Following the growing consensus within and outside the Nigerian construction industry that corruption and other unethical practices are endemic in the industry, coupled with scarce empirical study on professional ethics in the industry, there is a need to examine the perceptions of the professionals regarding ethical issues. This study therefore assesses the perceptions of construction professionals regarding ethical issues in the Nigerian construction industry. One hundred and ninety two professionals were sampled from 108 construction organizations comprising 55 consultancy organizations, 35 contracting organizations, and 18 client organizations in selected Nigerian major cities. A survey research design was employed. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the data. The results indicate that there is a decline in unethical practices within the industry compared to the pre-1999 era. The more common form of bribery is financial. Quantity surveyors were perceived as the most susceptible to bribery among the professionals in the industry. The builder/construction manager faces the greatest pressure to act unethically among the professionals in the construction industry. The study recommends that professional institutions should give more priority consideration to ethical discourse at technical sessions, public lectures, and seminars. Furthermore, project financiers should ensure adequate and prompt remuneration for professional services. Since the quantity surveyors are perceived as the most susceptible to bribery, clients should ensure that their discretionary powers in the procurement of building projects are limited or subjected to third party verification. Finally, additional research is needed to explore the types of measures that might help curb professionals’ unethical practices in Nigeria.

A Darcy bottle is a water bottle that is filled with porous material and liquid, and that contains a drain assembly on the bottom of the bottle to allow liquid to drain. A collection of Darcy bottles with different cross-sectional area, different types and amounts of porous material, and different types and amounts of liquid are used in a series of classroom activities to illustrate Darcy’s law and basic concepts of hydraulic conductivity. Each activity can be completed in a few minutes, and can be conducted during a regular class period to supplement the lecture. Assessment results show that the Darcy bottle activities enhance student learning, particularly for less intuitive concepts.

The ASCE’s body of knowledge for the 21st century and vision for civil engineering in 2025 outline skills and capabilities necessary for civil engineers to create a sustainable world. An undergraduate course at Georgia Institute of Technology introduces undergraduates to a systems-sustainability approach to civil and environmental engineering, applying systems methods to analyze decisions over the life cycle of large-scale civil-engineered facilities. This paper discusses voluntary and systematic improvements introduced in the course over a 2-year period to develop research and information skills in the students. A workshop on information sources and skills was developed, offered and assessed over multiple semesters using a team-based course project. The term project requires students to select one or two large-scale civil-engineered facilities, evaluate them using the integrated systems-sustainability framework presented in the course, and develop a written report and oral presentation to present their work to their peers at the end of the semester. The paper discusses integration of the information and library skills workshops with the course and presents results that underscore the importance of formally cultivating research and information skills in civil engineering undergraduate students.

Lack of personnel with Building Information Modeling (BIM) skills is a significant constraint retarding use of the technology in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Unless BIM is introduced into undergraduate civil engineering curricula in a fundamental way, graduate civil engineers will lack the skills needed to serve a construction industry in which three-dimensional models are the main medium for expression and communication of design intent and the basis for engineering analysis. A mandatory freshman year course titled “Communicating Engineering Information,” which teaches both theoretical and practical aspects of BIM, has been developed to replace the traditional engineering graphics course at the Technion. The main lesson learned through four semesters of teaching the class is that students find BIM tools intuitive and therefore relatively easy to learn; the majority of lecture hours are now devoted to the conceptual aspects of BIM and the principles for preparing models that can be analyzed in multiple ways. BIM can and should be taught in its own right, and not as an extension to computer-aided drawing. The skills students have been able to bring to bear in design courses later in their university education indicate that the approach is sound and will enable graduates to meet the needs of the civil engineering profession in the “BIM age.”

This paper presents guidelines for applying project management tools and techniques to the process of preparing for a program accreditation site visit. The premise of the paper is that the proven tools and techniques of project management are effective in managing all the steps required in accreditation preparation as well as postvisit followups. The basic lesson offered by the paper’s approach is that accreditation preparation should not be turned into a last-minute crash project. Rather, proactive preparation steps should be instituted early to facilitate communication, cooperation, and coordination of the entire process. The guidelines provided in the paper are useful not only for program review, but also for continuous process and curriculum improvement. The paper cites two graduate program examples of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. preparation at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Competence in design is an engineering skill that can only be achieved with appropriate training and through accumulation of relevant experience. While in some fields of engineering there are numerous industry-oriented problems that can be investigated reasonably thoroughly, and for which the pinnacle of formation is attained when a team of university students builds a working prototype, there are unfortunately few genuinely realistic conceive-design-build-test (operate) opportunities in which structural engineering students can participate actively during their formative years. This stems from the very nature of structural engineering itself which, as in the case of most civil engineering designs, usually calls for a unique solution to a problem of relatively large scale. One way to provide a realistic and significant structural engineering design opportunity is through student design competitions. However, the conditions of success for such a competition depend on the appropriate coincidence of interest between program goals, commitment from the owner of the structure to be designed and eventually built, and support, both financial and technical, from professional or research organizations. This case study reports on a recent structural engineering student design competition for a pedestrian walkway in Sherbrooke, Canada. It highlights the key technical features of the competition, the organizational obstacles, and the professional benefits for the participants.