University of Arizona

Practitioner Led Engineering Experiences

The project abstract is below. For the indepth project description, click here to download a PDF.

Abstract

Our program is fortunate to have significant support for our students and our educational mission from the local community. A number of professionals have invested their knowledge and time to lead and collaborate on advanced practically oriented experiences for our Civil Engineering students. These practitioner instructors take time from their firms and become positive models for our students. This group fills a gap by teaching material that our faculty is unable to teach or that is better suited to being taught by practitioners. Their involvement in the curriculum expands opportunities that are geared to real world applications. In particular, they have partnered with faculty to develop communication and surveying courses and participate in our senior design sequence in a range of capacities, including course leader. Finally, a group of eight practitioners organized and offered a novel bridge design course centered on newly accepted probabilistic design procedures. These successful partnerships are summarized in this submission for consideration for a NCEES Engineering Award.

These courses provide an outstanding link between students and practice in a range of curriculum components including design and developing communication and teamwork skills. Collaboration results demonstrate curriculum innovation that would not be possible without the leadership of our practitioner partners. The practical emphasis has added unique experiences such as site visits and the introduction of emerging state-of-the practice technology in the curriculum. In addition to practitioner leadership of the courses, the instructors extend our network in the community by inviting other practitioners to contribute to courses by providing lectures in their specialty areas and serving on expert panels to review student work. The latter activity has led to a significant impact on professionalism and quality of presentations. Positive impacts on applicable award evaluation criteria are discussed below.

Successful collaboration of faculty, students, and professional practitioners and impact of partnering teaching and practice – Our departmental alumni and friends have recognized the opportunity to support our department and work in tandem with our faculty to develop novel educational experiences that better prepare graduates. The two most collaborative efforts are the practitioner initiated bridge design course that was collaboratively organized and taught by practitioners and faculty and our capstone design courses that are led by a practitioner with lectures taught by faculty and practitioners. Capstone design evaluation teams were comprised of a mix of the two groups.

Benefit to health, safety and welfare of the public – Practitioners are more acutely aware of the need to design for safety, and students are more open to accepting this guidance from practitioners who have that perspective. Technically, the bridge design course was based on new technology that accounted for the uncertainties in all aspects of the design. Understanding and applying this newly instituted approach will improve the safety of transportation structures designed by these graduates.

Impact of raising social consciousness – The senior design course under practitioner leadership has added modules on social issues, including requiring students to attend a public meeting to develop an understanding of the social implications of their work and the strength of public opinion. As Civil Engineers, this understanding is critical.

Knowledge and skills gained - The success of these courses and the amount of material learned is documented in student evaluations. Passing this knowledge to the students is a tribute to the instructor’s quality and their communication skills. We can measure this success, as our students have consistently scored average to above average scores on the FE exam in structural design and surveying.

Professional leadership – All instructors in design courses are professional engineers demonstrating the desirability of licensure. Further, the first semester of our two semester design course includes a range of professionalism topics, including an ethics module that is taught by practitioners.