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Leadership and Learning
In early 2024, Geocomp launched a women’s group to foster greater collaboration across its divisions and create strong pathways for cross-unit partnership. As part of this initiative, we recently were honored to have Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of Viridien, join us as a guest speaker, sharing her inspiring journey to becoming a CEO.
Sophie, known for her commitment to continuous learning, holds multiple master’s degrees and has built a distinguished career in leadership. She joined Viridien in 2013 as Senior Executive Vice President for the Geology, Geophysics, and Reservoir (GGR) segment. By 2018, she was appointed CEO, after serving as Chief Operating Officer where she oversaw the GGR business lines, Global Operational Excellence, and Technology.
With a strong scientific background, Sophie combines technical expertise with business acumen, which she honed both through hands-on experience and targeted education. Reflecting on her path to leadership, Sophie credits her success to a blend of self-confidence, a strong commitment to work-life balance, and her collaborative leadership style, which she calls “team-based leadership.” She emphasized the importance of feedback and open communication, noting that ongoing input from her team has been key to ensuring they are on track and working toward common goals.
The session concluded with a lively Q&A, allowing the women of Geocomp to engage directly with Sophie and learn more about her leadership approach. Looking ahead, additional inspiring guest speakers will be joining the group in 2025 to continue building a culture of continuous learning and leadership development.
Reinforcing Wind Power: Geocomp’s Advanced Turbine Monitoring
As part of efforts to enhance performance and resilience, Geocomp’s client recently upgraded several wind turbines across multiple wind farms, fitting them with larger rotors. These turbines are supported by shallow gravity spread footer foundations with anchor bolt connections. Recognizing that the increased cyclic loads from the larger rotors could weaken the concrete and reinforcing steel over time, the client sought to implement a comprehensive foundation monitoring program to detect potential issues early and enable proactive, cost-effective maintenance.
The challenge of accommodating larger rotors required a solution capable of monitoring structural integrity across multiple turbines. Geocomp rose to the occasion by installing
monitoring systems on several re-powered turbines, including both permanent systems for long-term monitoring and temporary systems for targeted short-term assessments.
Each turbine was equipped with four strain gauges placed around the interior wall of the tower’s base section, as well as a biaxial tiltmeter on the foundation’s pedestal concrete.
This combination of instruments provides continuous, high resolution data, enabling real-time assessment of overturning movements and rotational stiffness.
To simplify the data collection and analysis process, Geocomp utilized our automated data management platform, iSiteCentral®. This platform streamlined data collection, reporting, and analysis, offering insights into each turbine’s structural performance. By establishing baselines through seasonal sensor statistics, we could detect anomalies, providing our client with timely and actionable information on the turbines’ long-term integrity.
Compared to traditional below-grade inspections, which are often slow, disruptive, and require de-energizing entire turbine strings, our monitoring approach reduces downtime
and eliminates the need for invasive methods like excavation or coring. These conventional methods can compromise the foundation further. With our system’s continuous high resolution data gathering, we can proactively detect early warning signs, enabling more informed maintenance decisions and protecting the long-term resilience of the wind turbines.
New Report on Arecibo Telescope Collapse
A recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sheds light on the cause of the 2020 collapse of the Arecibo Observatory’s iconic telescope in Puerto Rico. The report attributes the failure to long-term zinc creep in cable spelter sockets, which caused the cables supporting the platform to gradually loosen. One factor that may have accelerated the zinc creep is the prolonged exposure to low-current electro-plasticity, likely induced by the electromagnetic waves generated by the telescope.
The committee behind the report, which conducted an in-depth forensic investigation, analyzed engineering plans, inspection reports, structural assessments, and repair proposals. Geocomp’s own Dr. Allen Marr served on the committee, contributing his expertise in structural analysis and specifically highlighting a significant oversight: the absence of a monitoring program that could have detected the developing creep within the socket connections before the collapse.
As a result of Dr. Marr’s insights, the committee recommended a new approach for the design and maintenance of critical infrastructure. They called for the requirement that the designer of any critical structure—particularly those where failure could lead to fatalities—be tasked with providing a comprehensive document at the handover stage. This document would summarize potential failure modes, identify early warning signs for each, and outline a monitoring program with clear action thresholds for each identified risk.
This recommendation emphasizes the importance of proactive monitoring in preventing catastrophic failures and ensuring the long-term safety and resilience of critical structures.
Spotlight on Our Team
Forensic Engineering Congress Presentation
Engineering Congress in Seattle, Washington. Antonios Vytiniotis, PhD, PE, and Masoud Mousavi, PhD, PE led the presentation, sharing their findings from a recent forensic investigation. They were joined by Gail Lollis, PE, Seda Gokyer Erbis, PhD, PE, and experts from Sercel. The team showcased how our S-scan geophysical solution helped identify the root causes of building settlement and cracking, revealing the presence of a progressively thickening clay layer that contributed to structural issues. This innovative application of geophysical technology enabled more effective problem-solving and preventative measures for our clients quantitatively decide which walls require rehabilitation and which walls could safely remain in service. This resulted in significant savings by avoiding unnecessary rehabilitation and deconstruction.
Seda Gokyer Erbis, PhD, PE, Presented at WiDF’s “Leading with Innovation Forum”
Seda Gokyer Erbis, PhD, PE, shared her expertise at the “Leading with Innovation Forum,” a student outreach event hosted by Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Seda presented her career journey and offered valuable advice for graduate and post-graduate students, focusing on navigating careers in deep foundations. Her presentation inspired the next generation of leaders in the field, emphasizing the importance of innovative leadership and the impact it can have on shaping the future of geotechnical engineering.
Geocomp Experts Lead Sessions at the ASCE Geo-Institute Web Conference
Geocomp’s Andrew Yeskoo, PhD, PE, and Alejandro Sepúlveda, PhD, shared their technical expertise at the ASCE Geo-Institute 9th Annual Web Conference. Andrew Yeskoo co-presented with Professor Kenichi Soga from UC Berkeley on the applications of Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing, showcasing its crucial role in enhancing project safety and efficiency, including Geocomp’s recent success in sinkhole monitoring in Saudi Arabia. Alejandro Sepulveda also presented cutting-edge findings on the validation of complex geotechnical models, focusing on the Liquefaction Experiments and Analysis Projects (LEAP) 2020 data, which aims to improve soil behavior models for clients’ projects.
Welcome Hala El Fil, PhD, PE to Geocomp’s Consulting Team
We are excited to welcome Hala El Fil, PhD, PE to Geocomp’s consulting team as a Project Engineer in our New York office. Hala brings a wealth of knowledge in geotechnical engineering, specializing in foundations, landslides, earth structures, and retaining walls. She has led numerous projects focused on risk assessments and geotechnical instrumentation. Hala earned her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, where she researched the shear response of rock discontinuities and seismic indicators of shear failure. With her strong technical background and field experience, Hala will play a pivotal role in delivering practical, result-driven solutions for Geocomp’s clients.