Kristen L. Sanford Bernhardt

Development of Knowledge Tables and Learning Outcomes for an Introductory Course in Transportation Engineering

Many decisions about the content of an introductory transportation engineering course are complicated by a wide range of topics and skills to be presented in a limited amount of time. The information presented in this paper was compiled by a working group of educators who represented universities of varying sizes and geographic areas. This working group was charged with developing core concepts and associated knowledge tables for the introductory transportation course for the following core concept areas: traffic operations, transportation planning, geometric design, transportation finance, transportation economics, traffic safety, and transit and nonmotorized transport. Instructors can weave the knowledge tables together by explaining the ways of being of a transportation professional and the course learning outcomes. A key focus of the working groups efforts was to provide more guidance to instructors on core content versus optional content. The intent of the working group was not to dictate what exactly should be taught in a course. The group therefore created more content than could fit into a typical semester-long course so that instructors would have flexibility. Some content should be viewed as more critical to the transportation profession than other material, and the working group will prioritize it accordingly. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the work that has been completed and to get feedback from industry partners and other academic professionals about the curriculum. The efforts of the pilot studies over the next year will help determine the amount of time needed to cover the information in the knowledge tables.

Writing, critical thinking, and engineering curricula

Writing-across-the-curriculum and critical thinking approaches have gained favor in higher education. However, while these movements have sprouted and grown roots in colleges of arts and science across the country, they have found the ground less fertile in colleges of engineering. These movements certainly influenced changes in the philosophy and approach to the accreditation of engineering programs, manifest in ABET Engineering Criteria 2000. Several ABET program outcomes are difficult to achieve using traditional approaches to engineering education. For example, it seems particularly difficult to show that graduate engineers will have the broad education necessary to understand the impact of civil engineering solutions in a global and societal context, and knowledge of contemporary issues as they relate to engineering problems. We believe that there is much to be gained from broader application of the philosophies and techniques of these movements to the education of engineers. This paper presents examples of assignments that promote these goals.

Evaluation of supplementary traffic control measures for freeway work-zone approaches

Controlling traffic in work zones to improve safety continues to be a major concern for highway agencies. Three traffic control devices—white lane-drop arrows, the citizens band (CB) wizard alert system, and orange rumble strips—were tested for their effectiveness in improving merging and in reducing speed and speed variance at an Interstate highway work zone in Missouri. On the basis of the results of the study described, the lane-drop arrows, CB message, and rumble strips can be expected to promote some increases in early merging and some decreases in mean speeds of vehicles approaching an Interstate highway work zone with a lane drop. Effects of all three devices on speed variance are inconclusive. However, because of the difficulty in summarizing across the many variables involved (day/night/dawn/dusk, open/closed lane, vehicle class, etc.), it is recommended that anyone considering the use of the devices examine the full report.

Infrastructure and Public Works Education One Size Does Not Fit All

Public awareness of infrastructure issues and a body of well-educated infrastructure professionals are critical to the efficient provision of public services such as water, wastewater, transportation, and utilities. It is important to introduce aspects of infrastructure management at all levels of education, both to interest students in pursuing further education and to increase public awareness and knowledge. However, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to infrastructure or public works education. This article describes (a) a vision for public works management education in the future, (b) the elements of an infrastructure or public works management education program in terms of the skills and knowledge necessary for effective public works management, (c) alternative forms of delivery for these skills and knowledge, (d) the roles of the American Public Works Association and universities in this education, and (e) the authors’ experiences with public works management education.

Influence of Collaborative Curriculum Design on Educational Beliefs, Communities of Practitioners, and Classroom Practice in Transportation Engineering Education

AbstractThe development and widespread implementation of best practices in transportation engineering classrooms is important in attracting and retaining the next generation of transportation engineers. Engineering education professionals have uncovered many best practices in the field; however, the process of effectively disseminating and ultimately achieving the widespread adoption of these best practices by others is not yet well understood. Sixty participants, including faculty members, Ph.D. students, and public-sector employees, attended a transportation engineering education workshop convened in Seattle to promote the collaborative development and adoption of active learning and conceptual exercises in the introduction to transportation engineering class. Participant assessments were conducted in the form of presurvey, postsurvey, and follow-up survey. Results showed immediately positive shifts in participant beliefs about the importance of active learning and conceptual exercises, with declines du...

Transportation Engineering Instructional Practices: Analytic Review of the Literature

Instructional practices in transportation engineering education are evolving, and only some of these changes have been documented in the literature. This paper provides a systematic review of journal articles and refereed conference papers that address innovations in transportation engineering education; the focus is on novel instructional practices and their influence on student learning. The literature review finds 46 articles for analysis, with an increasing frequency of those publications over time. Instructional practices described in these papers include simulation, visualization, problem-based learning, and other active-learning techniques. Most of these articles were written by individual researchers or a team of researchers at a single institution, and few of the articles cite one another; this finding suggests a need for more effective dissemination. Techniques for measuring student learning include in-person interviews, a variety of survey types (typically multiple choice or open-ended), concept maps, and direct assessment of student work. These techniques are implemented mostly as postassessments, but in some work, a pre- and postcourse experimental design is employed. It is clear that more rigorous evaluation of student learning, resulting from changes in teaching practices, should be considered. This analytical review of the literature provides a resource for transportation engineering educators to identify pedagogical practices that are relevant to their courses and suggestions for how to measure the effect of these techniques on student learning.

Sustainability and socio-enviro-technical systems: modeling total cost of ownership in capital facilities

Investment in sustainability strategies and technologies holds promise for significant cost savings over the accurately estimating the first costs of a green project during the early concept development stages is challenging, and effective ways to comprehensively predict potential lifecycle cost impacts of sustainability strategies do not exist. This paper describes a agent-based model (ABM) of the Total Cost of Ownership of green facilities applicable at the earliest stages of concept development. An ABM approach captures the social, environmental, and engineering systems that characterize a facilitys life cycle cost. It permits evaluating the impact of the institutional and industry environment on facility life cycle performance, and also captures the cost impacts of tightly coupled facility systems that characterize green design.

Transportation Engineering Curriculum: Analytic Review of the Literature

AbstractTransportation engineering curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels are critical to the development of technical competency in future transportation engineering professionals—those who will be responsible for the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of safe and efficient transportation systems. This paper provides an analytic review of journal articles and refereed conference papers addressing how transportation engineering curricula have changed over time. The literature review found 51 articles for analysis, with an increased frequency of those publications over time. Curriculum issues described in these papers include how transportation fits broadly within engineering programs and, more specifically, within civil engineering programs, which topics are addressed in transportation courses, and how these courses attend to stakeholder needs. This analytic review of the literature provides a resource for transportation engineering educators, administrators, and resear...

Sociotechnical engineering is one facet of prismatic liberal education

The ideas of mutual integration of the liberal arts and engineering resonate powerfully with our institutional values and with many ongoing practices at Lafayette College, an undergraduate-only liberal arts college whose 35+ major options include 4 ABET-accredited BS engineering disciplines and 1 non-accredited AB in Engineering Studies. In addition to many course-level integration efforts, the Colleges program in Engineering Studies offers a model and a history that may be of interest to those designing new programs.

Sustainability and socio-enviro-technical systems: a prototype agent based model to generate inputs for costing capital facilities

Public agencies make significant investments in capital facilities to meet the requirements of their missions. Interest in sustainable building practices has increased over recent years, but obstacles remain to implementing such practices in public construction projects on a regular basis. A primary stumbling block is the difficulty in generating accurate estimates for total cost of ownership of a facility in the early stages of design. This paper builds on previously published work to describe the prototype implementation of an agent based model to help determine the inputs for cost modeling.