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testimony, technicians are trained on the job and do not require
a minimum education standard to operate equipment or gather test
data. Equipment or laboratory training may be completed in as
long as a single day or in as little as a half hour. Moreover,
technicians are not bound by State or board licensing or review.
Petitioner’s geotechnical testing services are separate and
distinct from petitioner’s engineering services. The essence of
engineering services is in the application of mathematical,
physical, and engineering sciences to services or projects, such
as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design, and
review of structures and buildings. Although geotechnical
testing data may be used in petitioner’s engineering analysis,
the data may be used for other purposes and by other parties as
well. When petitioner provides an engineering analysis, the data
may be supplied by the client or petitioner. In the alternative,
petitioner may supply data from geotechnical testing services
without rendering any professional engineering services.
Although we agree with respondent that engineering services could
not be completed without the data provided from geotechnical
testing, whether that information was furnished by petitioner or
another geotechnical testing firm, we are not persuaded to find
that sufficient reason to deem the means of providing data under
the umbrella of “engineering”. In practice and principle the two
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Last modified: May 25, 2011