7th Annual Young Professors Paper Competition

The Deep Foundations Institute Educational Trust announces the 2011 Young Professor Paper Competition.Fulltime entry level faculty members of an accredited college or university, engaged in teaching and/or research in any of the professional fields including engineering, construction or geological sciences are encouraged to submit a paper for consideration.  

The primary author of the winning paper will be invited to attend the DFI 2011 Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, USA to present the paper.  Conference registration, two nights of lodging and a $750 stipend for travel expenses will be provided to the winner.  Both the winner and first runner-up will receive a library of up to 20 DFI Publications and a gratis two-year Individual Membership in DFI.  In brief, DFI is a not-for-profit association of contractors, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, owners and academia which promotes understanding and advancement of the deep foundations & excavations construction industry through conferences, publications, and community.  The Educational Trust is an independent, non-profit, charitable foundation established by DFI in 2005 to promote awareness of the career opportunities available in the deep foundations construction industry and to provide financial assistance for the education of high school and college students pursuing one of these careers.  Learn more at www.dfi.org.Papers are solicited on topics relating to Deep Foundations design and construction as follows:

• Historical evolution of deep foundation design and construction
• Relationship between design, construction and equipment utilization  
• Foundation design and construction research
• Quality control, quality assurance and non-destructive testing

Case studies describing unique deep foundation solutions for design and construction in constrained urban
areas or applications for renovations and retrofits of existing structures are specifically encouraged for this
year’s competition.

Paper Competition Deadlines:

1.  February 14, 2011: Submit an abstract of approximately 250 words in length describing the subject matter of the paper. In addition to paper title and summary, include the following information in the abstract document: primary author name, additional author names if applicable, school affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address.  All abstracts submitted will be included  in the paper competition, unless the subject matter is deemed inappropriate  Professors will be notified by March 1stof abstract acceptability.  
2.  June 6, 2011:  Submit draft paper of no more than 10 pages in length.  Papers will be judged based on submitted drafts.  Comments will be offered to winning and runner-up papers for preparation of final version to be published in the conference proceedings and possibly in the DFI Journal.
3.  July 29, 2011:  Papers in their final form are due by the winner and runner-up.

Other Important Information:

•  Abstracts and papers are to be submitted via email as MS Word Documents to [email protected].
•  Professor must be a full-time entry-level faculty member teaching or involved in research at an accredited college or university.

• Professional field must be engineering/construction/geological sciences.
• Paper must be based on professor’s own work, and may include contributions from his/her research students as secondary authors.  

•  Samples of past winning papers are available for review upon request.

Correspondence regarding the competition should be addressed to DFI Educational Trust Headquarters, address and contact info shown in header.

Source: DFI