The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology has developed and implemented new criteria for accrediting engineering technology programs in the United States. The new criteria, Technology Criteria 2000 (TC2K), have changed the way that engineering technology programs conduct their business. In order to survive in the future, each program has to develop a strategy to meet the new requirements specified in the TC2K. The Department of Engineering Technology at Texas Tech University has developed a program assessment portfolio (PAP) to assess the department performance toward the attainment of TC2K Criterion 1. This paper presents 12 assessment methods within the PAP. Particularly, it demonstrates how to develop and implement one of the assessment methods, pre- and postcourse assessment, to a senior-level course. Data collected from the implementation has been analyzed and results indicate that pre- and postcourse assessment provide valuable information regarding student learning. Furthermore, the information can be used to continue improving effectiveness of teaching.

At the same time that state departments of transportation are allowing contractor-performed quality control, they are also concerned about using the contractor-reported data for acceptance and payment purposes. The question is, are we putting the fox in charge of guarding the chickens? To address this concern, a large number of asphalt and concrete projects in Kentucky were examined. The statistical analyses showed that for the most part there is no significant difference between the contractor-performed acceptance data and concomitant highway agency-performed verification data. This is obviously a very encouraging finding that is expected to enhance the level of trust between the contractors and highway agencies.

The paper describes the pedagogical impact of fieldwork in undergraduate hydraulic engineering subjects in an Australian university. Field studies have been regularly organized to complement traditional lectures in hydraulics for the last 10 years. Anonymous student feedback indicated a strong motivation for taking hydraulic courses that include a fieldwork component. Such courses are also associated with lower failure rates. Employers’ response has highlighted strong industry support for such fieldwork experience. Another outcome is the students’ personal development gained during such activities. The study also shows that the selection of field trips is critical to maximize students’ learning.

In October 1998, ASCE’s Board of Direction adopted Policy Statement 465: First Professional Degree, which supports the concept that the master’s degree or an equivalent would be required for a graduate engineer to practice civil engineering at the professional level. In the writer’s opinion, this requirement alone may not be enough to narrow the gap between the education, professional preparation, licensure, and continuing education requirements of engineering and those of other traditional professions such as medicine, law, architecture, and accounting. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicate that engineering does not compare well with those four professions in those areas. Other data suggest that undergraduate civil engineering education has not changed significantly over the past 40 years to keep pace with major advances in civil engineering practice, even though the bachelor’s degree has been the entry-level degree for engineering practice during that period of time. A model is presented for the development of a process that will lead to the entry-level degree of professional civil engineer. This degree will carry with it not only recognition by the granting university of completion of all the academic requirements, but also satisfaction of all the licensing requirements of the state board of technical registration. It will allow the graduate to practice civil engineering lawfully in the state of issuance and to use the title of professional civil engineer in all his or her professional dealings. The development of this process will take time and require input from academia, practice, and licensing agencies under the sponsorship of one or more professional societies.

The evaluation of consultant’s performance is crucial to the success of a consulting assignment especially when today’s construction projects are becoming more sophisticated, large-scale, and risky. However, since individual clients have developed their own consultant’s performance evaluation (CPE) procedures, the sharing of performance information, though desirable, may not be too meaningful as the results of evaluation could be inconsistent. There is a need to examine whether a unified framework can be derived for CPE. The aim of this paper is to improve the transparency and rigorousness of CPE through the establishment of an evaluating framework for gauging the performance of engineering consultants. In this paper, a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria is identified, and the significance of these criteria is discussed through an empirical survey. Then, a multicriteria model for evaluating the performance of engineering consultants is presented. The results indicate that once an acceptable CPE framework is devised, the performance scores can be utilized for various purposes, including monitor and control, incentive and sanction, preselection, technical assessment, and bid evaluation.

This paper will discuss the dispute review board (DRB) process and in particular the settlement recommendation and the elements thereof that may induce contractual parties to resolve their conflict. The recommendation is a document issued after the contractual parties bring a dispute to the DRB panel that they have failed to resolve. To lay the foundation for the issuance of a recommendation, the DRB process will be briefly discussed. Also discussed is the groundwork the panel itself must lay to gain the parties trust prior to the issuance of any recommendation. Given the importance of the recommendation as a linchpin of the DRB process, it is surprising to note the dearth of literature regarding it. This paper will help to partially fill that void.

A serious injury or death of an employee or member of the public on a construction site poses a considerable risk to the construction industry professional. Whether resulting from an unsafe condition on the site or from the injured party’s own negligence, a lawsuit seeking a large award is likely to follow. While an architect or engineer with general inspection responsibilities over a construction project does not normally owe a duty of care to the contractor’s employees or the public, he or she may assume such a duty through contractual language or by exercising control over safety issues. With the unpredictability of juries and the ready availability of experts willing to testify that a construction industry professional was at fault, careful contract drafting becomes essential for protecting an organization and shifting the responsibility for site safety to those best able to control the risk. The design professional will wish to ensure that the contractor is fully responsible for site safety. The contractor, on the other hand, must be on guard against the assumption of responsibilities beyond that normally expected in the industry.

Mechanic’s and materialman’s liens are an important alternative remedy for tradesmen who have not been paid for improvements made under a contract. These statutes allow the unpaid tradesman to place a lien on the improved property and then foreclose and force the sale of the property to satisfy the lien. While the procedures are technical and vary from state to state, general concepts are commonly shared. This article examines Hawaii’s mechanic’s lien statutes and case law and describes the basic procedures and requirements of the remedy for nonpayment on contracted work. Because a lien jeopardizes an owner’s interest in his real property, courts require strict compliance with procedural safeguards including notice and a right to a hearing to contest the lien before the property can be foreclosed. Owners can avoid the danger of liens by requiring payment bonds, by ensuring that subcontractors and suppliers are promptly paid, and by overseeing the project with care. The issues surrounding timely filing are emphasized.