Isolation of the practice and technology of the engineering support specialties is identified as a major limitation to their effectiveness. A viable, performance technology for engineered facilities is defined, and an understanding of how this performance technology is related to quality management and the infrastructure crisis is developed. This provides a strong potential to assess and thereby improve the effectiveness of the engineering services that support the engineered facilities in the infrastructure. Opportunities to unify the practice of—and technology in—the engineering support specialties may be founded in the performance technology proposed and enabled by the database provided by technology information management systems. Unified practice and technology will give engineers the potential to effectively engage in the necessary public dialogue regarding the rationale, technical priorities, and investments needed for a well‐managed infrastructure. The database can provide statistically significant support for a probability‐based performance technology to extend the current, deterministic technology based on experimental models and prototypes.

A code of ethics of an organization is a code of honor or a statement of professional standards agreed to by mutual understanding of the members of the organization. It is a consensus opinion and is at least tacitly accepted by all members as a condition of membership. Its purpose is to establish organizational authority to discipline members. Many of the parties participating in construction projects belong to organizations that have codified ethics for the mutual benefit of its members. In this paper, codes of ethics of a number of organizations are presented. These include owner, design professional, and contractor organizations. The representation in selective and not all organizations are included. To prevent misrepresentation, these codes are presented verbatim.

Higher education is being forced to make do with less money and to document how these limited funds are being spent. State legislatures have directed higher education to develop guidelines for assessing the student development and curriculum. Those programs that can document wise and efficient use of limited state funds in their assessment plans and reports will be in the best position to receive more funding or to continue to receive funds. Many engineering departments will see the implementation of a mandatory assessment program as one more lemon in a long line of useless administrative mandates that require many hours to fulfill and return no benefit to the department. This need not be the case. Engineering departments have in place the key parts of a three‐element assessment program: (1) The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology accreditation process; (2) the professional licensing process using the Fundamentals of Engineering exam; and (3) surveys of recent graduates and the employers of those recent graduates.

Mathematics and physics receive the greatest attention during the early years of the engineering curriculum. This, unfortunately, does not breed the confidence necessary for engineering students to solve real‐world problems, and can lead to a gradual erosion of the motivation necessary to complete the engineering degree. Motivation in students can be increased by introducing design in the formative stages of the engineering program. Selected design problems should have an unstructured component that compels the students to search for information and obtain an increased awareness of the relationship of engineering to other fields of knowledge. Design problems should be closely linked to laboratory experiments that have been carefully chosen to give students a balanced perception of the significance and meaning of the simplifications inherent in mathematical treatments of engineering systems. Students capable of grasping a broad picture of engineering (in the context of working on laboratory projects) accrue many important benefits. These include an appreciation of the nature and limitations of engineering as well as an increased knowledge of how to think as an engineer. The by‐products of this are burgeoning confidence and continued motivation to develop the skills to be a good engineer.

Civil engineers evidence some discomfort in assisting in public policy decision making in a political arena. This paper is an effort to place the conflicts that emerge in this process in an historical perspective, and to provide professionals with assurances that their input can be effective if they understand the constraints on public policy decision making. Suggestions are made for improving effectiveness while also revealing that even the best professional analysis may be doomed to failure for reasons completely beyond the control of the planner. Finally, a case study presented to portray the impact of changing public values on professional recommendations will provide indications that circumstances beyond control may preclude final resolution of the conflict.

Productivity, in both developed and developing regions, may be considered one of the most important aspects of cost‐control operations. However, the duration of contracts managed by international firms in developing countries often drastically exceeds the estimate. This is because the organizations fail to recognize the low labor production in these regions. The aim of this paper is to investigate and compare with the United States the labor production of 31 activities in two different developing countries, Ghana and Nepal. The findings show that the production factors and man‐hours per unit, are significantly lower in Ghana indicating that the use of equipment in Ghana is generally more prevalent than in Nepal. Nevertheless, both countries have factors higher than the United States. Overall, the results could be utilized by international designers and constructors to estimate their labor requirements. The effects of labor unions and of governmental instability, which may be especially important in developing regions, are also discussed. In addition, the cost of materials and equipment is taken into consideration.

Engineers have many dilemmas affecting them and their profession that cannot be solved or adequately addressed just within the confines of engineering associations. The public's lack of understanding of what engineers do—their image—is one of them. Consulting engineers are also concerned about selection by low bid rather than qualifications, frivolous lawsuits, and excessive government regulations. Furthermore, the world also needs the input of engineers—trained problem solvers—to prepare America for the 21st century and its global economy. To address these dilemmas, engineers need to get involved in so‐called big‐picture issues. More engineers need to become leaders in society. This paper discusses these issues and the need for engineers to hone their natural leadership skills. Recommendations are given for engineers becoming more active in community and civic organizations, education, politics, and public communications. By getting involved in such leadership roles, engineers will improve the future of the profession and society. They can mold the course of history and control their own destiny.

Our society is plagued by regulations brought about by our own unwillingness to conduct our affairs according to societal values. Current ethics instruction has been ineffective in relieving this problem because: (1) It is based on the mistaken belief that there is no consensus on values in our society; (2) ethics is insufficiently integrated into the curriculum to establish relevance; and (3) it uses an ineffective instructional methodology. The values embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are widely accepted in our society; the key‐course concept sufficiently integrates ethics into the curriculum to establish relevance; and the stages approach provides an effective instructional methodology. A synthesis of these concepts provides a methodology that should prove effective in training students to live and work in accord with societal values. This methodology has been tested in several courses with good response from faculty and students. Full implementation and a longitudinal study to determine methodology effectiveness are recommended.

The main technical and pedagogical aspects of a capstone design course presented at Northeastern University's Department of Civil Engineering for the undergraduate transportation concentration are described. An outline of the design problem, specifications, parameters, and major physical and operational features provides the basic scope of the work to be done. Comments are then made about the way the course is structured and how students, instructor and invited guest practitioners interact to provide a real‐life design situation, covering the definition of the demand for the facilities to layout, engineering specifications, a presentation typically needed for public information meetings, and a final report that also addresses the comments of those who attended the presentation. The approach adopted, the opportunities and constraints inherent in the presentation of the course, the perceived successes, the problems and difficulties encountered, and students' evaluation of the course are described. Comparisons are made with guidelines of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology for the content and conduct of engineering design courses in undergraduate engineering curricula in universities throughout the United States. The paper concludes with suggestions for alternative design problems and ways in which the course may be improved.