Conference Session

Effective Learning Innovations in Civil Engineering Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heiko Merle, Darmstadt University of Technology; Joerg Lange, Darmstadt University of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

revolutionary it is impossible to compare the evolutional step with theinitial situation1. Mountains Field of possible of quality adjustments Figure 1: Improvement depending on causalityFigure 1 explains this problem. The center describes the initial situation. The outer circledescribes the modification of the current situation. The bigger the diameter the morerevolutionary is the system. The lower left circle describes the area, where an upgrade of thesystems quality can be achieved. If change is too big the upgrading circle will be passedwithout improving the quality.Here quality stands for an

Conference Session

Effective Learning Innovations in Civil Engineering Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert O'Neill, Florida Gulf Coast University; Chris Geiger; Kristine Csavina, The CORE Institute; Cindy Orndoff

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

screen. Actualthree dimensional, real world, physical models that the students interact with during classactually involve students to improve their understanding. One can find numerous publications Page 12.1618.2discussing the merits of classroom demonstrations.1-6 Richard Felder states that “They reallyonly learn by thinking and doing, not watching and listening.”7 The instructional methodologydeveloped for this course incorporates the physical model demonstration and places it in thehands of the learner as an in-class group activity designed for students to model real problems,take physical measurements, and think about the differences

Conference Session

Direct Measures of Student Performance

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Bronzini, George Mason University; John Matusik, The Engineering Groupe

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

include 220,000 sfof retail space, of which 100,000 sf is a single user anchor store. The remaining area will beancillary retail use. The client may require 2-3 smaller (1 acre) pad sites for a fast-food store,and a convenience store with fuel pumps.Industrial Team. Choose an appropriate zoning district for a 160,000 sf distribution warehousesite. A minimum of two buildings is required. Dimensions for one building are 150 ft x 550 ft.This building will include a second floor mezzanine for office space in a single-user area of 150ft x 200 ft at one end of the building. The mezzanine will be a minimum 30 ft wide along oneexterior wall. The client prefers most bays to be 50 ft wide.Results. To give the reader a glimpse of the amount of work involved

Conference Session

Direct Measures of Student Performance

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Carpenter, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

follows: • A topic is presented to students using traditional teaching techniques: lecturing, active learning, cooperative learning, homework, etc. (As an example, one topic covered in Structures I is bar forces in a truss using the Method of Joints.) • After the coverage of this topic, students are given a single exam question on the topic where they can demonstrate proficiency. (In the Structures I example, the exam question would require that students solve for all the bar forces in a simple truss as shown in Figure 1.) • Although proficiency can be defined in numerous ways, the method works well when, to demonstrate proficiency, a student’s solution must be 100% correct. This definition of

Conference Session

Who Should Teach the BOK

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Randel Dymond, Virginia Tech; Howell Simmons, Paciulli, Simmons & Associates; Derrick Cave, Kimley-Horn Assoc.; Robert Jansen, KB Home

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

learned and recommendations for other universities that may wish to initiate asimilar program.Historically, the CEE department has had one course in Land Development Design available formore than 10 years, taught by various adjunct instructors, who were always fulltime practicingprofessional engineers. Constant turnover in the position was difficult to handle and an adjunctcould not expand the course into a program. Recently, a tenured faculty member began to teach theclass and initiated a major collaborative effort with practitioners in the state in order to 1) develop aprogram in land development within the department, and 2) increase student interest in landdevelopment as a possible career. The Land Development Design Initiative (LDDI

Conference Session

Effective Learning Innovations in Civil Engineering Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brock Barry, Purdue University; Sybil Sharvelle, Purdue University; M Katherine Banks, Purdue University; Sean Brophy, Purdue University; William Oakes, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

various aspects of the PBL and howeach aspect contributed to their individual learning. Students completed the survey on avoluntary basis during the final course meeting and after all assessments had been completed.A portion of the exit survey questions have been analyzed and the results are graphicallypresented herein. In the case where a range of responses were possible, the data was analyzed byassigning number values across the range (e.g. strongly disagree = -2, disagree = -1, agree = 1,and strongly agree = 2). The results are presented graphically, but without the associatednumeric values. It should be noted that the graphic presentation assumes an even distributionbetween each response

Conference Session

Aspirational Visions of Civil Engineering in 2025 & Policy 465

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Ressler, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

example, consider BOK Outcome 1, which includesrequirements for “biology, chemistry, ecology, geology/geomorphology, engineering economics,mechanics, material properties, systems, geo-spatial representation, and informationtechnology.” The corresponding provision of the Basic-Level Civil Engineering ProgramCriteria requires only “one additional area of science, consistent with the program educationalobjectives.”The sharp difference between the standards communicated in the BOK and the criteria is entirelyappropriate, as it reflects the distinctly different nature of these two documents. If the criteriawere written at the same level of detail as the BOK, they would be overly prescriptive andlargely unattainable. If the BOK were formulated as a

Conference Session

Implementing the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge into Courses and Curricula

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Norb Delatte, Cleveland State University; Paul Bosela, Cleveland State University; Kevin Rens, University of Colorado-Denver; Kenneth Carper, Washington State University; Kevin Sutterer, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

cases can help place designand analysis procedures into historical context and reinforce the necessity of life-long learning. Engineering education is about teaching students to design. The Accreditation Board forEngineering and Technology (ABET) defines engineering design as “the process of devising asystem, component, or process to meet desired needs. It is a decision-making process (ofteniterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and the engineering sciences are applied toconvert resources optimally to meet these stated needs.”1 A simplified definition of engineering design might be: • Anticipate everything that can possibly go wrong (identify all possible failure modes) • Devise a system

Conference Session

Training Faculty to Teach CE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald Welch, The University of Texas-Tyler; Allen Estes, California Polytechnic State University; Carol Considine, Old Dominion University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

teaching requirements within a program. The need for adjunctfaculty may be due to the sudden departure of current faculty, position cuts or unfilled positionsdue to budget issues, the need to cover new topics such as those associated with the new Body ofKnowledge (BOK)1 being instituted in the near future, faculty buy-out for research, or by designsuch that the number of authorized faculty does not meet the required number of instructors tocover the current course load. Some adjunct faculty teach in a department as part of the full-timefaculty, many times without a doctorate or any research requirements, while others teach for acouple of years until the shortage is filled or they teach only as required. However, these facultyare influencing

Conference Session

Aspirational Visions of Civil Engineering in 2025 & Policy 465

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Evans, Bucknell University; Daniel Lynch, Dartmouth College; David Lange, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

faculty.Humanities and social sciences are a valuable part of a balanced educational experiencebecause they contribute to understanding the context of problems and development ofskills in critical thinking. Civil engineers need to consider the context of problems asthey design solutions, and so the quality of solutions depend in part on the richness of theengineer’s understanding of context. A civil engineer’s thinking must be systematic andguided by analysis and assessment of relevant information. A critical thinker 1) raisesvital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely; 2) gathers andassesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively, comes towell-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against

Conference Session

Effective Learning Innovations in Civil Engineering Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Ramseyer, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

hamburgers were never served.Figure 1 shows the students eating kabobsduring the first Friday lunch of thesummer. It was hoped that Friday lunchwould help build the sense of communityquickly and also that it would also sendthe message that the principle investigatorwas committed to and involved in boththe research and the development of the Page 12.209.4 Figure 1 – Friday lunch in the conference roomstudents. 4Learning Skills Emphasized:At any university, the undergraduate student can be considered the

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Three

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Collins, J.P. Morgan Chase; Gerard Lennon, Lehigh University; John Ochs, Lehigh University; Richard Weisman, Lehigh University; Vincent Munley, Lehigh University; Joseph Sterrett, Lehigh University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

the current paper.1 I. ILE Over view and Cour se PhilosophyIn 1997 the Lehigh Earth Observatory (LEO) began conducting a land use analysis for aparcel of Lehigh University property that the university was planning to sell. Theeconomic and environmental surveys were conducted by a group of 13 Lehigh Universitystudents with a wide array of majors and under the direction of Drs. Carl Moses (Earth &Environmental Sciences) and Vincent Munley (Economics). Faculty supervisors fromeach of the departments were invited to work with the instructors. The group wassuccessful in completing a wetland analysis, geotechnical analysis, and a cost/benefitanalysis for the area through field experimentation and zoning restriction

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Two

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claude Villiers, Florida Gulf Coast University; Yusuf Mehta, Rowan University; Robert O'Neill, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

WSOE administrators treat this three credithours course to four contact hours. The course outline along with topics covered is presented inTable 1. These topics are typical to Civil Engineering Materials course in different institutions.In fact, the syllabus is very similar to the one at Rowan University. Details about each modulesincluding aggregate, cement, PCC, liquid asphalt, HMA, and wood were presented by Mehta2.As presented in the table, in addition to the lecture lab format, four separate labs were conductedoutside the classroom environment. As in the conventional approach, these lab exercises were Page 13.470.3carried out in a typical

Conference Session

Use of Technology to Provide Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jakob Bruhl, United States Military Academy; James Ledlie Klosky; Elizabeth Bristow, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

performance on the exam. Thegroup for whom statistics were gathered for this study included 124 students in seven sectionstaught by three instructors. All survey and exam results were extremely positive: the studentsuse and like the resource, and its use improved their grades.Video AI Improves Student PerformanceAt first glance, the grade results for the WPR2– for which students had Video AI resourcesavailable – appeared to indicate that performance was improved from the first mid-term exam(WPR1). Statistical analysis proves that this was true. The average was higher, the standarddeviation was less, and the distribution was more skewed – that is, more students scored in the Arange than previously. (See Figure 1 for the comparative distribution of

Conference Session

Accreditation and Assessment Concerns in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean-Pierre Bardet, University of Southern California; Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California; Fred Meyer, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

globalization12, 13. NAE13 quotes the NationalScience Board “The organizational structures for educating, maintaining skills, andemploying science and engineering talent in the workforce are diverse and theirinterrelationships complex and dynamic. As a result, production and employment ofscientists and engineers are not well understood as a system14.” NAE states that “althoughprogress is being made in engineering education, much remains to be done in developingresearch base underlying best practices in engineering education18 and faculty practicegenerally2.” NAE presents a suite of recommendations summarized in Table 1.Table 1. Excerpts from NAE Recommendations13.‚ The B.S. degree should be considered as a pre-engineering or “engineer in training” degree

Conference Session

Use of Summer Research Programs in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vinod Lohani, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Tamim Younos, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

excerpts of self reflections of REU fellows.1. IntroductionOne of the recommendations made in the 2005 report of the National Academy ofEngineering Educating the Engineer of 2020 is[1]: Engineering schools introduce interdisciplinary learning in the undergraduate environment, rather than having it as an exclusive feature of the graduate program.The objective of this article is to introduce successful (and unsuccessful) proposalpreparation for funding an interdisciplinary undergraduate research site that has goal to Page 13.701.2meet the recommendations made such as in the NAE publication listed above. Ourresearch site deals with

Conference Session

Issues in the Professional Practice of Faculty Members in Civil Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrea Welker, Villanova University; Frank Falcone, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

critical need for holistic engineering education which includes andstresses a broad range of leadership and management skills in addition to a concentratedtraditional technical curriculum. Emerging young engineers will, in many instances, be requiredto lead teams of diverse professionals and manage budgets and schedules for domestic and/orinternational projects only a few years beyond completing their formal undergraduate education.The new program criteria developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)1, andused by ABET during the accreditation process, recognizes this change and is more closelyaligned with the Body of Knowledge2. One major change is that the new criteria now include astatement requiring that students “can explain

Conference Session

Use of Technology to Provide Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean-Pierre Bardet, University of Southern California; Dennis McLeod, University of Southern California; Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California; Nazila Mokarram, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

this project is a tool that specifies evolving ontologies, and supports informationdiscovery and queries, i.e., Protégé20, 11. Protégé is open-source software which can be extendedwith plug-ins. Protégé has visualization tools for web-ontology applications (e.g., TGViz andOWLViz), and exports data into various formats, e.g., XML, RDF, and OWL. Protégé alsosupports the design of forms and templates to input data and query subsets of data. Table 1 listsof few examples of ontologies developed using Protégé. Figure 2 displays the objects andrelationships of the Science Ontology10, which models scientific and educational events, e.g.,scientific conferences, research projects, and software development projects. As shown in Figure

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Two

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Burian, University of Utah; William Johnson, University of Utah; Fred Montague, University of Utah; Arrin Holt, Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates; Jim Nielson, Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates; Rachel David, Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

thebenefits from the student learning perspective.Course DescriptionThe Interdisciplinary Practicum in Sustainability (the original name for the course subsequentlyshortened to Sustainability Practicum) was created to address the following key goals (1)integrating multiple disciplines into a single course and teaching from a multidisciplinaryperspective, (2) immersing students in real problems and projects and facilitating theirdevelopment of creative interdisciplinary solutions meeting constraints and the approval ofdesign professionals and stakeholders. Although intended initially to focus on sustainablebuilding, the course has broadened to cover building and processes within the built environmentattracting a wider array of cohorts (students

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Two

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Dong, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

exercise called the point, theline, the plane, and the mass. (Figure 1) Students are first required to develop a system tostabilize a shape and then quantify it second. The goal is two fold, one to understand the conceptof stability or how things stand up and secondly to explain how these basic shapes areextrapolated to real world items, such as a beam or column for the line, a floor for the plane, anda building for the block. The students are also exposed to tension members such as string,compression/tension members such as sticks, how systems are formed using these types ofelements, and the concept of buckling for members under compression.Figure1: Point, Line and Plane SeriesJuniorsBy their third year, students are immersed in framing schemes

Conference Session

Challenges of CE Education in a Global World

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, California Polytechnic State University; Senro Kuraoka, Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

student’s predominantlearning style and the predominant teaching style. Various systems have been developed todescribe learning styles. Learning styles are categorized using six common systems: Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)1, The Kolb Learning Cycle2, the Felder and Silverman’s Index ofLearning Styles3, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument4, the Dunn and Dunn LearningStyles Model5, and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences6 [Table 1]. Table 1. Summary of Learning Style Systems MBTI Based on 4 preference dichotomies including: energy source (introversion vs. extraversion), perceiving mental process (sensing vs. intuition), judging mental process

Conference Session

Challenges of CE Education in a Global World

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carsten Ahrens, F.H. OOW

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

management in civil and construction engineering. They have excellentlanguage abilities in at least two foreign languages and they also have a very deep insight inthe culture, socio-economic conditions and in the working conditions in a foreign country,and in a foreign company. By this they are mobile - personally and related to their educationand knowledge – and able to work also in other countries and, thus, worldwide.Time Schedule of the ECEM-program Due to the changes of the Bologna Process the new curriculum needs seven semestersor 3 ½ years of study (see Table 1). The study program consists of three semesters of more orless basic studies in civil and construction engineering at the home university - and of at leasttwo foreign languages

Conference Session

Use of Summer Research Programs in Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Ramseyer, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

members to solve a personality clash. While worrisome, these corrections do not seem to have long term impact on the students or the work. • On occasion teams have trouble starting their research. In general this is due to: 1) lacking a sense of urgency to complete the work during the summer or 2) not wanting to start any research until they fully understand the expected outcome. In this case the students were not used to a problem with multiple possible solutions. Several meetings with the principle investigator are generally required to help these students understand that a "failed" test was acceptable so that they could move forward. • Students want ownership of their work. By allowing the students

Conference Session

Issues in the Professional Practice of Faculty Members in Civil Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allen Estes, California Polytechnic State University; Ronald Welch, The University of Texas-Tyler; Stephen Ressler, United States Military Academy; Norman Dennis, University of Arkansas; Debra Larson, Northern Arizona University; Carol Considine, Old Dominion University; Tonya Nilsson, San Jose State; Jim O'Brien, American Society of Civil Engineers; Thomas Lenox, American Society of Civil Engineers

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

participants using the T4E format as a model.In 1999, a group of nine educators formally evaluated ETW as part of a Program DesignWorkshop3. As a result, the curriculum of the ETW was refined and formalized and the programwas successfully transported to the University of Arkansas in the summer of 2000. By 2002,there were ExCEEd Teaching Workshops offered at West Point, the University of Arkansas andNorthern Arizona University. Those three institutions have provided the home of the ETW eversince as shown in Table 1, although ASCE is always considering new locations.In the summer of 2004, the United Engineering Foundation funded these workshops and theother professional societies (ASME, IEEE, AIChE) sent participants to what became the ExcEEd(Excellence

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part Two

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gerald Himes, United States Military Academy; Jakob Bruhl, United States Military Academy; Joseph Hanus, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

design process to Mechanics of Materials in generate alternatives order to introduce design early CE450 • Construction project management • Creative problem solving Figure 1 The Civil Engineering Three-Course Sequence for Non-Engineering MajorsAs shown in Figure 1, CE300 students are introduced to statics and mechanics of materials. Bythe end of the course, they are able to analyze and design axial members (such as trusses andcables), beams, and torsional members3. CE350 provides instruction on

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Teaching Part One

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Reynaldo Pablo, Jr., Indiana University Purdue University, Fort Wayne

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

measure of the variability is thecoefficient of variation (COV) which is the ratio between the standard deviation and the meanvalue, σR /µR.The margin of safety for a bridge component can be defined as Z=R–S (1)where R is the resistance or the load carrying capacity of the structural component, and S is theload effect or the load demand to the component. They are modeled as random variables herebecause their uncertainty is evident. In general, the uncertainty associated with the resistance isdue to material production and preparation process, construction quality control, etc. Theuncertainty associated with load effect is related to truck weight, truck type, traffic

Conference Session

The New Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK2)

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Ressler, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

October 1998. This initial version ofthe policy stated that the Society “supports the concept of the master’s degree as the FirstProfessional Degree for the practice of civil engineering at the professional level.”1 Chargedwith implementing Policy Statement 465, the ASCE Committee on Academic Prerequisites forProfessional Practice (CAP3) began by analyzing the three fundamental characteristics of aprofession—an ethic of service, a professional organization, and a specialized body ofknowledge.2 The committee’s analysis of the civil engineering profession suggested that onlythe first two of these three characteristics had been adequately defined. Thus began a broad-based effort to define the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge.In January 2004 this

Conference Session

Challenges of CE Education in a Global World

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Ressler, United States Military Academy; C. Conley; Richard Gash, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

NMAA is geared to producing a national army free of regional and ethnic biases. Even the living quarters take ethnic and regional balance into account. In one random dormitory room I visited, the 12 cadets came from all over the country. In fact, these young men have been so well drilled that random questions about unrelated issues are apt to include a reference to the fact that "we are one Army for all of Afghanistan."6The four-year NMAA curriculum, as jointly developed by the Afghan academy leadership andtheir U.S. mentors, is illustrated in Figure 1 below. The eight academic semesters are indicatedin the first column, and the courses offered in each semester are listed across each correspondingrow. The

Conference Session

Challenges of CE Education in a Global World

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Ressler, United States Military Academy; Richard Gash, United States Military Academy; C. Conley; Scott Hamilton, United States Military Academy; Farid Momand, Kabul University; Qaium Fekrat, Kabul University; Aziz Gulistani, Kabul University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

therewere no military officers in the Afghan National Army with adequate background to teachcollege-level engineering.Working in collaboration with the Dean of Engineering Faculty at Kabul University, Conley,Ressler, Fekrat, and Momand developed the 16-course civil engineering curriculum shown inFigure 1 below. In this graphic, the first column shows the eight academic semestersconstituting the four-year NMAA curriculum. The courses offered in each semester are listedacross each corresponding row. The dark horizontal bands preceding each pair of semestersrepresent military training periods. These periods would correspond to summers at a U.S.institution; however, at the NMAA they actually occur in the February-March timeframe, asAfghan educational

Conference Session

Issues in the Professional Practice of Faculty Members in Civil Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allen Estes, California Polytechnic State University; Brent Nuttall, California Polytechnic State University; Cole McDaniel, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

professionalengineer1,2. The BOK is presented in the form of 15 outcomes that prescribe the necessarybreadth and depth of knowledge required for a practicing civil engineer.A section of the BOK addresses who should teach this body of knowledge. It concludes thatcivil engineering faculty must be scholars, effective teachers, practitioners, and role models.While true, there are a number of complex issues that arise such as whether it is possible for oneperson to possess all of these attributes and whether such a model best serves the projected trendsin civil engineering education.Estes and Welch3 attempted to identify the most appropriate faculty of the future with respect toeach of the required outcomes in the BOK. Their approach is illustrated in Table 1 which