Nabil Hourani's Blog: I-Write

I noted in my work diary: “The most important achievement is to do our public job, with a good conscience … Integrity is essential, we must do what is right not whatever “works” to get by. Our success is not measured in financial and economic terms, but by the respect, trust, and credibility we earn every day, on every project…”

Successful public engineers need many skills and qualities to excel. First, the engineer should be decisive and confident in his work as a team member or as a leader, and second, be open-minded and work effectively with other engineering or administrative persons. Finally, the engineer must have the solid technical knowledge and background which allow him/her to become a problem-solver.

In the following table, I summarize the key personal and technical habits of a professional:

PERSONAL
• Guide and discuss with an open mind.

• Keep good records and personal notes.

• Focus on big tasks and finish them step by step.

• Use in-house capabilities before outsourced help.

• Be proactive, friendly, and stay Positive!

TECHNICAL
• Implement and control new Technology and Techniques.

• Use State and Federal specialized resources (Training, Manuals, reviews, …)

• Retain the Basics and learn new Skills; knowledge building-blocks.

• Prepare Office designs and plans, but complete them with Field observations and inspections.

People believe that engineering is a science, so how can art be part of it? Isn’t this statement contradictory? And who is a Geo-Engineer? What does he do?

A Geo-Engineer is an engineering professional who deals with any structure that is on, adjacent to, or below ground. Geotechnical Engineering is a discipline of Civil Engineering that explores and analyses geo-materials and designs and builds geo-projects.

So, Geo-materials are natural and partly man-made elements such as soils, rocks, fills and waste materials. Yet, what do geo-projects consist of? The U.S. National Research Council defines the various fields of geo-technology as: foundations (for buildings, highways, and bridges), tunneling, slopes stability and landslides, earth retaining structures (walls), dams, control and disposal of wastes, subgrade materials, and ground improvement.

Indeed, the Geo-Engineer works against the forces of nature (mainly gravity) which he tries to stabilize and control. He learns and uses basic engineering principles and methods, along with the indispensable experience and perception gained through field and laboratory work.

This is one of the few engineering disciplines where an engineer ought to utilize almost all his senses, along with some common sense, during the various phases of design and construction. That is; touch for evaluating the texture of a rock sample, hearing for listening to the hardening driving of piling in the ground, smell for sniffing the organic content in a black soil sample, vision for inferring the subsurface of a rolling terrain.

As a reflective co-worker described it once in an open discussion, “Geotechnical Engineering is like cooking, where one has to taste, add and modify along the way, with patience and feeling…”