About me
Engineering the ground. Engineering the mind.
Hi, Iām Damilola Bashir Akinniyi, a geotechnical engineer, educator, researcher, and mentor.
My journey started in Osun State, Nigeria, where I was born and raised. Long before I knew what geotechnical engineering was, however, one part of my purpose was already beginning to show itself: teaching and helping others learn.
As a child, around the age of ten, I would organise lessons for younger children in my neighbourhood. Parents would bring their children, I would teach them, and somehow I found great satisfaction in helping someone understand something they previously found difficult.
Years later, that same desire to understand, teach and support others would become an important thread running through my career.
My journey
My Journey into Engineering
I studied Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria, graduating in 2011.
During my National Youth Service Corps programme between 2011 and 2012, I worked as a Graduate Engineer with Sparklight Engineering Group in Ibafo, Ogun State. That early exposure to engineering practice strengthened my interest in understanding what happens beneath the structures we design and construct.
That curiosity eventually led me towards geotechnical engineering.
I completed an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering in 2015 before receiving a postgraduate scholarship to pursue a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
My PhD journey began in 2016. Although my scholarship provided four years of funding, I completed the programme in three years, graduating in 2019.
My doctoral research focused largely on lateritic soils, which are widely distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of the world. That research deepened my interest in tropical soils, unsaturated soil mechanics, soil behaviour and the fundamental theories that help us understand why soils behave the way they do.
After completing my PhD, I remained at HKUST as a researcher between 2019 and 2021 before moving into engineering consultancy with AECOM in Hong Kong.
From Industry to Academia, and Back Again
In 2022, I relocated to the United Kingdom and joined Coventry University, where I taught geotechnical engineering and contributed to the development of civil engineering education.
During my time at Coventry, I took on a number of leadership responsibilities, including serving as Head of Geotechnics and supporting the university’s Civil Engineering Industrial Advisory Board.
I also served as a Visiting Lecturer at Aston University, teaching MSc students in advanced geotechnical engineering.
Teaching at university brought together two things that have always mattered deeply to me: understanding difficult concepts and helping other people understand them too.
But I have always valued the relationship between academic knowledge and engineering practice.
In 2025, I decided to return fully to industry, joining Binnies, where my work has focused particularly on geotechnical engineering within the water sector. I currently support projects involving water and wastewater infrastructure, including treatment facilities, tanks, pipelines, earthworks and other geotechnical systems.
I am currently on secondment to Anglian Water through the @one Alliance.
This work allows me to bring together research, fundamental soil mechanics and practical engineering decision-making.
My technical interests
The Kind of Geotechnical Engineer I Am
I am fascinated by soil.
Not simply as a construction material, but as a complex material whose behaviour can be understood through careful observation, experimentation and theory.
I particularly enjoy laboratory testing and the interpretation of soil behaviour using fundamental soil mechanics.
My technical interests include:
- Critical state soil mechanics
- Unsaturated soil mechanics
- Tropical and lateritic soils
- Soil microstructure
- Geo-environmental engineering
- Constitutive behaviour of soils
- Soil stabilisation and sustainable ground improvement
- Geotechnical modelling and interpretation
I am especially interested in what happens at the microscopic level.
Techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP), and micro-CT scanning fascinate me because they allow us to connect what we observe at the particle and pore level with the engineering behaviour we see at the larger scale.
I enjoy asking a simple but fundamental question:
Why is the soil behaving this way?
For me, calculations and software are important, but understanding the underlying mechanics is even more important.
Explore Engineering and ResearchResilient infrastructure
Engineering for a Changing Climate
A major part of my research interest is understanding how geotechnical infrastructure responds to changing environmental conditions.
Climate change means that soils and geotechnical structures may experience increasingly severe cycles of rainfall, drying, flooding, temperature variation and other environmental stresses.
My long-term goal is to contribute towards the development of more resilient geotechnical infrastructure and more sustainable ways of dealing with problematic soils.
I am particularly interested in environmentally responsible materials and techniques that can improve soil performance while reducing the environmental impact associated with traditional ground improvement methods.
This work aligns particularly with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating to resilient infrastructure, sustainable communities and climate action.
For me, engineering should not simply solve today’s problem.
It should help prepare society for tomorrow’s conditions.
Mentoring and Mind Engineering
But Engineering Is Only Part of My Story
Perhaps the easiest way to understand me is this:
I enjoy engineering the ground, but I am equally passionate about engineering the mind.
Mentoring has never felt like something separate from my professional life. It is something I have naturally done for most of my life.
From teaching children in my neighbourhood as a young boy, to teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, supervising projects, supporting graduates and mentoring young professionals, I have consistently found fulfilment in helping people recognise what they are capable of becoming.
I am particularly passionate about helping students, graduates and early-career professionals develop:
- Clarity
- Self-awareness
- Strategic thinking
- Professional confidence
- Resilience
- The ability to create opportunities for themselves
Technical knowledge matters.
But I have learnt that knowledge alone rarely determines how far someone goes.
How you think, how you respond to setbacks, how you recognise opportunities, how you build relationships and how deliberately you develop yourself can be equally important.
This belief is at the heart of what I call Mind Engineering.
Read My VisionExplore MentorshipSoil mechanics and life
Why I Write
This website brings together the different parts of who I am.
Sometimes I write about soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering.
Sometimes I write about education, careers and professional development.
Sometimes I take an engineering concept and use it to explore something much deeper about life, relationships, resilience, purpose or personal growth.
That is intentional.
Because the same engineer who studies how soil carries load is also fascinated by how people carry theirs.
The same principles that help us understand foundations, stress, strength, failure, drainage and resilience can sometimes give us surprisingly powerful ways of thinking about our own lives.
That is why you will often find me bridging soil mechanics and life.
Explore My InsightsAt a glance
Education and Career Timeline
- 2011Civil Engineering graduateFederal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria
- 2011 to 2012Graduate Engineer, Sparklight Engineering GroupIbafo, Ogun State, during the National Youth Service Corps programme
- 2014 to 2016Project Engineer, Black Edge Nigeria Limited
- 2015MSc in Geotechnical EngineeringUniversity of Ibadan, Nigeria
- 2016 to 2019PhD in Geotechnical Engineering, HKUSTPostgraduate scholarship. Completed in three years of a four-year funded programme, with research focused largely on lateritic soils.
- 2019 to 2021Researcher, HKUSTHong Kong University of Science and Technology
- 2021 to 2022Engineering consultancy, AECOMHong Kong
- 2022 to 2025Coventry University, United KingdomTaught geotechnical engineering. Head of Geotechnics, and supported the Civil Engineering Industrial Advisory Board.
- 2023Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- 2024 to 2025Visiting Lecturer, Aston UniversityTaught MSc students in advanced geotechnical engineering
- 2025 to presentGeotechnical engineering, BinniesWater and wastewater infrastructure, including treatment facilities, tanks, pipelines and earthworks
- 2026 to presentSecondment to Anglian Water (@one Alliance)Seconded from Binnies
What I hope to contribute
Two directions, one journey
Ultimately, I want my work to contribute in two directions.
I want to help build better and more resilient infrastructure through geotechnical engineering, research and innovation.
And I want to help build stronger people through teaching, mentoring and thoughtful conversations.
One deals with the ground beneath our feet. The other deals with the mind with which we navigate the world.
I believe both matter.
Because some of the most important structures we will ever build are not made from soil, steel or concrete. They are the knowledge, confidence, resilience and sense of purpose we help build in people.
That is the journey I am on.
Engineering the ground. Engineering the mind.