Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Philip Dunn, University of Maine; Bryan Pearce, University of Maine-Orono

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

, Dr. Pearce teaches hydraulics, engineering economics, and the Civil Engineering Capstone course at the University of Maine. Page 11.834.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Introducing Project Management to Senior Civil Engineering StudentsAbstractThe Civil Engineering program at the University has a senior capstone project that requiresstudents to seek out actual design projects. Many of these projects are done in conjunction withpracticing professionals and ultimately student work becomes the preliminary concept for finaldevelopment.Recognizing that the

Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Niehaus, University of Cincinnati; Anant Kukreti, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

topics intended to guide students in their senior capstone design project andas they approach their transition from student to young engineers beginning a professionalcareer. Expert practitioners, some of whom are part of the IDS industry advisory team, areinvited to give one-hour seminars on following topics: • Introduction to the IDS Project Selected Page 11.1008.5 • Writing Reports and Giving Presentations • Environmental and Permitting Aspects of the Project Table 1. Suggested Outline for Final Report • Title page with date • Cover letter (from team to client) • Acknowledgements

Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Large Seagrave

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

curriculum capstone courses in Civil and other engineering disciplines attempt tofulfill a host of objectives. Most notably, they incorporate design projects and teamwork tofulfill specific criteria of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).They provide their students with an opportunity for synthesis, employing the technical skills theyhave learned in the program, and introducing elements of professional practice that will easetheir integration into industry after graduation.In order to meet the needs industry has for young engineers, many universities have incorporatedmock corporate environments and real-world clients into the capstone course. Besides familiaritywith a team work environment and real clients, preparation for

Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Yost, University of Kentucky; Derek Lane, University of Kentucky; George Blandford, University of Kentucky

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

achieving success. Hence, doesplacing students in a group automatically lead to a level of success that individuals workingalone can not reach? Do students really know how to maximize the benefits of teaming? If theconditions lead to successful teams, how can it be determined that synergy occurs and the wholeis truly greater then the sum of individual parts?Surveying students in the capstone design course on their abilities to function in teams is onemechanism for assessing success in developing teaming skills. Several semesters ofobservations are presented and comparisons are made among students with formal teameducation as their team skills advance over the course of a semester. Results will be presentedfrom student surveys, faculty assessment

Conference Session

A Serving Profession: Service Learning in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Robert Houghtalen, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Jesse Houghtalen, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Zachary Johnson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Matthew Lovell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Maria Van Houten, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

client companies began to expand. In fact, project solicitation is rare; moreproject requests come in each year than can be fulfilled.The client-based projects are vetted and teams are selected early in the academic year. Projectproposals by potential clients are received in August. The best projects are retained based onscope of work, variation in civil engineering disciplines, and faculty and client interest. Studentsvote on their top five choices based on project abstracts during the first week of class (moreprojects are available than teams). Teams of four are selected by the faculty based on studentinterest and team considerations.The capstone design experience lasts a full year. The projects commence with a client meetingand a site visit

Conference Session

A Serving Profession: Service Learning in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nathan Gartner, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; John TIng, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Oguz Gunes, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Xiaoqi Zhang, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

way tointegrate activities designed to strengthen abilities in technical subject matter with otherwiseseparate activities focused on the above (ABET) aspects of student development.While service-learning has been well established in many disciplines in higher education [1],engineering has been slow to adopt the pedagogy [3, 4]. Recently, efforts have been made toimplement S-L in engineering contexts. Examples include civil and environmental engineeringcourses [5]; first-year introductory courses [6, 7]; capstone senior design courses [8];multidisciplinary approaches [9, 10]; and the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)program at Purdue University [11]. However, it appears no program in engineering has service-learning spread

Conference Session

A Serving Profession: Service Learning in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Leslie Inniss, Florida A&M University; Enos Inniss, University of Texas-San Antonio

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

-Service Learning Opportunity: A University and Community Partnership in CreekRestoration.” Camilla M. Savitz, 2004. 34TH ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. Savannah, GA.10 “Service-Learning in Capstone Design Projects: Emphasizing Reflection.” 2004. Patricia Brackin and J. DarrellGibson. Proceedings of the 2004 Annual Conference for Engineering Education.11 “Service-Learning in CHE Senior Design. 2004. Lisa G. Bullard, Patti H. Clayton, and Steven W. Peretti.Proceedings of the 2004 Annual Conference for Engineering Education. Page 11.294.9APPENDIX A: RESULTS OF STUDENT SURVEYEVALUATIONStudent SurveyPlease complete the survey with responses to certain questions and ranking of

Conference Session

Achieving the Civil Engineering Body of Knowlegde

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fred Meyer, U.S. Military Academy; Allen Estes, U.S. Military Academy; Ronald Welch, U.S. Military Academy; David Winget, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

Assessment the Easy Way: Using Embedded Indicators to Assess Program OutcomesI. IntroductionThe culminating design experience for civil engineering majors at the United States MilitaryAcademy (USMA) is CE492, Design of Structural Systems. CE492 serves as a “capstone”experience or one in which students are faced with a multi-disciplinary design projectincorporating facets from all previous civil engineering courses. Previous capstone experienceshave required students to design structures planned for construction or currently underconstruction at the Academy, thus providing an opportunity for site visitations and activeparticipation with key players in the project development process. Since CE492 provides amulti-disciplinary

Conference Session

Achieving the Civil Engineering Body of Knowlegde

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

C. Conley, U.S. Military Academy; Decker Hains, U.S. Military Academy; Scott Hamilton, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

, based on theirobservations of what is being done in colleges and universities with ASCE student groups today,and not based on a dreamed of future vision.Recommendation 3 of the NAE committee should be heavily considered in every program. Atour own institution, we conduct a fairly common civil engineering capstone experience, whereall of the seniors work on the same project. Being members of a combined civil and mechanicalengineering department, we also have seen for years the successful mechanical engineeringcapstone experience where the seniors are broken into groups to work on different projects. Bothof these activities satisfy the ABET Professional Component (criteria 4) in 2006-2007 andcriteria 5 in 2007-2008. Many of the projects that are

Conference Session

Achieving the Civil Engineering Body of Knowlegde

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald Welch, U.S. Military Academy; Allen Estes, U.S. Military Academy; Fred Meyer, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

studentsprepare oral briefings for many of their classes. West Point has a long standing tradition ofrequiring students to present and defend their solutions in class (Figure 7). The Capstone course(CE492) and Independent Study projects (CE489) require major briefings to their clients.Outcome 11, the use of engineering tools was rated at level 4 (Analysis). In the civil engineeringprogram, the students receive multiple exposures to spreadsheets, mathematical software such asMathCAD and Mathematica, Microsoft Project, the Visual Analysis structural analysis program,AutoCAD, and HEC-RAS - the same watershed modeling system used by the Corps ofEngineers. For the capstone design course (CE492), students integrate these and other softwarepackages while

Conference Session

Where are We Going? The Future of Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allen Estes, U.S. Military Academy; Ronald Welch, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

theindustry first hand will be needed to teach these subjects. Only a person who has worked ona real world engineering project is best qualified to assess whether a student capstone designproject is realistic and relevant. If practitioners are needed, then there needs to be a careertrack where their services can be valued and rewarded. Practitioners are typically includedon the faculty as adjunct professors. They are paid less and not viewed as full-fledgedpartners. Most do not have the Ph.D. credential that accords equal status. The advantage ofthis system is that the practitioner faculty member is typically teaching as a side job, while heis working in a firm as a primary job and continues to stay current in professional practiceand can bring those