IROE early-career researchers, Dr Yuting Zhang and Dr Abigail Bateman, attended ISGSR2025, Oslo, Norway

Dr Yuting Zhang and Dr Abigail Bateman, early-career researchers in IROE, participated in the 9th International Symposium for Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR) hosted by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) from August 25-28, 2025.

ISGSR is a biennial series of international conferences supported by the Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet), ISSMGE Technical Committees TC304, TC205, TC309, and ASCE Geo Institute’s Technical Committee on Risk Assessment and Management. The ISGSR 2025 theme, “Geotechnical Risk Frontiers”, highlighted the latest research developments and innovations in engineering practice, with a focus on the use of probabilistic and risk methodologies in geotechnical engineering.

Dr Zhang presented his research on the probabilistic calibration of resistance factors for pile groups in the session Reliability-Based Code Developments. His study introduces two novel probabilistic methods—a Bayesian-based method and a machine learning-based method—for calibrating resistance factors based on individual load tests. These methods can explicitly consider system redundancy and the correlation among individual piles, both of which are strongly influenced by the spatial variability of soils.

In addition to participating in the conference, Dr Bateman attended two short on (1) “Reliability-Based Design” delivered by Prof. Gordon Fenton and Dr Timo Schweckendiek and (2) “An Introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis” delivered by Dr Nezam Bozorgzadeh and Dr Iason Papaioannou. These courses, organised as part of the conference, provided a valuable learning opportunity as well as networking with other young researchers.