Session 7E6 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND ACADEMIA IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Sanjeev Kumar
Sanjeev Kumar, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Phone (618) 453-7843, Fax: 618-453-3044 kumars@ce.siu.edu

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 their profession. 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 government agencies and consulting firms for over 11 years. He has successfully incorporated his professional practice experience into the Civil Engineering Curriculum at SIUC including 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 their questions 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 International Conference on Engineering Education

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 not have 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 is supported 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 the same. 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 Geotechnical Engineering 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 the curriculum. 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 (herein referred 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 August 6 10, 2001 Oslo, Norway

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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 teaching responsibilities 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 direct classroom teaching is not expected to be the same as a college professor. However, professional practitioners are engaged in several other tasks which contribute to overall similarity 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 professional practitioners 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 International Conference on Engineering Education 7E6 -2 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 soil mechanics related to their assignments; training them in soil mechanics laboratory; logging of borings; soil density measurements in field; and design and construction issues related 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, the students 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 work performed 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 and mentoring of entry-level engineers leads to their professional development and obtaining professional licenses in a nonacademic (professional practice) setting. To obtain a professional license, it is required that engineers with MS and August 6 10, 2001 Oslo, Norway

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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 academic setting) 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 those published 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 in publishing 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 to pursue 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 as research, 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 International Conference on Engineering Education 7E6 -3 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 available literature, 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 the research conducted by professional practitioners during execution of field projects. Before joining SIUC, the author worked on several of these types of projects, one of which received 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 practical problems. 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 professional practitioners and academicians is t he 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. F irst 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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 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 part in 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. 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 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) have significantly 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 or her 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. International Conference on Engineering Education 7E6 -4 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. 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.

August 6 10, 2001 Oslo, Norway