Search

Despite societal expectations that graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines integrate broader impacts into their professional activities, few of them actually receive any formal training in this area. This paper describes a graduate seminar entitled “Broader Impacts of Natural Sciences on Society” taught at the University of Florida in 2006 and 2008. In addition to course goals, recruitment, expectations, format, content, and outcomes, this paper describes challenges and recommendations for others who might want to teach a similar course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the results of a driven pile side shear setup (SSS) test program performed at the University of Florida and described in a companion paper. All pile segments showed SSS, with similar magnitudes in both cohesionless and cohesive soils, and irrespective of depth. Horizontal effective stresses increased after driving, but then stabilized as induced pore pressures dissipated. SSS continued long after pore pressure dissipation due to other aging effects. Pile load tests in all soil types, and standard penetration tests with torque measurement (SPT-T) in cohesive soils, confirmed the approximate semilog-linear time versus SSS behavior and the usefulness of the setup factor A. Staged (repeated) tests significantly increased SPT-T measurements, suggesting a reduction factor of 0.4 for SSS results measured by staged testing. We believe that engineers can now include SSS in routine design, using a minimum setup factor A=0.1 for soils similar to those tested, or higher if supported by dynamic or static pile tests, or by SPT-T predictor tests. Examples demonstrate a proposed SSS design method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]