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ICT 52nd Annual Convention - 11 April 2024
The ICT's 52nd annual Convention was held on 11 April 2024 at the Hillscourt Hotel in southern Birmingham, a pleasant venue set in a Victorian mansion and park land, with a separate, well-appointed conference suite and an accommodation block.
The proceedings commenced with the Institute's early morning AGM but soon continued with a full-day technical sysmposium, accompanied by an exhibition and poster competition, and was followed in the evening by a gala dinner with prize-giving and entertainment.
In a first for the ICT, the auditorium was set out with desks allowing the space to be fully occupied in comfort; there were 110 delegates. Symposium chair, Dr Noushin Khosravi, Head of Sustainability at the MPA, introduced the theme, 'The Pursuit of Net Zero Concrete'.
The first session, 'GCCA roadmap and developments around the world' was led by Nicolas Antoniou, Sustainability Manager at the Global Cement & Concrete Association, standing in for the publicised speaker. Two presentations followed on innovatorary materials developed by start-up companies spun out from university research programmes: 'Unlocking cement-free concrete with biotechnology' by Dr Davor Ivankovic, of BioZeroc and 'Decarbonising cement via engineered SCMs and carbon mineralisation' by Sam Draper, Chief Executive of Seratech. Both were inspiring and prompted plenty of questions. As one member of the audience said: "it feels like Dragon's Den, and I'm in!"
After a hot lunch the feature was the Sir Frederick Lea Memorial Lecture for 2024. Prof Ravindra Dhir HonFICT spoke for an hour on the subject: 'Wide-Angle Lens View of Concrete Research, 1972-2024', drawing on the personal experience of a long career.
Three speakers completed the afternoon proceedings with presentations on subjects that complemented each other:
- The circular economy in practice: the potential of recycled concrete paste Dr Nina Cardinal, National Technical Manager Cement, Heidelberg Materials
- Intelligent cluster system for low-clinker concrete production. Nicoletta Zeminian, Marketing Manager, Master Builders Solutions, Italy
- Using digital tools to build more sustainably Paul O'Hanlon, Global R&D Project Manager, Holcim, France
Noushin capably summed up the day, thanking all who had supported the event.
Accompanying Exhibition
The ICT is grateful for the support of the companies that exhibited at the Convention:
Young People's Symposium
The Young People's Symposium, organized by the SYPro committee to run during the Convention, was a great success, the six posters (listed below) attracting considerable attention and discussion during the refreshment breaks. Electronic voting, open to all attendees, decided who should receive the three prizes kindly donated by Martyn Fear.
Poster Presentations
Ansu Mary Alex
QUB / Moore Concrete Products
'Evaluation of Acid Resistance of Geopolymer Binders with Varying Metakaolin Concentration and Exposure conditions'
Traad Alzhrani
Newcastle University
'Assessment of the Impact of Pre-Hydrated Cement on the Long-Term Performance of Concrete'
Traad Alzhrani
Newcastle University
'Assessment of the Impact of Pre-Hydrated Cement on the Long-Term Performance of Concrete'
Patrick Azar
Ecocem
'Assessment of Sodium Carbonate Alkali-Activated Slag Concrete Durability Using a Performance-Oriented Method'
Anna Chaliasou
AECOM, National Highways
'The Road to Circular Economy: Recycling Concrete Arisings from Life Extension Works on UK Concrete Roads'
Priyanshu Sinha
University of the West of England
'Optimization of Additively Manufactured Graphene-Enhanced Geopolymer Concrete'
Callum White
University of Cambridge
'Yield stress prediction from concrete slump scanning'
Convention Dinner
A very pleasant evening unfolded over dinner, with entertainment provided throughout by a table magician and a caricature artist. Afterwards, Colin Nessfield addressed the company and cracked the customary presidential joke. Membership certificates were presented to recently elected members and to two of the three newly elected Honorary Fellows (Prof Changwen Miao was not present). The results of the poster competition were then announced and Martyn Fear was invited to present the prizes. Certificates and accompanying cheques were presented at the evening dinner to, in turn, Patrick Azar (first place), Callum White and Ansu Mary Alex
Thanks to the generosity of the attendees at the Convention Dinner, an incredible £585.08 was raised for Asthma+Lung UK, working to help all those with lung conditions in the UK.
Thank you letter from Asthma+Lung UK
“The ICT convention was very informative and an opportunity for young members to network”
