CE 311 K - Introduction to Computer Methods

PROJECT

PURPOSE

The purposes of the project are:

1. To enable you to explore in-depth some aspect of Civil, Architectural, or Environmental Engineering of particular interest to you and to develop experience in the use of computer methods to solve engineering problems
2. To provide experience in the formulation, execution and presentation of an engineering investigation
3. To participate in a team effort to produce a project, report and presentation that will be informative to you and to your classmates.

Steps in Carrying out the Project

The steps in carrying out the project are:

1. Sign up for an area of interest from the list provided by the lab instructor.  Areas of interest are drawn from the various focus areas of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department curricula in CE and ARE:

    

   1. Structures
   2. Materials: Mechanics and Construction
   3. Construction Engineering and Project Management
   4. Transportation
   5. Geotechnical Engineering
   6. Water Resources
   7. Environmental Engineering
   8. Environmental Systems for Buildings

    

2. From the expressed interests of the students, the instructor will prepare lists of team members for the various topical areas.
3. Teams will then select a project topic of their choosing in their area and prepare a 1-page proposal to be submitted electronically by the date specified in the course "assignment" web page.  The proposal should specify the objective of your team's project and outline how your team plans to go about executing the project. Your tem will receive a response by email containing an assessment of the proposed scope of work for the project. After making any revisions to the proposal that seem necessary in the light of this assessment, this proposal defines the scope of your team's project.
4. Teams will present an oral progress report in class on the date specified in the course "assignment" web page. The teams are expected to make some progress by mid-semester but the main effort on your project comes in the later part of the course once you've learned more about the methods in the course.
5. Teams will present their project to the class during one of the last two class days of the semester and submit a written report in electronic form to the instructor by the last day of class.
6. Each team member will submit an evaluation of the team's work to the instructor by the last day of class (a form will be provided for this purpose)

Term Papers

Upon completion of the project each team will submit a term paper and computer implementation of the work. Term Papers should include the following sections

• Abstract (a one paragraph summary of your project and results),

• Table of contents

• Introduction (short statement of problem, its importance, and what the report contains),

• Method(s) (theory and method of how you implemented your project or solved your problem), including specification of any input data required, and how it can be obtained

• Results (an example of running your project program or your solution to your problem), including a set of instructions on how to operate your program, with screen shots of the graphical user interface.

• Conclusions (what are the important things that you learned from the project), including an assessment of how effective you think your program or project is, and what could be done to extend or improve your project.

• References,

• Appendices (if any)

Term Papers should be prepared and submitted electronically by email to the instructor or posted to a web page on the World Wide Web.

Term Papers should be no longer than 10 type-written pages. 

The criteria on the accompanying page are used to assess student performance. Performance is defined as how well the student has prepared for and performed in class, and how well the student has mastered the material presented. To review the standards, press the following link:

Student Performance Standards 

The Term Papers is worth 20% of the final grade.    When I grade the project, I will be looking for:

• Originality of the concept  (3 points)
• Technical competence of the project execution  (10 points), including
  • Introduction and problem definition (2 points)
  • Method (2 points)
  • Results (2 points)
  • Program documentation and data specification (2 points)
  • Assessment (2 points)
• Quality of the report   (7 points)
   

McKinney | CE311K | Civil Engineering | UT Austin