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The Canadian Underground Infrastructure Innovation Centre (CUIIC) hosted the 2023 CUIIC Innovation Forum last week at the University of Alberta. This yearly event brought together 80 attendees to learn about cutting-edge solutions and major trends in underground infrastructure
Please join us in welcoming Denise Prefontaine to CUIIC as a Technical Writer. Denise was born and spent her early years in Birkenhead, England. Her family emigrated to Canada in 1974, settling in Edmonton where she completed her schooling. Denise attended the University of Alberta earning an undergraduate degree BA (Recreation Administration) followed by an MBA. Denise enjoyed a long, successful career with the City of Edmonton where she focused on improving the community’s quality of life through facilitating, developing, and managing recreation facilities, open spaces, tourist attractions, and programs.
Recently, Inshik Park received the 2023 Michael E. Argent Memorial Scholarship from the North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT) and the 2023 Graduate Student Teaching Award from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) at the University of Alberta. Inshik is a PhD Student at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Alireza Bayat, Director at the Canadian Underground Infrastructure Innovation Centre, and his research has been focusing on the improvement in estimating the maximum allowable annular pressure in horizontal directional drilling. At the beginning of this year, Inshik published a journal article, "Determination of geotechnical parameters for underground trenchless construction design" in the Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment under the supervision of Dr. Chao Kang and Dr. Alireza Bayat. This article can be found here.
The activities of the Canadian Underground Infrastructure Innovation Centre are off to a strong start in 2023, thanks to the dedication and hard work of those on our committees, our staff, and the contributions of our member organizations. CUIIC now has more than fifty member organizations across Canada and the US, each of them with a valuable perspective on the underground sector. As we build a strong network of professionals including manufacturers, suppliers, and contractors, to consultants, utilities, municipalities, and non-profit agencies, we are forming a solid base from which to advance knowledge, share ideas, and push innovation.
It has been an eventful year with the Canadian Underground Infrastructure Innovation Centre (CUIIC). We appreciate the contributions of our more than forty member organizations across the country, as well as those who have been involved in our current activities.
I personally have enjoyed representing CUIIC at events including NASTT No-Dig North in Toronto, the Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) Damage Prevention Symposium in Whistler, Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband Community (CRRBC) Conference in Banff and the International Pipelines Conference in Calgary. It has been a privilege to meet and connect with so many in the underground sector across Canada. |
