CE 499

Design of Civil Engineering Systems

Spring 2006

Meeting day, time, and location

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00 - 11:50  Tapy 219

Tuesday 2:00 – 3:50  Tapy 219

Tentative Schedule

CE499L, Design of Civil Engineering Systems                                                        Spring 2006

Description

Comprehensive, creative design of a typical civil engineering project, including cost analysis.  Detailed study based on written proposals by student teams, both written and oral reports required.  To be taken in the student’s last semester.  Prerequisites: 310L, 335, 350, 360L, 382, and 432, as well as two technical elective design courses, one of which may be taken concurrently.

Course Objectives

• To provide a comprehensive design experience, synthesizing previous education. 
• To expose students to a real-life engineering project.
• To provide a meaningful group interaction experience.
• To strengthen students’ written and oral communication skills.
• To offer students the opportunity to prepare a set of design documents.
• To expose students to the engineering decision-making process.
• To provide an opportunity for students to interact with professionals.

Organization

CE499L is presently scheduled for Mondays 11-11:50 and Tuesdays 14-15:50.  Our primary meeting time will be on Mondays, although we will sometimes utilize the Tuesday time period.  The proposal and final presentations will be on a Tuesday.  The midterm presentation will be held the Friday before Spring Break.  It will be necessary on rare occasions to meet at other times for special purposes: this would be during the Wednesday and Friday time slots.  Students are expected to attend all meeting, including class meetings, project team meetings, and meeting with the consultants.

Project teams of 3 to 4 students will be established.  To the extent possible, an effort will be made to include technical diversity on all the teams so that they are capable of undertaking comprehensive design projects.  A number of firms will provide projects that will be allocated among the teams.  Subsequently, the teams will meet with their consultant to develop a project proposal.  Throughout the remainder of the semester, the teams will meet with their consultant about once a week to ten days to refine the project, provide guidance, and assist the team in locating information.  The team will meet nearly every week with the instructor to review progress.  A midterm presentation providing preliminary designs and a final presentation are required.  

Note: All students are to attend the regular meetings with the consultants.  Students are expected to be prompt, courteous, and professional, and to make wise and productive use of the consultant’s time.   

CE499L is structured around teamwork.  The team, rather than any subset, is responsible for the design product at the end of the semester.  The work within the team must be cooperative and collaborative, rather than competitive.  A coordinator will be selected for each group to serve as a focal point for communication between the group and the instructor. 

Presentations

There are four types of presentations in CE499L:

1. Presentation of proposal (20 minutes)
2. Weekly progress report (about 5 minutes)
3. Midterm presentation of preliminary designs (20 minutes)
4. Final presentation (25 minutes)

Every team member must make one of the weekly progress reports.  In addition, each team member must participate in all of the major presentations (proposal, midterm, final).

Log books

Each CE499L student must maintain an individual log book that records all activity performed on their design project.

Written products

All written reports and figures/graphics must be of professional quality.  Reports must be technically correct and comply with accepted standards of technical writing, including logical layout, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and references.  All team members must contribute to the written report. 

Evaluation

Each student will receive an individual grade, not a group grade.  Students will be evaluated on the basis of the overall quality of the design products and on his/her overall contributions to the process and the products.  Students should expect to devote 125-140 hours to the project.

A group grade will be based on:

• Oral presentations of the group
• Written reports
• Design calculations
• Project scope and level of completion
• Competency of the technical work

Individual grades will be based on:

• Oral presentations throughout the semester
• Log book quality
• Technical contribution
• Teamwork in helping the team achieve its goals

In making these evaluations, the instructor will solicit input form the team members and from the consultants.