Programs of study in this area offer courses in soil properties and their measurements, foundations, embankments, retaining structures, earth dams, soil mechanics, numerical modeling, soil dynamics and earthquake engineering. Extensive equipment is available in the three separate geotechnical engineering laboratories equipped with standard and advanced equipment, including dynamic soil testing (cyclic triaxial and resonant column). A shake table is also available for dynamic model testing. Research areas include contaminant containment and remediation, soil improvement, unsaturated soil mechanics, numerical modeling of fundamental soil behavior, soil liquefaction, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and geographic information system and remote sensing applications.