The 3rd International Conference on Architectural, Civil, and Environmental Forensic Engineering (ICACEFE) was held as a virtual event on January 23-25, 2024. The conference was hosted by Korean Geotechnical Society, Korean Society of Steel Construction, Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation, and was organized by the organizing committee of Hyper-converged Forensic Research Center for Infrastructure (HFRCI). The organizers of the 3rd ICACEFE, along with Prof. Jong-Sub Lee, PI of HFRCI, chaired the conference.

On January 23rd, 2024, three different sessions under the theme, ‘Innovation in Geotechnical Engineering’, were held. The opening ceremony, led by Prof. Jong-Sub Lee, was followed by a complementary address from Prof. Young Uk Kim, President of Korean Geotechnical Society. The first session, ‘Geotechnical Modeling and Monitoring’, started under the direction of the chair, Prof. Jong-Sub Lee. This was followed by two well-attended technical sessions titled ‘Forensic Failure Assessment’ and ‘Piling and Foundations’, respectively. On January 24th, 2024, three sessions focused on ‘Challenges in Geotechnical Engineering’ were held, titled ‘Advanced Characterization Techniques’ and ‘Safety and Serviceability I & II’. In this conference, over 600 peoples from 50 countries registered. During each session, around ~400 attendees actively engaged in the discussions, posing questions and offering insightful comments on the presentations. Invited speakers from various regional geotechnical societies shared their latest research on theory, sensing, deep learning techniques, and case studies in forensic engineering.

All in all, the dialogue between speakers and audience members in these sessions was particularly satisfying, because it showed an engaged geotechnical community. With unwavering interest and support, the 4th ICACEFE, scheduled for 2025, is also expected to be a success.