Kumar creates field exploration DVDs

Sanjeev Kumar, professor of civil and environmental engineering at SIUC, has produced two instructional DVDs for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Sanjeev Kumar created these DVDs for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The society's continuing education division chose to publish Kumar's "Geotechnical Field Exploration Using Test Borings" and "Rock Coring for Geotechnical Analysis and Design" based on peer review of the materials. The society has not previously published this kind of educational material for civil engineers.

"These DVDs are very high-quality productions, contain material which is timely and of significant interest to civil engineers and provide a unique opportunity for civil engineers to learn field exploration techniques," wrote John A. Casazza, the society's continuing education director, in a letter promoting the materials.

Kumar said he developed the DVDs to help not just practicing engineers but students, the faculty members who teach them and the technicians and drilling crews who work in the field.

"Most undergraduate and graduate students do not get knowledge of most commonly used field exploration techniques, primarily because most faculty members teaching civil engineering (particularly geotechnical engineering) do not have suitable instruction material and sufficient field experience to explain the intricate details," he wrote in an e-mail.

"Technicians and drilling crews generally are not exposed to any formal training on this subject."

Kumar, a fellow of the civil engineering society, earned his bachelor's degree in 1986 in India and his master's and doctoral degrees in 1996, both from the University of Missouri, Rolla.

-- K.C. Jaehnig