Geotechnical Engineering Practice – useful tips for young and developing professionals

Bill K Koul

The speaker will share with the audience a gist of his learnings that he has gathered from his Geotechnical Engineering work practice over a period of more than three decades in various parts of the planet. The talk will be generic, covering some notable tips and technical considerations that the speaker deems would prove to be useful in practice, in particular, by young and developing professionals at various stages of their professional work — (a) fee and technical proposal; (b) terms of engagement / contract; (c) geotechnical study, involving site investigation, laboratory testing, geotechnical analysis and design; and (d) production of technical reports.

A list of tasks that the speaker considers as ‘don’ts’ shall also be discussed. The talk will include some interesting anecdotes and stories, but not any particular case histories in detail.

Time permitting, a simple but brief analytical activity sometime midway through the session shall also be attempted to make the session more interactive and interesting.

About the speaker

Bill K Koul FIEAust, CPEng, NER, APEC Engr, RPEQ, FAIM

Bill is currently Director and Principal Geotechnical Engineer with Koul Associates Pty Ltd. He is also Principal Consultant – Geotechnical Engineer with 4DGeotechncis Pty Ltd, where he worked earlier as Engineering Manager / Principal Geotechnical Engineer for over a decade until nearly the end of 2020. With over 35 years in the geotechnical field, his field of experience includes geotechnical studies – design, construction and geotechnical investigations for shallow and deep foundations – for a broad range of civil and mining infrastructure projects, including elevated railway and highway, airport, power plant, power transmission towers and wind farms. From offices based in Perth, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and India, Bill has worked on projects located in several countries other than Australia, which include New Zealand, PNG, Fiji and China and other countries located in South-East Asia, West Africa and South America.

In his spare time, Bill passionately writes on various topics related to humanities and the world affairs. So far, he has authored nine published books. In the last three years, he has also run as a candidate for the WA parliament, in March 2021, and more recently, in May 2022, for the Australian federal parliament.

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