Ground Improvement and Earth Structures

Active earth pressure on retaining walls with unsaturated soil backfill.- Effect of geofoam inclusion on deformation behaviour of buried pipelines in cohesive soils.- Response of Strip Footing Adjacent to Nonyielding Basement Wall.- 3D Modeling of EPS Geofoam Buffers behind Diaphragm Walls.- A Case Study of Efficient Solution for Very High Geogrid-reinforced Retaining Wall.

Dr. Bouassida is a professor of civil engineering at the "Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis" of the "Université de Tunis El Manar" where he earned his B.S., M.S., Ph.D., and doctorate of sciences diplomas, all in civil engineering. He is the director of the Research Laboratory in Geotechnical Engineering and has supervised 16 Ph.D. and 29 master of science graduates. His research focuses on soil improvement techniques and behavior of soft clays. Dr. Bouassida is the (co)author of 87 papers in refereed international journals; 126 papers, including 18 keynote lectures; and three books. He is a member of the editorial committees of journals Ground Improvement (ICE), Geotechnical Geological Engineering, Infrastructure Innovative Solutions, and International Journal of Geomechanics (ASCE).  He is also an active reviewer in several international journals. As a 2006 Fulbright scholar, Bouassida created a novel methodology for the design of foundations on reinforced soil bycolumns. He was awarded the 2006 S. Prakash Prize for Excellence in the practice of geotechnical engineering. In 2008, Bouassida launched a Tunisian consulting office in geotechnical engineering, SIMPRO. He is a co-developer of the software Columns 1.01 used for designing column-reinforced foundations. Prof. Bouassida held the office of the vice president of ISSMGE for Africa (2005-2009). He benefited from several grants as a visiting professor in the USA, France, Belgium, Australia, Vietnam, Hong-Kong and Norway.

Dr. Meguid received his Ph.D. degrees in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. He spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University before accepting an industrial position as a project manager for a prominent consulting company in Canada. In 2004, Dr. Meguid joined McGill University as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering. During his tenure at McGill, he held numerous administrative positions, including Associate Chair of