Capstone Course in an Integrated Engineering Curriculum

The Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy has developed a capstone senior level integration experience that blends technical aspects of an engineering design with construction and realistic issues of modern society. Technical designs accomplished by the students, prior to taking the capstone course, form the technical basis of the capstone design experience. The students review the technical design and prepare the project for construction through incorporating engineering standards and considering realistic issues. Issues considered include economy, constructability, and environmental aspects, as well as ethical, health and safety constraints. The students prepare a final design report and make an oral presentation to an interdisciplinary panel of engineering faculty. This capstone course is the culmination of a total integration experience, which includes a hands-on field engineering course, and two years of a rigorous engineering design curriculum.     

Innovative Final-Year Undergraduate Design Project Course Using an International Project

This paper describes the organization and conduct of a 4th year capstone project for civil engineering students at the University of Calgary that embodied a very significant international component and the difficulties inherent to that component. The project design education process results in numerous contributions to university, industry, and society by permitting students to develop innovative design solutions that reflect multicultural influences, while also recognizing that Civil Engineering design is universal. This paper explains the novel approach adopted for the final-year civil engineering design course in 2002–2003 using the largest urban renewal project currently underway in Europe, for which the students had the opportunity to develop designs. The concept, structure, challenges, and contributions as well as the successful outcome of the civil engineering design course are also explained in the paper. Overall, this design project provided the students with valuable experience in communication, design, professional practice, and organizational skills that will be useful in their future careers, in addition to the challenges of dealing with a real and international client of a complex project.     

Industrially Sponsored Senior Capstone Experience: Program Implementation and Assessment

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) 2000 requires that students participate in a major design experience prior to graduation. A well-planned senior design capstone program will satisfy this criterion while meeting the Criterion 3 (a–k) program outcomes. Seattle University has an industrially sponsored, year-long, senior design program that has been in existence for the past 20 years. In addition to applying the knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to solve a real-life engineering problem, students develop the soft skills such as project management, leadership, team work, written and oral communication, and professional networking which are important for a successful career. This paper describes the program within the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, lists the various tools used to assess the program outcomes, and includes assessment of the program by sponsoring agencies, alumni, and reflection by faculty.     

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.     

Classroom Assessment and Redesign of an Undergraduate Steel Design Course: A Case Study

The objective of this paper is to share experience gained in classroom assessment and subsequent redesign of an undergraduate, practice-oriented steel design course. A term project involving the design of a low-rise structural steel building was used to provide a summative evaluation of student learning. The essence of the project was for students to demonstrate their ability to apply the course material in a realistic activity, similar to structural engineering practice. Critical reflection on student performance, student feedback on course evaluation forms, the author’s observations as course instructor, and the educational literature motivated redesign of the course. Adaptation of an assignment-centered or project-based approach to course planning guided course redesign. Comparison of student performance and course evaluation data suggests that the redesigned course better meets the goal of developing the students’ abilities to apply the subject knowledge and skills to realistic problems or scenarios.     

Project Enhanced Learning: Addressing ABET Outcomes and Linking the Curriculum

This paper discusses the development of project enhanced courses that combine the best of problem-based learning and traditional “topic” focused instruction. This approach addresses the need to ensure that students receive the technical content required while developing critical problem solving skills. This balance between skill development and technical content assurance is a key feature of this approach and a main difference to problem-based learning. It is also different from traditional approaches where a project is simply added to the tasks the students are expected to accomplish, and the impacts on student learning are significantly different. The paper presents a case study of the implementation of the projects into a junior level introductory structural analysis course, including details into the goals of the projects, and the changes made to make room for the projects. Assessment and evaluation of the impact of these projects include an evaluation on how the courses and projects address specific department and accreditation board for engineering and technology learning outcomes. Student perceptions are evaluated immediately at the conclusion of the course and substantially after the conclusion of the course (while in a senior design course), enabling the assessment of knowledge and skill transfer. Performance in this senior design course is also used to assess the impact of these projects by comparing students with: (1) a project enhanced experience; (2) a project added experience; and (3) no project experience in their structural analysis course. Those students with a project enhanced experience perform much better than students in either of the other groups in the follow-on course, and the contrast with a project added experience is particularly striking. The process of balancing the outcomes for this course with the needs of follow-on courses, and the tradeoffs that are needed to accomplish both could be applied to any junior level engineering course.     

Course in Professional Practice Issues

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and practitioners recognize professional practice issues as important in undergraduate civil engineering education. This paper describes a creative approach for incorporating professional practice issues into the civil engineering curriculum through a course entitled “Civil Engineering Practice.” This course has the following advantages: (1) It encourages active learning via activities as opposed to a traditional seminar; (2) forms long-term teaching partnerships with engineering professionals; (3) offers a venue where important yet distinct topics can be presented systematically; (4) provides the local engineering community with the opportunity to share its accomplishments and to further continuing education credits; (5) reinforces the professional practice elements of the capstone design project; and (6) supplies structured time where students can interact with potential employers and vice-versa. The course feedback from students, faculty, engineering professionals, and ABET evaluators has been overwhelmingly positive.     

Student Learning in a Multidisciplinary Sustainable Engineering Course

An existing multidisciplinary course on sustainable engineering in developing societies was expanded to include sustainability issues and challenges faced in the developed world. The new course consisted of independent modules on general background, sustainability concepts and tools, sustainable water and waste systems, sustainable energy systems, sustainable agricultural and food systems, and sustainable building systems. The course included a semester-long project experience conducted in interdisciplinary teams. Projects were sourced from local businesses and institutions or from organizations involved in international development. Course evaluation included an end-of-semester self-assessment by students and an analysis of project reports. Thirteen out of 18 students surveyed (72%) agreed that their ability to consider techno-economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability was improved as a result of the course. An improved student understanding of aspects of sustainability and its measures was also evident in student project reports.     

Approach for Integrating Professional Practice Issues into Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Design Projects

According to C. L. Dym and P. Little, the complete design process includes identifying a need or problem, recognizing constraints, identifying and developing courses of action, testing potential courses of action, selecting optimum courses of action, preparing the documents required for the design, managing the overall process, communicating the design, construction, and testing. We have addressed these design considerations by linking design projects in our introductory physicochemical treatment processes course (EV401, taken by second-semester juniors) and our senior capstone design course (EV490, taken by second-semester seniors). The process developed and implemented addresses the integration of professional practice into design inexperience. We require our cadet students to communicate with their customers, an illustrator, and tradesmen, three forms of communication that are necessarily quite different from traditional student-professor exchanges. Also, students must design under constraints, this time not because of the closed nature of the project but rather because of “real world” resource constraints: time to complete the project, a limited budget to purchase materials and labor, availability of materials, ease of construction, and balancing competing projects (in other courses). The first attempt at implementing this engineering design learning model occurred during the spring of 2001 in EV401. Herein we assess the design and construction of one of two projects, oriented toward modification of a surface-water treatment plant model. Results suggest that iterative growth can occur and a more complete appreciation of the design process can result.     

Developing and Teaching a Course in “Applied Sustainability and Public Health in Civil Engineering Design” at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

This paper presents the writer’s pedagogical development and delivery of a new undergraduate course in applied sustainability and public health in civil engineering design in the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. This innovative course introduces undergraduate civil engineering students to methods in sustainability indicators, life-cycle analysis, environmental input-output analysis, and risk analysis to evaluate the environmental impacts and public health impacts of civil engineering design. The paper discusses the learning objectives and course themes of preventive design, multicriteria decision making, and systems-level analysis. The course syllabus and the design project in which students were asked to design a water transmission pipeline and evaluate its environmental impacts are discussed in detail. An overview of the pedagogical methods and student evaluation tools employed in the course is given. An evaluation of learning outcomes and student impressions of the course suggest that topics on design for environment, sustainable development in an international context, and the interface between sustainability, engineering, and policy development should be included in future editions of the course.     

Innovation in Construction Engineering Education Using Two Applications of Internet-Based Information Technology to Provide Real-Time Project Observations

Improvements in construction engineering education result when innovative information technologies are incorporated into academic curricula. Through the use of internet-based communication technologies, no longer must students physically travel to a construction project site to observe and hear construction operations. This paper discusses two applications of internet-based, audio and video technologies currently being piloted at Iowa State University (ISU) and at the University of Calgary (UC) for the purpose of bringing live construction projects into the university classroom. Virtual Project Tours have been piloted at Iowa State University in which real-time video and audio are delivered from active construction projects to a remote classroom through the internet. The second application discussed in this paper, Virtual Supervision, is being piloted at the University of Calgary and consists of the monitoring and analysis of construction projects by using imagery gathered by web-enabled, digital cameras of fixed location transmitting video through the internet. This paper also presents a vision of a globally networked organization of engineering and construction education institutions each sharing the unique engineering and building techniques of their respective part of the globe with design and construction students located around the world. This exchange of construction project observations among the institutions will be enabled by the internet-based applications of virtual project tours and virtual supervision systems described in this paper.     

Educating Students via Distance Learning for Civil Engineering Design

Two structural engineering courses were taught using distance-learning technology. One course was a graduate level, steel design course and the other was an undergraduate, elective, timber design course. Two-way live video and audio connections linked classrooms at San Jose State University and San Francisco State University. The interaction between student and teacher is discussed. These courses were the first time the California State University system offered students academic credit at either of two universities for a course taught via distance education from a single location. The challenges of teaching engineering design concepts via distance learning are discussed. Assessment of the teaching method was performed using student surveys and review of student grades. The assessment survey revealed that the students’ overall impression was positive. Grades received by the students at the Remote Site were lower than those at the Home Site, but this discrepancy may not have been a result of the distance-learning environment.     

Center for Excellence in Construction Safety

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has funded the establishment of a Center for Excellence in Construction Safety at West Virginia University. The overall objectives of the Center include: (1) The promotion of hazard control components in engineering curricula; (2) the promotion of hazard awareness and safety‐related knowledge and skills specific to the construction industry; and (3) the promotion of the consideration of safety issues during project design for the purpose of reducing injury during construction. Specific tasks to be accomplished by the Center include: (1) The development of course materials and instruction on construction safety for civil engineering students at the undergraduate and graduate levels; (2) the promotion of such course materials for adoption by other civil engineering academic institutions; (3) the design and conduct of projects related to the improvement of current construction practices that would develop design parameters to reduce trauma during the construction phase; and (4) the establishment of techniques for the collection and dissemination of construction safety information, educational materials, developed guidelines, and design criteria to engineers, architects, contractors, and trade unions.     

Civil Engineering Education and Complex Systems

Civil engineering is an interdisciplinary field, and most of the projects designed and built represent very complex systems, both during the construction phase and in the built phase. This research describes how a course in land development that included engineering design elements, lectures that also touched on other related fields, and a field journal assignment at a “green” (sustainable) construction site facilitated students’ understanding of complex systems. Results suggest that this course design facilitates the development of students’ proficiencies in several skill sets, and can increase students’ understanding of the complexity involved in civil engineering projects.     

Forensics and Case Studies in Civil Engineering Education: State of the Art

This paper reviews the state of the art in the use of forensic engineering and failure case studies in civil engineering education. The study of engineering failures can offer students valuable insights into associated technical, ethical, and professional issues. Lessons learned from failures have substantially affected civil engineering practice. For the student, study of these cases can help place design and analysis procedures into historical context and reinforce the necessity of lifelong learning. Three approaches for bringing forensics and failure case studies into the civil engineering curriculum are discussed in this paper. These are stand-alone forensic engineering or failure case study courses, capstone design projects, and integration of case studies into the curriculum. Some of the cases have been developed and used in courses at the United States Military Academy and the Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as at other institutions. Finally, the writers have tried to assemble many of the known sources of material, including books, technical papers, and magazine articles, videos, Web sites, prepared PowerPoint presentations, and television programs.     

Using Senior Design Capstone as Model for Graduate Education

The Civil Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman recently modified its M.S. program in environmental engineering to replace the thesis with a structured design course. Our efforts are based on the hypothesis that engineers at the graduate level also need to be taught “how to design.” Recent pedagogical efforts emphasize the need for the baccalaureate-level engineer to learn how to design a standard product that meets the needs of a client within a determined budget. This level of design involves the integration of several technical tools as well as client preferences and other constraints such as codes, regulations, economics, etc. Senior design efforts, such as the one at Rose-Hulman, help the student to start this preparation. We argue that the master's-level student not only needs a higher level of technical skill, but also increased sophistication with design focusing on nonstandard problems. These problems have a higher level of technical requirements that require creative and often unique solutions. Rose-Hulman is attempting to prepare master's-level engineers with a client-sponsored investigative design project. “How to design” is taught to both graduate and undergraduate students via integrated capstone courses that are the subject of this paper.     

Architectural Engineering Curriculum at Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly, the University of Missouri-Rolla) began a Bachelor of Science degree program in architectural engineering in the fall of 2002. The 4-year academic program’s curriculum at Missouri S&T requires the students to complete 128 semester credit hours during a period of eight semesters, with options for technical electives in one of four focus areas: structural engineering, construction engineering and project management, environmental systems for buildings, and construction materials. This paper presents the architectural engineering curriculum at Missouri S&T. It discusses the objectives of the curriculum, the constraints upon its structure, along with challenges that faced the establishment of an architectural engineering program.     

Energy and Environment Undergraduate Course Emphasizing Comparative Metrics

This paper presents the pedagogical development of an undergraduate course in energy and the environment at Rice University and the crucial role of comparative metrics in its curriculum. The course, aimed at undergraduate engineering and science majors, overviews the physical principles that constrain energy use and explores how various sectors and fuels affect Earth’s environment and climate. The curriculum emphasizes the application of objective metrics for comparing the cost, energy intensity, and environmental impacts of various energy sources. Such metrics provide alternate approaches for assessing the relative merits of energy options but are neglected in most undergraduate textbooks. Thus, the course relies on assignments derived from supplemental readings to prompt students to compute comparative metrics and critically assess the approaches taken by energy researchers. A term project engages student teams in designing and evaluating original proposals for improving the use of an energy source from the perspective of a scientist, businessperson, or policymaker.     

Cultivating Research and Information Skills in Civil Engineering Undergraduate Students

The ASCE’s body of knowledge for the 21st century and vision for civil engineering in 2025 outline skills and capabilities necessary for civil engineers to create a sustainable world. An undergraduate course at Georgia Institute of Technology introduces undergraduates to a systems-sustainability approach to civil and environmental engineering, applying systems methods to analyze decisions over the life cycle of large-scale civil-engineered facilities. This paper discusses voluntary and systematic improvements introduced in the course over a 2-year period to develop research and information skills in the students. A workshop on information sources and skills was developed, offered and assessed over multiple semesters using a team-based course project. The term project requires students to select one or two large-scale civil-engineered facilities, evaluate them using the integrated systems-sustainability framework presented in the course, and develop a written report and oral presentation to present their work to their peers at the end of the semester. The paper discusses integration of the information and library skills workshops with the course and presents results that underscore the importance of formally cultivating research and information skills in civil engineering undergraduate students.     

Use of Outdoor Living Spaces and Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning in Sustainability Engineering Education

Previous sustainability engineering education studies have suggested the importance of problem-based learning, project-based learning, team-based learning, and interdisciplinary learning. Place-based learning, interacting with outdoors, and building sustainable communities are also important aspects of sustainability education, yet relatively little has been published on how to use these pedagogical approaches in engineering education. The goal of this paper was to illustrate the implementation of all these pedagogical approaches in a graduate-level sustainability engineering education class. Fink’s taxonomy of significant learning and the University of Toledo’s Outdoor Classroom Garden provided the framework for this implementation. Throughout the semester, sustainability engineering students worked toward an engineering solution for how to water the University of Toledo’s outdoor classroom garden. They also estimated the life-cycle cost and environmental impacts of their proposed solutions. The garden project and the design of the course provided many different learning opportunities that might be absent in a traditional civil engineering class.