Teaching sustainability to first year civil engineering students

This research explores the historic use of the concept of sustainability in civil engineering academic literature and identifies its conceptual evolution and connotative treatment over the last 40 years. We find that academic research addressing sustainability is exponentially increasing and that the focus on sustainability is enlarging from a primarily environmental perspective to include more social elements. Additionally, we propose a set of six connotations of sustainability: assessment, progress, permanence, abstractness, multidimensional, and intersectional. These connotations provide conceptual clarity for academics and practitioners in better-defining sustainability objectives and measuring outcomes. These connotations also promote more efficient collaboration with other necessary disciplines in the pursuit of project and societal-level goals. The research employs a novel use of computational corpus linguistics in CCE to identify and examine patterns of collocates associated with the word sustainability in a corpus of 335,020 peer-reviewed civil and construction engineering (CCE) scholarly abstracts published between 1981 and 2021. Demonstrating this research method is a contribution to CCE researchers systematically extracting meaning from large volumes of literature.

Geosynthetics, factory-manufactured polymer materials, have been successfully used to solve many geotechnical problems in civil engineering. Two common applications are earth stabilization and erosion control. Geosynthetics used for earth stabilization include but are not limited to stabilized slopes, walls, embankments, and roads. Geosynthetics used for erosion control are mostly related to slopes, river channels and banks, and pond spillways. To enhance environmental sustainability, vegetation has been increasingly planted on the facing or surfaces of these earth structures. Under such a condition, geosynthetics mainly function as surficial soil stabilization while vegetation provides green appearance and erosion protection of earth surfaces. Recently, geosynthetic or geosynthetic-like material has been used to form green walls outside or inside buildings to enhance sustainability. Geosynthetics and vegetation are often integrated to provide combined benefits. The interaction between geosynthetics and vegetation is important for the sustainability of the earth and building wall surfaces. This paper provides a review of the current practice and research in the geosynthetic stabilization of vegetated earth and building surfaces for environmental sustainability in civil engineering with the emphases on geosynthetic used for erosion protection, geosynthetic-stabilized slopes, geosynthetic-stabilized unpaved shoulders and parking lots, and geosynthetic-stabilized vegetated building surfaces.

PrefaceSustainable development is actually an important topic which needs the attention of the society. The civil engineering is figured as one of the most impacting domains on the environment because of numerous problems such as the energy consumption, the CO2 emission and the natural resource depletion. Alternative solutions have been searched during the last decades to reduce environmental impacts of the civil engineering sector. Different approaches have been proposed: reducing the energy consumption by using low-embodied energy materials (“eco-materials”); developing the energy-efficient buildings with high thermal performance, with renewable energy integrations (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.), or by using the eco-architecture principles to optimize the energy consumption of the buildings. Today, sustainable development in civil engineering is not still restrained at a building scale but the city scale should be considered: the transport of the occupants between their residence and their work, the energy loss in the energy distribution network, etc.In this context, the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development in Civil, Urban and Transportation Engineering (CUTE 2018) is organized at Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, from 17 to 19 April 2018. This conference is organized by Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam) in cooperation with Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France), Hasselt University (Belgium), Technical University of Ostrava (Czech), Wrocław University of Technology (Poland) and University of Trieste (Italy). This is the second edition after the first conference which was organized in 2016. The main scope of CUTE 2018 conference is to propose an exchange platform for different approaches which can contribute to the sustainability of the civil engineering sector: investigations on sustainable materials and structures; intelligent principles in architecture design; sustainable solutions in transportation and urban planning.The host organization Ton Duc Thang University is gratefully acknowledged for the administrative and logistical support. The co-organizer universities are thanked for their cooperation and support.The sponsors of the conference are gratefully acknowledged for their financial supports.The organizers would like also to thank Honorary Chairs, Conference Chairs, International Scientific Committee, and Local Organizing Committee.EditorsQuoc-Bao BUI, Radim CAJKA, Minh-Tung TRAN, Tu-Anh TRINH Ansar-Ul-Haque YASAR, Geert WETS, Monika WOLOSZYN

A successful civil engineering project is often a highly collaborative team-based activity, and the engineering education community must therefore prepare graduates to work in this type of environment. A large body of research has demonstrated the considerable benefits and minor organizational problems of collaborative work in higher education. However, there are only a few case studies reported in the literature that evaluate the positive and negative experiences encountered by students when undertaking group projects, and these invariably focus on first-year students. This paper contributes to this limited literature by assessing previously existing methodologies applied to group projects in the final year of an engineering degree, and compares the results with those obtained for students with no experience in collaborative work. The methodology was tested on a survey sample of 105 students enrolled in the Roads module of the new Civil and Territorial Engineering degree at the Technical Universi...

Sustainability in civil engineering requires collaborative efforts from multiple stakeholders; however, the concept remains insufficiently explored in construction industry in developing countries. This study investigates the perceptions of civil engineering professionals in Pakistan regarding sustainability, aiming to enhance understanding and contribute to sustainable development globally. An exploratory survey approach was adopted, utilizing a detailed questionnaire developed from an extensive review of sustainability literature relevant to civil engineering practices. The findings highlight significant gaps, including inadequate legislation and limited governmental initiative to incorporate sustainable practices effectively within the civil engineering sector. The professionals surveyed acknowledged the urgency of embedding sustainability principles into construction practices to achieve meaningful progress. The respondents also suggested comprehensive stakeholder collaboration as essential to address sustainable development goals effectively. Moreover, the study underscores the necessity of implementing robust sustainability tools and methods throughout project lifecycles, accompanied by regular monitoring and reporting at each phase to ensure alignment with sustainability objectives. This research offers crucial insights into existing perceptions and identifies pathways to encourage and integrate sustainable practices in construction industry in developing countries, thus aiding in the broader agenda of global sustainable development.

Employers in the engineering sector require certain standard of English proficiency among their employees as the language is widely used for numerous job scopes. In order to understand the current demand of the civil engineering industry on the use of the English language in the workplace, this study was conducted on 20 undergraduates of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia who undertook the industrial training. Based on focus group discussions, the participants learned and shared significant use of English language through their industrial training experience. The findings of the study highlighted the activities that were conducted in English for speaking, listening, reading and writing including the language skills. In addition, the amount of time spent on each activity in English was also identified in understanding the importance of English language in the civil engineering sector. The findings of the study are vital in making informed decisions for the design and development of appropriate English language courses for present and future civil engineering students.

The scale and complexity of civil engineering projects are increasing exponentially. Coupled with the growing trend of globalisation, the demand for high-calibre civil engineers who are also knowledgeable in legal matters is increasing. Driven by an aspiration to prepare civil engineering graduates with a solid foundation in both civil engineering and law, The University of Hong Kong has developed the first 5-year credit-based double professional degree programme in Hong Kong, which leads to the award of the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering (Law) and Bachelor of Laws. The considerations, development process and launching details of the programme are presented in this paper. The students admitted to date perform better academically than other civil engineering students on civil engineering courses. However, they do not perform as well as law students and other law-related double-degree students.

This paper describes a project conducted to provide research experience to engineering undergraduate students involving discovery through actual construction, experimental testing, observing and recording, synthesizing the data collected, and generalizations. The project was part of a Research for Undergraduates Site grant sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and administered in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cincinnati during the Summer of 2001. The research experience provided was in the area of structural engineering. Nine students were selected to participate in the Site; four students selected were from institutions outside Cincinnati, and five were selected from UC. These included three women, one Native American male, one Hispanic male, one African American male, and three white American male students, and each group worked on a separate project during the two summer months. Each group were supervised by the Project Director (author) and a Faculty Mentor, one Graduate Student Mentor (Research Assistant), and a Lab Technician during the complete duration of the REU Site. The paper presents how the whole research program was planned and conducted, the details of the projects selected for the students, and procedures used to evaluate the impact of the project. This paper will help others in planning similar experiences for engineering undergraduate students.

With globalization, the demand for competent engineering graduates with international acumen increases. In order to respond to this rising demand, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the International Research Experiences in Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (IRECCEE) program to understand the impact of international research experiences on students through a multidisciplinary lens. The program provides Ph.D. students in civil engineering disciplines the opportunity to gain valuable international research experience and establish long-lasting collaborations with international researchers. The program funds students to travel and perform research work at an international research institution. For every student, such research experience becomes the intervention. This paper discusses the program and the corresponding research framework with the aim that the research community can leverage such framework. The mixed-method research framework was designed to comprehensively capture the immediate and sustained impact of the program on the students’ competencies. With a multidisciplinary approach, the framework captures impacts on students’ intercultural competence, professional development, intellectual growth, personal development, and academic development. The data collection includes survey designs and interviews. In order to capture immediate and sustained impacts, data is collected before and multiple times after the intervention.

Recent natural events such as earthquakes in Japan and storm surge effects in New York have led to the growing interest in sustainable civil engineering. While sustainability topics, such as soil liquefaction and green building design, are typically included within civil engineering programs at the baccalaureate or graduate levels, topics in sustainability can be adapted for secondary school students as well. In addition, efforts to attract quality and diverse students into civil engineering have given rise to engineering camps aimed at secondary school students. This research focuses on the exploration of civil engineering sustainable module topics for secondary school students through the development of content as well as implementation of two case studies. Sustainability module topics are identified and instructional content (lesson objectives, key concepts, activities, experiments, and other pedagogical techniques) are proposed. Two modules are applied at the Bucknell Engineering Summer Camp p...

This text begins with the social employment demand on graduates major in civil engineering, elaborates the connotation of cultivation mode of practical talents, and discusses the construction of practical talents training mode system from the perspectives of training objective and training standard, curricular system construction, teaching staff construction, and training program and ways. It emphasizes the importance of practical talents training mode in cultivating civil engineering students' practical ability, and puts forward supporting measures for implementing civil engineering practical talents' training mode from the perspectives of teaching content, practical teaching proportion, and teaching staff.

This paper reviews the civil engineering profession’s progress towards sustainability over the past dec-ade in eight key areas. It finds there have been significant steps forward in assessment methods, sys-tems thinking, multi-functional infrastructure, flexible and adaptive design, and adoption of a circular economy in construction. However, it also finds the sustainability challenge is accelerating and much more needs to be done to go beyond business as usual. In particular, civil engineers need to be more vocal in calling out projects and practices that go counter to the planet’s and society’s needs.

The article considers the role of ICT in the training of civil engineers. It is emphasized that at the current development stage of engineering education, it is important to focus on the social engineer’s responsibility for the safety of engineering facilities, in connection with which the activities of an engineer in the 21st century require appropriate competencies in the context of design, modeling, and construction. The article aims to substantiate the features of applying ICT in the development of design competencies of future civil engineers in the context of university education. Research methods applied: analyzing scientific information to determine theoretical information in developing project competencies of future civil engineers; systematization – to identify components of the educational and professional program aimed at developing project competence; hermeneutic method – to clarify the essence of project competence; generalization – to formulate conclusions. The design competence of a civil engineer is defined as the integrated ability of a specialist to apply a set of knowledge, skills, and personal qualities for the effective implementation of construction projects from the idea stage to the commissioning of the facility. It is noted that the use of computer programs contributes to the interest of future engineers; development of critical and spatial thinking, design vision; formation of design competencies and design literacy, which means high-quality performance of engineering design work and modeling. The benefits of computer-based training in developing project competence of future civil engineers have been identified: minimizing engineering errors, data management (students learn to work not just with drawings, but with the object's database), and teamwork (using cloud services allows future engineers to work on a joint project remotely). The task of forming a design culture of a future civil engineer is determined by the informatization of education and automation of production, the formation of knowledge regarding the application of computer technologies in all cycles of engineering and construction activities.

Sustainability as a central issue and as a skill set has become an increasingly important part of engineering education for Civil and Environmental Engineers. ABET criteria for both Environmental and Civil Engineering currently contain language stressing sustainability but the development of curriculum components for these degree programs does not yet have an established norm, with some efforts directed at spreading sustainability across the curriculum in a modular fashion within upper level topics and other efforts directed at one, two or three course sequences specifically focused on sustainability. A body of sustainability pedagogy does exist and has been strongly promoted by both AEESP and NSF and is now a topic of discussion by ASCE. Florida Gulf Coast University was established in the late 1990’s as a “green university’ as part of the State University System in Florida. The school has environmental sustainability as part of its formal mission in a region acutely sensitive to climate change and dependent on the construction and tourism industries and continuous growth for economic stability in a shrinking and fragile ecosystem. As part of the original design of the Environmental Engineering curriculum, a Sustainability in Engineering course was established and first taught in the 2008-2009 academic year. The senior-level course is required for Environmental Engineers and serves as an environmental elective for many Civil Engineers. Performance in the senior level Sustainability course varies widely. Good students in both disciplines achieve student learning outcomes at high taxonomic levels. Weaker students in Environmental Engineering also have high outcome achievement. A large cohort of Civil Engineers however, fall short in achieving learning outcomes at the highest levels. This study attempts to assess these differences and improve overall achievement of sustainability skills for Civil Engineering students. We will use initial survey instruments in these classes as well as in at least one additional Civil Engineering class (sustainability focus included) to assess student attitudes and depth of knowledge prior to and after completion of the Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering course in sophomore year and prior to and after the Sustainability course in senior year. Data has been collected this year (senior level evaluated at end of year) and will continue to be collected over the next several years continuing a longitudinal study that will focus on our students’ developing levels of expertise in formulating sustainable solutions to real life engineering problems.

Individual characteristics, alongside environmental features, significantly influence spatial perception and the environmental image formed by users. While previous research has emphasized environmental attributes, there remains a limited understanding of how non-designers interpret architectural space based on factors such as academic level and disciplinary training. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates the spatial perception of civil engineering students at different stages of their education. Specifically, it compares first- and third-year students’ interpretations of architectural identity and legibility using photographic stimuli from urban street scenes. A structured questionnaire was administered to 90 participants to capture subjective evaluations of selected streetscapes. The findings reveal discernible differences in spatial interpretation between the two groups, suggesting that academic progression and increased exposure to technical knowledge influence perceptual tendencies. Notably, third-year students demonstrated a more analytical reading of spatial cues, while first-year students exhibited a more intuitive response to visual stimuli. These results underline the role of educational background in shaping environmental cognition and suggest the need for interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches that integrate spatial awareness in non-design disciplines. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how architectural environments are perceived by future engineers, offering insights for the design of more inclusive and legible urban spaces. Keywords: Architectural perception; civil engineering education; environmental cognition; identity; legibility.