Department's Official Description 

Geotechnical engineering encompasses engineering in soil and rock, the use of soil, rock, and geosynthetic materials for construction, and protection and enhancement of groundwater and the soil/water environment. Geotechnical engineering embraces the fields of soil mechanics, foundation engineering, geological engineering, rock mechanics, engineering geology, environmental geotechnics, groundwater engineering, and earthquake engineering. It includes the study of the properties and behavior of soil, geosynthetics, and rock as engineering materials; the design and construction of earth and rock-fill dams; foundations for bridges, buildings, concrete dams, and other structures; improvement of soil and rock in conjunction with other materials; waterfront structures; soft ground and rock tunneling; underground space developments; surface excavations; and the analysis and mitigation of landslides, debris flows, earthquakes, and other geologic hazards. Geotechnical engineering is also centrally concerned with fluid flow through soil and rock masses, geological factors affecting groundwater flow and contaminant transport, groundwater remediation, and design and construction of waste disposal facilities. 
 
 

All CEE projects must eventually be connected to the earth. This is the realm of the Geotechnical Engineer. The field of Geotechnical Engineering encompasses many aspects including: designing foundations for all types of projects, building earth-filled dams, excavating and tunneling, and minimizing damage from natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and landslides. Another area of Geotechnical Engineering, commonly called Geo-Environmental Engineering, deals with cleaning up contaminated groundwater and the design of structures to prevent contamination of groundwater (such as landfills). Geotechnical Engineering makes extensive use of high tech materials, such as fancy plastics, in most modern applications. They also get to use all sorts of heavy equipment to move dirt around and make it more reliable to build with.