WHAT IS THE HTC?

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The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), https://www.issmge.org/, was formed nearly a century ago. The ISSMGE Heritage Time Capsule (HTC) project is setting the strategy framework for the second 100 years of geotechnical engineering, including the creation of a dedicated HTC website https://htc.issmge.org/, where a large number of contributions have been placed on the HTC website by members of the various ISSMGE cohorts, and the planned sealing of a physical time capsule in 2026, to be opened in one hundred years, in 2126. 

Background and planned activities

In 2020, scoping of the project was undertaken by a 16-person project committee, followed by formation of a design team. Work then started on creating an online repository (virtual time capsule), hosted in the ISSMGE website, for the individual members of the ISSMGE to access and get to know where geotechnical engineering’s origins were, what and who guided its development, and the paths followed in the various regions of the world, pitfalls and successes, and the philosophies in practice in many of its technical subdisciplines. In 2021, communications were sent to and followed by online meetings with ISSMGE Member Societies, Technical Committees, Past Presidents, and Corporate Associates. Contributions by various ISSMGE cohorts received in the lead up to the 20^th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (20^th ICSMGE), Sydney, Australia, held in 2022, enabled a successful launch of the time capsule project in a plenary session at the 20th ICSMGE.

In 2022, the project was renamed the Heritage Time Capsule (HTC), followed in 2023 by start of construction on the dedicated website for HTC, under a subdomain of issmge.org. The dedicated Heritage Time Capsule (HTC) project website was launched at the GeoShanghai 2024 conference in Shanghai, China. An outline of activities carried out in 2024 and planned for 2025 and 2026 is presented in the sketch below. This work is delivered through the HTC project team, comprising project advisors, design team, sub committees, representatives of the ISSMGE Young Member Presidential Group (YMPG), and regional leaders.

HTC Project phases

The HTC project is divided into four phases, as follows,

·         Phase 1, Contributions, commenced in the lead up to the 20th ICSMGE (Sydney, 2022), and is now at the half way point (50%) of potential contributions, totalling over 100. A great deal has been contributed in the form of webpages, reports, articles, videos, and other online material. We invite further HTC submissions in 2025, by those related to the ISSMGE, including Member Societies, Technical Committees, Corporate Associates, Past Presidents, Key Persons, Vice Presidents, and Board level Committees, both new, and as additions and amendments to existing contributions.

·         Phase 2, Discovery, is a pivotal element of the HTC project, whereby the opportunity is provided for ISSMGE individual members to shine a spotlight on the HTC contribution(s) of their choice, and earn their individual place as Discoverers in the HTC website. The Discoverer report competition, 2025, with a cash pool of £3,000, has been launched to encourage many of the ISSMGE individual members to become HTC discoverers. Each of the contributions that are held in the dedicated HTC website can be discovered by many discoverers, thus offering a significant turning over of material contributed and discovered, and resulting in a significant number of individual members across the world who have taken actions to learn from the past and are well positioned to help the HTC project in future focus.

Also, many HTC sessions have been hosted in the ISSMGE regional conferences and other venues, to address region - specific issues. Reports on the outcomes of a number of the HTC Discovery sessions can be viewed in the ISSMGE Bulletin issues in 2023 and 2024.

·         Phase 3, Time Capsule - The idea of the time capsule is not new in the ISSMGE. A blue barrel to be filled with contents, made its public appearance in 2013 at the 18^th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (18^th ICSMGE) in Paris, France. Arrangements are now being made for a physical time capsule cube of 1m³, that is transparent with a number of compartments, to be assembled and sealed at the occasion of the 21^st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (21st ICSMGE), to be held in Vienna, Austria, in 2026. The time capsule will be housed in a technical museum where visitors can view it in the coming years and decades. However, once sealed, its contents will remain inaccessible until 2126, i.e., 100 years from when it was sealed. We urge strong interest and active participation by the ISSMGE cohorts of Member Societies, Technical Committees, Corporate Associates, Past Presidents, Key Persons, Vice Presidents, and Board Level Committees for the Staged call No.1 for published material.

·         Phase 4 100 years on – Benefitting from experience and knowledge from Phases 1, 2 and 3, it is proposed to further examine how we think and act as a global community of practice, and the need to recalibrate ourselves, to serve current and the emerging issues for geotechnical engineers worldwide, and help increase the visibility of the geotechnical profession, and its contribution to the wellbeing and security of society. A future focus framework is being developed to help to prepare an ISSMGE strategy and action plan for the second 100 years of geotechnical engineering, to be re-assessed on a regular basis.

The HTC Project Team

Contact the HTC team

The contact tab on the ISSMGE HTC web site can be used to contact the HTC Team with your questions and thoughts about the HTC and preparation of the HTC contributions.

Your message will be sent to the HTC Project administrators. We look forward to hearing from you.

Join us on this exciting journey