Teaching soil mechanics in a changing world

Geotechnical engineers face a changing world in which the need for new approaches in the wake of climate change presents both a challenge and an opportunity for constructing and maintaining existing infrastructures. It is thus crucial to adapt teaching soil mechanics, of which the basic concepts were established in the 20th century, to the new context. At the “École nationale des ponts et chaussées”, France, the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction’s students can consolidate the scientific bases of various fields while learning to be flexible and adapt to any new situation. In addition to the essential and basic concepts of standard Soil Mechanics taught in traditional lectures and hands-on sessions, two projects are introduced. The first is a literature review, allowing the students a quick global view of the current problems in Geotechnical Engineering. The second is a modelling project where the students use constitutive laws to simulate some standard laboratory tests. Besides, the contents of the Soil Mechanics class and other related classes, essentially the Geotechnical Designs class, are closely coordinated. This approach would allow graduate students to quickly learn new technologies and tools and solve problems that cannot be dealt with by standard soil mechanics knowledge.