What Is Geotechnical Engineering?

Geotechnical engineering is a sub-discipline of Civil engineering and deals with earth materials and how they behave. Geotechnical engineering is employed by military, construction, mining and petroleum industry. In construction field, this particular field deals with the sub-structure and how the structure reacts against the forces of nature.

Geotechnical Engineering Sub Disciplines

Geotechnical Engineering has been divided into the following;

Transportation
Deep Foundation
Dykes and Leeves
Earthquake
Underground Infrastructure
Landslides
Dams
Subsurface Characterization
Offshore
Ground Improvements
Deep Excavations
Scour and Erosion
Contaminated Site Remediation

Top Geotechnical Engineering Universities

The top three ranked universities when it comes to Geotechnical Engineering are as follows:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of Cambridge

Geotechnical Engineering Associations

There are a myriad of associations related to Geotechnical Engineering but we shall list only three:

ISSMGE
USUCGER
BGA

Being a Geotechnical Engineer

Being a geotechnical engineer requires that you have a good understanding of how materials work and how to determine their basic properties. One needs to be familiar with standard tests and should be good at lab work. The field also requires the engineer to be well conversed with simulation softwares. The primary task of a geotechnical engineer is to determine how good a soil is before the construction begins and if required, suggest remedies to improve the soil quality.