relationship between professional practice and academia in geotechnical engineering

7/29/2019 Relationship Between Professional Practice and Academia in Geotechnical Engineering

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Session 7E6

International Conference on Engineering Education August 6 10, 2001 Oslo, Norway

7E6-1

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ACADEMIAIN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Sanjeev KumarSanjeev Kumar, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Phone (618) 453-7843, Fax: 618-453-3044 [email protected]

Abstract - Three major responsibilities of assistant

professors include teaching or mentoring students,

conducting research to advance the state-of-knowledge, art,

and practice, and service to the institution and theirprofession. The main responsibilities of geotechnical

engineering (a branch of civil engineering) professionals

include helping their clients construct the structures by

ensuring the safety of their end users. Although, these two

professions seem to be totally different, yet there are several

similarities in these two professions, particularly in the area

of geotechnical engineering. The author joined the

Department of Civil Engineering at Southern Illinois

University-Carbondale after working with governmentagencies and consulting firms for over 11 years. He has

successfully incorporated his professional practice

experience into the Civil Engineering Curriculum at SIUCincluding development of a new course on Geotechnical

Engineering in Professional Practice. The paper presents a

critical review on similarities between two apparently

different professions, and how the professional practice

experience gained by a faculty member in an appropriate

setting is similar to the experience gained by an assistant

professor within the first few years of their academic career.

The review presented shows how professionals having the

same academic qualifications as entry-level assistant

professors contribute to mentoring of engineers,advancement of the state-of-knowledge, art, and practice,

and serve their profession.

Index Terms Capstone course, industry participation,

professional practice

INTRODUCTION

Science is based on empirical investigations and the

application of general principles to real-world problems

(Lowman, 1995). A study by Woods (1987) found that after

watching their teachers work thousand problems in class and

solving another three thousand themselves outside the class,engineering graduates of four year engineering curriculum

showed negligible improvement in problem solving skills .

Another study by Milton (1982) shows that only 17 percent

of 1700 faculty respondents at a research university use

essay tests and only 13 percent of them claim that theirquestions required problem-solving skills.

Professional practice can be defined as the act of

working first hand with situations for customers by using a

combination of highly specialized knowledge and skills that

are obtained through study, training, and experience

(Aldridge, 1994). Professional practice requires that

graduates from a four year engineering curriculum are

capable of setting up and solving problems which do nothave answers given at the back of books. The ABETs

Engineering Criteria 2000 places significant emphasis on

preparing graduates so that they can successfully enter and

continue practice of engineering and it is the responsibility

of the institution to satisfy these criteria. Therefore,

participation of the industry and/or professionals in

engineering education has become an integral part of

engineering curriculum.

It is a famous quote that Every structure issupported on soils or rock. Those that arent, either fly, float,

or fall over. Soils are natural deposits on which humans

have no control. Soils at no two sites are likely to be thesame. Even, at a particular point at a site, different types of

soils exist at different depths. Several theories and formulas

have been developed since the birth of soil mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering in 1925. Most of these formulas

have been developed from experimental data on soils that

have some particular characteristics, which may or may not

be applicable to soils with even slightly different

characteristics. Due to this reason, Prof. Karl Terzaghi, who

has been recognized as the father of soil mechanics, in 1936

stated that the accuracy of computed results in GeotechnicalEngineering using theories and relationships never exceeds

that of a crude estimate. Therefore, principal function of

teaching theories in Geotechnical Engineering in a

classroom is to train students as to what and how to observe

in the field. Keeping this in mind, necessity of incorporation

of professional practice into the Geotechnical Engineering

curriculum has been recognized by both the academicians

and professional practitioners.

Industry participation in civil engineering,

particularly in geotechnical engineering, could be

incorporated by not only creating atmosphere where students

and professionals interact on a regular basis but also, by

actively involving the professional in developing thecurriculum. In addition, having faculty members with

professional experience significantly enhances the quality of

instruction in geotechnical engineering. Based on a critical

review of primary duties of professionals and university

professors in a teaching and research university (hereinreferred to as academicians), the author has concluded that

there are enormous similarities between these two

professions, particularly in the area of geotechnical

engineering. Similarities observed by the author in terms of


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teaching, research, and service are presented herein. The

comparison presented in this paper is intended to

demonstrate the similarities between the duties of

professional practitioner and an assistant professor within

few years of his/her academic career; both having the same

academic qualifications. The similarities presented may not

be appropriate for comparison of the duties of senior

professors.

TEACHING

In a four year engineering school, primary teachingresponsibilities of teachers include but are not limited to

direct class room teaching, advising undergraduate and

graduate students, and developing and modifying curriculum

to satisfy the needs of internal and external clients. How

academicians and professional practitioners contribute to

direct and indirect teaching is presented in the following

sections. It must be recognized that fulltime assignment of a

professional practitioner is satisfying needs of his/her clients

by working on their projects. Therefore, the amount of directclassroom teaching is not expected to be the same as a

college professor. However, professional practitioners are

engaged in several other tasks which contribute to overallsimilarity in teaching between them and academicians.

Direct Teaching

Several professionals are involved in part-time teaching of

undergraduate and graduate students by associating with the

institutions in their geographical area of practice. Most of

the time, part-time teaching involves direct classroom

teaching, development and grading of homework problems

and exams, and assisting students with homework problems.This experience of professionals is similar in nature to that

of academicians. Most of the professionals, depending on

his/her level of responsibilities and years of experience,

present several seminars to their less experienced engineers

(in-house seminars) and to other practicing engineers and

students. Developing, organizing, and presenting these

seminars in a manner easily understandable to those who are

not familiar with the projects is similar to developing,

organizing, and presenting lectures to undergraduate and

graduate students in a classroom setting. Although, part-time

teaching by professional practitioners results in less number

of total contact hours with students per semester compared

to contact hours in an academic setting, but professionalpractitioners generally have significantly more contact hours

with engineers and technicians through project meetings and

seminars.

Indirect Teaching

Indirect teaching in an academic institution includes but is

not limited to advising/mentoring undergraduate and

graduate students, developing new courses, developing

textbooks, and reviewing manuscripts for technical papers

and textbooks. Similar to academicians, professionals also

serve as mentor to several entry-level engineers and

technicians. The entry-level engineers generally have BS

degree in civil engineering or related field (similar to

graduate students in an academic institute) and the

technicians generally have a basic education but no degree in

civil engineering (similar to undergraduate students in an

academic institution).

In geotechnical engineering, the professionals train

and mentor entry-level engineers by educating them on

fundamentals of professional practice, logging of borings,interpreting the data, identifying practical foundation design

issues, developing proposals and project reports, total quality

management (TQM), risk management etc. In addition, they

train their engineers on how to search for available literature

to develop solutions for relatively complicated problems, and

review the proposals and reports developed by engineers. This

experience is similar in nature to training graduate students

and reviewing their research proposals and theses. Training of

technicians generally include: explaining fundamentals of soilmechanics related to their assignments; training them in soil

mechanics laboratory; logging of borings; soil density

measurements in field; and design and construction issuesrelated to practical geotechnical engineering problems. The

contents of training to entry-level engineers and technicians

are the same as the topics covered in several courses in civil

engineering, e.g., soil mechanics, advance soil mechanics, soil

dynamics, foundation design, senior design (capstone design

course), and measurement of soil properties in laboratory.

Based on his experience in training engineers and

technicians during his professional practice career, the author

developed a 3-credit hour course titled Geotechnical

Engineering in Professional Practice. In this course, thestudents work on actual real-world problems and develop

scope of work, budget for the project, proposals, and final

reports, and perform engineering analysis exactly the way

entry-level engineers work on actual projects assigned to

them. Students are given opportunity to look at the final

products of practicing engineers so that they can develop

confidence in their own work. The contents of this course are

the same as those used in training the engineers and technician

in professional practice. This course was offered for the first

time in fall of 2000 and was well received by students and

practicing engineers who will be employing the students.

Since the contents of the course are the same as used to train

engineers and technicians in professional practice, the workperformed by the trainer (professional practitioner) is similar

in nature to that of an academician who is teaching this course

in an academic institution.

As the supervision of graduate students leads to

masters degree in an academic setting, training andmentoring of entry-level engineers leads to their professional

development and obtaining professional licenses in a non-

academic (professional practice) setting. To obtain a

professional license, it is required that engineers with MS and


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BS degrees must work under the supervision of a registered

professional engineer (P.E.) for a minimum period of 3 and 4

years, respectively.

Lowman (1995) has significantly emphasized the

importance of teaching with classroom discussions compared

to pure lecturing styles. A closer look at this format reveals

that this format of exchanging information and learning is

exactly the same how projects are discussed and executed in

professional practice. On large and complex projects,

engineers and technicians (like undergraduate and graduate

students in academic setting) sit with the project managers and

senior engineers (similar to faculty members in an academicsetting) in brain storming sessions at the beginning of projects

to learn from each other and execute the projects successfully.

Several professional practitioners work on

developing textbooks and reference books, e.g., a well

recognized and accepted textbook titled Waste

Contamination Systems, Waste Stabilization, and Landfills

was published by H. Sharma (Sharma, 1994) who is a

practicing engineer. The numbers of textbooks published by

professional practitioners is significantly less than thosepublished by academicians for the reasons beyond the scope

of discussion in this paper. However, academicians within

their first few years of academic career are rarely involved inpublishing textbooks. Very similar to academicians,

professional practitioners are involved in developing,

publishing, and reviewing the manuscripts for publication in

various journals and conferences.

Every civil engineering curriculum has a capstone

design course for students to complete in their senior year of

engineering education. The main objective of the capstone

design course is to provide understanding of the basic

concepts of planning, execution, and design of civil

engineering projects to undergraduate students planning topursue career in any area of Civil Engineering. In this course,

the students work in teams on actual real-world projects. The

main components of the course are to teach students the

important aspects of project development, and to train them

how to develop winning proposals and successfully complete

the design by working as a member of the team of project

design professionals. Since this course involves directly

working on real-world problems in a manner similar to the

professionals work in practice, the role played by the

instructor of the course is exactly the same as that of a

professional practitioner facilitating the design of projects in

practice.

RESEARCH/SCHOLARSHIP

Another important assignment of academicians is to conduct

research and scholarly activities to advance state-of-the-art,

knowledge, and practice. For an activity to qualify asresearch, it must be shown that the knowledge pursued or

gained is new. In academe, this judgment is usually

conducted by those who have demonstrated awareness and

understanding of the specialized body of knowledge to

which the research relates. This is usually accomplished by

peer review of proposals and research results (Aldridge,

1994). Faculty members at research institutes conduct

research and publish their work in journals and conference

proceedings for their work to be considered research.

Undergraduate and graduate students help the professors in

conducting the research.

In an academic setting, research conducted by the

academicians can be classified as fundamental or applied.

Results of the applied research have direct and immediate

application in the field. In professional practice, design of

several projects require significant review of availableliterature, development of model, unique laboratory and field

testing, design calculations and parametric study. Working

on projects of this nature are similar to working on applied

research projects in academic setting since the outcome of

work is a new and improved design and construction

techniques which adds to either state-of-the-art, or

knowledge, or practice depending on the project and

outcome from the research. Several unique field design and

construction methods in use today were born due theresearch conducted by professional practitioners during

execution of field projects. Before joining SIUC, the author

worked on several of these types of projects, one of whichreceived Engineering Excellence Award in the study and

research category of the awards established by Consulting

Engineers Council of Missouri (CeCMO). Results form that

study were published in one of the best journals on

earthquake engineering, and the paper received the best

technical paper published award from the college of

engineering at SIUC.

Similar to the peer review of results and reports of

research conducted by academicians, there are peer review

groups to review the innovative solutions to practicalproblems. A national organization, American Council of

Engineering Consultants have established awards for

innovative designs in the studies and research category in

which the projects are reviewed by a peer review group.

Because of the variability in soil and groundwater

conditions at every site, every project offers challenge for

the design. Therefore, every project site serves the purpose

of a laboratory for the geotechnical engineers in practice.

There are several research projects which require

academicians and professional practitioners to work

together. Professional practitioners working on these types

of projects get research experience similar to that of

academicians.Professional practitioners, like faculty members at

research universities, publish the data and knowledge gained

from various projects in peer reviewed journals and

conference proceedings. Most of the time, the peer review

group of the technical papers submitted by professionalpractitioners and academicians is the same suggesting that

the work performed by professional practitioners is reviewed

using the same standards as the work of academicians.


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Identification of a research project is considered one of the

most important steps in pursuing a research project. First

few years of a faculty members academic career involves

identifying and pursuing new research projects. Professional

practice experience also helps in identifying new problems

which need further studies. Funded research projects, the

author is currently working at his academic position, are

based on the problems he identified during his professional

career and involve design and testing similar to what is done

in professional practice.

SERVICE

The third important component of academicians

responsibilities is service to their institution and profession.

In an academic setting, the service by a faculty member

includes but not limited to serving on departmental, college,

and university committees to smoothly and successfully

satisfy the clients needs . In addition, service in an academic

setting may include: serving on the committees of

professional societies; presenting seminars for public,engineers, and students; and taking active parts in

organization of conferences and seminars.

In professional practice, engineers take active partin the in-house committees, e.g., total quality management

committees, quality control and quality assurance

committee, and risk and liability assessment committees.

Professional practitioners take active part in presenting

seminars and serve on the regional and national professional

societies. Similar to academicians, professional practitioners

are involved in organizing conference and seminars.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

The primary responsibility of both professionals,

professional practitioners and academicians, is to satisfy

their clients. The textbook definition of a client is the

individual or group whose needs you are responsible for

satisfying (Hyman, 1998). In professional practice, the client

is an individual customer or an organization who will use the

final design and/or be affected by the design. Whereas in an

academic setting, one of the most important group of clients

is students. As the clients need defines the purpose of

design in professional practice, students need defines the

purpose of direct or indirect instruction. During his academic

career at SIUC, authors students (his clients) havesignificantly valued his professional practice experience by

highly rating his teaching and submitting unsolicited

comments regarding the benefit they are receiving from the

authors professional practice experience. Therefore, if

experience of a person is useful to satisfy the needs of his orher clients, and if the clients recognize the value of a

particular type of experience, according to a basic principle

of marketing and Client retention, that experience is required

to successfully complete the clients' work.

Based on the similarity analysis between the duties

of professional practitioners and faculty members within

first few years of their academic career; both having the

same academic qualification, it is the authors opinion that

the professional practice experience obtained in an

appropriate setting is equivalent to the experience gained

within first few years in an academic setting, particularly

when our clients (our students) value that experience. The

appropriate setting for a professional practitioners is the

environment in which he/she could get the opportunity to

work on the tasks discussed here.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wish to thank his students at SIUC, and his

protgs and mentors at various consulting firms for helping

him to understand faces of both the professions which

enabled him to prepare and present this manuscript.

REFERENCES

Aldridge, D.M. (1994), Professional Practice: A Topic for

Engineering Research and Instruction Journal of

Engineering Education, ASEE, Vol. 83, No.3.

Hyman, B. (1998), Fundamentals of Engineering Design,

Prentice Hall Publishers, NJ.

Lowman, J. (1995), Mastering the techniques of Teaching,

Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Milton, O. (1982), Will That be on Finals?, Springfield,

IL: Charles C. Thomas

Sharma, H. (1994), Waste Contamination Systems, Waste

Stabilization, and Landfills, John Wiley Publishers, NY

Woods, D.R. (1987), How Might I Teach Problem

Solving? New Directions of Teaching and Learning No. 30,

J.E. Stice Ed., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

relationship between professional practice and academia in geotechnical engineering

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