Geotechnical and Earth Resources Engineering (GTE)

Besides the traditional topics of soil mechanics, foundation engineering, earth structures, underground excavations, land subsidence, and landslide mitigations, land reclamation, ground improvement, geosynthetics engineering, analytical and numerical analyses, geotechnical engineers and researchers are increasingly involved in many new and dynamic areas of geoengineering and geo exploration. They are also challenged to solve geoenvironmental problems, the reduction of construction wastes, clean-up of contaminated sites, geological-related hazards as well as onshore and offshore exploration and production of new mineral and energy resources.

Area of Specialization

The field of study of Geotechnical and Earth Resources Engineering (GTE) offers two major areas of specializations, Geotechnical Engineering (GE) and Geosystem Exploration & Petroleum Geoengineering (GEPG).

In addition to the regular master program offered at the mother AIT campus in Bangkok, the field offers two professional master programs in Geotechnical Engineering and Management (PME-GEM) and Geo-exploration and Petroleum Geoengineering (PME-GEPG), respectively, in collaboration with AIT Vietnam since 2008.

The traditional Geotechnical Engineering (GE) includes two specializations, Engineering and Applied Geology(EAG) and Soil Engineering(SE).

Engineering and Applied Geology (EAG) provides a sound knowledge of geological principles, rock mechanics and geophysical techniques and their applications to civil engineering work, mineral and energy exploration and development, land subsidence, and natural hazard mitigation. Current researches in EAG span the areas of engineering geology, site investigation and terrain evaluation, rock mechanics, applied geophysics, earth image processing, rock slope engineering, underground excavations and tunneling, and analytical geomechanics. The students taking the Engineering Geology course will have opportunity to attend a field trip to many sites in Thailand.

Soil Engineering exposes students to the behavior of soils as well as rocks and the use of geosynthetics for civil engineering and geoenvironmental applications, ground improvement, utilization of lightweight and waste materials, resource development, and man-made hazard mitigation. Researches in SOE relate to critical state theories in soil mechanics; soft ground improvement and construction techniques; soil dynamics earthquake engineering;

earth reinforcement and earth retaining structures; pavement design and construction; risk analyses and probabilistic methods, numerical methods and computer-aided design; geosynthetic engineering; and lightweight materials. The students will have opportunities to visit various construction sites of major infrastructure projects.

Geosystem Exploration & Petroleum Geoengineering (GEPG) is an interdisciplinary area of specialization that trains specialists in the upstream sector of petroleum exploration and production (E&P) as well as other activities related to geosystem engineering and exploration (e.g. geological and geophysical investigation, mining, groundwater and construction material, geohazards ). The program offers courses for onshore and offshore HC exploration, including fundamentals of geoexploration, exploration geophysics, petrophysics, well log interpretation, reservoir characterization and engineering, petroleum production and a practical course of workflow of oil and gas operations in E&P. Field trips to visit oil and gas companies and HC fieldsin SE Asia are part of the trip. Researches in GEPG focus on exploration of HC and mineral resources, engineering geophysics, near-shore reclamation, site investigation and testing for construction of petroleum facilities, e.g., oil tank foundation, and gas pipeline.

Preferred Background

Master Program:

Undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Mining, Geophysics, Petroleum Engineering; other disciplines are considered on a case-to-case basis

Doctoral Program:

Master degree in Engineering Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Geoenvironmental Engineering, Geophysics, Petroleum Engineering, and Mining.

STUDY PLAN

I. Soil Engineering (Core Course)

II. Engineering and Environmental Geology (Core Course)

I. Soil Engineering (Core Course)

August-December Semester (12 credits)

Course ID	Course Title – Credits (lecture-lab hour) Credit	Instructor(s)
CE71.13	Advanced Soil Mechanics 3(3-0)	Dr. Kuo-Chieh Chao
CE71.31	Engineering Geology 3(2-3)	Dr. P. H. Giao
CE71.12	Rock Mechanics 3(2-3)	Prof. Noppadol P.
CE71.41	Analytical & Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering 3(3-0)	Dr. Kuo-Chieh Chao

January-May Semester (12 credits)

Course ID	Course Title – Credits (lecture-lab hour) Credit	Instructor(s)
CE71.51	Foundation Engineering and Design 3(3-0)	Dr. Kuo-Chieh Chao
CE71.56	Ground Improvement Techniques and Geosynthetics 3(3-0)	Dr. Kuo-Chieh Chao
CE71.53	Underground Excavation and Tunneling 3(3-0)	Prof. Noppadol P.
CE71.xx	Advanced Geotechnical Testing & Modeling 3(2-3)

The students can consider selecting one of the following recommended courses or from other programs that they see fit:

INTER SEMESTER JUNE-JULY (2 credits): one of the following customised courses can be offered depending on the demands and availability of the invited lecturers

Course ID	Course Title – Credits (lecture-lab hour) Credit	Instructor(s)
CE71.90xx	Practical Geotechnical Engineering (Customized topics) 2(2-0)	Adjunct Faculty
CE71.xx	Unsaturated soil mechanics	GTE/adjunct faculty

SEMESTERS 3 &4 – THESIS WORKS(22 credits) FOR THE THESIS OPTION

SEMESTERS 3 &4 – COURSEWORK (12 credits) and RESEARCH WORK (10 credits) FOR THE RESEARCH STUDY OPTION