13,692 research outputs found

    Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum

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    Civil infrastructure refers to the built environment (sometimes referred to as public works) and consists of roads, bridges, buildings, dams, levees, drinking water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation and transmission facilities, communications, solid waste facilities, hazardous waste facilities, and other sectors. Although there is a need to train engineers who have a holistic view of infrastructure, there is evidence that civil and environmental engineering (CEE) programs have not fully addressed this increasingly recognized need. One effective approach to address this educational gap is to incorporate a course related to infrastructure into the curriculum for first-year or second-year civil and environmental engineering students. Therefore, this study assesses the current status of teaching such courses in the United States and identifies the incentives for, and the barriers against, incorporating an introduction to infrastructure course into schools’ current CEE curricula. Two distinct activities enabled these objectives. First, a questionnaire was distributed to CEE programs across the United States, to which 33 responses were received. The results indicated that although the majority of participants believe that offering such a course will benefit students by increasing the breadth of the curriculum and by providing a holistic view of CEE, barriers such as the maximum allowable credits for graduation, the lack of motivation within a department—either because such a course did not have a champion or because the department had no plans to revise their curriculum—and a lack of expertise among faculty members inhibited inclusion of the course in curricula. Second, three case studies demonstrating successful inclusion of an introduction to infrastructure course into the CEE curriculum were evaluated. Cases were collected from Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and West Point CEE programs, and it was found that the key to success in including such a course is a motivated team of faculty members who are committed to educating students about different aspects of infrastructure. The results of the study can be used as a road map to help universities successfully incorporate an introduction to infrastructure course in their CEE programs

    People’s Initiatives to Use IT for Development

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    human development, technology

    BIM: a technology acceptance model in Peru

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    The purpose of this paper is to empirically study factors that facilitate the adoption of building information modelling (BIM) among practitioners using the unified theory of technology acceptance model (TAM). The factors identified in the TAM were examined using a quantitative approach. The empirical investigation has been conducted using a survey questionnaire. The data set has been obtained from 73 architects and engineers in Peru. Results show that Perceived Usefulness (PU) is the most important determinant of Behavioural Intention (BI), while Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) is found to have no significant effect on BI. The findings provide an excellent backdrop in the development of policy and a roadmap for BIM implementation in Peru. The original contribution and value of the paper is the use of TAM to provide empirical evidence on factors that facilitate BIM adoption in Peru

    Bibliometric Maps of BIM and BIM in Universities: A Comparative Analysis

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    Building Information Modeling (BIM) is increasingly important in the architecture and engineering fields, and especially in the field of sustainability through the study of energy. This study performs a bibliometric study analysis of BIM publications based on the Scopus database during the whole period from 2003 to 2018. The aim was to establish a comparison of bibliometric maps of the building information model and BIM in universities. The analyzed data included 4307 records produced by a total of 10,636 distinct authors from 314 institutions. Engineering and computer science were found to be the main scientific fields involved in BIM research. Architectural design are the central theme keywords, followed by information theory and construction industry. The final stage of the study focuses on the detection of clusters in which global research in this field is grouped. The main clusters found were those related to the BIM cycle, including construction management, documentation and analysis, architecture and design, construction/fabrication, and operation and maintenance (related to energy or sustainability). However, the clusters of the last phases such as demolition and renovation are not present, which indicates that this field suntil needs to be further developed and researched. With regard to the evolution of research, it has been observed how information technologies have been integrated over the entire spectrum of internet of things (IoT). A final key factor in the implementation of the BIM is its inclusion in the curriculum of technical careers related to areas of construction such as civil engineering or architecture

    Education for citizenship: measuring the impact on learners of the community-based learning program in Palestine

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    The community-based learning (CBL) methodology was introduced at An-Najah University, Palestine for the first time through an initiative led by the Center for Excellence in Learning in 2013. The initial objectives for the CBL scheme were set at three different, yet interrelated aspects. On one hand, the learning environment was expanded to include direct engagement with the Palestinian community organizations through implementing need based projects for these organizations. On the other hand, through such engagement the learners were expected to develop key critical thinking skills which included self-learning, decision making, and testing theoretical models as they relate to community problems. Additionally, and as a direct impact for this initiative, it was hoped that the community work will prepare the learners for their responsibilities as Palestinian citizens. This research project is intended to measure the direct impact that the CBL program had on the learners’ skills on all three levels. This will be done by interviewing a representative sample from CBL participant groups. To measure the indirect impact on the CBL participants, the research will report on any unanticipated outcomes resulting from the CBL experience. In other words, this research will highlight the snowballing effect for the CBL program – aspects of growth in the learners experience beyond the originally planned objectives

    Paving The Way: Recruiting Students into the Transportation Professions, MTI Report 08-03

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    The transportation industry faces a growing shortage of professional engineers and planners. One key strategy in solving this problem will be to encourage more civil engineering and urban planning students to specialize in transportation while completing their degrees, so that employers have a larger pool of likely recruits. However, very little is known about how these students choose a specialization. To help fill that gap, this report examines the factors that lead civil engineering undergraduates and urban planning masters students to specialize in transportation, as opposed to other sub-disciplines within the two fields. The primary data collection methods were web-based surveys of 1,852 civil engineering undergraduates and 869 planning masters students. The study results suggest steps the transportation community can take to increase the number of civil engineering and planning students who choose to specialize in transportation

    Desigm and Development Considerations of a Learning Object Repository

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    A learning objects repository (LOR) is a web-based educational portal that houses, displays, and delivers sharable content objects for educational purposes. Design of such a repository encounters a number of considerations that relate the behavior of the information system to the content objects it manages. This paper examines these design issues in light of standards we have utilized. In particular, the instructional design of our learning objects is based on a concept called progressive scaffolding, which refers to the process of providing differing levels of media guidance. A brief description of related research is included. Furthermore, our objects are compliant with the Advanced Distributed Learning’s Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) to ensure they behave in a uniform and predictable manner. This paper also reviews existing content portals and gives a summary of an evaluation project carried out with a prototype

    Book Reviews

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