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Mosul Dam - A Study in Complex Engineering Problems

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Conference

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 26, 2016

Start Date

June 26, 2016

End Date

June 29, 2016

ISBN

978-0-692-68565-5

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

MVCC Technical Session

Tagged Division

Military and Veterans Constituent Committee

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/p.25755

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/25755

Download Count

2700

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Paper Authors

biography

Jakob C Bruhl U.S. Military Academy Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-1645-4520

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Lieutenant Colonel Jakob Bruhl is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He received his B.S. from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, M.S. Degrees from the University of Missouri at Rolla and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Missouri. His research interests include resilient infrastructure, protective structures, and engineering education.

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biography

Joseph P Hanus U.S. Military Academy

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Colonel Joseph Hanus is the Civil Engineering Program Director at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Platteville; M.S. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is an active member of ASEE and is a registered Professional Engineer in Wisconsin. His research interests include fiber reinforced polymer materials, accelerated bridge construction, and engineering education.

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biography

Paul M Moody P.E. U.S. Military Academy

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Lieutenant Colonel Paul Moody is an Associate Professor at the U.S. Military
Academy, West Point, NY. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. He is an active member of ASEE and a registered Professional
Engineer in Virginia. His research areas include climate change impact on
water resource systems and infrastructure.

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biography

James Ledlie Klosky P.E. U.S. Military Academy

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Led Klosky is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point and a past winner of ASEE's National Teaching Medal. He is a licensed professional engineer and works primarily in the areas of infrastructure, subsurface engineering and engineering education.

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Abstract

XXX seeks to educate and inspire their civil engineering students through a rigorous and realistic academic program. Recognizing that civil engineers often face complex problems that encompass technical engineering and societal, political, and economic challenges, the XXX has established an Infrastructure Engineering course to prepare their students for these problems. A key element is an established model of infrastructure analysis, which is introduced in the course and applied in follow-on experiences in the program. Faculty members draw upon their engineering experiences to provide relevant challenges for the students to apply the model, such as the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq. These challenges are often multi-dimensional and include difficult questions which require the student to advocate for solutions which do not satisfy all stakeholders.

The Mosul Dam is a piece of critical infrastructure on the Tigris River in Iraq which provides hydroelectric power, irrigation, water supply and flood control for the nearby city of Mosul and the surrounding area. The Mosul Dam has well-known technical engineering and other challenges and is presented as a case study to the senior civil engineering students in their culminating professional seminar course. Students are provided technical data, environmental conditions, and the social, political and economic context in which the project functions. Students are challenged to assess the dam with the established infrastructure model, develop creative mitigating measures, and outline the inter-related technical and non-technical concerns.

The result of the student’s experience in wrestling with the Mosul Dam addresses several of the program’s ABET student outcomes. These outcomes include: Incorporating the knowledge of contemporary issues into the solution of engineering problems, drawing upon a broad education necessary to anticipate the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context, and explaining the basic concepts of business and public policy. The assessment of these specific ABET student outcomes includes direct and indirect embedded indicators. Additionally, the impact on the cognitive and affective developmental domains is considered with respect to educating and inspiring our future civil engineers.

Bruhl, J. C., & Hanus, J. P., & Moody, P. M., & Klosky, J. L. (2016, June), Mosul Dam - A Study in Complex Engineering Problems Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25755

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