MEMBER PROFILE Chu Ho: A Rare Blend of Academic Excellence and Practical Experience coordinating knowledge and skills development activities throughout the U.S., Canadian and South American offices. Other than Arup, Ho also worked for Presscrete Engineering, a specialty contractor in Singapore, as the general manager of the Ground Engineering Division from 1995 to 1999. Dr. Chu E. Ho, P.E., an associate in Arup’s New York office and chief geotechnical engineer for the Second Avenue Subway project, has traveled far from his native Singapore. After receiving his honors B.Eng. in civil engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1984, his next stop was London, where he earned his M.Sc. from Imperial College in engineering rock mechanics in 1985. After graduating, he worked for 14 years in Singapore and London before coming to the U.S. in 1999 to pursue his D.Sc. in geotechnical engineering from MIT. He has worked on projects in such disparate locales as Panama, Poland and Papua New Guinea. Ho says he always liked to build things, citing a basketball hoop, backboard and pole he built when he was 12 years old. He was attracted to geotechnical engineering, he says, because “soils have inherent variability and challenges that demand creative approaches in finding solutions.” Ho has worked at the Arup Group for most of his working life, having started with them in 1986 upon his return to Singapore from his studies at Imperial College. This international firm holds on to the “Key Speech” by the firm’s founder, Sir Ove Arup, that calls for a philosophy of total design based on creativity and forward vision. Ho has been the Americas region geotechnical skills network leader, Passion for Ground Improvement Ho says he has a “passion” for ground improvement, his philosophy being “if the ground is not good, change it.” Ho was invited by DFI to give a keynote lecture at the DFI India 2014 Conference in New Delhi. The theme of his lecture was “New Perspectives on Jet Grouting Design and Performance Evaluation.” David Caiden, a director in Arup’s London office, used the same word to describe his colleague, saying Ho has a “passion” for jet grouting, one among many ground improvement techniques in which he has expertise, including earth anchors and grouting. Ho has been an active member of Geo- Institute’s Grouting Technical Committee and is currently working as part of ASCE’s Task Force updating the Jet Grouting Guide Specifications. The word “passion” says a lot about the man. Ho has intense feelings about engineering, and says he is always thinking about acquiring new knowledge and innovative solutions in his work. When asked what he does in his spare time, he says he “thinks about papers he should or could write.” He feels that experience gained should be documented in order to consolidate one’s skill. This will also advance the state of the practice in the industry through knowledge sharing. Ho has already published over 70 journal articles and conference papers. He also reviews papers submitted for publication in ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ICE’s Proceedings of Geotechnical Engineering and Ground Improvement, the Canadian Geotechnical Journal and DFI’s annual conferences. Apparently, he is generous with his time and talent, and has stamina and discipline, as well as engineering and writing skills. Arup’s Caiden expands on Ho’s work. The pair worked together for 10 years in the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway project. Ho’s practical contractor and field experience was invaluable to the project, according to Caiden. “Ho was always happy to don his boots and hard hat and give really meaningful guidance about subjects such as drill rigs,” says Caiden, adding that he brought that “wonderful but rare blend of academic excellence and practical experience, and served as a great problem solver for us.” Jet Grouting Expertise According to George Burke, senior vice president, Hayward Baker, Ho has made important contributions to jet grouting. Burke says Ho came to visit Hayward Baker while he was working on his doctoral thesis at MIT because he wanted to learn more about jet grouting projects the firm was working on. He describes Ho as a “warm personality,” whom Burke genuinely liked, and who displayed “no ego.” More importantly, Burke says Ho developed an analytical approach to jet grouting, “one that to this day is the best representation of how it works.” Ho explains that the selection of jetting parameters such as grouting pressures, flow rates and jetting duration have been based largely on shallow field trials AUTHOR Virginia Fairweather DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JULY/AUG 2016 • 63
