Liberal Arts are important because they apply to everything we do as civil engineers. However, so are the technical subjects. When students only take 12 hours of classes at a time (I had a minimum of 18), it gets hard to stuff the minimum required technical stuff in. I think that it may be time to start the discussion on whether engineering can be fit within a 4-year curriculum, while still maintaining the basics of engineering. Medicine is 7 years. Law is a minimum of 6 years. Nursing takes 5 years. If we started teaching engineering after 2 years of general education, and made it 3 years to finish, we would be allowing every student time to take the basics such as sociology of groups, English literature, technical writing, critical thinking, history of the world from a technological perspective, humans and our environment, the artistry of architecture, etc.
As engineers, we would need to develop some of the general knowledge courses that we would like to see in the curriculum, and be willing to push those into the available classes for students to take. That means be willing to teach them too. Having known Jerry Rogers (the originator of this question) for more than 20 years, I know that he has always been willing, and active in pushing those less technical, but equally important factors into each of his classes. We need to have more engineers willing to spend time developing these less technical, but critical items into our current curriculum when we can.
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Dwayne Culp, Ph.D., P.E., P.Eng, M.ASCE
Culp Engineering, LLC
Richmond TX
(713)898-1977
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-04-2018 09:29
From: Brian Brenner
Subject: Using engineering history for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
One way to include engineering history in civil engineering curricula is to develop appropriate lectures for existing courses. In my freshmen engineering, bridge design and concrete design courses at Tufts University I have separate lectures on related engineering history and (in the case of bridges) review of failures/failure analysis. This is a good way to cover the material without necessarily trying to fit an extra course into over-stuffed programs.
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Brian Brenner P.E., F.ASCE
Sharon MA
(857)415-3912
Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2018 12:11
From: Charles Parrish
Subject: Using engineering history for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
We in the life member forum of local ASCE chapter in Las Vegas, NV tried to overcome the history question for civil engineers by writing our own book titled: From the Spanish Trail to the Monorail, A History of Civil Engineering Infrastructure in Southern Nevada, wherein we tried to set down the history of several items critical to the development of the area including: water, mining, highways, railroads, wastewater, dam building, airports, nuclear test site, flood control and nuclear waste disposal. We think a person will learn more about the area, the people and what is important to sustaining life by attempting to put the relevant information down for others to read.
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Charles Parrish P.E., L.S., M.ASCE
RETIRED
Las Vegas NV
(702) 870-4892
Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2018 01:34
From: Bruce Podwal
Subject: Using engineering history for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
A bachelor's degree shows one is educated and has learned more than a trade. Those liberal arts courses are not only necessary for one to be a successful engineer, but help round out our education in general.
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Bruce Podwal P.E., F.ASCE
New York City NY
Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2018 14:09
From: Dilip Barua
Subject: Using engineering history for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
It is quite interesting to follow the posted discussions on this heading. A similar topic was also discussed on this forum under the heading: Integration of Disciplines in Engineering Education. It appears to me that some of the responses have the touch of emotions as if – the competence of engineers is in question. But by reading the documents in question, the NAP 2018 title, "The Integration . . . Branches from the Same Tree" and the 2006 ASCE BOK2, one hardly gets any such impression.
The fact is that many engineering projects have multi-disciplinary contexts – and it is the stake holders and public who like to examine the viability of a project from different angles – technical, economical, environmental, socio-economic, public hearing, etc – before they can approve or discard a project. As we all know, the position of an engineer is very critical in the process, because final implementation goes through his or her hand. Therefore, in essence, it was argued in the documents that – an engineer equipped with some elements of liberal arts in graduate courses, would be in a better position to appreciate, communicate and contribute to the success of a project – by understanding the project from different perspectives, as well as by making his or her points clear and firm.
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Dr. Dilip Barua, Ph.D, P.Eng, M. ASCE
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Website: https://widecanvas.weebly.com
Original Message:
Sent: 05-25-2018 09:57
From: Jerry Rogers
Subject: Using engineering history for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
Utilizing engineering history courses for liberal arts requirements would be useful!
How about helping undergraduate civil engineering students better appreciate the History & Heritage of Civil Engineering?
There are monthly History Lessons in CIVIL ENGINEERING and many ASCE and other publishers books on civil engineering history and heritage.
Let's be selective in beneficial liberal arts courses for undergraduates!
Jerry Rogers
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Jerry Rogers Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Dist.M.ASCE
Emeritus Professor
Houston TX
(713) 468-6170
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