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Teaching Philosophy
Even at this very moment, cutting-edge technologies and newly published research continue to expand the existing boundaries of knowledge, imposing upon us the obligations to never stop learning. It is my belief, then, that a true educator should be a fast tracker of all recent developments in their field and become a forerunner in delivering the new knowledge to their students. This requires a careful process in which the most essential information is sorted out of a superabundant supply of new knowledge, necessitating the scholar to have already mastered the fundamental rubrics and theories of the field. It is this belief that bases my teaching goal: I want to resolve the gap between existing and new research and alleviate the inconsistency between fundamental theories and practical industry approach, ultimately aiding my students to become more self-directed engineers capable of resolving novel challenges they will inevitably encounter out in the real world.
Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering (CE.20030) - Undergraduate Course
The purpose of the course is to introduce students to Geotechnical Engineering terminology and fundamentals of soil mechanics – this course will cover topics viz: phase relationships, soil classification, compaction, effective stress of soil, fluid flow in soil, consolidation and settlement, shear strengths of soil. Adding to regular classes, this course also incorporates laboratory classes to provide students with hands-on experiences in soil mechanics. This course provides students with a firm foundation for advancing to more theoretical and applied areas in geotechnical engineering, including foundation engineering, dam engineering, soil dynamics, and geotechnical earthquake engineering.
2025 Spring
Course Outline
Week01 — Course Introduction, Phase Diagram
Week02 — Phase Relationships, Grain Size Distribution
Week03 — Index Properties - Plasticity, Soil Classification
Week04 — Clay Minerals, Soil Fabric
Week05 — Compaction of Soils
Week06 — Field Compaction
Week07 — Effective Stress
Week08 — Mid-term
Week09 — Hydrostatic Water in Soils, Fluid Flow in Soils – Heads, Permeability
Week10 — Fluid Flow in Soils – Seepage
Week11 — Fluid Flow in Soils – 2D Flow
Week12 — Compressibility of Soils
Week13 — Time Rate of Consolidation
Week14 — Stress Distribution and Settlement in a Soil Mass
Week15 — Shear Strength and Failure of Soils
Week16 — Final Exam
Advanced Soil Dynamics (CE.60033) - Graduate Course
The purpose of the course is to introduce students to Soil Dynamics – this course will cover topics viz: dynamics of simple systems (Fundamentals of waves and vibrations, SDOFs), dynamic soil properties (G/Gmax and damping strain relationship), waves in infinite and bounded media, and one-dimensional site response analysis. This course provides students with a firm foundation and theoretical knowledge for geotechnical earthquake engineering.
2025 Fall
Course Outline
Week01 — Course Introduction, Fourier Transform
Week02 — Harmonic Waves and Complex Numbers, Signal Processing (How to Sample)
Week03 — Signal Processing (How to Process), SDOF System (Free Vibration)
Week04 — SDOF System (Forced Vibration), Earthquake Response Spectra, Damping and Energy Losses
Week05 — Modeling of Soil during Cyclic Loading (LVM, LHM, Elastoplastic Models)
Week06 — Modeling of Soil during Cyclic Loading (Bilinear, Hyperbolic, Ramberg-Osgood Models, Masing Criterions), Wave Velocities, Moduli and Damping @ Small Strains (Elastic Moduli and Wave Velocities)
Week07 — Wave Velocities, Moduli and Damping @ Small Strains (Gmax in Clays, Effect of Aging, # of Cycles), Wave Velocities, Moduli and Damping @ Small Strains (Small Strain Field Tests)
Week08 — Mid-term
Week09 — Wave Velocities, Moduli and Damping @ Small Strains (Small Strain Field Tests)
Week10 — Wave Velocities, Moduli and Damping @ Large Strains, Wave Equation and Wave Velocity
Week11 — Elastic Reflection and Transmission/Refraction of Traveling Waves (Boundary Problems), Radiation Damping
Week12 — Kelvin-Voigt Model in Site Response Analysis and Linear Analysis, Wave Energy
Week13 — Equivalent Linear Analysis, Nonlinear Analysis
Week14 — Site Response Analysis using Equivalent Linear (EQL) using RSseismic / Strata
Week15 — Input Motion Decision, Design Code Review
Week16 — Final Exam
Advanced Geomechanics (CE.50002) - Graduate Course
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to advanced soil behavior and critical state soil mechanics. Building on fundamental soil mechanics, the course examines stress- and state-dependent responses of sands and clays, including dilative and contractive behavior, drained and undrained strength, and stress paths. Through the framework of critical state soil mechanics and simple constitutive models (e.g., Mohr–Coulomb and Cam-clay), students will learn how to interpret laboratory tests, characterize soil strength and deformation, and develop a mechanistic basis for advanced geotechnical analysis and design.
2026 Spring
Course Outline
Week01 — Course Introduction, Phase Properties and Relationships
Week02 — Fundamental Eng. Characterization of Soils, Sand-Like
Week03 — Clay-Like – Minerals, Clay-Like – Atterberg Limits
Week04 — Mixed Soils, Effective Stress – Particle Forces
Week05 — Effective Stress–Unsaturated, Back to Terzaghi 1D Consolidation
Week06 — Shear Strength of Soil – Cohesionless Soils, Cohesive Soils)
Week07 — Elasticity & 2D to 3D space - Stress & Strain
Week08 — Mid-term
Week09 — 2D Stress Path – Practical Problems
Week10 — 3D Stress Path – Conventional Lab tests
Week11 — Critical State – Cohesionless Soils: State Parameters, Tayler’s equation, Dilatancy
Week12 — Foundations of Plasticity, Critical State – Cohesive Soils (Cam Clay)
Week13 — Cam Clay (Yield Surface) and Critical State: Volume Change in Clay, Triaxial Tests (Drained vs Undrained)
Week14 — Undrained Strength of Clay with Cam Clay, Cam Clay Model Parameters
Week15 — Review
Week16 — Final Exam
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