Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the behavior of soils and uses principles of soil and rock mechanics to investigate subsurface conditions and materials,determine their properties, evaluate stability, assess risks, design earthworks and structure foundations and monitor site conditions.

Earthquake engineering is concerned with the design and construction of all kinds of civil and building engineering systems to withstand earthquake shaking.  Earthquake engineers are faced with many uncertainties and must use sound engineering judgment to develop safe solutions to challenging problems. They also rely heavily on state-of-the-art techniques in computing, materials science, laboratory testing and field monitoring.