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CE 180: Design, Construction, Maintenance of Civil and Environmental Engineered Systems

Course Description

Two reports have been published that summarize extensive studies of what will be the expectations of our next generation of engineers: The Engineer of 2020 and The Engineer of the 21st Century. One study addresses these expectations from the standpoint of the profession of engineering in a global context (National Academy of Engineering, 2004). The other study addresses the expectations from the standpoint of the profession of Civil Engineering in a national context (American Society of Civil Engineers, 2004). Both of these studies stress the need to add important elements to the education of engineers including Engineering Systems, Leadership, Management, Team-work in Interdisciplinary Teams, Learning from Successes and Failures, and Communications.

The capstone course, Engineering Systems (CE 180) has been specifically designed to address these expectations. The course includes segments on engineering leadership and management, teamwork and team development, communications, characterization and analyses of engineered systems, analyses of engineering successes and failures, the engineering Standard of Care, constraints and trade-offs in engineering, life-cycle engineering, quality and reliability assessments, human and organizational factors, and approaches to achieve desirable quality and reliability in engineering societal infrastructure systems.

Students form into interdisciplinary teams and address real-life projects that require exercise of their technical backgrounds and the additional elements developed in this and their other associated courses (e.g. humanities, history, art, and social studies). The student teams work with professors from all of the groups in CEE and other UCB departments, experienced engineers and consultants to develop Civilization & Environmental Systems Engineering projects including a project technical paper (and associated back-up documentation), a physical model of their system (or important parts), and at the end of the semester, present their projects to a panel of judges in a formal competition.

Course Time & Location

Lectures for this course are scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 2:00 PM in 534 Davis Hall. The discussion section for this course is scheduled for Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:00 PM in 544 Davis Hall. All students are expected to attend both the course lectures and the discussion section (4 unit course).

Syllabus

Download a complete course syllabus with details regarding:

Course Conduct
Schedule of readings and lectures
Schedule of lecture assignments
Grading assessments
Student deliverables
Schedule of course discussion assignments

Recommended Reading

The Engineer of 2020, Visions of Engineering in the New Century, National Academy of Engineering, The National Academy of Engineering Press, 2003.

Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century, Preparing the Civil Engineer for the Future, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), January, 2004.

Managing and Leading, S. Walesh, ASCE Press, 2004.

It's Your Ship, Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy, D.M. Abrashoff, Warner Books, 2002.

Conceptual Blockbusting, A Guide to Better Ideas, J. L. Adams, W.W. Norton & Co, 1979.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, P. Senge, A. Koleiner, C. Roberts, R. B. Ross, B. Smith, Doubleday, 1994.

Tradeoffs, Imperatives of Choice in a High-Tech World, E. Wenk, Jr., The John Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Making Hard Decisions, R. T. Clemen, 1996.

Lethal Arrogance, Human Fallibility and Dangerous Technologies, L. J. Dumans, St. Martins Press, 1999.