30th Anniversary of ELPLA and 10th Anniversary of GEOTEC Office in Canada

This month marks a significant milestone for us at GEOTEC Software. Thirty years ago, the very first version of ELPLA was launched in Germany, setting the standard in engineering software for geotechnical analysis and structural design. Since then, ELPLA has been an essential tool for professionals worldwide, evolving to meet the industry's changing needs with reliability and innovation.

Fast forward, and it’s been a decade since GEOTEC Office established its roots in Canada, bringing ELPLA’s power and precision closer to North American professionals. Our mission has been to support engineers and designers with software solutions that stand the test of time.

GEOTEC and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Kany the founder of Numerical Analysis in Geotechnical Engineering and the father of Elastic Foundations

In 1961, the Geotechnical Institute LGA Nuremberg in Germany was the first institute to propose the use of computers for settlement calculations. For this purpose, a computer program for a ZUSE Z-23 computer was developed and presented at the German Geotechnical Conference in Berlin in 1964. At that time, Prof. Kany, who was the head of the Geotechnical Institute LGA Nuremberg since 1955, developed computer programs for Geotechnical problems during his lifetime in LGA. He was the first researcher in Germany who dealt with electronic calculations, with the collaboration of his friend Prof. Konrad Zuse - the inventor of the computer "Zuse 4". The computer accompanied the entire career of Prof. Kany until shortly before his death. He is considered the founder of Numerical Analysis in Geotechnical Engineering. After retirement in 1987, Prof Kany established his firm, GEOTEC and developed the series of GEOTEC programs.

In 1994, Prof. Mohamed El Gendy finished his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Kany. Based on his Ph.D. research, Prof. El Gendy further developed the program ELPLA, which was initially developed by Prof. Kany for analyzing rafts by the Modulus of Compressibility method. Subsequently, Dr. Amin El Gendy joined the team during the development of the GEOTEC Office suite. Prof. Kany is considered the father of elastic foundations, while Prof. El Gendy is deemed his successor and the son of the father of elastic foundations.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Kany and Prof. M. El Gendy celebrated the first release of ELPLA at Zirndorf, Germany in 1994