TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Midyear Committee Week Mary Ellen Bruce Large, P.E., D.GE Director of Technical Activities [email protected] To move initiatives forward, showcase the many DFI technical committees and to invite more participation, DFI organized a Midyear Committee Week, March 30 – April 3, 2020, during which video con- ference calls were held. Many joined the calls, explored the committee activities and became an active member. All but one of DFI’s 26 technical com- mittees and 2 industry-wide working groups held meetings, which were well attended. From 8 to 42 participants were on calls, with an average of 20 participants. Scores of members joined calls of which they are not committee members, and almost 100 non- DFI-members joined the calls throughout the week. This included representatives from state Departments of Transportation, encouraged by their geotechnical leadership to explore DFI activities and projects. The use of webcams fostered camaraderie during the global health crisis shutdown, and an end-of-the-week virtual happy hour provided a fun social gathering to cap off the technical meetings. We welcome all feedback and comments on this first-of-its- kind DFI event. See the committee webpages under ‘Groups’ at www.dfi.org for recent news on committee activities. And please contact Mary Ellen Large at [email protected] with specific questions or if you would like to explore ways to get involved. COMMITTEE VICE CHAIR JAMEY ROSEN, P.GEO Project Information Management Systems In 2018, DFI formed the Project Infor- mation Management Systems (PIMS) Committee to provide an industry forum to monitor and discuss requirements and challenges of adopting information man- agement technologies in our industry. Digital and automated mechanisms allow us to accumulate and process large amounts of data from modern equipment and instruments. Pro- ject teams require fast, frequent and reliable processing and access to this information to assure the quality, durability and inte- grity of constructed work. The committee supports DFI members in realizing DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2020 • 69
