture at the University of Tianjin. I moved to Kanazawa in the 2018. The SecondInternational Conference on Press-in Engineering (ICPE) in Kochi will be my first time toattend an international conference as a student member, and it will be a good opportunity
for me to learn and communicate with other researchers from all over the world.
My research focus on pile foundation, which is a foundation form with high bearing
capacity, wide application scope and a long history. With the improvement ofproduction level and the development of science and technology, the type, process, design, calculation method andapplication scope of pile foundation have been greatly developed, and are widely used in high-rise buildings, ports,bridges and other projects. Nowadays, the challenges to companies are to reduce costs and at same time keep safety.
These are also my research subjects. With the development of China's urbanization, Civil Engineering will inevitably face
more complex environmental and geological conditions, more difficult design and construction tasks of ultra-deepfoundation as well as planning and construction of more large-scale underground space infrastructure. I hope that thePress-in Technology will be available in China in the near future.
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