Dr. Anand Puppala, Distinguished Teaching Professor from Civil Engineering made two keynote presentations in October and November, 2012. The first invited keynote presentation was made at the "International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering for Transportation Infrastructure" held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China during 26-28, October, 2012. This symposium is aimed at promoting research and application of geotechnical mechanics and engineering techniques for high-speed transportation infrastructure. Dr. Puppala's presentation on the topic of Transportation Infrastructure Distress: Challenges and Solutions, focusing the expansive soil problems and various ground improvement solutions used in the United States.

Dr. Puppala made a second keynote presentation on "A Review on Problematic Sulfate Levels in Expansive Soils" at the International Conference on Ground Improvement and "Ground Control: Transport Infrastructure Development and Natural Hazards Mitigation" during 30th October and 2nd November, 2012 at Wollongong, Australia. The conference is organized by the Centre for Geomechanics and Railway Engineering and the Australian Geomechanics Society in joint collaboration with International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering The theme of the conference is to promote ground improvement concepts and applications predominantly in the fields of transportation geotechnology and natural hazards mitigation.