Designing Experiments In A Civil Engineering Curriculum

As all ABET-accredited institutions become more familiar with the Engineering Criteria (EC) 2000 on which their accreditations depend, it is important for various institutions to share information on how they are meeting these new requirements. The new accreditation philosophy requires institutions to define their own missions and objectives and to develop a process of assessment and continued improvement. The emphasis is on demonstrating how the educational objectives and outcomes are being met. Many outcomes have been specifically prescribed in the now-famous criterion 3 (a-k) requirements. One of the most controversial among civil engineers has been criterion 3b which requires engineering programs to “demonstrate that graduates have an ability to design and conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data.” While most civil engineering programs conduct experiments, many have struggled with demonstrating that their students can design an experiment. This paper describes three instances where the students design experiments as part of the Civil Engineering program at the United States Military Academy.