Major engineering conference in Malta next March

by a staff reporter

Safety, reliability and risk are key issues in modern society. Road and railway accidents, tunnel fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, shipwrecks and other catastrophes, such as those associated with names or locations like Baia Mare, Bophal, Chernobyl, Enschede, Exxon-Valdez, Izmit, Kobe, Mitch, Erika, Mont Blanc and Schwiezerhalle, make us aware of the vulnerability of our technical and natural environment, and demand an adequate engineering response.
The design and operation of civil engineering structures, as well as of technical systems and facilities, involve consideration of safety, lifetime performance and environmental aspects. These range from loss of life, as a result of the rare collapse of structures, to the risks from accidents related to industrial and environmental hazards. In all cases, the fundamental questions are “what level of risk is optimal from the cost-benefit point of view”?, “what are the client’s and society’s safety acceptance criteria”? and “how much are they
prepared to pay for reducing risk levels”?
This is the theme of a major international engineering conference that will be held in Malta next March. The conference will address various aspects of the challenging fields of safety, risk and reliability in engineering, and will focus
on disseminating knowledge to civil and structural engineers in order to help them in their work. The conference is intended obviously for civil and structural engineers, but also for other professionals concerned with structures, systems or facilities that require
the assessment of safety, risk and reliability.
The conference is organised by International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), in conjunction with the international engineering organisations CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), ECCS (European Convention for Constructional Steelwork), FIB (International Federation for Structural Concrete), and RILEM (International Union of Leasing and Research Laboratories for Materials and Structures), as well as with the cooperation of the JCSS (Joint Committee on Structural Safety), ESRA (European Safety and Reliability Association) and CERRA (Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association). The conference is under the patronage of the Minister for the Environment, Dr Francis Zammit Dimech. The University of Malta, the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers, the Chamber of Professional Engineers and the Building Industry Consultative Council are represented on the local organising committee.
The organisation of this conference started towards the end of 1998, when the executive director of IABSE visited Malta to explore the possibility of organising this conference here. Through the encouragement and support of the Minister for the Environment, and the Minister for Transport and Communications, and with the financial support of Air Malta and the Malta Tourism authority, a Liaison Committee meeting and familiarisation trip were held in November 1999, for representatives of all the participating associations, in order to confirm the selection of Malta as the venue for the conference, and to confirm the nominations to the various committees required for the organisation.
Following the first international call for papers in 1999, 370 abstracts were received by the Programme Committee, of which 89 were accepted for presentation at the conference, while 45 were accepted for poster presentation, and 28 for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
The programme of the conference will take place over four half days. Each half day will start with a plenary session, followed by three concurrent working sessions. Poster sessions will be ongoing over both days. The key themes will be structural risk assessment, risk engineering, lessons from failures, structural codes, risk acceptance criteria, risk control, assessment of existing structures, decision support, risk communication, project, construction and operations risks, reliability in geo-technical engineering, and benchmark studies.
As an introduction to the theme of the conference, a short course will be organised on the day before the start of the conference, to provide background on the statistical methods, reliability theory, and risk analyses for civil engineers and other professionals with little or no prior training in the field. This will provide a basis for the understanding of the topics addressed in the conference.
The conference will be held at the Westin Dragonara Resort, the travel arrangements and other logistics are being managed by Alpine Travel Limited, and Air Malta is the official air carrier. Additional information is available on the official web site: http://www.iabse.ethz.ch/conferences/malta/malta_f.html
This is an important engineering conference, the first of its type in Malta. It is an opportunity for the local engineering profession to participate in the discussion of a major contemporary topic. The organising committee has decided to consider members of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers, and of the Chamber of Professional Engineers as members of supporting associations, so that they will qualify for reduced rates for registration.
In addition, the organising committee has decided to offer each of the first 30 local registrants the opportunity to invite one engineering student, free of charge, to the proceedings of the conference. Furthermore, it will be an opportunity for local manufacturers, contractors and related service providers, to promote themselves to an international engineering audience. It will finally be an opportunity for Malta to consolidate its position in the conference-tourism business.