Advanced Materials for Civil Infrastructures: Multidisciplinary Curriculum Development

密苏里大学罗拉分校的这个名为“民用基础设施先进材料：多学科课程开发”的CRCD项目的目标是为UMR的学生和更大的专业社区在民用基础设施先进材料和传感器的能力和使用方面创造多学科的教育资源。先进的复合材料提供卓越的机械性能，长期耐用性和制造灵活性。最近传感器的进步提供了对土木工程结构的健康、几何、环境和结构特征的原位监测。虽然这是土木工程中一个相对较新的领域，但由于与传统技术相比，复合材料和集成“智能”传感器的性能和耐用性得到了改善，因此其重要性正在迅速增加。该地区解决了日益增长的加固和修复老化结构的需求，并设计了更严格的要求和更长的寿命的新结构。先进材料和智能结构技术涵盖多个工程学科；因此，有效的教育必须跨越传统的界限。工程师必须获得跨学科的知识和经验，才能有效地理解和使用新技术。该项目的具体目标是：*开发一个跨学科的教学实验室；*在UMR校园内建造、测量和监控一个智能全复合桥，作为学生的实地体验和技术演示；*为互联网创建一个万维网网站，其中包括组件技术的教程、课程的多媒体演示、教学实验室的虚拟实验；更新桥梁演示的结果，以及与智能先进结构相关的其他互联网站点的链接，*为专业人员开发并提供相关的短期课程，*演示有效的跨学科教学的教育方法，*准备集成的CD-ROM超媒体资源，包括技术教程，实验演示，虚拟实验，桥梁测试，课程笔记和该领域的新技术发展。该项目将满足国家对具有跨学科经验和解决基础设施挑战的工程师的需求。它是跨学科研究小组长期联合研究活动的延伸，并将涉及重要的工业互动。课程与实验室相结合、桥梁示范、网络接入、短期课程和教育创新相结合是新技术传播的综合途径。这些方面将使本科生、研究生、他们未来的雇主、UMR的基础设施工程、其他学术项目和行业受益。

The goal of this CRCD project at the University of Missouri-Rolla, entitled "Advanced Materials for Civil Infrastructures: Multidisciplinary Curriculum Development," is to create multidisciplinary educational resources for the students of the UMR and the greater professional community in the capabilities and use of advanced materials and sensors for civil infrastructures. Advanced composite materials offer superior mechanical properties, long-term durability, and fabrication flexibility. Recent sensor advances offer in-situ monitoring of the health, geometric, environmental, and structural characteristics of civil engineering structures. Although it is a relatively new area in civil engineering, the importance of composite materials and integral "smart" sensors are rapidly increasing due to the improved performance and durability as compared to conventional technologies. The area addresses growing needs for strengthening and rehabilitating aging structures and for designing new structures to more stringent requirements and for longer lifetime. Advanced materials and smart structures technology encompass several engineering disciplines; hence, effective education must cross the traditional boundaries. Engineers must gain interdisciplinary knowledge and experience to effectively understand and use the new technology. The specific objectives of the project are:* To develop an interdisciplinary teaching laboratory, * To construct, instrument, and monitor a smart all-composite bridge on the UMR campus as a field experience for students and as a technological demonstration,* To create a World Wide Web site for the Internet which features tutorials for the component technologies, multimedia demonstrations from the course, virtual experiments from the teaching laboratory, up-dated results from the bridge demonstration, and links to other Internet sites related to smart advanced structures,* To develop and offer an associated short course for professionals,* To demonstrate educational methodologies for effective interdisciplinary instruction, * To prepare an integrated CD-ROM hypermedia resource of technology tutorials, experimental demonstrations, virtual experiments, bridge tests, course notes, and new technical developments in this area.The project will address the national need for engineers with interdisciplinary experience and solutions to infrastructure challenges. It is an extension of the long-standing joint research activities of the interdisciplinary research team and will involve significant industrial interaction. The combination of the course and laboratory, bridge demonstration, Internet access, short course, and educational innovations is a comprehensive approach to disseminating new technology. These many facets will benefit undergraduates, graduate students, their future employers, infrastructure engineering at UMR, other academic programs, and industry.