Welcome to the website of the CSCE National Committee on Innovation and IT in Civil Engineering. As very well stated by Prof N K Srivastava, the founding chair in 2004, the raison d’être and the objectives of the committee are to reflect the growing importance of the conceptual and technical innovations in civil engineering, including that of information technology. The members of the society must be informed and stimulated by the emerging technologies which, directly or indirectly, profoundly affect their profession.

Civil engineering is composed of many important disciplines on which the infrastructure of society is dependent. Canada is blessed with many talented civil engineers in all these disciplines. Many of them are involved in the development of conceptual, computational and technical innovations in their respective disciplines, as well as in cross disciplines. Many of these developments either never reach the general members of the civil engineering society, or only reach them in an ad hoc way, making it too late for them to take advantage of the innovation.” This committee was established to fill this gap.

The mission statements of this committee are to:

• Improve the image of civil engineering as a progressive career choice and occupation with respect to emerging technologies.
• Bring the members of the Canadian civil engineering society closer to the emerging technologies.
• Foster the development of new applications for emerging technologies and search for effective ways to transfer them to practice.
• Establish the network between the leaders of various disciplines of civil engineering who are involved in the conceptual, computational and technical aspects of innovation in Canada.
• Provide a forum for interchange and co-operation among those interested in the aspect of innovation.
• Recognise the Innovation and IT activities in Canada and liaise with International Civil Engineering Societies on similar activities.

The regular activities can be summarized as follows:

• Organisation of special sessions on Innovation and IT during the CSCE Annual Conference
• Organisation of National/Regional technical tours, educational seminars and working groups in Innovation and IT in civil engineering.
• Setting-up Specialty conferences in Innovation & IT in civil engineering.
• Publication of an Electronic Newsletter when needed.
• Maintenance of a website-linked to the CSCE website.
• Coordination of special issues of the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering and of the Canadian Civil Engineer devoted to Innovation and IT in civil engineering.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all the members for their continuous support.

George Akhras, P.Eng, PhD, FCSCE, FEIC
Professor of Civil/Mechanical Engineering
Director-Centre for Smart Materials and Structures
Royal Military College of Canada
akhras@rmc.ca
Gakhras@cansmart.com