One of the main applications of building information modeling (BIM) in the construction management process is estimating. BIM has proven to offer great advantages over traditional estimating methods. There are, however, many estimating methods using BIM and the literature on the accuracy and precision of each of the BIM modeling methods remains scarce. Moreover, data on the actual benefits of utilizing BIM in terms of time and cost savings remain fairly limited and are hard to collect from companies in the field. In this paper, data collected over the course of two years in a graduate construction course where BIM is taught for the purpose of costing and estimating are analyzed and presented. The paper first discusses the various techniques that could be used for BIM estimating and then presents the results of an experiment designed to assess the accuracy, effort, and cost of each of the various estimating techniques. This is a pioneering paper, which for the first time quantifies the benefits of using BIM in construction estimating. The results show the difference in estimating time, accuracy, and cost of the different estimating methods and the results should be useful for construction managers as well as educators.

Boller was one of the post-Civil War giants in the bridge-building field. Along with men like Jacob Hays Linville, Charles Macdonald, T. C. Clarke, C. Shaler Smith, Charles Kellogg, Octave Chanute, George Morison, C. C. Schneider, Theodore Cooper, and Gustav Lindenthal, he created the modern steel bridge. He specialized in swing bridges, designing the longest of the type at the time. He also designed the longest cantilever bridge and the longest simple span bridge. In 1909, he had plans accepted for building the second longest steel arch in the world across the Harlem River in honor of the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River. He was one of the few bridge builders who urged his colleagues to pay more attention to the beauty of their bridges.

Globally, the delivery of engineering degree programs and accreditation processes for benchmarking the quality of engineering education have been improved with introduction of the Washington Accord. This paper highlights the overview of engineering education conducted by the national universities in Sri Lanka and the impacts of the application of international quality processes on their delivery. Currently, three national universities offer highly competitive engineering education in Sri Lanka—the University of Peradeniya, the University of Moratuwa, and the University of Ruhuna. The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) have been working together with these universities to assure the relevance and the quality of engineering education. After the Washington Accord, several notable actions have been employed to ensure quality engineering education, including the institutional and subject reviews carried out between 2005 and 2009 by UGC, the introduction of an improved accreditation process in 2006, and the initiatives towards international recognition by IESL in 2007. As a result, IESL currently holds provisional status in the Washington Accord and has become a member of the Engineering Mobility Forum.

An analysis was performed of how students spend their time while pursuing a bachelor of science in civil engineering at Villanova University. The purpose of this study was to determine how many hours per week students spent both in and out of class and how the students spent their time when not in class or studying. Another purpose of this study was to provide a methodology for tracking how much time students spend on their course work that could be applied at other universities to monitor academic stress and rigor. Several data sources were used to gather data on how the students were spending their time: Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) surveys, end-of-semester course surveys, the recommended curriculum for each semester, and time logs. Overall, the data indicate that the amount of time students devote to their course work has fluctuated throughout the years. In six out of the eight semesters that students are in the program, they were found to study more often in 2011 than they did in 2004. The students were found to spend approximately 3–4 hours a week on their course work outside of class, or approximately 1–1.25 hours outside of class for every hour spent in-class. The only semester that showed consistent decline was the spring of senior year. This decrease is reflected in all three of the instruments used in the study: the nationwide HERI survey, which is administered senior year; the end-of-semester surveys; and the time logs. The time-log and HERI survey data indicate that students are spending a significant amount of time on leisure activities, as opposed to extracurricular activities or paid work. Curricular changes, which were made over the time period considered in this study, were reflected in the data—indicating that these methods can be used to monitor and assess academic rigor and make data-driven curricular decisions.

The construction industry is one of the most hazardous trades as far as work safety is concerned. Efforts have been made to improve safety in workplace. These efforts have focused on legislation, engineering failure, safety awareness campaigns, safety training, and unsafe behavior. After years of developing safety technologies and safety management systems in the industry, many organizations recognize that the safety culture within the industry has to be addressed if high standards of health and safety are to be maintained. Therefore, this paper investigated the relationship among people’s behavior, attitude, and perception toward the safety culture and evaluated the effectiveness of a mandatory safety training course in Hong Kong’s construction industry. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews were conducted. It was found that a good personal safety attitude, personal roles and commitment among workers, and low obstacles to safe behavior resulted in good perception of accidents. In addition, most of the participants in the mandatory safety training course understood the contents taught in the course and considered the course practical and useful. The results showed that workers paid more attention after completing the course; this indicated that a positive personal attitude toward the safety training course resulted in a positive personal safety attitude. Recommendations to improve the safety culture, effective mandatory safety training, and the implementation of safety regulations were also explored.

This paper presents the effectiveness of building information modeling (BIM) as an integrated learning tool in construction education. A BIM-based teaching approach was designed and used to teach a construction management course offered at California State University, Long Beach, CA. The approach first begins with an understanding of the physical models for residential buildings. Two-dimensional (2D) drawings are then generated on the basis of the physical models using traditional computer-aided design (CAD) programs. A three-dimensional (3D) BIM model is finally developed to better understand the buildings in detail and to accurately take off the material quantities. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated by using an assessment rubric for both the understanding of construction details and the ability to take off the material quantities. The evaluation results indicate that the approach helps students to effectively learn the construction details and material quantity take-offs.

Members of the construction engineering profession require developing not only technical knowledge but also various personal attitudes and values to enable them to keep abreast of an ever-changing body of knowledge and solve construction dilemmas. However, construction engineering education in Hong Kong emphasizes students’ professional and technical training and pays less attention to their personal development, despite previous studies having identified that personal values have a significant effect on learning. Inappropriate personal values in education can result in students becoming surface learners whose only aim is to achieve a pass or a particular grade. A student’s learning approaches will not only affect his or her academic performance but also shape further personal and professional development when working in the construction industry after graduation. For these reasons, it is essential to investigate the complicated relationships between the personal values and learning approaches of construction students so that educators can develop and refine their programs so as to help students cultivate appropriate personal value systems and hence, develop proper learning approaches. Nevertheless, no study yet has looked at the personal values and learning approaches of construction engineering students in Hong Kong. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between construction engineering students’ personal values and their learning approaches, which involve both motivation to learn and the learning strategies subsequently selected. An anonymous survey of all students studying construction engineering-related programs at four universities in Hong Kong was conducted, and the data were analyzed by using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The study identified five value factors, including work competence, intra-personal integration, openness to others, ideal life, and social conservatism. Work competence and openness to others may induce students to adopt deep learning and discourage them to use surface learning; in contrast, ideal life and social conservatism are associated positively with surface learning and negatively with deep learning. To enhance the learning approaches of each student group, construction educators should not only focus on technical knowledge and skills but also foster the development of appropriate personal value systems to help instill a positive, deep learning approach over the longterm.

Today’s construction engineering and management (CEM) graduates must have strong communication and teamwork skills; they must have the ability to work efficiently within colocated teams; and finally, they must know how to apply fundamental engineering, management, and computer skills in practice. However, the traditional CEM education does not equip future engineers and managers to deal successfully with such issues. The authors describe experiences from a course that focuses on modes of learning involving virtual collaboration, problem-oriented project-based learning, and role-based learning. The aim of this course is to combine experimental and experiential learning into a research driven experience. The course was codesigned and cotaught by two instructors from two universities. The learning outcomes and lessons learned during the introduction of this building information modeling (BIM)-enabled virtual and collaborative construction engineering and management course are discussed. Specifically, it is shown that the introduction of BIM in a virtual collaborative setting allows instructors to design a course that incorporates the use of more realistic scenarios that better simulate real-world challenges. Such experiences teach students how construction projects are executed in practice, how different disciplines rely on one other for information, what type of information is needed from relevant disciplines, and when and how this information could be exchanged/shared between tools and processes.

This paper presents the results of an innovative teaching experience in the area of structural analysis in the mechanical engineering program of the Universidad de Sevilla, Spain. The teaching methodology used is aimed at motivating students to learn by promoting the design, calculation, building, and testing of structures. This method not only trains students to make calculations, but also develops skills that allow them to understand how structures function. The project includes subjects taught in the third and fifth year of the course. In their third year, students begin their structural training studying structural analysis, where they learn the basics by designing, building, and testing balsa wood structures. Students have access to computer software when optimizing the design of their models before building and testing them in the laboratory. After this first approach to structural analysis, students receive training on more advanced concepts. A few examples of such concepts are the dynamic behavior of structures and instabilities in specific types of structures such as plates and laminar structures, and in structural materials such as steel and concrete. Before completing their studies, students are exposed to a project-based teaching methodology in the area of experimental structural analysis, where students deal with similar projects to those they will face as professionals after graduating. This paper explains the advantages of this methodology for teaching in engineering.