Integrated design. The scenario-based four year experience

Summary form only given. In a collaborative effort faculty members of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Arkansas have embarked on a unique experiment in education aimed at improving the student design experience in the civil engineering program. A four year, scenario based, design program is under development that will incorporate the same parcel of land and the same functional facility as the vehicle for instruction in all of the engineering science and design courses of the civil engineering program. Virtually every civil engineering course will use a portion of the facility to teach a topic in design or analysis. The initial scenario is the development of a major shopping mall on a 100-acre, university owned, tract of gently rolling hills in an undeveloped area of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Students are introduced to the project scenario in the freshman fundamentals of engineering course. There, they have an opportunity to work in teams to walk the land and brainstorm the problems and opportunities. They develop the unconstrained functional requirements of the shopping mall. Their initial concepts are unhampered by technical knowledge at this point. During the course, faculty members from each of the major sub-disciplines of civil engineering then discuss the project from their prospective and provide a preview of what the student will learn in their course to assist in the development of the facility. The major goal of this program is to introduce students to the big picture of infrastructure development early in the curriculum in a manner that directly connects it to technical design issues.