Project Vision & Rationale

 

Vision

 

Enhance and improve undergraduate student learning of the fundamentals and applications of field monitoring and measurements (FMM) in civil and environmental engineering practice.

 

 

Rationale

 

• Need: Civil and environmental practice increasingly dependent on FMM as demonstrated by surveys of practicing engineers.
• Constraint: Current undergraduate curriculum is “packed” plus lacks credible emphasis of FMM technology and practices.
• Opportunity: Develop and/or adopt education model to introduce FMM fundamentals and practices within the existing curriculum and its constraints.

 

Summary of Results of Surveys of Practicing Engineers

 

Two separate but related surveys of CEE professionals were conducted to determine the perceived importance and need for FMM education at the undergraduate level. One survey was directed at geotechnical engineering professionals through brief articles published in geotechnical engineering newsletters distributed nationally. The second survey was directed to a broader sampling of CEE professionals by email solicitations to local consulting firms, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR), the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD), the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC), and out of state transportation research organizations. The three essential questions posed by the survey were: the current perceived importance of FMM; the future perceived importance of FMM; and the perceived enhancement of the undergraduate CEE curriculum with the addition of FMM education.

 

A total of 13 professionals responded to the geotechnical engineering survey. While this was a very modest response, the results were generally very consistent and are considered to be reasonably representative. Forty-three professionals from a broader sampling of CEE sub disciplines completed the second survey. The respondents were somewhat skewed toward structural engineering (44%). The years of practice of the respondents varied from 0-2 years to over 31 years. Respondents with 6 or more years of experience varied from 86% of the broader CEE respondents to 77% of the geotechnical engineering respondents. Only 9% of the CEE respondents and 8% of the geotechnical engineering respondents reported that they had any structured FMM education (a formal course or applicable content in one or more courses) at the undergraduate level. Twenty-four percent and twenty five percent of the CEE and Geotechnical respondents, respectively, indicated that the lack of a structured FMM education made them less likely to employ FMM techniques.

 

The relative consistency of the results of these two surveys, one local and directed to the broader CEE community and one national and directed to a specific CEE sub discipline, suggests that the results are representative of the CEE profession at large. Based on that contention, it is observed that greater than 62% of the CEE respondents and 92% of the geotechnical respondents judged current FMM practice to be of significant or extreme importance while 86% and 89% of the CEE and geotechnical respondents, respectively, judged the future importance to be of significant or extreme importance. Further, 61% of the geotechnical engineering and 47% of the CEE respondents, concluded that incorporating FMM education into the undergraduate CEE curriculum would provide a significant or extreme enhancement to the curriculum. In the judgment of the authors, these results support both the importance and need for FMM education at the undergraduate level in CEE. In the open-ended response opportunity provided in the surveys, several of the respondents expressed concern over incorporating FMM education in an already packed curriculum.