Project Presentation Dr. Nasser Abdulhassan of AGI Architects, one of MENA regions leading architects who is recongnised as being amongst the most outstanding architects in the Middle East, gave a presentation on their “Opportunity Pavilion” project that was developed for Dubai’s Expo 2020.

Concrete Cracking On 1st May, 2023, ACI-Kuwait Chapter, in association with ACI International, hosted a well-attended webinar on ‘Concrete Cracking’. Dr. William Gold, PE, FACI, gave an interesting and informative presentation on the technical aspects of concrete cracking and applicable remedial measures.

Often, the key to addressing cracking is learning how to properly determine the cause of the crack, so that it can be mitigated and prevented in future projects.

Topics covered in Dr. Gold's presentation included:

•  Causes and Control of Cracking
•  Evaluation Methods
•  Mitigation
•  Crack Repair

More than 80 persons registered for this webinar, most of which were from Kuwait. The presentation was followed by a raffle and one of the Kuwait Chapter attendees had the opportunity to select one of the three differenct prizes worth up to $799.

Concrete Sustainability and Resilience On 20th November, 2023, ACI-KC Technical Committee organized a webinar under the auspices of the popular Chapter Talk Webinars Programme of ACI International. The webinar was presented by Dr. Andrea Shokker, Chairperson of ACI 319/ACI 318T Committees, and Head of Civil Engineering Department and Provost of University of Minnesota, Duluth. Dr. Moetaz El-Hawary, Past President and Chairperson of ACI-KC’s Technical Committee moderated the webinar.

Dr. Shokker’s presentation provided an overview of low carbon concrete and addressed aspects such as sustainability and resilience specific to the concrete industry.

Topics included terminology and acronyms; state of the practice; future expectations; legislation and resources. The over 62 engineers who attended, most from Kuwait, thereafter participated in a post-webinar raffle in which they had the opportunity to win three prizes worth almost $ 800.

The webinar, being an important part of Kuwait Chapter’s technical programme, was a useful opportunity for members and other attendees to improve their understanding about sustainability and resilience of concrete structures in Kuwait.

Collaboration with the MPW In pursuance of its mandate to disseminate relevant information to engineers and facilitating continuing veducation, ACI-KC proposed a programme for seminars to be delivered to engineers of Ministry of Public Works.

Through the rigorous efforts of Ms. Dana Drobiova, Chairperson of the Chapter's Social COmmittee and Eng. Eman Al-Omar, Undersecretary of Government Center Sector in MPW, the proposal was approved by MPW. Two presentations have been delivered to date.

On 26th November, 2023, Dr. Khaldoun Rahal gave a lecture on 'Frequency of testing on site; and testing for evaluation using cores'.

This was followed the next day by Dr. Moetaz El Hawary's presentation on 'Sustainability and Durability of Concrete Structures'.

Lecture on Statics and Strengths of Materias The Chapter initiated its activities for the current academic year by organizing two revisions lectures to help students prepare for the exams.

The lecture on the Statics course was conducted by Dr. Abdullah Sulaiman Almutairi, who is an Assistant Professor at Kuwait University and a member of the ACI Kuwait Chapter. The lecture on the Strength of Materials course was conducted by Dr. Fares Abdullah Aljeeran, who is an Assistant Professor at Kuwait University.

In total, about 70 students attended the two events. The Administrative Committee for the academic year 2023-2024 consists of the following students and future civil engineers: Raeda Sami Sobh (President), Anwar Hamidi AlKhaldi (Vice President), Lora Bandar AlRashedi (Treasurer) and Khalid AlRajhi (Secretary).

Their faculty advisor is Professor Khaldoun Rahal, who is also a member of the ACI-Kuwait Chapter.