MABY5420 Geotechnical Site Investigation and Laboratory Testing Course description

This course provides the fundamentals of geotechnical soil characterization by introducing a wide range of in-situ field investigation techniques and laboratory experiments. Students will be familiar with field and laboratory testing: from auger sampling to CPT, and from basic index tests to the most advanced stress path apparatuses, together with the interpretation of the data obtained. The knowledge of soil behavior will be reinforced, allowing students to understand practical problems when deriving geotechnical parameters. The compilation and integration of field and laboratory data into a geotechnical ground model will be discussed.

The work and teaching methods used in the course are characterised by lectures and workshop / seminar style dialogue and discussions, to which the students bring their own particular interests and experiences, and diverse academic backgrounds. See the general programme description for further details.

After completing this course, the student will gain the following knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

Students have in-depth knowledge of:

• Desk study resources, understanding your site and the conditions
• Onshore and offshore site investigation techniques related to drilling, in-situ sampling, and testing,
• Geotechnical index and advanced laboratory tests,
• Experimental data assessment and interpretation.

Skills

Students can:

• distinguish different drilling, sampling, and field techniques to be used to obtain high-quality samples, and to derive geotechnical parameters in the field,
• select adequate laboratory tests for a range of geotechnical design problems and know how to interpret geotechnical laboratory test results.

General competence

Students:

• are familiar with drilling, sampling, and testing field techniques, and can decide which technique to use in the field depending on the specific soil conditions,
• can understand the basic principles of geotechnical testing apparatuses and can conduct index and advanced tests.
• can interpret geotechnical test results and critically identify the advantages, and disadvantages of different testing techniques,
• can translate geotechnical test results into a ground model.

Lectures, exercises, laboratory and field visits, and written project report. Practical laboratory experiments and field visits will be coordinated with the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI. Parts of the lectures will be covered by relevant international and national guest lecturers.

Online lectures will be recorded, and the material will be made available to students on Canvas

The following work requirements are mandatory and must be approved prior to the exam:

3 group exercises of 2-4 students: 1 exercise on laboratory testing, 1 on site investigation, and 1 on ground modelling. All exercises are part of applied engineering problems.

The exam consists of two parts:

1) Project report prepared in groups of 1-3 student, approx. 25 pages, weighted 70%, and

2) Oral group (up to 3 students) presentation of the project followed by individual Q&A, weighted 30%.

The oral exam will be within 10-15 mins.

All assessment parts must be awarded a passing grade (E or better) for the student to pass the course. Assessment Part 1) can be appealed. Assessment Part 2) can not be appealed.

All types of materials and equipment are allowed for the written project report. Project report counts will be considered as a written exam and shall be done in groups.

None for the oral exam.

This course examines core characteristics of struggles over livelihood, equality and social justice in international development, education, and sustainability, at multiple levels of scale. It centres on the efforts of movements and social groups to achieve social change, including tensions between these and defensive efforts to protect their livelihoods. Case-studies are drawn on to illustrate these tensions, and provide insight into key debates and proposed pathways to transform society.

No prerequisite knowledge required.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student:

• has a thorough overview of theories and approaches to power and inequality.
• has thorough knowledge of the key debates, and tensions, at work in struggles for social change to resist or overcome structural inequalities and injustices.
• has thorough knowledge of the nature and dimensions of these struggles within a Global South - North dynamic.
• has thorough knowledge of and insight into the role of education (in both the Global South and the Global North) in the maintenance of mainstream perspectives about global challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, and poverty.
• has thorough knowledge of and insight into the role of education (in both the Global South and the Global North) in projects to advance transformative visions of sustainable development and social transformation / social change, including system change.

Skills

The student:

• is capable of explaining the dominant and historical roles of education in societies in relation to the reproduction, reform, transformation of inequalities and injustices.
• is capable of analysing mainstream and alternative struggles in the Global South and North about global environmental and climate issues, development and inequity, and sustainable development.
• is capable of analysing current cases-studies, identifying potential causes for inequality and injustice and strategies for their transformation.

General competence

The student:

• has knowledge of how to assess current struggles for more democratic and equal social change, in terms of key social science concepts and processes.
• is capable of explaining and problematising relevant theory in the research field.
• is capable of using and disseminating new knowledge and academic issues relating to education and sustainable development in the Global South and North.