Discussion Thread

  • 1.  Civil Engineering Majors

    Posted 10-11-2019 03:39 PM
    Hello guys! 
    My name is Mohammed Ghazal 
    I'm a third year student. I live in UAE Abudhabi. 
    What are your recommendations for doing my capstone project?

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    Mohammed Ghazal S.M.ASCE
    Student
    Abudhabi
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  • 2.  RE: Civil Engineering Majors

    Posted 10-14-2019 09:33 AM
    Hi Mohammed
    First I'm curious how is your capstone project set up?
    Is it a course with an instructor or an individual study? Team or individual project? How much freedom do you have when proposing topics?
    I'd look for faculty members whose work you find interesting because they could be a good resource, and it would help you form a connection and maybe participate in research in the future.

    Mainly, what interests you? Capstone is a good opportunity to dive deeper into subjects you might want to pursue later in your career. Also a good portfolio piece.

    I find local issues to be a good place to start. Water resource management is important in UAE, so maybe water conservation. Desertification and land use planning also sounds interesting. Sustainable building technologies like passive cooling or solar energy generation?

    Good luck!

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    Itay Porat S.M.ASCE
    University of Houston
    Houston TX
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  • 3.  RE: Civil Engineering Majors

    Posted 10-14-2019 05:25 PM
    Hello, 
    Is it a senior design project its set with an instructor or is it a team project? Our university is giving us the priorities in choosing the project in decreasing order. I think that's a good choice but in decreasing order I would do the following: 

    1 Transportation 
    2. Structural engineering 
    3. Geotechnical engineering 
    4 . water waste management 
    5 . Environmental engineering 

    It is a good plan because what I think is I want to work in transportation companies which I find it very interesting and fun, In addition to that it provides a good salary. 
    Thanks!


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    Mohammed Ghazal S.M.ASCE
    student
    Abudhabi
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  • 4.  RE: Civil Engineering Majors

    Posted 10-15-2019 08:55 AM
    Mohammed, 

    At the University of Houston, the design project its set with an instructor. The instructor usually guides the students (usually divided into teams of five) through the process of design a civil engineering project. These projects vary by semester. Some examples that I remembered were the design of a Wastewater treatment plan, Retaining walls design, and the one I took was more like a Land Development project. 

    I do believe transportation and structural are a great field. I recently graduated and I am working is a Transportation division. Maybe if you want to tackle both transportation and structural in your project you may have a transportation design that includes a small bridge. That way you may get exposed to both fields and as @Itay Porat mentioned it will be a good portfolio piece. 

    Sincerely, 


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    Julian Valencia A.M.ASCE
    Project Engineer
    Houston, TX
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