You’ll know when the soil mechanics class in civil engineering is conducting lab experiments by the repetitive thuds of soil compaction hammers. The hammers are heavy weights inside of steel piping that drop onto a small mold filled with soil.

Lydia Franco is pursuing a civil engineering degree with a focus on structures, and she found the soil mechanics lab experience to be insightful, saying, “This is super important when we’re designing foundations and different structures. We need to understand the soil types that we’re working with.”

Fellow student, Jason Rullman, completed an internship in the construction industry last summer and was excited to learn how soil compaction tests are performed. “Actually seeing how this stuff works and how to do the tests is really cool,” Rullman said. “It’s definitely helping me in my future career.”

Gaining familiarity with the concepts and equipment involved in soil compaction, these students are on solid ground as they pursue their degrees.