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What role should software play in geotechnical education?

Numerical modeling software available today offer a host of possibilities in terms of both data processing and digital and graphic output. Today's generations of students, immersed in a digital environment since childhood or adolescence, are naturally fond of them. It is tempting, particularly for young geotechnical engineers, to expect a great deal from these tools, even in some cases a complete understanding of a phenomenon they have encountered on a site. Unfortunately, experience shows that this is not the case for junior engineers. It is often deplorable to see an engineer building a sophisticated numerical model straight away, forgetting to think things through beforehand, even though this is essential if the problem is to be solved properly. In light of dual experience as a practitioner in a design office and as a teacher of soil mechanics and geotechnics, we will be looking at how to use digital tools in the context of learning and professional practice. We will address the question of the right place they should occupy in the geotechnical engineer's training curriculum. We will describe the good ‘reflexes’ that every practitioner should have. This reflection will be extended to the notions of orders of magnitude and the art of engineering, without which the engineer is no more than a calculator that could easily be replaced by an operator simply entering data.