1st International Young Scientists Forum for Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (IYSF-DDA) was held successfully

The 1st International Young Scientists Forum for Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (IYSF-DDA) was held successfully in January 9th 2021 online via Zoom platform. This online forum was sponsored by ISRM DDA Commission, ISRM NG China and CSRME DDA Commission, and co-organized by three famous Chinese universities, i.e. China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Tianjin University, and Hebei University of Technology. Over 350 people all over the world attended this online forum through zoom platform or Bilibili and Kuangyeren websites. This forum aims to exchange cutting-edge advances of various discontinuous deformation analysis methods among young researchers community, and also welcome to share discontinuous deformation analysis cases in rock engineering.
The opening ceremony started at 8: 30 A.M., which was hosted by Prof. Gao-Feng Zhao from Tianjin University, who is also the Co-President of ISRM DDA Commission. The Vice President at large of ISRM Prof. ?mer Aydan from University of Ryukyu and Secretary General of ISRM NG China Miss Wen-Li Xu delivered opening speeches on behalf of ISRM and CSRME, respectively. Both of them highly praised this forum and wished the meeting a complete success. Prof. Gen-Hua Shi, the founder of DDA method and Honorary-President of ISRM DDA Commission, talked about the engineering origin of DDA method, and expressed high hopes for the future development of DDA method and young scholars. The Vice President of Hebei University of Technology Prof. Guo-Wei Ma, who is also the President of CSRME DDA Commission, reviewed the development course of ISRM DDA Commission and CSRME DDA Commission. Finally, the Co-President of ISRM DDA Commission Prof. Yu-Yong Jiao from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) thanked the ISRM, CSRME and all the lecturers and participants on behalf of scientific committee and organizing committee, and declared the meeting officially open.
This forum invited around 20 scholars from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of New South Wales, Kyushu University, Wuhan University, Nanjing University, Shandong University, Tongji University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Dalian University of Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Fuzhou University, Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute and China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research etc. to give keynote speeches. The contents of the speeches are systematic and comprehensive, including the block cutting, contact theory, software architecture and a variety of engineering applications. It also includes the numerical manifold method (NMM), discrete element method (DEM), finite-discrete element coupling method (FDEM) and other discontinuous numerical methods, which reflects the latest theoretical research progress and typical engineering application cases in the field of discontinuous deformation analysis of rock mechanics and engineering in recent years.
The closing ceremony was also hosted by Prof. Gao-Feng Zhao. He thanked for the lecturers' wonderful reports firstly. Then, the Secretary General of ISRM DDA Commission Prof. Jia-He Lv from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) announced that the second IYSF-DDA would be co-organized by Southeast University and Nanjing University, with further discussions about the time and organizational form with Prof. Chun Liu from Nanjing University. So far, the conference completed the agenda with a successful conclusion!