PREFACE

Abstract

The Fourth International Conference on Civil Engineering Research (ICCER) is a biannual international conference hosted by Department of Civil Engineering of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology with the theme of Towards a Safe and Sustainable Construction using Advanced Materials and Technology for Structural Failures Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Retrofitting. Departing from the theme, variety of topics related are presented by five keynote speakers to address the common challenges in building and infrastructure development as well as critical assessments which are interrelated with technological advancement both in materials and structures.With the world facing unprecedented global CoVid-19 pandemic which is still undergoing and ramping up considerably, however, it is not possible–if not too risky–to hold an international conference in a conventional way. Gathering keynote speakers, presenters, and participants from around the world are considered harmful as it would trigger a higher possibility of people getting imposed by the Coronavirus. The situation is also exacerbated by the current travel restrictions applied by the majority of the countries which hence prevent the participants, either local or international, to travel from their origin country or region. Given that the situation of CoVid-19 in Indonesia and beyond is still uncertain with the cases growing drastically and not showing any sign of decreasing shortly, the possibility of the face-to-face conference is extremely low even when being postponed at later dates. Also, pressing the conference on hold by an uncertain amount of time would have knock-on effects on the upcoming ICCER conferences in the future. Therefore, it is of sensible (right) call that we organise this year Fourth ICCER in a virtual format.The Fourth ICCER was held in two days on exact dates of 22 to 23 July 2020. It was run virtually from the server of the Department of Civil Engineering at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya, Indonesia, a similar location as of the organising committee. The technology used to deliver the conference was license ‘Zoom Video Conferencing’ software which was personally preferred due to comprehensive tools and user-friendly interface. Accordingly, Zoom is also known as the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy and reliable cloud-based platform for video and audio conferencing, thereby making it suitable for the optimised virtual conference that the organising committee envisaged.In the Fourth ICCER, a total of 174 participants were sighted on Zoom with 94 identified as authors, whilst 80 recognised as the audience. The location of participants varied with the majority was from Indonesia, while others were from the United Kingdom, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, and Prague. The conference model was generally similar to that of the conventional (face-to-face) method where there was an opening ceremony, sponsorship sessions, keynote sessions, plenary sessions, and a closing ceremony. In keynote sessions, the typical time allocated for keynote speaker was 60 minutes for presentation followed by 30 minutes for question and answer (Q&A) session. In plenary (parallel) sessions, 15 virtual rooms (links) were provided; each of which was detailed with information of scheduled presentations which typically consisted of 9 authors/presenters. Each presenter was given 10 minutes to disseminate their research with the video and screen share on as a means of drawing people attention, thereby creating a more active virtual environment. After the presentation, a 5-minute Q&A session was led by the moderator of the room in which all the questions from the audience were read from the chatbox. For more information on the technical quality and success of delivery of the virtual conference, please visit our website (iccer.ce.its.ac.id).Last but not least, please allow us to thank you all for participating in the ICCER conference. Despite organising in a virtual format, we hope that the essence of this conference is much as similar in many respects as the conventional conference.With kind regardsChair of Organising CommitteeProf Priyo SuproboSepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia