Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

This paper presents a review on student misconceptions of general plane motion (GPM), one of the most difficult yet important concepts in engineering dynamics and a foundational course that civil and mechanical engineering students are required to take in their undergraduate study. The paper discusses student misconceptions of GPM reported in the literature. Five reasons that cause student misconceptions of GPM are proposed and analyzed: lack of fundamental understanding of basic concepts, basic mathematics skills, knowledge transfer skills, spatial skills, and hand-sketching skills. Some remedial strategies for correcting student misconceptions of GPM are also discussed.

Industry-university collaborations have been promoted as a way to introduce students to the day-to-day activities and internal workings of industry and enhance student understandings of their future roles as practicing engineers. As engineers are increasingly being called on to participate in gaining and maintaining the social license to operate for companies engaged in natural resource development, their roles are expanding to include more in-depth interactions with the public. Unfortunately, most engineering curriculums do not include courses specifically focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR), a concept that encompasses the practices and policies that are crucial to social license, and many new hires do not learn about CSR until employment begins. In response to this gap, this article specifically studies the ways in which industry-university partnerships change engineering students’ knowledge and attitudes about corporate social responsibility, which builds on existing engineering education research on student learning about social responsibility more generally. By sharing results from a study of pedagogical enhancements in required petroleum engineering field sessions, this article concludes that industry-university partnerships can help students develop more holistic perspectives on CSR and the sociotechnical nature of professional engineering practice.

The premise that building codes have become too complex has been discussed, commented on, and documented by practicing engineers; however, there is little quantitative evidence that codes are more complex today than in previous editions. Many aspects of building codes are complicated, and this reflects a combination of the inherent complexity of building design and the dynamic processes that produce the codes. This research focuses on navigational complexity and specifically on the aspects that can be quantified to demonstrate that current codes are more complex than their predecessors. Navigational complexity is defined as the complexity created by document cross referencing and other unintended structural features of a code. A metric for quantifying navigational complexity is developed. The metric can quantify navigational complexity within a given code and between different codes. Although it is unclear to what extent navigational complexity contributes to the overall level of complexity within a code, this research quantitatively affirms that navigational complexity has increased in various codes over the years and can be used to compare complexity between different codes.

Engineering courses that incorporate sustainability provide students with tools to solve the pressing problems of our future and a meaningful way to connect with their education through introduction of the global, societal, and environmental issues in engineering. Despite this, disconnects exist between engineering programs across the country in their ability to merge sustainability into the schools’ undergraduate curricula. Engineering faculty are integrating sustainability into curriculum, but many struggle with the best methods to update curriculum and to overcome the barriers to teaching these emerging topics. This paper elucidates and explores faculty perceptions about the importance of sustainability in civil and environmental engineering (CEE) education as well as methods for and barriers to its incorporation in CEE courses. Specifically, it presents results of a survey administered to faculty at two institutions as well as to attendees at an Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) preconference workshop. Findings show that most sustainability content is currently taught in the later years of undergraduate students’ education while most faculty continue to employ traditional lecture-based teaching methods.

The authors have used an inverted (flipped) classroom approach for the previous five years in upper level undergraduate courses in structural design (“Structural Steel and Reinforced Concrete”) at Villanova University. This paper briefly reviews the history of the courses and the motivation behind the decision to switch to the inverted format. It also presents details on the structure and the relationship of individual course components in the inverted model (recorded lecture videos, concept quizzes, problem sets, laboratory exercises, and examinations). The effectiveness of the inverted classroom and the various structures employed in its implementation are evaluated through the use of both student surveys and student performance on examinations. These clearly show that students favor the learning environment created by the inverted classroom format and student performance and problem solving ability improves in these classes. The inverted format also allows for a more rational treatment of Bloom’s taxonomy within the structure of the class.

The considerably low female student enrollments in construction management (CM) undergraduate degree programs have continued to draw attention from academia. With a cohort of local and international female students in a CM program in an Australian university, this case study examined the students’ CM degree choice decision, their learning experience, the strategies for attracting more female students to CM programs, and recommendations were made for CM program recruitment efforts based on the findings. The interview results show that, for both local and international student groups, their personal interest in construction and career opportunities were the most important factors that influenced their CM degree choice decision. For the international student group, however, there were additional influencing factors including immigration opportunities after graduation, financial considerations, program entry requirements, and program duration. Although the international students would like to have support in finding internships, both student groups generally had positive learning experiences in their studies. Both student groups identified the need to advertise more about CM programs as a part of recruitment strategies. It is recommended that information and resources about CM programs be made readily accessible to current and future CM students, high school counselors, and education service providers in a timely manner via social media platforms and the Internet.

Public transportation systems provide the opportunity for efficient and sustainable mobility. Twenty-first century technological innovation, as well as efforts to promote alternative modes such as bus, light rail, and heavy rail systems, encourages improvement within the field. As the field innovates, transportation engineering education must adapt to prepare and attract the next generation of public transportation engineers. The primary objective of this study is to investigate existing public transportation engineering courses throughout the US (sample of 145 schools) to provide recommendations for future course development. The investigation includes a spatial inventory, a comparison of topical coverage, and an identification of new topics to be incorporated in future course development. The results show that approximately 30% of civil engineering programs evaluated offer at least one public transportation course, with 98% of the courses evaluated offered at the graduate level. Program recommendations, such as including topical coverage on high speed rail and connections to automated vehicles, are provided with the goal of enhancing and expanding the field of public transportation engineering.

Incidents within the civil engineering profession (structural collapses, collusion, and the like) draw attention to the need for ethical conduct on the part of civil engineering practitioners. This paper explores ethical action in first-year civil engineering study. This is done to discuss the role of universities in the development of civil engineering graduates with a critical awareness of the need for ethical action. The paper uses a particular approach to virtue ethics to theorize first-year student actions during a practical exercise in concrete mix proportioning. Three aspects of ethical action emerged from observation of the students’ completion of this practicum: corner-cutting, erroneous reporting, and misrepresentation of knowledge and ability. The paper argues that ethical behavior should be nurtured and discussed throughout the undergraduate degree, so that students are more likely to practice ethical behavior after graduation. There is thus opportunity to better integrate consideration of ethical responsibility into the undergraduate curriculum, and to shift the focus of higher education away from external goods to the good of the profession and the communities it serves.

The Washington Accord is one of seven mutual recognition agreements managed by the International Engineering Alliance. Its signatories recognize the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by the signatory bodies, and they agree to make every reasonable effort to ensure that licensing boards in their respective countries recognize this. Despite 25 years of the Washington Accord, however, only a minority of U.S. state licensing boards acknowledge it in their statutes. This paper compares Engineering Council (EC) guidelines for accreditation with those of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). It concludes that there are substantial similarities in the EC and ABET accreditation criteria. This should encourage U.S. state licensing boards to acknowledge EC-accredited programs in their statutes explicitly if not through the Washington Accord. A number of key differences in EC and ABET accreditation criteria are also highlighted. Both the ABET and the EC accredit programs at various levels. This paper recommends that the International Engineering Alliance clarify the correspondence between the various levels of accredited programs of the Washington Accord signatories.