It As Information Technology In Ce And Instructional Technology In Education

The fast-moving world of information technology is greatly changing the practice of civil engineering. Thus, it is generating changing needs and opportunities in education. These needed changes are both in program content and in delivery. The authors have conducted a NSF Department-Level Reform Planning Grant on the topic of “Information Technology in the Integrated Civil Engineering Curriculum”, and this paper reflects findings from this effort. The primary emphasis of this paper is on the utilization of Information Technology within the civil engineering profession and in the large-scale products and systems the civil engineering profession provides, operates and maintains. Instructional technology, both general and IT is noted more as a part of implementing changes within the educational environment. Information technology as utilized in CE can be placed into four general categories. (1) personal IT/computing tools – which all graduates and civil engineers need at a fairly high level of proficiency, (2) civil engineering systems tools such networks, data structures, highly interactive design, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, decision support systems and other IT tools applied to intelligent transportation systems, NDE, environmental monitoring and control, smart buildings, etc., (3) IT-system components – sensors, actuators, communication links, etc., used in remote systems, and (4) IT tools used in instruction, presentation, sales, and general communications. The future graduate cannot be an expert in all of these areas. The paper explores which IT topics need to be addressed at what level of proficiency (recognition, understanding, or ability) and how this might be achieved in revised courses or academic programs. Introduction and Background Developments in information technology (IT) and their utilization are rapidly changing both civil engineering practice and the management and operation of civil engineering systems. A critical current challenge for civil engineering education is how it needs to change, both in pedagogy and, more crucially, in its content, to better prepare its graduates for tomorrow’s professional environment. What needs to be added, with what priority and what depth of coverage? How can it best be integrated into the curriculum? To make room, which existing topics may need to be de-emphasized or even dropped (very often an unpopular, difficult subject)? What knowledge P ge 927.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education and skills in which IT topics should be a basic requirement of the undergraduate program, which should be only illustrated, noted, or sampled, with proficiency to be acquired as needed by the graduate while in the profession? What is the best way to prepare graduates for future IT tools and their increasingly powerful applications? Civil engineers have lead roles in the management and operation of infrastructure and environmental systems, as well as in the establishment of need, design, and construction of these systems so critical to our modern society. The power of IT is increasingly being utilized in facility design, construction, and operations. IT provide the tools that, when properly used, give today’s and future civil engineers the power to more dependably and efficiently provide the basic amenities of modern life within increasing environmental, social, and resource constraints. An incomplete list of IT applications beyond initial design includes optimal routing and utilization of resources (water, power, fire and other emergency response actions); inventory, location, and management of geographically-distributed resources, construction productivity; monitoring of environmental quality, infrastructure integrity and system security, along with follow-up decisions; building operations (smart building), and actions to relieve traffic congestion (from basic signal control to more developed intelligent transportation features). The marketplace is driving both the opportunity and the need for the creators, operators, and managers of infrastructure systems to know well and utilize IT tools. From another perspective, it can be observed that today’s civil engineers are becoming more decision makers than the sole providers of detailed design solutions. In today’s design environment, he or she has become more the user and manager of IT/computer-based design and management tools, tools which must be understood and properly used. The engineer needs both IT skills to operate these tools efficiently and the engineering skills necessary to use these tools correctly, a dual challenge for today’s programs in civil engineering education. As noted in many past and several recent calls for engineering educational reform, today’s typical curricula too often reflect the past rather than looking toward the future. Information technology is a key area where educational programs have tended to lag, rather than lead, modern engineering practices. In his remarks to the 2002 ASEE Annual Conference on the urgency of engineering education reform, William Wulf, President of the National Academy of Engineering, notes 1 that with a few exceptions, “it is only a slight exaggeration to say that our students are being prepared for practicing engineering in a world that existed when we (faculty) were trained, but not for the 21 st century.” He further adds “engineering is changing! Information technology will be embedded in virtually every product/process in the future... Discrete math, not continuous math, is the underpinning of IT. It’s a new fundamental.” He also raises the need for a first professional degree in engineering, beyond the BS level, noting additional needs of the engineering graduate, including IT, more social and management sciences; and retention of a liberal education component, all coupled with limitations of the undergraduate programs, including the mandating of a maximum of 120 credit hours for undergraduate programs in several states. . This call for a first professional degree had been made earlier and for many of the same general reasons for civil engineering. After extensive professional discussions within committees and conferences on civil engineering education, the ASCE Board of Direction adopted in October P ge 927.2 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education 1998 its Policy Statement 465, which, as revised and adopted in October 2001 2 , states “The ASCE supports the concept of the masters degree or equivalent as a prerequisite for licensure and practice at the professional degree”. The desired “Body of Knowledge” (BOK) to be achieved by the completion of the combined Bachelor’s Degree plus 30 credits (B + 30) program includes professional practice and management topics 3 . The ASCE BOK Committee added the following four outcomes to the eleven “a through k” ABET outcomes 4 as their way to address “what should be taught and learned” in the combined BS + MS program: (12) an ability to apply knowledge in a specialized area related to civil engineering, (13) an understanding of the elements of project management, construction, and asset management, (14) an understanding of business and public policy and administration fundamentals, and (15) an understanding of the role of the leader and leadership principles and attitudes. Although these do not specifically address IT, it is very evident from their report that IT is considered a major driver of change that the civil engineering educational programs must recognize and address. Content on relevant IT topics needs to be developed across the civil engineering curriculum. This is a difficult challenge, especially with today’s usual curricular organization based on largely-independent courses each dedicated to a well-defined subjects. The integration of the new IT-based technologies into practice is changing the conduct of engineering work across all the traditional civil engineering disciplines. It has become a new engineering fundamental that must be developed and applied in many topics, not neatly confined to a couple of traditional classes on the topic. This requires new thinking about the civil engineering curriculum. It strongly suggests more integration in the organization of the engineering curriculum. This paper reports on two related efforts at Colorado State University that are helping us identify and formulate plans to implement appropriate information technology content across our undergraduate program. The first is our existing integrated undergraduate civil engineering core sequence of eight courses (24 semester hours) that we initiated seven years ago. The second is the NSF Department-Level Reform Planning Grant on the topic of “Information Technology in the Integrated Civil Engineering Curriculum” carried out by the authors. Emphasis is given to the second, as the general features of the integrated core sequence has been previously reported 5 and is important relative to the IT topic primarily as a means by which the implementation of changes can be facilitated. As a next step, let’s examine what will be included within the general topic of IT within the context of civil engineering practice and education. The Roles of IT within Civil Engineering Practice and Systems Information technology relative to CE practice will be defined to include any computer-based tool used for information access, sharing, and presentation; computational tasks and system analyses, data organization and presentation (including visual); and for detection, measurement, and monitoring. It can be described as the Information Technology (IT) and Information Computing Environment (ICE) within which today’s engineers increasingly find they operate in carrying out designs, preparing projec