Early Exposure to FEM to Enhance Undergraduate Engagement in Geotechnical Engineering

Undergraduate geotechnical engineering courses are generally focused on theoretical aspects of soil mechanics and traditional design methods, most of which are based on limit equilibrium analysis. In current practice, however, thanks to advances in hardware, software, and soil material modeling, geotechnical engineers routinely rely on numerical modeling for analysis and design. To best prepare future engineers for the profession, exposure to computational methods and to software used in industry is therefore desirable at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, numerical modeling programs can be effectively used to illustrate fundamental concepts, to rapidly explore the impact of soil properties and design parameters, and to provide exposure to realistic geotechnical engineering design problems, thus enhancing students’ learning and classroom experience. This paper presents the experience of incorporating a finite element method (FEM) software used in industry into the undergraduate Geotechnical Engineering I course offered at Purdue University, through two laboratory modules built around key topics covered in the course. Feedback was collected from the students at the end of the semester through an anonymous survey designed to assess different aspects of student engagement (behavioral, emotional, cognitive, agentic). The survey results showed that the FEM labs improved student attention and promoted a deeper interaction among team members. Students also felt that the FE analyses were effective in bringing concepts to life compared to paper-based exercises, and appreciated the opportunity to work on a problem that had ties to an actual case history.