Kassim Tarhini

Strategies to infuse global perspectives and industrial collaboration in engineering education

The influence of a global economy and the speed of communications will require future engineers to have a diverse background and develop sensitivity to the needs of other cultures. Engineers must be able to function in this increasingly global market with adequate awareness of engineering needs and practices across cultures. Undergraduate engineering education must be structured to provide adequate balance between theory and practice, as well as industrial relevance and global perspectives in engineering. Current approaches to address this issue include the introduction of technical advisory boards, co-op experience, capstone projects, international exchange programs, and encouraging students to take non-technical courses in humanities, business and management. Creating partnerships with industry and other institutions is another key step that academic institutions have taken to expose students to engineering practice in a global context. Partnerships should be long-term and established at the local and global levels with input from practicing professional engineers. There are other approaches that could be used to generate interest and help develop activities that enable students to acquire the skills needed for global engineering practice. The authors suggest strategies that can be adopted by academic institutions to prepare engineers capable of addressing future global challenges.

Work in progress — A Concept Map for Mechanics of Materials

The Mechanics of Materials course is fundamental to all areas of solid mechanics in engineering. It is commonly a “gatekeeper” course and generally considered “difficult” by students. Educators across several engineering disciplines have attempted to improve learning through efforts such as: developing physical demonstration models for classroom use, writing computer programs for independent learning, and conducting concept inventory studies to uncover the underlying cause of learning difficulty. This paper describes the development of a Concept Map for Mechanics of Materials. The map serves as the focal point for discussions and questions, and is simple enough so that anyone can re-create its salient features as a hand-drawn sketch. This concept map has been used and assessed as a tool to review the Mechanics of Materials course before administering a gateway exam in the next-level course, and as a tool for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam review course. Preliminary assessment results indicate this concept map is an effective tool to use for teaching or reviewing Mechanics of Materials.

Innovative approach to teaching undergraduate reinforced concrete design

This paper highlights innovative teaching techniques aimed at improving understanding and comprehension of reinforced concrete design theory. These techniques include: 1) Use of American Concrete Institute (ACI) building code-based analysis and design techniques, which focus on strain compatibility and equilibrium concepts; 2) students are required to develop five sets of team-based spreadsheet programming assignments; and 3) incorporation of a term project requiring students to design, construct, and test full-scale reinforced concrete beams. This course focuses on improving students abilities to think critically and apply their knowledge of fundamental engineering principles to solve reinforced concrete design problems. Taught with the same pedagogical techniques for the past ten years, the course regularly earns positive feedback from current students and graduates, and is rated as one the most valuable undergraduate courses taken during their four-year educational program.

Work in progress — Selection and execution of civil engineering capstone design projects at the United States Coast Guard Academy

In order to enable students to experience real life engineering problem solving, design, team work, project execution and management, civil engineering students at the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) must complete a capstone project as a graduation requirement. To better prepare USCGA students for their unique future roles as civil engineers in the Coast Guard, most capstone projects involve working with Coast Guard officers and civilian engineers in the field on actual Coast Guard projects. Project selection criteria include funding for site visits, a mandatory design component, a reasonable project schedule, realistic stakeholder expectations and a good match with expertise of the faculty advisors. The capstone design teams are provided specific instructions to guide them through the execution of their capstone projects. The authors discuss the development and execution of successful capstone projects at the USCGA and provide strategies for meeting educational outcomes while ensuring projects are useful to the Coast Guard.

Developing civil engineering leaders at the United States Coast Guard Academy

Current ABET criteria expects the curricular content of engineering programs to include a general education component that is consistent with their objectives. This is usually accomplished by having students take non-technical courses in humanities and social science. The benefits of having engineering students take courses in humanities and social sciences cannot be overstated as these courses strongly promote personal, political (public policy) and professional leadership development. The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) has been training engineers to serve as leaders in the Coast Guard and beyond for the past 100 years. The USCGAs Civil Engineering curriculum fosters leadership development through a breadth of required core courses in the humanities, science, engineering, mathematics, professional maritime studies, organizational behavior, management, leadership and law. This combination of core courses and non-academic activities including military and physical education training has been proven successful in providing students with opportunities to develop leadership and management skills required for engineering practice. The authors discuss the leadership approach used at USCGA that could be adopted by other academic institution as they strive to develop civil engineering leaders.

Addressing globalization in Civil Engineering at the United States Coast Guard Academy

The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) graduates between twenty and forty officers each year with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. It is imperative that graduates of the program are prepared to serve as both officers and civil engineers in an increasingly global society. This paper summarizes current efforts and future opportunities to infuse global issues and cultural awareness into the curriculum. Initiatives are presented in the context of requirements to graduate students in four years with an ABET accredited civil engineering degree and ready to serve as officers in the United States Coast Guard. Among the ideas and initiatives discussed are international projects, use of global case studies and issues, leveraging experiences of international students and faculty, culture and language courses, participation in international conferences and societies, inclusion of guest speakers with international experience, and the pursuit of study abroad opportunities. With a greater infusion of global and cultural issues into the curriculum, Coast Guard civil engineering graduates will be better prepared to meet the challenges they will face as officers and practicing professional engineers in the twenty first century.

Infusing industry, community, and the Coast Guard into the Civil Engineering Program at the United States Coast Guard Academy

Educating Civil Engineers at the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) presents its own unique challenges and opportunities. Given our dual mission to graduate civil engineers and officers for the United States Coast Guard, it is important that we infuse practices from industry into the Coast Guard Civil Engineering Program while ensuring that our graduates develop a sense of community and public service. In the Civil Engineering program at the USCGA, emphasis is placed on helping students make connections between theoretical fundamental principles and real engineering practice. It has been challenging to fit into our four year program of study the teaching of fundamental engineering principles, coverage of depth in four sub-fields of Civil Engineering, a large core curriculum required of all cadets, and an introduction to real-life engineering practice of industrial, community-based, and Coast Guard applications. To accomplish this, a strategy was adopted of infusing industrial and community relevance, and Coast Guard mission readiness into the curriculum through class assignments, field trips, guest speakers, capstone projects, community service, summer internships, and membership in professional organizations. Given this approach our graduates are able to most effectively serve the public as Civil Engineers, Coast Guard Officers, and community minded citizens.

The resilient Civil engineer with the changing global environment

As the world becomes more globally integrated and interdependent, college graduates must be prepared to meet the new challenges of globalization. Students should be made aware of their critical roles in society as the world economy becomes more globally integrated and increasingly exposed to new challenges, threats, opportunities for innovative solutions, and rewards. Engineering students in particular must understand the importance of leadership and creativity on the social, cultural, political and economic systems in the global economy. An approach that has been successfully used to infuse global perspectives into the Civil Engineering curriculum at the United States Coast Guard Academy is presented. The approach is based on four key pillars (technical, cultural, ethical and leadership) that are complimented with four professional skills competencies.

Developing a simple and effective method of assessing Civil Engineering student outcomes

The assessment of student outcomes can be made easier if the proper plan and processes are put in place before starting data collection. The key to simplifying the process is to collect targeted data after developing performance indicators and mapping them to appropriate courses. The authors discuss the evolution of the Coast Guard Academys Civil Engineering assessment process highlighting how the process has been streamlined and simplified through the development of assessment tools to measure achievement of performance indicators linked to each student outcome. The authors further discuss how the assessment data are analyzed holistically and used to guide improvements to courses and the curriculum.

Work in progress — United States Coast Guard Academy Robotics on Water competition as recruiting tool — Program enhancement for STEM & diversity outreach

Over the past two years, the United States Coast Guard Academy developed and implemented a one-day hands-on Coast Guard Academy Robotics On Water program (CGAROW). The program is gaining national attention because of its success in recruiting a diverse group of students interested in pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers in the Coast Guard. In order to meet the growing interest from high schools to host the program, USCGA is standardizing the materials and equipment used in order to make them readily available. Furthermore, to advance CGAROWs role as a STEM outreach program, educational materials are being developed to reinforce STEM concepts within the current middle and high school curricula. The authors discuss the ongoing enhancement of the CGAROW program, its standardization and curriculum development.