From One-Dimensional Site Response Analysis and Liquefaction Modeling in RSSeismic to Three-Dimensional Modeling of Liquefaction and SSI

The Vancouver Geotechnical Society is pleased to invite you to our upcoming two‑day short course: From One‑Dimensional Site Response Analysis and Liquefaction Modeling in RSSeismic to Three‑Dimensional Modeling of Liquefaction and SSI

Instructor:  This advanced short course will be taught by Professor Youssef Hashash, PhD, P.E., NAE, in collaboration with Rocscience's Dylan Centella and Alireza Afkhami.

Dates: Thursday, May 21 – Friday, May 22, 2026

Location: Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront, 1133 W Hastings St, Vancouver, BC

Course Overview:

The first step in evaluating the impact of an earthquake on physical infrastructure is assessing the response of the ground to seismic shaking. In engineering practice, this is often performed using one-dimensional (1-D) site response analysis. Increasingly, it is necessary to go beyond equivalent linear approaches and perform total and, in some cases, effective-stress nonlinear analyses as part of this evaluation.

This two-day short course will introduce the use of the widely adopted 1-D site response analysis platform, RSSeismic. The course will provide a step-by-step introduction to the available analysis modules and describe the input requirements for performing these analyses. Hands-on examples will be presented throughout the course to facilitate participants’ understanding of the concepts introduced.

Day 2 will focus on pore water pressure generation, liquefaction modeling, linking RSLog to RSSeismic, and two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) liquefaction modeling applications.

Course Schedule:

Instructor Bio:

Professor Youssef Hashash holds a B.S. (1987), an M.S. (1988) and a Ph.D. (1992) in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career with the PB/MK TEAM in Dallas on the Superconducting Super Collider Project. In 1994 he joined Parsons Brinckerhoff in San Francisco and worked on a number of underground construction projects in the U.S. and Canada including the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel project.

Professor Hashash joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. He teaches courses in Geotechnical Engineering, Numerical Modeling in Geomechanics, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Tunneling in Soil and Rock, and Excavation and Support Systems. His research focus includes deep excavations and tunneling in urban areas, earthquake engineering, continuum and discrete element modeling and soil-structure interaction as well as resiliency and sustainability of the built infrastructure. He also works on geotechnical engineering applications of deep learning, artificial intelligence, visualization, augmented reality, imaging and drone technologies. He has published numerous journal articles and is co-inventor on four patents. His research group developed the software program DEEPSOIL that is used worldwide for evaluation of soil response to earthquake shaking. His work on seismic design of underground structures is extensively used in engineering practice. He is the geotechnical co-leader of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) led investigation into the Champlain Towers South Collapse in Surfside, Florida.

Professor Hashash is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a past president of the Geo-institute of ASCE and has received a number of teaching, university and professional awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the ASCE 2014 Peck medal. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022.

In collaboration with Rocscience: Dylan Centella & Alireza Afkhami

Dylan Centella is a Ph.D. candidate in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is currently engaged in the development and enhancement of RSSeismic at Rocscience. His research focuses on advancing 3D nonlinear site response analysis, seismic site amplification modeling, and numerical simulations for geotechnical earthquake engineering. He has extensive experience in 3D numerical modeling, soil constitutive models, and full‑stack software development for seismic site response analysis. His industry experience complements his research through applied site response and soil‑structure interaction analyses on major infrastructure projects.

Alireza Afkhami is Senior Director of Web Applications at Rocscience. Prior to joining Rocscience in 2021, Alireza has been working as a Senior Geotechnical Engineer leading several major civil, infrastructure, residential and commercial development projects. His experience involved site characterization, pile design, seismic assessments, and ground improvement for over 25 years. Alireza has been in charge of Rocscience' borehole data management software "RSLog" since its inception. He co-founded Novo Tech Software in 2009 that was acquired by Rocscience in 2021.

Registration:

Please visit this link for more details on registration and fees.