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Do you have the latest smart phone? Have you checked out the new crowd-sourcing app or trending Twitter
hashtag? Change is fast-paced these days. Contrast that for a moment with geotechnical engineering. For
more than one hundred years, geotechnical site characterization has followed a standard process with little
change. When we want to know about the subsurface, we drill soil borings, collect soil samples while
performing the standard penetration test (SPT), perform laboratory tests, and develop a report that tells what
we did and what we found. After all, what could change with that tried and proven approach?
It is time for geotechnical engineers join the pace of technological change. If technology can tell our car when it
is safe to change lanes, or even change lanes for us, perhaps we should start to think about how it can change
how we go about geotechnical characterization.
https://www.terracon.com/2017/09/26/geotechnical-engineering-in-the-21st-century/ 1/4
3/29/2019 Geotechnical Engineering in the 21st Century | Terracon
Noted economist and Nobel Laureate Professor, Robert J. Shiller, is quoted as saying “It amazes me how
people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.”
To avoid this challenge at Terracon, we are combining the power of computers, GIS-based archiving and
retrieval systems and even machine learning to start our geotechnical site characterization process with
predictive analysis techniques. These techniques incorporate what we already know, how consistent that
information is and, bolstered by the opinion of our local, experienced geotechnical practitioners, what
con dence we have in our predictions from the information available.
Geotechnical engineers have run with our SPT hammer long enough. It’s time to let technological innovation
help us do our work better, quicker and with more con dence.
https://www.terracon.com/2017/09/26/geotechnical-engineering-in-the-21st-century/ 2/4
3/29/2019 Geotechnical Engineering in the 21st Century | Terracon
Vic Donald, P.E., is the national director of geotechnical services. He has more than 35 years’ experience in
geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering working with clients and geotechnical engineers across the
country.
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3/29/2019 Geotechnical Engineering in the 21st Century | Terracon
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