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Geological engineers devise engineering solutions to geologic problems faced by society. Whenever you see a highway tunnel through a mountain in Colorado or under the Bay in Boston, an Environmental Impact Statement for work near an urban area, a huge open pit mine in Peru or Nevada, a skyscraper in an Francisco or New York, or a bridge in Japan, you see what geological engineers have done to make a living. Rock has been used for millennia to create pyramids, sculptures, aqueducts, and buildings, but the rules for designing in rock are different than those developed for soil, steel, or plastics. Geological engineers must learn the standard engineering principles—like those used by civil engineers to design a dam—but also must learn the special techniques that exist to work with our less easily standardized material. But there's more than just these two disciplines—you must become a good engineer, a good geologist, and especially, a good communicator of the results to an audience consisting frequently of nontechnical decision makers, lawyers, politicians, and your next-door neighbors. Dealing with, assessing, and forecasting risk and hazards are also a part of the job. You will be called upon to deal with attorneys, elected officials, and the general public and you will learn to do so effectively and ethically. |
Let's look at you, thinking about geological engineering. You will have certain key, Core Abilities including:
- Ability to Think Logically and Reason Physically. This is very important in any field, like GE, that will get you a job and keep you employed.
- Good People Skills. Once you complete your studies, you will choose your best offer and take a great job! But you will also learn pretty fast that those who succeed and are happy can get along with people. Some are better at it than others, and we will help train you to handle yourself like a true professional.
- Ability to Work in Teams. You'll find that you will work with (not for) your supervisor to get projects done. And you'll work with others trained in different fields, like geology, civil engineering, computers, and business. How do you think you'll do in this kind of work environment? The best people do well.
- Great Computer and Web Skills. Computer games are good training for the real world, and knowing the latest software and web tools is a Must in today's society.
- You Can Write a Coherent Paragraph. Yes, it's boring sometimes, but someone has to write a logical and well reasoned report that starts the project into motion. Might as well be you!
- You Constantly Update Yourself. Last year's technology belongs to the company that yours just beat out for the contract. You go for lifelong employability, not just a lifelong job.
Huh! All these core abilities are what anyone would need to start a decent career nowadays, right? Almost a no-brainer. Now there are a few more that you'll need to round out your morphing into a geological engineer.
- You're Not Scared of Using Numbers. A math genius is not needed here, but you should be reasonably comfortable with basic trig and probably some calculus, along with enough statistics for you to bound the uncertainties and work within them.
- You're a Good Geologist. You enjoy the outdoors, field work, and can handle getting dirty dealing with real situations and imprecise conditions.
- And You're a Good Engineer. You understand the principles and can solve problems. But in addition you can see what problem the geologic situation presents, set it up, and get an answer.
If this sounds like you, or who you'd like to be, keep checking us out!
Geological Engineering is a self-contained Program within the Department of Geological Sciences, with strong ties to Civil and Mining Engineering along with Hydrology/Hydrogeology and Seismology. We are a dynamic group of faculty and students, both undergraduate and graduate, who are working together to provide effective and innovative engineering solutions to today's geologic problems.
We have 3 full-time faculty members:
As you'll see, our teaching and research interests are pretty broad, and maybe different than you might have expected from some dry branch of engineering. But look a bit deeper—we're high-tech, using satellites to assess hazards, learn about the Earth and other planets, and get us to remote locations like volcano summits.
We offer 3 degrees that span the entire range of our field.
The Bachelor's degree is accredited by ABET. This means that you will get the high standard of engineering education at UNR that is required for national certification of any engineering degree program.
Geological Engineering Mission
The Bachelor of Science program in geological engineering is one of the oldest degree programs at the University of Nevada, Reno. Our goal is to graduate students of high quality possessing state-of-art knowledge in both the science of geology and the fundamentals of engineering. These students will have a high level of knowledge regarding geologic hazards and the mitigation of these hazards, also geomechanics, environmental remediation, and geotechnical engineering. BSGE students will be highly competitive for graduate school admission or for professional employment. These students will be recognized as among the best nationally.
Translating our department mission and vision into an obtainable and quantifiable educational objectives required our geological engineering faculty to become acquainted with ABET 2000's vision and how this vision could be accommodated with the University's, College of Science, and the department's mission. The geological engineering program resides within a department having three other B.S. programs (geology, geophysics, hydrogeology) and given this richness of the departments diversity as reflected by our other degrees is a strength which has been reproduced in our educational objectives. The department's other B.S. programs and their course content were selectively "picked" and incorporated into the geological engineering curriculum. The strength of our curriculum reflects not only our geological engineering faculty but faculty from our other in-house programs and is reflected in our educational objectives which tie in to Criterion 3's requirements of a through k.
The department's educational objectives are a product of the needs and expectations of our stakeholders in addition to the mission of the department, college, and university. Our stakeholders' opinions were ascertained and required consultations and surveys from a) the geological engineering faculty and selected other department faculty specializing in geophysics, hydrogeology, and geology, b) discussions with our geological engineering alumni, and c) employers of our geological engineering graduates.
Stakeholder discussions produced four program educational objectives:
Program Educational Objectives
- Produce students who will be able to effectively apply design principles in a variety of design situation (meets criterion's a, c, d, e, g, f, h, and k).
- Ensure that our students can demonstrate a solid and broad foundation of fundamental principles, both theoretical and practical, of mathematics, science, and engineering (meets criterion a, e, i, and k).
- Graduates will be aware of the larger contexts of the application of their engineering, including global, environmental, societal, and legal concerns and will be able to effectively communicate these concepts (meets a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, and k).
- Successful graduates will demonstrate the ability to visualize problems in three-dimensional space, demonstrate proficiency in geomechanics, and apply geologic principles to solve problems related to the human interface with earth (meets a, e, h, j, and k).
These educational objectives require feedback from our constituents to the program to confirm that we are being successful and that changes can be accomplished in a timely and organized manner.
Two options are available to you for the Master's degree. Most students do Plan A, which involves doing research on some interesting problem and writing it up as a thesis. If your work is good enough, it should be published as well. A separate option is available to professionals with enough work experience that they can effectively "test out" of the thesis research. They choose Plan B that involves taking graduate classes to strengthen their already fine backgrounds and write a professional paper rather than a thesis for their degree. Currently we have 9 M.S. students in both plans, all of whom will likely receive multiple job offers before they graduate.
We now offer an interdisciplinary doctoral program: the Ph.D. in Geo-Engineering. It is an interdisciplinary research and training program that allows you to specialize in any of several cool areas including remote sensing, geohazards analysis, planetary geomechanics, slope stability science, and theoretical rock mechanics among others. Already several students have graduated from this program and they see a healthy employment picture in academics and in major companies that require their expertise.
Here's a list of our undergraduate and graduate students in GE.
Take a look at what our Former Students in Geomechanics are up to.
Several exciting research areas are available to you as a student in geological engineering. These include
Each of these areas provides you with in-depth training and innovative topics for projects. Take a look at them—you'll be surprised at the wide range of topics that you didn't expect a geological engineer to do! But the world and the field are changing rapidly, and new mixes of skills are needed by today's marketplace. If you see something that interests you, please give us a shout, and maybe you too can join us. If you have a different area of interest that you don't see here, contact us anyway! We are constantly expanding what we do and the current range may not yet be listed here on our web site.
| You may have to put in a new cafe next to this great underground restaurant in Paris. |
| Or you can do fault mechanics and slope stability for this echelon graben on the Moon! |
and we'll be happy to tell you more!
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Geomechanics-Rock Fracture Group . |
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