(classical music playing)

- Hello, and thank you

for tuning in to Connections
and Directions, our University

of Michigan Civil and
Environmental Engineering podcast.

My name is Michelle Santilion

and I am the CEE marketing
communications specialist

and host of this series.

During our podcasts, we
are featuring members

of our CEE community and how
their work reflects our mission

of engineers and service to society.

We will be highlighting
our strategic directions

and our commitment to diversity,
equity, and inclusion.

CEE's five strategic
directions are human habitat

experience, shaping resource
flows, adaptation, automation

and smart infrastructure finance.

Our guest

for this podcast is assistant
professor Estefan Garcia.

Professor Garcia has a bachelor's degree

from UCLA and master's

and PhD degrees from the
University of California, Berkeley

all in Civil and
Environmental Engineering.

Professor Garcia's primary
research interests are

in the realm of granular
materials and granular systems.

Granular and particulate
materials represent some

of the most heavily manipulated
materials in our society.

A fundamental understanding
of their behavior at the scale

of individual grains or particles
has wide ranging benefits

in several fields,
including civil engineering

geology, manufacturing,
and planetary exploration.

Professor Garcia, thank
you for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- Please share with our
listeners some details

about your research area and goals

and how they align with
CEE strategic directions

and our mission of engineers
in service to society.

- Sure, well, I am a
geo technical engineer

so I study primarily soil mechanics.

And my subspecialization, I guess

within this sub-specialization
of civil engineering is

in granular soil mechanics
and particulate systems.

Any system that can be discretized

into discrete particles that
are individually a solid

but collectively have
wide ranging behaviors

and sometimes even fluid like behavior.

And so I study a lot of soil

primarily because these
materials are quite literally

and also pun intended

but foundational to the built environment.

All of our, all

of our civil infrastructure
buildings, highways

everything is built upon soil.

So this is why I think my

the strategic direction that I,

I best fall into would be
human habitat experience

because our entire habitat is situated

upon these soils and just
granular materials in

in general, primarily
sands and clays and rock.

- And how do you find that your area

of study has specifically addressed some

of the pressing issues perhaps

that civil engineering
is facing today, such

as climate change and the increased amount

of flooding in some cases
or soil changes that

that may be a result of that?

- Yeah, and so it is sort of
tangentially related to a lot

a lot of these areas in
the area of climate change.

I don't work directly

on this myself right now

but when it comes to carbon sequestration

that is also has to do,
that is also a partially

a soil mechanics problem when it comes to

when it comes to flooding, a lot of this

a lot of sometimes floods
such as, for example

just up north of us with
the Eatonville dam failure

that was because of a
soil failure of the dam

because these dams are built out of soils.

So understanding the stability

of earth thin materials made out of clays

made out of sands is
important for preventing

or mitigating the
impacts of these hazards.

- And would you say that it's similar

in the case of beach
erosion, for example, and

if there's a storm and
buildings then are affected

as the beaches wash away, would you

would that be involved
in what you do as well?

- Oh yeah.

So basically, as much as
I emphasize soil mechanics

there is no soil mechanics

without water even away
from the beach in the, in

in the middle of the most inland state.

Water is a problem just
because of poor waters.

And we deal a lot

with aquifers when it comes
to beaches themselves.

There is a wide range of work on

on scour around offshore piles.

And there is some interesting work kind of

on the geologic engineering
side having to do

with erosion of coastal bluffs
that is obviously a wind

and water erosion issue.

So there is, so that

that's sort of how these, how the areas of

soil mechanics kind of collide with

with some of these offshore
problems and hazards.

- And how did you become
interested in your area of study?

Was there a course that you took

or a personal experience
you had that led you

to pursue this area of research?

- Yeah, actually, so I

I like geo technical
engineering in a, because it is

it is not the most popular
area of civil engineering.

I like, I think probably
most undergrads went

into college wanting to
study structural engineering

and environmental engineering

which I love those fields as well.

But also those were the
main fields that I really

knew about.

I did not know geotechnical
engineering was really a thing

until maybe late sophomore
or my junior year when I

when I took my first soil mechanics class

and I kind of became
interested because I did well

in the class, it just kind
of came naturally to me.

But actually what I
really decided to focus

on this field in graduate school

because I was talking to one
of my former professors and

and mentors when I was an undergrad saying

that I wanna, I love to
learn about natural hazards

I wanna study how to mitigate the impacts

of earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides.

And I was thinking to myself
as a structural engineer

or just a general civil
engineer, and he told me that

that these issues that I am interested

in are actually fundamental
to geotechnical engineering.

So I went on to take a

take a class with him in
foundation engineering

went on to take additional courses in

in geotechnical engineering
and geotechnical design

and just kind of

on a whim decided to consider listing this

as my major in graduate school.

And then I went off to meet
even more great mentors

including my advisor and other, and

and other faculty who
really just kind of took me

under the wing and showed
and actually got me involved

in natural hazard
reconnaissance, specifically

with the geotechnical extreme

of extreme events
reconnaissance association.

So it's cool I get to work

with a group of really talented scientists

and engineers and basically
whenever there's a

a major event that has some
type of geotechnical impact

this organization sends
teams of people often

very often locals who go
and investigate the impacts

that this hazard has on
geotechnical infrastructure.

- So you get to have a very
real presence to assist society

in recovery

and hopefully prevent future
problems down the road.

Correct?

- Correct.

And prevention

is an interesting word because we can't

we can't prevent the hazard in many cases.

I mean, say for example, earthquakes

we can't control tectonics

but we can mitigate their impacts on

on the built environment.

And, but then on the other hand

a lot of this stuff is preventable

with a fundamental
understanding of soil mechanics.

I think many geotechnical
engineers would agree

with me that our, that one
of, if not our biggest failure

in this profession was Hurricane Katrina

when the levies failed

that was a geotechnical
engineering failure

and that sort of thing
is actually preventable.

Maybe the storm itself
was less preventable

but the impacts of the storm

that is what geotechnical engineering

or geotechnical engineers
seek to address to

reduce the impact that the

that these hazards have on society and

and the people that the
infrastructure protects.

- So getting to that point

how do you incorporate diversity, equity

and inclusion in your
research and your courses?

- Yeah, in my courses, I
like to remind people that it

for example, in Hurricane
Katrina, unfortunately, some

of the most impacted
people were also the most

low income people in the area.

And that, and economics is economics of

and from a political and
sociological perspective

is tied to civil engineering.

It is hard to take a purely technical view

of our field without addressing
who this field serves.

We, as civil engineers, we serve people

so we need to keep the
actual human beings in mind.

And economics is important because

with more money you can afford

better society can afford,
better protections.

Lower income areas are often
more exposed to hazards

that we can address through

through civil engineering
and geotechnical engineering.

So I like to kind of put

in these reminders into my classroom to

remind students why they do what they do

not just how to do what
they do, but the why.

As for my research group, kind of

not necessarily from a
technical perspective

but I do like to have a
diverse research group.

One because the more
diverse my research group is

I believe the more creative they are.

Students from different backgrounds come

with different perspectives

and collectively it avoids common academic

academic challenges such as tunnel vision

or group think when everyone,
you know, I, when some

sometimes students from the
exact same background can look

at a problem the same way
and get stuck on something.

And it just takes a

a quick alternative
perspective to quickly say, Hey

maybe there's a different approach

or have you thought of this?

So these different students

with different backgrounds
definitely bring these

different perspectives that
really push research forward.

Just because I think avoiding
tunnel vision is a big

is a big part of it

but also I think it's just beneficial for

for students to see people in

in the professional workplace that

with whom they can identify with.

I understand that it's kind of, it's

it could be rough

on students when they're
studying something

and they're looking around from

from the people that are
teaching them and mentoring them

but they don't see anyone

with whom they personally
identify with on a human level.

So I think just kind of that
exposure for students to see

to see themselves in this
profession and see their neighbors

and see people from their own community

in these professions, I think
that is very important for

for improving this field and just

and just making this field more accessible

to students from all backgrounds.

- What classes are you
teaching this semester

and do you have ideas

for additional courses
you would like to add

to the CEE curriculum?

- Sure.

I'm actually teaching my
first undergraduate class

this coming semester and it, you know

is kind of fitting
that, it is introduction

to geotechnical engineering
and it's, I'm going to

so I'm gonna go over the most
fundamental or pun intended

foundational aspects of
geotechnical engineering.

And in the past I've kind
of taken over the courses

on numerical modeling in
geotechnical engineering as well

as earthquake engineering.

And I particularly like
earthquake engineering just

'cuz I'm from California.

Earthquakes are a problem.

That's what inspired me to get

into this field in the first place.

And I like to teach about it.

As for new courses, since
I use a numerical tool

called the discrete element method

and I study particle mechanics,
I want to introduce a

a course on granular
mechanics or maybe more

broadly particulate mechanics
to kind of study this

these materials that can be
have both solid like and fluid

like behavior and whose
behavior is composed by solids

and the void space or air
in between those solids

or even the water in between those solids.

And I think such a class
can be generalized not just

to geotechnical engineering
students, but also definitely

to earth planetary
science students, geology

physics majors, and mechanical engineers.

Really any field that

includes research in
particulate materials.

- And what is the most
exciting aspect of your job?

Or what brings you the most joy

if you will, about your job?

- Ah, I love mentoring students.

That is actually, you
know, research is cool

Don't get me wrong.

I love the research, I love what I study

but really the reason I went
into academia is because

I also have a passion just for

for the student aspect of this job.

So I, you know, I want
students to know that

that oftentimes my door is open

I have an open door
policy just 'cuz I really

I really appreciate it
when students just stop

by and want to introduce themselves.

You know, I wouldn't be here if I

if I did not enjoy
talking with the students

whether undergrads or grad students.

- Is there anything
else you'd like to add?

- Yeah, I will emphasize
the open door policy is real

so I encourage students to come on by

and then I can talk more about how I

I like to use the concepts in
my research when it just comes

to friction on mineral
surfaces and incorporate that

into my leisure activities when it comes

to biking and rock climbing.

And so if any students
wanna come by and learn more

I'm happy to go on a rant about that.

- How do you incorporate that?

Leisure your activity into your research?

- Yeah, when I'm on the bike trails, I

and I say I hit like a really
loose sandy area, you know

I and bikers know how to get around that

but I can't help but think of, you know

the sheer strength of that material as my

as my bike wheel goes over it.

And when it comes to
rock climbing, you know

I'm kind of thinking of
normal forces and the

the frictional strength
of the material that I'm

on and how do I adjust my hand on the

on the hold to kind of get the

get the most frictional
resistance to hold myself up.

And it's, yeah, it's probably
the nerdiest way to ever look

at some of these sports, but

it's kind of fun for me to think about it.

- Your background probably
gives you an advantage

over other people who don't have the

the technical knowhow
on some of these things.

- In theory, but no, then

there's definitely people who
are just way better than me.

(classical music playing)

- Thank you for listening
to our podcast conversation.

For more information about CEE at Michigan

please visit our website at cee.umich.edu.

You can also reach our YouTube channel

and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

and LinkedIn pages from our website.