Initiatives

In the 1980s, geosynthetic material development, polymeric research, and wide-scale manufacturing advances helped the field of geosynthetics mature quickly. Regulatory support, such as the RCRA Subtitle D rule from the US EPA, contributed significantly to growth and encouraged outside investment. However, a knowledge gap existed because few people in influential positions, such as lead regulators, policymakers, facility owners, and professors, were aware of geosynthetics.

A non-commercial Educate the Educators program was created in the 1990s to help overcome this gap. ETE events and workshops were scheduled and the results were substantial. Geosynthetic engineering provided a major growth area for geotechnical careers and the market grew substantially. As testament to this educational program, all major engineering firms now have designated geosynthetic experts on staff.

However, in the years since those first ETE events, the responsibility for passing on the latest information on geosynthetics has fallen to college and university engineering programs, just as it has for other materials sectors. This has presented a new challenge to the geosynthetics industry, as the market has developed faster than the education required to pass on the knowledge. In North America, for example, only 45 university engineering programs include geosynthetics education in their curricula.

The International Geosynthetics Society has revived the Educate the Educators initiative with the creation of a new non-commercial program, which multiple organizations have signed on to support (e.g., IFAI, Geosynthetic Institute).

A major goal that the IGS Council adopted during the 2010 strategy meeting in Guarujá, Brazil, was “That geosynthetics become indispensable to the point that they are regularly included in engineering curricula and relevant design standards.”

With this long-term goal in mind, a specific objective was established for the IGS four year-plan to “Begin our efforts to increase geosynthetic education at the undergraduate level.”

These efforts started with a pilot program that addressed the educational needs in the country of one of the youngest IGS Chapters: Argentina. Specifically, Educate the Educators (“Educando al Educador”) took place in Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina, 26 – 28 May 2013. This is a good example of a joint effort between an IGS Chapter (IGS Argentina) and the IGS (through its Pan-American Activities and Education Committees).

The focus of the program was on undergraduate education with the larger objective that every student graduating from a civil engineering program in Argentina will have received a basic exposure to geosynthetics. The goal was perhaps a simple one, a basic one-hour class, offered to every civil engineering undergraduate in the country. Thirty civil engineering professors received a fellowship that covered their expenses to attend this premier training program on geosynthetics.

The program benefited from the involvement of the Argentinean Council on Civil Engineering Curriculum (CODIC), an agency that has encouraged development of this educational program.

The revival of ETE built upon the terrific precedent of teaching civil engineering professors about geosynthetics. That earlier iteration was established in North America more than 20 years ago, with Prof. David Elton leading the program from 1994 to 1998. Each year, 25 professors were competitively selected to take part in the courses, which were conducted at Auburn University (Alabama, USA). Attendees had only to arrange their travel to and from Auburn. Meals, housing, and workshop materials were all provided free of charge to the participants.

The format for what was at the time called the “Professor Training Course for Geosynthetics” included lectures by well-known professors, who reviewed extensive class notes prepared as handouts for the course. The lectures covered polymers, manufacturing, erosion control, steep slopes, landfills, mechanically stabilized backfill, pavement applications, embankments over soft ground, and filtration and drainage. The concept of “modular notes” was used, with the notes broken down into many stand-alone parts. In this way, different components of the training session could easily integrate geosynthetics material into existing courses.

Over 15 years after this initial experience in North America, education on geosynthetics at the undergraduate level remains a current, worldwide need. The IGS is not alone in recognizing this important need. Undergraduate students in every civil engineering program deserve to receive a basic exposure to the types, functions, and applications of geosynthetics.

Contact the IGS for more information on how IGS Chapters can help with this important educational initiative program: IGSsec@GeosyntheticsSociety.org.