Building sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions around the globe. Being green, or sustainable, is one pressing issue coming from both internal and external drivers for construction and engineering companies. Green building has experienced rapid growth in the past several years. To assess how green, or sustainable, the building is, several green rating systems have been developed. Among these rating systems, more similarities exist than differences. One noteworthy difference—project management—serves as the motivation behind this investigation. To identify the role of project management that is less related to technology and engineering in developing green building rating systems, this research centers on a comparison between the LEED, the Green Globes, and the BCA Green Mark to obtain an understanding of current practices, and more importantly, to address the significance of project management in achieving green or sustainable construction. The findings suggest that project management adopted in green building construction involves both the practice and the process. Although the practice—mainly represented through the project management body of knowledge—is currently the focus of green building construction, the importance of the process, such as managing people, organizational structure, building commissioning, performance documentation, and so on, cannot be neglected, as can be seen from the evolution of the green rating systems. It is recommended that the construction and engineering companies take project management in terms of both the process and the practice into consideration when fulfilling requirements of being green.

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the best-known engineering structures in the world and was the longest suspension bridge in the world for many years. Its design has generally been attributed to Joseph Strauss, but recent evidence proves that Charles Ellis was the prime designer of the bridge between 1929 and 1931. Strauss fired Ellis in late 1931 and systematically removed any mention of Ellis’ name in his final report on the bridge issued in 1938. It remained for John van der Zee in his book The Gate to set the record straight. This paper makes the case that Strauss violated one of the fundamental ethical canons—that of giving credit where credit is due.

Entering the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. In particular, the engineering profession needs to train a new generation of engineers who can better meet the challenges of the developing world and address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet. This paper presents a model of integrating humanitarian development into engineering education based on our experience with Engineers Without Borders-U.S.A. and the development of the Engineering for Developing Communities program at the University of Colorado at Boulder over the past eight years. We also review some like-minded programs in U.S. universities and discuss how such programs can be integrated into engineering education.

As value management (VM) has been increasingly applied to enhance value in public construction projects, the core subject entitled “Value Management for Construction and Property” is being offered to postgraduate students in the Department of Building and Real Estate at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Under the new outcome-based curriculum, the learning outcomes, pedagogy of teaching VM, and activities of the VM workshops for the subject are described in this paper. The results of a questionnaire survey of the students’ feedback on the performance of the workshops for the academic year 2007–2008 are presented and discussed. Students believed that value management workshops are essential in the curriculum. They expressed that it was a valuable experience to participate in the VM workshop which enabled them to have a better understanding of the subject. Some improvement is also recommended for future organization and management of workshops based on the lessons learned in these workshops.

During the summer of 2007, The Workshop in Instrumentation, Sensors, and Engineering (WISE) introduced 20 middle and high school teachers to hands-on engineering design in an intensive 2-week residential workshop at Polytechnic University. Teachers were introduced to sensors, instrumentation, and engineering in a planned and integrated learning environment. Guided training consisting of lectures, tutorials, structured engineering workshops, and discussions exposed the teachers to foundational elements of engineering through the use of sensors and computerized data acquisition, which were presented as vital tools to be used in engineering and science education and profession. By the end of the WISE project, participants completed 70 h of in-class professional development. In addition, learning continued into the evenings and weekend, as participants took part in activities that exposed them to contemporary engineering concerns and projects. These supplemental activities provided an additional 15 h of professional development. Exposure to a hands-on, technology-rich, multidisciplinary learning experience in the workshop has prepared the participating teachers to provide their students with enriched learning opportunities and stimulate them to seek higher achievement in science and mathematics. Participating teachers accorded the workshop an overall score of 8.8 (out of 10) in the project evaluation.

The purpose of the methodology described in this paper is to highlight an effective method for the organization of research results into written and oral forms. Authorities within supervising universities have realized that strong research by a candidate is often obscured by poor presentation, leading to the paper being ignored by the research community and journal reviewers. On the basis of their academic background, the writers of this paper decided to form a set of clear guidelines for writing research papers and giving oral presentations aimed at helping Ph.D. students. To support the effectiveness of the methodology proposed, a statistical analysis has been conducted. The methodology described in this paper was initially intended for use in the fields of computer engineering; however, it is applicable more widely. In conclusion, if the methodology reported in this paper is followed strictly, it is much less likely that a good piece of work would be rejected for publication, and/or remain anonymous, due to inadequate presentation.