CALIFORINIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA

CE 326-03 Geotechnical Engineering II

Winter 2016
Time:

W F 12:00 PM-1:15 PM

Location: 9-307

Instructor:

Dr. Jinsung Cho

jinsungcho@cpp.edu
Office Rm 17-2669
Phone (909) 869- 4613
Office Hour: T TH 1:00-2:30pm, W 1:30 2:30pm
or Also available by appointment. Just send me an email giving me times you can meet.

Textbooks:

Coduto, D.P., Yeung, M.R. and Kitch, W.A. (2011) Geotechnical Engineering:
Principles and Practices, 2nd Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey, 794p.

Catalog Description: Stresses in soil, consolidation and settlement, soil strength, stability of earth
slopes, structural foundations.
Prerequisite:

CE 325

Communications:
This course relies heavily on Blackboard Learning System (Bb) and email to deliver course material
and receive feedback from students. You must become familiar with these tools to complete this course.
Only your official Cal Poly Pomona email address will be used. It is your responsibility to ensure your
Cal Poly email box is working properly.
General Course Objectives:
The following is a short list of the course objectives. More detailed learning objectives will be provided
for each lesson via Bb.
An understanding of stresses in soil, and the ability to compute both geostatic and induced
stresses from common loading conditions
An understanding of the sources of settlement in soils, and the ability to evaluate and predict
ultimate consolidation and secondary compression settlements
An understanding of the process of consolidation and the ability to compute consolidation
settlements as a function of time
An understanding of the principles of soil strength, the methods of measuring soil strength, and
the application of strength data to engineering analyses
An introductory understanding of engineering aspects of slope stability analysis and design
An understanding of the active, passive and the at-rest earth pressures that can exist between a
structure and the soil with which it is in contact, including the ability to estimate these pressures
An understanding of the geotechnical aspects of structural foundation design, including the
ability to size foundations that satisfy both bearing capacity and settlement criteria
An introductory understanding of geotechnical earthquake engineering

Grading:
The following weighting system will be used in determining final grade for the course
Item
Reading Reviews: 18 @ 5 points each
Homework sets: 8 @ 10 points each
Unexpected Quiz (Attendance): 10 points
Slope stability design project
Midterm exam
Final exam
Total

On-line reading reviews, as parts of the lesson preparations, will be assigned and submitted via Bb.
You will have a reading review for every lesson. The purpose of the reading review is twofold: 1) to
help you prepare for class and 2) to provide feedback to your instructor about what portions of the
homework were most difficult and need extra coverage during class. Reading review questions will
normally be qualitative in nature and require little or no computations. They will be graded based on
the effort you put into them, not on the correctness of your answers. If you prepare for class you should
be able to get perfect scores on the reading reviews.

Quiz will be done in the begining or end of class.

Project
-

Percent
7%
10%
Variable
Variable
Variable
Variable
100%

On-line Reading Reviews

-

Points
54
80
50 80
100
200
300
784 814

There will a slope stability design project. This design project will be performed in groups. More
details about the project will be provided through Bb.

Exam
-

There will be two exams, a midterm and a final. The midterm exam will cover the first half of the
course (Chapters 9 and 12). The final exam will be comprehensive but focus on the second half of the
course. Both exams will be open book, closed notes.

The instructor will determine student grades for the course using his professional judgment, and the
following guidelines as described in the University Catalog:
A = superior work
B = very good work
C = adequate work

D = minimally acceptable work

F = unacceptable work

Grading Scale:
Your final grade will be based on how many points you have received out of the total possible. The
grade range will be fixed for the quarter. However, the grade might be curved depending on certain
circumstances. X represents your final average.
Range
X 92
90 X < 92
88 X < 90
82 X < 88
80 X < 82
78 X < 80
72 X < 78
70 X < 72
60 X < 70
X < 60

Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F

Course Ethics:
By enrolling in my class, you agree to the following classroom procedures in addition to the procedures
outlined in the Cal Poly University Catalog.

The following circumstances will result in a grade of F:

-

Exams, Assignment, and Projects:

-

You may not reschedule the exams unless an emergency exits.

Travel plans and/or employment conflicts are not an excuse for rescheduling an exam.
If an emergency exists, you must make up the exam within 48hours by scheduling an exam time with an
instructor.
If you will be testing through Disabled Student Services, I must have all necessary documentation prior
to the beginning of the second week of instruction. A DSS representative must arrive to class at the
beginning of the exam time, in class, in order to pick up the exam.
Challenges to exam or assignment grading must be made within one calendar week from the time the
exam scores were posted in blackboard.
All exams will not be passed back. If you wish to see your exam, you must schedule an appointment
with me. All exams will be discarded at the end of finals week.
Basically, there are no partial points of all exams. This is a critical engineering work that requires
accuracy. However, partial points might be allowed by an instructor based on special circumstances.
All assignments not claimed will be discarded after the exam has been given.
The number one complaint of engineering clients is the timeliness of deliverables (reports, drawings,
specifications, etc). As a professional engineer you will be expected to arrive at scheduled meetings on
time and prepared. Late proposals are not generally accepted. Late assignments will receive no
credit. Late specifications or drawings may cost the engineer a monetary penalty. Professional
engineering standards apply in this course. All assignments are due at the beginning of class.
Assignment sets shall be prepared in a neat and professional fashion, as if they were prepared for a real
design project. All work must be on engineering paper, except for computer output, which should be on
plain white paper. The handwriting must be neat and clear. When plots or sketches are required, they
may be drawn by hand, so long as they are neat and clear. Assignment sets will be graded on both the
correctness of the answers and on the quality of the presentation. Messy work or solutions will not be
graded. The bottom line is that work must be submitted on time and be professional just like in
industry.
Project will be group assignment. Team member must be assigned for each responsibility and later each
member will be evaluated by other team members.

Excused absences:
-

Using audible cell phones, pagers, and laptops during exam. Cell phones and pagers should be turned
off before you enter in classroom.
Cheating on any graded assignments or exams.
Showing or exhibiting discourteous behavior to other students or the instructor.
Not attending one of exams.
Duplicating copyright literature or software without permission from the publisher or author. If you are
not sure what you do is plagiarism, please ask me before you do.

To request an absence from a class lab and/or lecture, you must notify me prior to the time of the
absence. Email is acceptable, but for exams you must come to an instructors office and explain
yourself only face to face. Requests for absenteeism may be granted for emergencies only. An
emergency is defined as an unforeseeable event such as a traffic accident or medical emergency.
Medical necessary medical attention of yourself, your brother, sister, mother father, spouse, or child
only. To prove this emergency, you must provide your evidences.
Outside employment conflicts will not be considered towards absenteeism.
You are expected to attend every class meeting on time and be prepared. Should you find it necessary
to miss a class for any reason, you are expected to notify your instructor as early as the absence is
knownpreferably before the absence.

General Ethics:

Do not be late. One time might be tolerable. Over 2 times, this will be reflected on your score.
Do not go out the classroom after you enter in the classroom. I do not want you to distract me and other
students during class time. Please finish your work before class.

Cell Phone Rule:

-

When an instructor hears phone ring or vibration from students during class time, the instructor
deducts 10% of total points that the students have earned by the end of quarter.
The instructor will give F to a student if the student breaks the rule again.

Student Access:
Cal Poly Pomona, as a learning-centered university, is committed to student success. Students with
disabilities are encouraged to contact us privately or the Disability Resource Center (909.869.3333,
Building 9, Room 103) to coordinate course accommodations.
Collaboration and Teamwork:
Nearly all worthwhile accomplishments from raising a family to launching the space shuttle are the work
of teams. Civil engineering is no exception. All significant civil engineering projects are completed by
teams.
You will be required to work in teams for the design project in this course. You are encouraged to study
in teams and sit with your teammates during class. There will often be group discussions during class.
You may work with others in completing the homework sets for this course. However, it will be critical
to your success in exams that you individually understand all the problems in the homework sets. Do not
substitute copying for good collaborative learningit will hurt you in the long run. When you do work
in teams on material submitted for a grade you must document the collaboration that took place. The
design project will have a formal report that will be signed by all team members.
There are only two graded items that you cannot receive help onreading reviews and exams. Doing the
reading reviews individually is critical to your understanding of the material and the exams are critical to
demonstrating your degree of mastery of the material. If you receive assistance on a reading review or an
exam, you will receive no credit for that work and be subject to disciplinary action.
Instructor Prerogative:
The instructor will try to create and maintain an optimum learning-centered environment for all students.
To this end, the instructor may need to change policies, procedures, assignments, schedules, grade
weighting, or other aspects of this course when he deems it necessary. You will be notified of any such
changes.

NOTE: SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE!!

Tentative Schedule (CE 326)
Week
1

Date

Topic

Chapter

1/6

Introduction

1/8

Stress1

RR 1 and RR2

1/13

Stress2

RR 3, HW 1

1/15

Strength1

1/20

Strength2

RR 5, HW 2

1/22

Strength3

RR 6

1/27

Strength4

RR 7, HW 3

1/29

Slope Stability1

2/3

Slope Stability2

2/5

Slope Stability3

2/10

Midterm Exam (ASC Reno)

2/12

Compressibility and Settlement1 (ASC Reno)

2/17

Compressibility and Settlement2

RR 13

2/19

Compressibility and Settlement3

RR 14, Project
submittal 2

2/24

Rate of Settlement

11

RR 15, HW 6

2/26

Foundations1

14-15

RR 16, HW 7

3/2

Foundations2

3/4

Lateral Earth Pressures1

3/9

Lateral Earth Pressures2

3/11

Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering

3/16

Final Exam (11:30 1:30pm)

12

13

11

RR 8, HW 4

RR 11
10

RR 12, HW 5

RR 17

10

RR 4,

RR 10, Project
submittal 1

Assignment Due

16-17

RR 18, Project
submittal 3
RR 19
RR 20, HW 8

The outline below provides a general overview of the course and the due dates of deliverables. Detailed reading and
homework assignments along with any updates to this schedule are provided via Bb.
RR = On-line Reading Review, due by noon on due date; HW = Homework; HWs and project submittals due at
beginning of class meeting on due date