Professional Design Component for Civil Engineering Curriculums

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology has adopted a revised set of accreditation criteria that is designed to assure 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 the ability to design civil engineering projects by taking various realistic constraints under consideration. The findings of this study indicate that engineering undergraduate and graduate students as well as practitioners perceive that three constraints that represent the traditional technical aspect of engineering are of great importance for design projects. They include engineering codes and standards, economic factors, and manufacturability (constructability). In contrast, two constraints received lower ratings. They include social ramifications and political factors. Overall, 60% of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology recommended design constraints are rated by students and practitioners with a composite score ? 3.0. This may be interpreted as strong support for the Engineering Criteria 2000 design requirements.     

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.     

Enhancing Civil Engineering Education and ABET Criteria through Practical Experience

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has adopted a revised set of criteria for accrediting engineering programs. Nevertheless, as in the past, civil engineering departments will be required to demonstrate proficiency in specific subject areas which are included in the ABET program criteria. This paper investigates how civil engineering students at Lamar University improved their understanding of various subject areas required by ABET and listed in the Program Criteria for Civil and Similarly Named Engineering Programs and the General Criteria (professional component) by being involved with cooperative, part-time, and summer work experiences. In particular, the findings suggest that both undergraduate and graduate students believe that three areas have been greatly enhanced with engineering work. They include structural engineering, project management/scheduling and estimating, and teamwork. In addition, undergraduates perceive that their understanding of health and safety issues and ethical considerations has also increased. In contrast, graduate students believe that their knowledge of hydraulics, hydrology, and water resources, constructability, and economic factors has been enhanced by civil engineering work experiences.     

Practical Summer Training in Civil and Construction Engineering for Cultivation of Professional Ability

The cultivation of professional ability for undergraduate civil and construction engineering students is very important to help them meet the challenges that await them in the fast changing world. This paper presents a thorough study of practical training in the field of civil and construction engineering. Based upon an extensive literature review of the practical training curriculum worldwide, questionnaires were provided to contractors, educators and students in Taiwan to assess problems in traditional summer practical training courses for civil and construction engineering in Taiwan. At the outset of the study, it was thought that the lack of available jobs for students might be related solely to the economy but the findings indicated that the reasons were more complex ranging from concerns about liability for students working in construction sites to traditional cultural concerns about whether apprentices should be paid. The Delphi method was used to study the problems that were identified, relating to planning, execution, evaluation, and development of the existing practical training programs. A refined and improved summer practical training curriculum is proposed for civil and construction engineering education in Taiwan based upon the findings. Although the survey related to practical training programs for engineering students was conducted in Taiwan, the results might vary in other countries. The procedures used, and results obtained may be valuable resources and have a potential use for other countries. What is certain is that practical training can play an important role in readying engineering students for the work place in any location and making the practical training as effective and as safe as possible should be a universal goal.     

Teaching Engineering Surveying in a Civil Engineering Program: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment

As engineering surveying is highly concerned with its intensive involvement in the construction of roads and bridges, drainage systems, buildings, railways, and tunnels in civil engineering, the subject of engineering surveying is being offered by the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics to all undergraduate students who are taking the Bachelor of Civil Engineering Degree Program in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Under the new outcome-based curriculum and work-integrated education requirements, the curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment for the subject are described here by answering the questions of “what are the goals and objectives of the curriculum,” “what should students learn,” and “how should it be learned, taught, and assessed.”     

Earthbound Civil Engineering Experience for Space Applications

Since the dawn of civilization, the civil engineering profession has served mankind. Civil engineers have provided humanity with safe, reliable, and economical facilities and a livable environment. This paper seeks to outline the potential applications of various Earth‐based civil engineering fields for the engineering, construction, and operation of facilities in space stations in Earth orbit, bases on the Moon and Mars, and the exploration of other extraterrestrial bodies. On Earth, civil engineers have played a key role in design, construction, and operation of ground‐support facilities since the beginning of the space program. The vast and diverse Earth‐based knowledge and experience earned by civil engineers could be applied to create a suitable infrastructure in space to satisfy human needs. Therefore, civil engineers can play a significant role in the future expansion of human endeavors into space. The time has come for civil engineers throughout the world to come together; take the challenge posed by time, human needs, and ambition; and extend their joint expertise toward large‐scale projects in space for the benefit of all.     

Water Quality Laboratory for Large Civil Engineering Classes

In New Zealand, civil engineering classes are getting larger every year, which means that innovative ways must be sought to enable an increasing number of students to fulfill the laboratory requirements of the degree. With respect to water quality laboratories in introductory environmental engineering courses, it is advocated that it is more important that a civil engineering student be able to interpret water quality data, rather than to be acquainted in detail with the actual mechanics of water quality tests. As such, this paper describes a water quality laboratory that allows the student to gain an appreciation of a water quality data set without necessarily becoming fully conversant with the routine water quality tests. The laboratory’s emphasis on data interpretation instructs students on the importance of examining data sets for patterns, correlations and/or potential errors, while at the same time providing a stimulating and active hands-on learning environment for both students and staff.     

Planning for Civil Engineering Applications of Information Technology

Providers of civil engineering infrastructure face increasing pressure to apply information technology. Unfortunately, technology's rapid evolution renders it easy to acquire expensive equipment that quickly becomes obsolete. In response, this paper outlines a systems analysis planning approach that focuses on the long-term goals of engineering managers. Using the case study method, the strengths and weaknesses of a relatively new technology, the World Wide Web, are mapped to the goals of a key civil infrastructure user, a transit provider. Six strategic areas are identified where the Web can have a high impact on the delivery of transit services: attracting greater advertising revenue, improving the image of the service, improving services for existing patrons, attracting other market segments, educating customers, and facilitating electronic commerce. The value of this goal-oriented planning application is that uncommon but practical transit initiatives are identified, several of which would have been undiscovered had a more traditional technology-oriented approach been employed. The significance of this approach is that one makes better investments rather than simply better justifications for existing projects.     

Self-Managed Learning Model for Civil Engineering Continuing Training

Engineering is largely a knowledge-based profession; value comes increasingly from what an organization or individual knows rather than possesses. Continuing training is the principal means by which engineers maintain and expand knowledge once in the profession. Within civil engineering, the rapid pace of technological change and the increased retirement of experienced personnel have placed increased pressure on training to provide more content, timelier delivery, and more flexibility for the same or less money. These pressures necessitate a training market shift from an employer-centered model, which is inherently inefficient and slow, to an employee-centered model, which is more efficient, individualized, and timely. Typical abilities and strengths of engineers indicate an approach to employee-centered training called self-managed learning could be successful. In order to increase the chances of success for such an approach, the array of training options available to civil engineers must be broadened to include more quality online self-directed learning options. This addition would better enable civil engineers to select training options that closely match their needs, schedule, and learning style preferences.     

Information Classification for Civil Engineering Projects by Uniclass

Since a well-established construction information classification system (CICS) can be an information center through the life cycle of a project, it is important to use a proper CICS for managing construction information. Construction Index∕Samarbetskommitten for Byggnadsfragor (CI∕SfB) has been used in various countries as one of the best among the earlier CICSs as well as Masterformat in North America. CI∕SfB, however, cannot represent many new construction technologies introduced during the 20 years that have passed since the last revision. Therefore, ISO developed a new CICS framework. Subsequently, the Construction Project Information Committee, including the Institution of Civil Engineers, developed the Uniclass system based on the ISO framework. Considering that Uniclass is intended to substitute for CI∕SfB and that each country needs international exchange of information by the ISO standard, it is necessary to analyze the organization of Uniclass. This study analyzed the practical adaptability of Uniclass compared to CI∕SfB and then suggested applicable illustrations with appropriate methodologies to improve the adaptability for civil engineering works. As a result, items classified in Uniclass gained a significant improvement for civil engineering projects compared to the existing CICSs, which have focused on architectural projects. The proposed methodologies will make the applicability of the CICS better by the improved scheme and by being consistent.     

土木工程论文标题英译错误解析

国内土木工程类刊物大都要求作者将文章的标题、摘要和同.分析近年土木类核心期刊论文标题英译的若干实例;总结出目前标题翻译存在5个方面的问题:术语不够规范,机械直译,译文繁琐、冗长,条理不清、语序混乱,译文没有体现文章特色等;提出了标题英译的改进方法.     

Evolutionary Programming for Inverse Problems in Civil Engineering

Two main contributions to evolutionary computation and their applications are reported in this paper: (1) a new evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm is proposed with several improved techniques added to the conventional EP algorithm; and (2) the improved EP algorithm is incorporated with the finite-element method (FEM) to form an integrated algorithm, called FEMEP, for solving the inverse problems in civil and structural engineering. In the improved EP algorithm, two types of mutation—namely, random and uniform—are proposed to increase the efficiency and to retain the versatility of the conventional EP algorithm. Simulated annealing is adopted to prevent the chromosomes in the early generations from stagnating in a local optima. The algorithm is examined with two typical numerical examples. Results show that the improved EP algorithm is efficient and versatile. It is able to find better solutions than genetic algorithms and other evolution programs. The FEMEP algorithm is then applied to the inverse problems, with two parameter identification problems as illustrations. Although simple, they demonstrated the potency of the proposed integrated algorithm to solve inverse problems in civil and structural engineering.     

Multiple-Criteria Evaluation for Value Management in Civil Engineering

This paper presents a fuzzy set-based approach for representing and synthesizing information about the different kinds of variables involved in the evaluation of a project’s value. The variables considered can be quantitative crisp or fuzzy as well as qualitative ordinal. The information is given either by a single expert or by a team of experts. The proposed methodology for summarizing and normalizing values aims at contributing to decision-making analysis in the context of multiple-criteria evaluation and group decision making. The conditions that the aggregation function to be used must satisfy are also discussed. The weighted sum is characterized under quite restrictive assumptions, presenting a theorem based on Cauchy’s functional equation. The aggregation function proposed is the weighted sum, with weights computed by a well-known analytic hierarchy process. A design is given of a fuzzy system for evaluating a project’s value in the context of construction in civil engineering.