ABET outcomes and civil engineering
The civil engineering is a specialized branch of the engineering that combines the use of chemistry, physics-based in calculus, differential equations, material resistance, and design. Each university and educational institution that offer civil engineering programs must meet with basic criteria established by the ABET (Brown School of Engineering) and other professional organizations related to civil engineering. The programs of civil engineering, additional to the hard core of the career (calculus and sciences), it is necessary to add other skills to the potential engineers to develop their skills with success, that skills are: management, leadership, ethics and public policies.
The ABET, previously known as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology is a non-profit organization that accreditation to education institutions, universities and colleges in the world in sciences and engineering programs. The ABET works together with more than 660 institutions in 23 countries. Until 2016, the ABET has accredited more than 3100 education programs in technology, computation, and engineering. Today thirty-one technological societies are active members of the ABET including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
There are seven basic outcomes (ABET) that the civil engineer must meet to accomplish the minimum requirements of ABET.
1. Ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering. All the engineering programs in universities and technical institutions must cover the basic knowledge of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The professional must have a dominium in calculus, differential equations in real and imaginary dominium. The mathematics is the requirement for any engineer in the world. Almost 40% of the time of the student in the University or College is dedicated to mathematics knowledge. The mathematics tools are useful for all the rest of the disciplines inside the career as physics, chemistry, and design and material resistance. The physics, as a science, give the basis for the civil engineer of the Newton Law of Forces, the conservation of energy and balance of forces. The physics use mathematical principles but inside a framework of downward gravity and materials with specific resistance. The sciences give an ideal framework for calculations and design, but it is necessary to have engineering criteria to adapt, the ideal concepts to the reality of the nature and the use by the population. The engineering and the good practice gives to the engineer's security factors and "state of the art" procedures that must be followed for all the professionals.
2. Ability to design, conduct, analyses and interprets experiments. The engineer must have the ability to apply the theory concepts in physical and real phenomenon's to confirm calculations and prototypes. The design of the experiment consists in the determination of the objectives of the experiment, the required resources, variables and indicators of the experiment. The conduction of the experiment consist of the execution of the experiment until the achievement of the objectives and design plan. The analysis and interpretation consist in the study of the results considering the theory, laws and limitations of the experiment. This ability will help the civil engineer to take its career to the next level.
3. The ability to design a process, component or system considering the constraints of the external environment, those are sustainability, politics, economics, ethics, and laws. The civil engineers must have the capacity to create new designs adapted to the current context. Most of the designs of the civil engineers are new buildings, condominiums, bridges and communication ways. The design needs to consider the conditions of the environment, population requirements, cost restrictions, laws, and regulations. The other factor that civil engineers must consider is time. All projects, designs, and erection process are inside a timeframe. There is no unlimited time to accomplish a project, and the engineer must be advised of that.
4. Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams. The civil engineers do not work alone. A common project always requires the participation of different specialist inside and outside the different engineer specialties. For example, in a building erection, the project requires the participation of civil engineers, soil specialists, mechanical engineers, electric engineers, architects, administrators, economists, marketers and human resource specialists. The civil engineer in an erection project uses the idea and conception of the architects; civil engineers execute the calculations, drawings, bill of materials and technical specifications. Once the civil engineers deliver their "product", they must work together with the rest of the members of the team to guarantee the success of the final product of the project.
5. Ability to solve engineering problems. This is the "raison d'etre" of the engineers, solve engineering problems. The solution of problems does not necessarily follow a longitudinal pattern, in most cases, it is necessary to consider a transversal solution. The problems that the engineer faces are not always the same and have different backgrounds and stakeholders. The civil engineer must meet these criteria, adapt quickly to the environment and propose innovative solutions to the problems. The ability to identification and propose solutions must be developed by the engineer in the course of his career.
6. Professional and ethical responsibility. The civil engineers must follow a conduct and ethic protocol for all their designs, deliverables, and executions. The responsibility of the engineer is to the clients, the population, and the natural environment. The engineers must meet all the requirements of the client without affect their interests. The engineers must not affect the general population with the excuse to meet the client's requirements. The right of an individual must not affect the rights of the population. This principle applies to the engineers, too. The engineers must not affect the environment with the excuse to meet the requirements of the client and population. The action of the civil engineer must be sustainable guaranteeing a symbiosis between the environment and the civil engineer actions. The civil engineers must work in the reduction of the ecological footprint of the human being in the world.
7. Ability to communicate effectively: Similar to other professions, the civil engineers must communicate effectively with their clients, collaborators, and community. The civil engineer must use the same codification in language, rules, and context that the counterparts use. Successful communication is a necessary step to help the civil engineers to have a good result. A civil engineer without communication skills will limit his profession causing him problems in his designs, calculations, and erection executions. When the civil engineer works in multidisciplinary teams, the communication is the key to guaranteeing a successful project. When the engineers work in an organization, they must meet the goals, objectives and mission of the company; those give the minimum parameters of communication between the engineers and other members of the organization.
8. Ability to use new techniques, skills, and tools to improve the engineering practice. The civil engineer must update the used tools to execute his profession. In the case of preliminary studies, the use of satellite maps, high resolutions photographs, GPS and soil analysis will give to the civil engineer more accurate information for the design process. Previously, the engineers used outdated information for their designs, but today it is possible to get information of the real time of soil and materials for a specific design. The design process is today possible with the use of Computed Aided Design softwares in two and three dimensions with a simulation of materials, weather conditions and temperature. The civil engineers with a limited budget have available technology to create designs with more accurate results and with less man-hour. The civil engineers must know new constructions techniques for buildings, bridges and communication ways that reduce the requirements of material, weight and time erection. All new erection techniques reduce costs and increase the security on the construction sites. The civil engineers must meet the project management techniques as cost tracking, time delivery and net present value of an investment. The work of a civil engineer inside a major project has two-sided framework time and money. Both time and money are not unlimited, and the engineers must know how to get more with fewer resources and inside schedule. The programming techniques help the civil engineers to be familiar with the critical route of projects, the cost per task and the use of resources. The tools that the engineer uses improve their work, for that reason the engineer must update every time with the new technologies available in the market.
Works Cited
ABET. CRITERIA FOR ACCREDITING ENGINEERING PROGRAMS. 1 November 2014. Web. 26 August 2016.
Brown School of Engineering. ABET Accreditation. 2016. Web. 26 August 2016.
