An Innovative Infrastructure Curriculum For 21 St Century Civil Engineering

A new curriculum has been developed by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Wisconsin—Platteville (UWP). The revised curriculum creates a focus on infrastructure topics and the built environment. Classes on infrastructure will be added to the curriculum and infrastructure topics will be added to required engineering courses. Students will develop a local infrastructure report card as a service learning activity to increase awareness of the infrastructure. The local infrastructure report card will also serve as an ABET assessment tool. Details on how an infrastructure theme will be infused throughout the curriculum are presented. Introduction The importance of the infrastructure to the economic development of the country is well understood by engineers and many political leaders in the U.S. As highlighted by the 2005 American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card 1 , the United States’ infrastructure is in very poor condition, and was given an overall grade of D. Because of these infrastructure needs, civil engineers of the future will need to be skilled at maintaining and upgrading in-place infrastructure in addition to the current emphasis on creating new infrastructure. Unfortunately, the influence of civil engineers in infrastructure management and planning has been waning in recent years. 2 To better prepare our students to participate in the planning and management of public works, we (the faculty of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UWP) are revamping our curriculum with the goal of educating “citizen engineers.” 3 Citizen engineers will be more in tune with the needs of their communities and of the nation, and will be able to effectively address the technical and non-technical issues related to the infrastructure. To meet this end, we are infusing an infrastructure theme throughout the curriculum. The revised curriculum will include at least one new course (i.e. “Introduction to Infrastructure I”), which will specifically address infrastructure needs and the non-technical issues (such as financing, political process, etc.) that are often crucial to successful engineering projects. However, unlike many implementations of curriculum reform 4 , our proposed changes will go well beyond the creation of a class or classes. Infrastructure concepts will be interwoven throughout the remainder of the curriculum to provide students with a better understanding of the challenges to be faced in improving, securing, and maintaining the national infrastructure. In addition to learning about infrastructure in classes, students will evaluate infrastructure components in local communities using direct observation, producing a “local” infrastructure report card. This service learning activity will provide students with a direct connection to a local community and its needs. Our ultimate goal is to produce citizen engineers that have a better understanding of infrastructure, better familiarity with new technologies 5 that are increasingly used in infrastructure management, and a more holistic understanding of the built environment as compared to the engineers currently graduating from our program. Background UWP is a four year comprehensive public university enrolling approximately 5,500 undergraduates in three colleges: Engineering, Mathematics, and Science—1,900 students; Business, Industry, Life Sciences, and Agriculture—1,700 students; Liberal Arts and Education— 1,900 students. The engineering programs comprise one of the largest undergraduate-only programs in the United States. The primary mission of UWP is to provide baccalaureate degree programs that meet educational, cultural and economic development needs of southwestern Wisconsin and the larger region. The university is best known for its engineering programs, which include Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Industrial, Electrical, Software, and Engineering Physics. There are 240 students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, which offers two degrees: Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering. The program has averaged 61 graduates per year over the past 40 years. The CEE curricula are summarized in the Undergraduate Catalog as programs that “emphasize practical applications of engineering with sufficient theory so that an individual can grow with the future as new materials, methods, and designs develop.” The vast majority of graduates enter professional practice. Students who pursue graduate school directly upon graduation are recruited by a number of schools and have been very successful. The department faculty is a relatively young, dedicated, and collegial group that is regarded as exemplary throughout the university in terms of teaching effectiveness and in professional development. The existing curriculum at UWP is typical of conventional CEE curricula. Students complete basic mathematics, science, and general engineering courses in the first two years followed by civil and environmental engineering courses in the remainder of their studies. The CEE program includes a significant laboratory component and practical design projects in the upper level classes. The program culminates in a capstone design class that is taken in the last semester in school. Projects for this class are often solicited from communities and non-profit organizations, and typically incorporate a service learning component. In reviewing the existing UWP CEE curriculum for this curriculum development project, it became clear that the curriculum had not changed significantly in over 20 years. To illustrate this, the curricula from the 1985 and 2005 catalogs are shown in Table 1. The course changes are very minor, and the total revisions made in 20 years to the UWP CEE curriculum consist of the following: replacing Route Layout with Construction Engineering; replacing Technical Writing with 3-9 more credits of Social Sciences and Humanities; changing Chemistry from 8 to 5 credits; removing the Electric Circuits requirement; and a few name changes or changes in the number of units. Moreover, the courses have been taught in the traditional method of daily lecture and weekly laboratory exercises. Many courses build upon knowledge from prerequisites, but there is no overlying theme that ties the entire curriculum together. Table 1 Comparison of 1985 and 2005 UWP Curricula for Civil and Environmental Engineering 1985 Curriculum 2005 Curriculum Dept.No. Course Credits Dept.No. Course Credits CE 212 Computer Applications 2 CEE 2120 Computer Applications 3 CE 213 Statics 3 GE 2130 Statics 3 CE 220 Mechanics of Materials 4 GE 2340 Mechanics of Materials 4 CE 263 Elements of Surveying 3 CEE 2630 Elements of Surveying 3 CE 264 Route Layout 4 CEE 3020 Construction Engineering 3 CE 303 Construction Materials 3 CEE 3030 Construction Materials 3 CE 310 Structural Mechanics 4 CEE 3100 Structural Mechanics 4 CE 315 Reinforced Concrete 3 CEE 3150 Reinforced Concrete 3 CE 330 Fluid Mechanics 3 CEE 330 Fluid Mechanics 4 CE 331 Fluid Mechanics Lab 1 CE 334 Sanitary Engineering 4 CEE 3340 Environmental Engineering 4 CE 353 Transportation Engineering 3 CEE 3530 Transportation Engineering 3 CE 373 Soil Mechanics 3 CEE 3730 Geotechnical Engineering 3 CE 398 Design Project 3 CEE 4930 Design Project 3 CE 4xx Technical Electives 11 CEE 4xx Technical Electives 14 Chem 114 Gen. Chemistry 4 Chem 1450 Chemistry for Engineering 5 Chem 124 Gen. Chemistry 4 Comm 212 Public Speaking 2 Spch 1010 Public Speaking 2 EE 313 Electric Circuits 3 Engl 113 Freshman Comp. 3 Engl 1130 Freshman Composition 3 Engl 123 Freshman Comp. 3 Engl 123 Freshman Composition 3 Engl 300 Technical Writing 3 Geol 313 Engineering Geology 3 Geol 313 Engineering Geology 3 IE 113 Engineering Graphics 3 GE 1320 Engineering Graphics 2 IE 222 Dynamics 2 GE 2220 Dynamics 2 IE 382 Engineering Economy 2 GE 2820 Engineering Economy 2 Math 265 Analytical Geometry & Calculus I 5 Math 2640 Analytical Geometry & Calculus I 4 Math 275 Analytical Geometry & Calculus II 5 Math 2740 Analytical Geometry & Calculus II 4 Math 284 Analytical Geometry & Calculus III 4 Math 2840 Analytical Geometry & Calculus III 4 Math Differential Equations or Statistics 3 Math 3630 Differential Equations 3 Math 403 Statistics 3 ME 263 Thermodynamics 3 GE 2630 Thermoscience 3 MinE 103 Engineering Methods 3 GE 1000 Engineering Success Skills 1 GE 1030 Engineering Projects 1 PE 1xx Physical Education 1 PE 1000 Fitness Assessment 1 PE 1xx Physical Education 1 PE 1xxx Physical Education 1 Phy 251 General Physics I Lab 1 Phys 2510 General Physics I Lab 1 Phys 253 General Physics I 3 Phys 2530 General Physics I 3 Phys 261 General Physics II Lab 1 Phys 2610 General Physics II Lab 1 Phys 264 General Physics II 4 Phys 2640 General Physics II 4 Social Science and Humanities Electives 15 Social Science and Humanities Electives 21 Total Credits 135 Total Credits 134 Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes of the Citizen Engineer Before deciding how the curriculum should be reformed, the entire department faculty brainstormed the attributes of the “ideal engineer” in 2020. While we were aware of the report by the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Engineering Education 6 , the premise of the ideal engineer of 2020 helped mainly to focus our thoughts on the future needs of our students. The brainstorming session was extremely beneficial, partly due to the fact that brainstorming rules were decided in advance and enforced in the session. These brainstorming rules 7 were shared with the faculty prior to the session. The following additional insights 8 were shared: 1. Go for Quantity Good ideas are nice, but we are looking for raw quantity Number the ideas, 100/hour is a good goal No talking about implementation Clarifying questions are O.K. If things get slow, brainstorm the opposite (e.g., What are the attributes of the worst possible engineer of 2020?) or similes.