Information Technology in the Integrated Civil Engineering Curriculum

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PROPOSAL NO.: 0228099PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Grigg, NeilINSTITUTION NAME: Colorado State UniversityTITLE: Information technology in the integrated civil engineering curriculumAbstractThe proposal is to plan for integration of next generation information technology into the civil engineering curriculum at the department level. The rationale is that civil engineers have lead roles in infrastructure and environmental systems, and the power of information technology can be used in design, construction, and operations to relieve problems of traffic congestion, infrastructure integrity, construction productivity, environmental monitoring, systems security and other sectors of civil society. To address this rapidly changing field requires new thinking about the curriculum. Old curriculum organization, consisting of loosely connected subjects, will not provide the integration needed for expanding applications of information technology across civil society sectors. Twenty-first century problems require integration of new technologies and new approaches to the organization of engineering work, shaped by information technology. Early application of information technology in engineering education focused on computer programming, but only a few civil engineers engage in much programming. Most use software to apply wide bands of technology to problems with highly dispersed spatial, technological, and social dimensions. Teaching civil engineers how to apply the methods that underlie the software is a main goal of the integrated curriculum at Colorado State.