Graphical Communication Using Hand-Drawn Sketches in Civil Engineering

Hand-drawn sketches are still an important tool used by civil engineers to graphically communicate technical information. New engineers often have inadequate experience preparing sketches by hand to effectively communicate information graphically. As a result of using computer aided drafting and digital cameras in both engineering education and professional practice, hand-sketching skills are being overlooked. Practicing engineers from an earlier generation generally appreciate the importance of being able to quickly prepare sketches to communicate a concept to a client or to quickly gather and transmit information from field observations. With limited experience in hand sketching, current students may not see the benefits of such skills. To increase student graphical communication skills and develop an appreciation for hand sketching, opportunities to develop and practice hand-sketching skills can be incorporated within the undergraduate curriculum. Examples of hand-sketching exercises intended to help improve students’ graphical communication skills are presented.     

Embedding Leadership in Civil Engineering Education

Leadership is a key element in meeting the needs of the civil engineering profession in an era of heightened global competition. Consulting and construction executives intent on maintaining a competitive edge are calling upon educators to produce civil engineers capable of leading multidisciplinary teams, combining technical ingenuity with business acumen, and effectively communicating narrow engineering endeavors within a comprehensive social framework. Our industry is challenging undergraduate schools to broaden curricula beyond the intellectual endeavors of design and scientific inquiry to the greater domain of professional leadership. Many agree that formal leader development must be incorporated into engineering education programs to respond to the professional demands of practicing engineers; however, the means of achieving the objectives within tightly constrained curricula are debated. This paper explores the changing nature of civil engineering in a globally competitive environment, reviews the issues in realigning civil engineering education, identifies key leadership skills relevant to engineering, and proposes solutions for developing leaders at our undergraduate institutions.     

General Education for Civil Engineers: Sustainable Development

The ABET criteria for engineering programs no longer has a requirement for humanities and social sciences but instead requires a general education component that complements the technical component of the curriculum. Achievement of the outcomes called for in the ABET criteria and the ability to apply the constraints listed in ABET Criterion 3 can be facilitated by a well-designed general education component. The old humanities and social science components that many programs still have would probably allow most programs to meet the current criteria but the requirement for general education offers an opportunity to improve the overall educational experience for all civil engineers. One approach to general education for civil engineers would be to incorporate a theme and a case is made that sustainability and sustainable development is a good theme for a civil engineering program.     

Teaching Building Information Modeling as an Integral Part of Freshman Year Civil Engineering Education

Lack of personnel with Building Information Modeling (BIM) skills is a significant constraint retarding use of the technology in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Unless BIM is introduced into undergraduate civil engineering curricula in a fundamental way, graduate civil engineers will lack the skills needed to serve a construction industry in which three-dimensional models are the main medium for expression and communication of design intent and the basis for engineering analysis. A mandatory freshman year course titled “Communicating Engineering Information,” which teaches both theoretical and practical aspects of BIM, has been developed to replace the traditional engineering graphics course at the Technion. The main lesson learned through four semesters of teaching the class is that students find BIM tools intuitive and therefore relatively easy to learn; the majority of lecture hours are now devoted to the conceptual aspects of BIM and the principles for preparing models that can be analyzed in multiple ways. BIM can and should be taught in its own right, and not as an extension to computer-aided drawing. The skills students have been able to bring to bear in design courses later in their university education indicate that the approach is sound and will enable graduates to meet the needs of the civil engineering profession in the “BIM age.”     

Opening the Window of Sustainable Development to Future Civil Engineers

A recent survey by ASCE showed a major need for rebuilding the critical components of the nation’s aging infrastructure, such as roads and water-supply systems. To accomplish this major task, in addition to knowledge of basic civil engineering principles and techniques, future civil engineers need to be aware of the effects of planning, design, and construction on our environment. Specifically, a course needs to be developed for educating future civil engineers on concepts and techniques of protecting our natural resources, and planning for sustainable development and construction in an environmentally friendly manner. Specific topics can include modules on water resources and recycling in construction. The focus should be on teaching applications of new environmentally friendly concepts and techniques through case histories and real-world problems. Continuous evaluation of course content and methods of presentation should be made. The course should instill environmental awareness in the students’ minds such that in the future, the environment is considered as much a part of any decision-making process in the practice of civil engineering, as are mathematics or the physical sciences.     

U.S. and International Engineering Education: A Vision of Engineering's Future

The discussion traces the historical development of engineering education in the United States and our legacy of British and French models. Most of the U.S. system through the years has developed along the lines of the British model. The nation's industrial development in the early 1800s set the stage for the Morrill Act of 1862, which established the agriculture and mechanical land grant colleges throughout the nation. This legacy has resulted in engineering accepting the Bachelor of Science degree as the entry-level degree to practice and industry, while the other professions (e.g., medicine, dentistry, law) have during this same time increased their respective entry-level curricula to six years or greater. Today, U.S. engineers are not being prepared for the competitive industries of the present national and world markets. Continental European engineers are better prepared to work in these competitive industries. Therefore, the United States runs the risk of having its engineers regarded as technicians. If the U.S. engineering education system is not changed, our industries may eventually become less competitive (and∕or may have to begin employing Continental European-educated engineers to remain competitive). ASCE has proposed that a professional master's level degree, such as a Master of Engineering degree, be the new entry level degree to the practice and industry. This proposal will require significant changes in our engineering education system. By introducing an internship∕apprenticeship course as part of a six-year formal education program, the United States can dramatically improve the quality of its engineering school graduates and, thereby, their acceptance by U.S. and international industries and practice.     

Professional Program Criteria for Civil Engineering Curriculums

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has adopted a revised set of accreditation criteria that is designed to ensure that graduates of accredited programs are prepared to enter the practice of engineering. The proposal also specifies that engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional practice issues in addition to proficiency in specific subject areas that are tabulated in the civil engineering program criteria. The findings of this study indicate that engineering undergraduate and graduate students as well as practitioners perceive that four subject areas are of great importance for civil engineers. They include structural engineering, hydraulics∕hydrology∕water resources, engineering design, and mathematics through calculus and differential equations. In contrast, one area, chemistry, received lower ratings. The data suggest that the majority of subjects included in the civil engineering program criteria are considered by students and practitioners to have generally the same level of importance and should be included in the curriculum at an above average level. In particular, 81% of the subject areas included in the ABET civil engineering program criteria are rated by both students and practitioners with a composite score ≥3.1. This may be interpreted as strong support for the Engineering Criteria 2000 program requirements.     

Building Networks through Peer Interaction

The profession of civil engineering needs graduates with many technical and generic skills. A program of peer instruction and peer mentoring within courses taken by first-year students at Queensland University of Technology in Australia builds networks between junior and senior students, leading to a culture of collaboration and teamwork and a learning environment more akin to that in which professional engineers find themselves. Among the benefits of this program are high student satisfaction, opportunities for development of leadership and organizational skills, and dramatically improved academic results.     

Introducing Students to Professional Practice in Civil Engineering

This paper describes a module that was introduced into a civil engineering degree program with the help of professional engineers. The aim was to develop a bridge between the world of learning and professional practice by putting students in the role of consulting engineers working with industry to produce a feasible solution to a real inquiry from a client. The module is placed in context by comparing the goals of accredited civil engineering programs in the United Kingdom and America, by describing how it is linked to the degree program and by explaining the matrix developed to identify the skills the students needed to demonstrate their ability to practice as professional engineers. Details of the module are given with examples of student work and feedback.     

Model of Integrating Humanitarian Development into Engineering Education

Entering the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. In particular, the engineering profession needs to train a new generation of engineers who can better meet the challenges of the developing world and address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet. This paper presents a model of integrating humanitarian development into engineering education based on our experience with Engineers Without Borders-U.S.A. and the development of the Engineering for Developing Communities program at the University of Colorado at Boulder over the past eight years. We also review some like-minded programs in U.S. universities and discuss how such programs can be integrated into engineering education.     

Model for Faculty, Student, and Practitioner Development in Sustainability Engineering through an Integrated Design Experience

Sustainable development and the green building movement have been adopted faster than any recent movement in the engineering field. With over 40% of the total U.S. energy usage servicing the operation of commercial and residential buildings, this trend is well founded. Recent surveys of the industry indicate that within 4 to 5?years, a vast majority of engineering firms expect their business will be significantly dedicated to green building designs. In contrast, current academic institutions are not well positioned to prepare young engineers for this challenge, and current faculty are not well trained in the tenets of sustainability or the roles of engineers in this movement. Change must occur if the engineering and design professions are to remain relevant and responsive to societal needs. To accommodate this challenge, the writers have designed and implemented the Integrated Design Experience (IDeX), a capstone course in which undergraduate and graduate students interact with faculty and practitioners on real projects with challenging needs in sustainability. The course is designed to provide an actual and virtual space for the multitude of disciplines to interact on real designs to foster both improved research and outreach efforts. Expected outcomes from the course include both student and faculty learning on the methods and value of sustainable design as well as the development of an interdisciplinary network of faculty and practitioners involved in sustainable design. Learning is being evaluated using a continuous authentic assessment of design products. First-year results indicate that students learned interdisciplinary teamwork and communication skills, and they see substantial value in the authentic design experience. In future years, the development of the interdisciplinary network will be tracked by using social networking tools and by assessing faculty attitudes toward involvement in IDeX. Both metrics will be investigated using the diffusions of innovation framework. The combined evaluation will lead to an in-depth understanding of how the IDeX model can be scaled and replicated at other institutions.     

Problem-Based Learning in Structural Engineering Education

Structural engineering education has been based historically on specialization within the framework of a four-year undergraduate degree in civil engineering. Many practitioners, however, are concerned that modern civil engineering curricula are not meeting the needs of the structural engineering profession. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conversation about undergraduate education and the increased technical skills requested by the structural engineering profession. Problem-based learning is presented as a strategy for expanding the civil engineering curriculum to include concentrated study and a problem-solving experience, as well as engaging students in the process of learning how to learn. The paper reports on our experience in incorporating problem-based learning within a senior-year project. The conclusions discuss the challenges of extending this learning format to additional students.     

The Pavement Enterprise at Michigan Technological University

A project-based student Enterprise program was established at Michigan Technological University as part of an effort, funded by the National Science Foundation, related to reform of engineering education. The Enterprise program represents a separate degree track available in all departments of the College of Engineering. The Pavement Design, Construction, and Materials (Pavement) Enterprise was established in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in conjunction with the Thompson Scholars program. The Thompson Scholars program is an asphalt-paving-industry-supported scholarship program. The Pavement Enterprise is composed of a team of students that work in a businesslike setting on projects related to the asphalt paving industry. In addition to their project activities, students are required to participate in paid summer internships in associated industries and organizations. An Advisory Board composed of industry and government leaders meets three times a year to provide advice, guidance, and feedback to the students and associated faculty. The team project activities of the Pavement Enterprise prepares graduates for careers in the pavement engineering field with knowledge and skills well beyond their peers in the traditional civil engineering curriculum. These team projects incorporate “active learning” techniques into the program. The performance of the Pavement Enterprise is demonstrated using student attrition as well as a peer review. Lessons learned in the operation of the program are presented for those institutions considering a similar program.     

Construction Management Program

The typical limitations of the existing construction management programs are the lack of an integrated approach to managerial decisions in real life construction environment, not enough emphasis on engineering design, construction methods and communication skills, and poor coordination between the undergraduate and the graduate studies. An effective construction management program should. integrate teaching on undergraduate and graduate levels and research. On the undergraduate level it should provide the students with a good insight into all managerial tasks in civil engineering projects. On the graduate level it should allow specialization in the various areas of interest both to the practicing engineers and also to students who wish to pursue an academic career. The program should strongly interact with research and engineering practice.     

Preparing psychologists to work with children: A comparison of curricula in child-clinical and school psychology programs.

This study examined the curriculum requirements of APA-accredited PhD programs preparing psychologists to work with children. A category system for analyzing program curricula is presented. Substantial overlap was found in curriculum requirements between child-clinical and school psychology programs, particularly in "core" psychology, research methods, and intervention courses. Program types were best distinguished by more course work in consultation and education in school programs and more course work in psychopathology in child-clinical programs. Child-clinical trainees, on average, also undertook significantly more supervised experience. The observed commonalities between the program types suggest that a combined approach to training may be feasible. However, variations in requirements within program types make it difficult for the profession to articulate clearly the core competencies possessed by graduates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of Nanotechnology on Future Civil Engineering Practice and Its Reflection in Current Civil Engineering Education

Current civil engineering education should address the need to provide a broad vision, develop the higher-order skills of future civil engineers, enable them to adopt emerging technologies, and formulate innovative solutions to complex problems. This paper introduces relevant nanotechnology developments to convey the new vision and inspire creativity in civil engineering. It also presents a pedagogical framework for integrating nanotechnology education into a civil engineering curriculum and cultivating self-regulated learning and creativity skills for civil engineering students. The pedagogical framework includes the introduction of nanotechnology innovations and other relevant innovative technologies, and explicit instructions on cognitive strategies for facilitating and inspiring self-regulated learning and creativity. It is implemented with problem/project-based learning for a cocurricular project that requires self-regulated learning and creativity. This pedagogical framework provides a model for integrating emerging technology education and higher-order skill development into existing engineering curriculum. The outcomes from the implementation of the pedagogical framework are presented, and their further improvements are discussed.     

Green Building and Sustainable Infrastructure: Sustainability Education for Civil Engineers

This paper discusses a framework for incorporating sustainable design/thinking as a new civil engineering course and experiences from the pilot offering. Important areas are outlined to aid all engineers in understanding sustainability in context with traditional engineering principles. Green-building rating systems were used to introduce the concepts of sustainability in buildings and infrastructure, highlighted by presentations from green-building professionals. By providing a better understanding of sustainability through education, civil engineers can provide proactive solutions to a growing global infrastructure.     

Toward a Broader Technical Education for Engineers

Engineers are educated with significant technical depth in their chosen engineering discipline. Yet almost exclusively engineers work in teams made up of those educated in many different disciplines. And the design tasks that engineers face are becoming much more complex requiring engineers with a broader technical education to develop innovative solutions. Due to the increasing complexity of modern engineering projects, successful engineering leaders must have some degree of competence in more than one engineering field. Educators should recognize that modern engineers require this diversity in technical skills, and should identify in engineering courses the “connections” in topics that are common to more than a single discipline. In addition, engineering students should be required to work in multidisciplinary teams before they graduate.     

The Bowers Program: Effects of Cross-Disciplinary Design Activities on Architectural Engineering Student Performance

This paper describes the implementation of problem-based instruction program in the integration of architectural design and planning into the architectural engineering curriculum. The program consisted of two components: the use of a problem-based structural design exercise administered to an entire class of upper level architectural and civil engineering students, followed by two design exercises undertaken jointly with architecture and landscape architecture students by a selected group of students from the same class. The effect of participation in the joint design exercises was assessed by means of a final examination question and a questionnaire administered before and after participation in one of the exercises. The results of the assessment indicate that the participants achieved a greater ability to integrate architectural and structural design than the nonparticipants, and that the architectural engineering students have greater ability than civil engineering students to integrate architectural and structural design.