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EDUCATION IN CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN.
Abstract
This paper demonstrates that the nature and process of design can be transmitted to Civil Engineering students through a curriculum integrated by participation in a large scale project. Students experience both the realities of design and the necessary organization, teamwork and leadership required in the execution of an engineering project. They are also exposed to decision making, based on objective assessment through investigation and analysis coupled with the making of value judgments on many non-quantifiable factors involved in achieving objective goals.
... With abounding industry complaints regarding the inability of engineering graduates to 'apply knowledge', lecturers are challenged to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Various research projects and books which have focussed on developing methods for teaching civil engineering (Behnejad et al. 2015;Einstein 2013), including an excellent book by Ji & Bell (2008) which is specifically on "Seeing & Touching Structural Concepts". As with all situations where people are involved there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution for teaching structural engineering and it is shown in this paper that by using a variety of methods students' understanding can be enhanced, although certain methodologies are more effective. ...
... With abounding industry complaints regarding the inability of engineering graduates to 'apply knowledge', lecturers are challenged to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Various research projects and books which have focussed on developing methods for teaching civil engineering (Behnejad et al. 2015;Einstein 2013), including an excellent book by Ji & Bell (2008) which is specifically on "Seeing & Touching Structural Concepts". As with all situations where people are involved there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution for teaching structural engineering and it is shown in this paper that by using a variety of methods students' understanding can be enhanced, although certain methodologies are more effective. ...
This paper presents, discusses and evaluates the use of a number of different teaching methods used to assist final year engineering students in their capstone structural design project and a steel design module. Teaching interventions such as physical models, plastic beams, YouTube videos, site visits, engineering videos, tutorials, marshmallow & spaghetti models (possibly the most successful of the interventions), oral presentations and design assignments were used in the course. Surveys were conducted to receive feedback from students as to how methods assisted learning and understanding. Feedback varied and it was shown that it is best to use a variety of methods in a course to assist with learning, although physical demonstration models were the most beneficial. Generally once students could visualise structural behaviour their designs improved. Of all the concepts students must grasp during a design project it was observed that bracing, modelling of structures, three-dimensional behaviour and effective lengths are the topics most struggled with by students.
Artificial Neural Networks are easy to build and take good care of large amounts of noisy data. They are especially suitable for the solution of nonlinear problems. They work well for problems where domain experts aren't available or there are no known rules. Artificial Neural Networks can also be adapted to civil engineering structures and suffer from dynamic effects. Structures around the world were badly damaged by the earthquake. Thus, loss of life and property was experienced. This particularly affected countries on active fault lines. Pre and post earthquake precautions have been developed in the world. For these reasons, it is necessary to determine the dynamic performance of structures in the world. There are several methods to determine dy performance. System identification is one of these methods. The mathematical model of the structural system is obtained by system identification method. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is a system identification method. ANN can adapt to their enviro incomplete information, make decisions under uncertainties and tolerate errors. Steel Model Bridge was used in this study. The system identification of the steel model bridge with the ANN method of 0.90 was made successfully. As a result of this study, ANN approach can provide a very useful and accurate tool to solve the problem in modal identification studies.
The distribution of macrofaunal productivity in the Bay of Fundy, inclusive of the upper Bay (Chignecto Bay and Minas basin) is presented. The data used in mapping are based on wet biomass from 266, 0.1- and 0.5-m2 grab samples, converted to annual productivity using a lifespan/annual turnover regression. Macrofaunal production of the subtidal area (11 149 km2) of the whole Bay of Fundy is estimated to be 212 × 104 t wet biomass∙yr−1 equivalent to 190 g wet wt∙m−2∙yr−1Production in the intertidal area (1437 km2), by contrast, is estimated to be 13 × 104 t wet biomass∙yr−1 or 92 g wet∙m−2∙yr−1. Possible qualitative macrofaunal changes resulting from building a tidal barrage between Economy Point and Cape Tenny are suggested on the basis of predicted physical changes, particularly tidal current speed, sediment type, and sediment bed stress. The only quantitative prediction possible with our biological data is that suspension-feeding animal production will be 17% less in the lower Bay of Fundy following barrage construction. This reduction is not significant at the 95% confidence level.
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