ASCE'S first Strategic Plan, adopted by the Board of Direction April 28, 1985, states “The Plan is designed to anticipate the future rather than react to it, and to keep ASCE in a leadership role in addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the profession in the years ahead.” The Strategic Plan goes on to state that the mission of ASCE is “to enhance the quality of life worldwide by advancing professional knowledge and improving the practice of civil engineering in the service to humanity.” ASCE's Strategic Plan starts with this mission and develops goals and objectives to be achieved in a one‐to‐five‐year time frame. Visioning has no definition of who we are, what we are, or what we want to be; it looks to the long term—10, 20, or 30 years hence—and it studies change. How has civil engineering changed in the past 25 years? Is it continuing to change?, and What will civil engineering be 25 years from now? This paper takes a look at the past, present, and future of civil engineering; studies change; and hopes to stimulate discussion and debate on the role of ASCE in the 21st century.

This paper describes and discusses how the principles enunciated by Schon were applied in teaching a senior‐level course in problem solving and design. The main objective in teaching students to be reflective is to develop higher cognitive skills, enabling them to be independent and creative problem solvers. By providing students with an active learning environment, it is possible to introduce them to the control and regulation aspects of metacognition.The paper describes the problem solving and design process, and demonstrates how Schon's concepts are applied in a classroom situation for encouraging reflection. The effectiveness of this approach is evaluated through observations made by students as well as by the instructors. The effort needed to apply Schon's ideas are by no means easy. Probably, the most difficult part is in descending from the hard, high ground of the theorist to the messy, boggy swamp below of the practitioner. The results of the study demonstrate how stereotyped classroom instruction can be modified to develop reflection in action, thus enhancing the problem solving abilities of students.

A major challenge facing the civil engineering faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy is how to provide a rigorous, ABET‐accredited civil engineering program within the constraints of a national military academy. This paper compares the academy civil engineering curriculum with those at other respected institutions, and summarizes many of the programs, some unique to the academy and some not, which are employed to address the challenge. These programs include management of the curriculum by tracks, an intensive teacher training program, peer and student evaluations, former faculty inputs, interdisciplinary cooperative teaching, and conscious linkage between courses. Using these and other programs, we attempt to achieve our goal of producing the world's best second lieutenants, who are also civil engineers.

Engineering enrollments have been on the decline since 1982. This decline is particularly true for native‐born American students, and the gains women have made in engineering over the past few years are also being eroded. These declines come at a time when engineering salaries continue to gain and with a favorable job market. The enrollment decline will lead to a shortage of engineers in the United States at all degree levels. Furthermore, these declining enrollments could weaken the bargaining power of engineering schools or colleges at their home institutions with respect to both personnel and financial allocations. A set of recommendations and suggested activities are presented that could prove effective as strategies to stem these declining engineering enrollments. Examples are included of how some of these measures have been implemented at the writer's school, Youngstown State University; and the successes achieved.

Engineers all over the world are feeling pressured more than ever to perform error‐free work. Society is hungry for new technology and an overall safer place to live. It is the responsibility of engineers to see that society is afforded these technological luxuries as well as a safer environment. Engineers not only have to map out their continuing education but also must improve their nontechnical skills. The course of action an engineer takes today depends on his technical and cognitive abilities. The allowable error cushion is continually shrinking for today's engineer. The graduate engineer today cannot totally rely on analytic abilities alone. To launch a successful career in engineering effectively, individuals must develop a strong character infrastructure. This infrastructure is professionalism. The three critical elements of professionalism are communication, teamwork, and self‐management skills. By employing these necessary skills in today's engineering environment, a person will see his professional qualities soar.

The current processes of planning, design, construction management, and facility management are driven by the collection and communication of large quantities of knowledge, data, and intent, much of which are lost due to organizational fragmentation as well as to incompatible and inefficient information exchange media. There is a general lack of models for such intimate integration of all the relevant processes. The purpose of this paper is to present one such global model, patterned on the medieval master builder. The model proposes an open architecture and media for the representation, classification, capture, and real‐time retrieval of data, information, and knowledge in their various digital and graphic forms, to allow multiple participants to interactively access data from their perspectives. The key aspects of the virtual master builder (VMB) are described in terms of its information architecture, communication languages, software architecture, process and system components, and shareable knowledge components. The significant economic, organizational, and technological barriers to the implementation of the model are identified. The realization of the model will lead to more effective integration of all parties in the building life cycle, thus leading toward a modern day, electronic equivalent of the master builder.

Increased emphasis on design courses by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has caused many engineering schools to reevaluate the design component of their curricula. To make the transition from individual, narrow‐focus courses to the overall civil engineering design function, the civil engineering department at North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, has established the capstone design course described in this paper. A design project is carefully selected to encompass many of the areas within civil engineering as well as other socioeconomic issues. Definition of the project is purposely left as open‐ended as possible to encourage the students' imagination and ingenuity. The success of this design course is a result of close coordination between the faculty and students. Each faculty member acts as the adviser for one design group as well as the technical consultant in his area of expertise to all groups. In general, the students gain an appreciation for assigning specific individual duties within each group and working together toward a common goal.

The paper reports some general observations and specific examples on technological innovation in Japan's construction industry. Educational background and scientific contribution of contractor‐based researchers is addressed. With regard to university education, the difference between the disciplines of civil engineering and architecture and the relationship between university graduates and industry are discussed. With regard to research, the reasons that justify the existence of research‐and‐development (R&D) capabilities are given. The contribution of R&D efforts from general contractors to the advancement of technical knowledge in the form of papers and presentations is discussed. The organization of a specific technical research institute is shown as an example. The construction industry in Japan offers positive work conditions and is innovative rather than reactive to market demands. It is apparent that much could be gained by U.S. professionals by more closely monitoring Japanese technical output. R&D collaboration between U.S. and Japanese contractors should also be pursued.

Accommodating the rapidly expanding Hong Kong population on a rugged terrain of limited area demands a solution to many transportation issues and problems. The old urban area is growing and being modernized. In addition, many new towns are planned in formerly rural areas. A sophisticated transport system has been developed during the past three decades that helps to integrate the old and new communities together as well as to improve the quality of life in this dynamic metropolitan city. The system comprises several major traffic modes that complement one another, including a high‐capacity road network, an electrified suburban railway, a busy underground metro, a modern light rail, and a traditional street tramway. Many major bridges and tunnels are built with advanced technology, many of which can be considered a challenging project of its own.