Internships and Student Projects

Context
Geological CO₂ storage (GCS).

Objectives

• Define fundamental principles and challenges
• Open data sharing
• Raise public awareness on the topic

Activities

• Revise and document the fundamental principles of geological CO₂ storage
• Implement them on the EPFL-designed online website
• Update current data of existing GCS projects and storage capacity in Europe and the world
• Prepare implementation of EPFL-generated data sharing

Contact: Dr. Eleni Stavropoulou ([email protected])

Context

• The hydro-mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils is governed by complex water–soil interactions
• Water is retained through different mechanisms, including adsorption at the particle scale and capillarity within the pore network
• These mechanisms contribute differently to the mechanical behaviour of soils; distinguishing them is therefore essential for a better interpretation of water retention and deformation response

Objectives

• Provide new insights into soil water retention mechanisms across different conditions
• Quantify the contribution of adsorbed and capillary water to the overall retention behaviour

Activities

• Literature review on water retention mechanisms and testing approaches
• Experimental testing on prepared soil samples
• Data processing and critical discussion of the results
• Collaboration with the University of Genoa and ENTPE Lyon
• Reporting and presentation of results in a structured form

Contact: Dr. Angelica Tuttolomondo ([email protected])

Context

• Underground engineering decisions strongly depend on reliable knowledge of the in situ stress state
• Today, the full stress state cannot be determined with sufficient confidence from borehole measurements under realistic geological conditions
• The IS-E experiment at Mont Terri provides a unique opportunity to address this limitation through a dedicated multi-borehole stress-measurement campaign
• The dataset will support the development and validation of advanced interpretation frameworks for full stress-state reconstruction in borehole environments

Objectives

• Reconstruct and interpret in situ stress components from field measurements
• Validate the EPFL-LMS methodology for full stress-state reconstruction in borehole environments

Activities

• Familiarisation with the Mont Terri experiment and stress-measurement concept
• Data cleaning, organisation and quality checks of field measurements
• Analytical and computational post-processing of the stress dataset
• Uncertainty assessment and comparison across test locations
• Reporting and presentation of results in a structured form

Contact: Dr. Angelica Tuttolomondo ([email protected])

Context

• Geotechnical infrastructure design requires reliable subsurface models
• Cone Penetration Tests (CPTs) are widely used for stratigraphic characterisation
• Increasing availability of large geotechnical databases
• AI/machine learning approaches for automated soil layer identification

Objectives

• Develop AI-based workflows for automated stratigraphic identification
• Quantify uncertainty in layer boundary identification
• Support scalable 3D subsurface modelling for infrastructure projects

Activities

• Familiarisation with CPT and borehole databases
• Data preprocessing and cleaning of large geotechnical datasets
• Development and testing of AI/ML algorithms for layer identification
• Interpretation of uncertainty and engineering implications
• Reporting and presentation of results in a structured form

Contact: Dr. Angelica Tuttolomondo ([email protected])