SIUC professor offers unique class

Matthew McConkey
Daily Egyptian

Three years ago, Sanjeev Kumar developed an idea for his civil engineering students. The plan was to integrate real-life experience of engineering into the classroom. Two years later, Geo Technical Engineering in Professional Practice was born.

The class, which is offered to seniors studying civil engineering, offers students real-world experience as opposed to straight bookwork, Kumar said. "They work on projects that they will be doing in the first years of professional practice," Kumar said. Kumar said for the course he receives data collected from projects happening in southern Illinois. He gives the students the same data engineering firms have, places them in groups and from there students collaborate as if they were working for a firm.

When students have finished, they compare the projects with the final project produced by the firm, Kumar said. A Methodist church in Carbondale is putting on an addition, Kumar said. So the students' current project reflects the data from the church addition. By offering the course, Kumar said students coming from SIUC would have a much better chance of being offered jobs because of the experience. "I train my students so they are several steps ahead of other students coming from any other school," Kumar said. Once graduates are hired, they must go through an initial training period, which costs employers time and money, Kumar said. The course gives students that experience, which saves the firm money.

"If two graduates are competing for the same job and one has taken this class, they will be picked over the other 100 percent," Kumar said. In the three semesters the class has been offered, Kumar said students have attributed his class to getting a job. Robin Cisco, a recent SIUC graduate who is working now for an engineering firm in Florida, said the course helped apply the knowledge of engineering to a practical way. "The course helped me understand what I would be doing exactly when I graduated," Cisco said. Rich Adams, a senior from Edinburg studying civil engineering, said knowledge learned from Kumar's class helped impress a potential employer. At a recent job interview, Adams was taken to a parking lot where the asphalt was buckling and breaking apart. Adams said dense clay deposits in the soil were making the asphalt bubble up. Adams said he didn't know this before taking Kumar's course. "You leave here with everything you need to know for this field," Adams said.