Geotechnical Engineering

Every structure on earth, whether it be a building, bridge, dam, canal, pipeline, landfill or pavement is founded on soil and/or rock. Geotechnical Engineering is the sub-discipline of Civil Engineering that is concerned with studying the engineering properties of soil and rock and with developing solutions to engineering problems involving soil and rock.

The Geotechnical Engineering program at The University of Michigan offers opportunities for advanced education and research in a full range of geotechnical engineering areas, including: site characterization, foundation design, stability of earth masses, soil improvement, soil and foundation dynamics, geotechnical earthquake engineering, engineering geology, rock mechanics, soil behavior and numerical and analytical modeling. The University of Michigan has both graduate and undergraduate laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment for conducting laboratory and field geotechnical engineering research.