Cultivating Research and Information Skills
in Civil Engineering Undergraduate Students
Adjo A. Amekudzi, Ph.D.
1
; Lisha Li
2
; and Michael Meyer, Ph.D., P.E.
3
Abstract: The ASCE’s body of knowledge for the 21st century and vision for civil engineering in 2025 outline skills and capabilities
necessary for civil engineers to create a sustainable world. An undergraduate course at Georgia Institute of Technology introduces
undergraduates to a systems-sustainability approach to civil and environmental engineering, applying systems methods to analyze deci-
sions over the life cycle of large-scale civil-engineered facilities. This paper discusses voluntary and systematic improvements introduced
in the course over a 2-year period to develop research and information skills in the students. A workshop on information sources and skills
was developed, offered and assessed over multiple semesters using a team-based course project. The term project requires students to
select one or two large-scale civil-engineered facilities, evaluate them using the integrated systems-sustainability framework presented in
the course, and develop a written report and oral presentation to present their work to their peers at the end of the semester. The paper
discusses integration of the information and library skills workshops with the course and presents results that underscore the importance
of formally cultivating research and information skills in civil engineering undergraduate students.
DOI: 10.1061/ASCE1052-39282010136:124
CE Database subject headings: Undergraduate study; Students; Engineering education; Research; Information management.
Introduction
A Civil Engineering Systems course CEE 3000, introduced in
1999 as a required course in the civil and environmental engineer-
ing CEE undergraduate curriculum at the Georgia Institute of
Technology, serves as the introductory course to sustainable de-
velopment issues in the curriculum. A primary intent of this
course is to introduce students to sustainable development issues
in the civil engineering profession. A focused and more compre-
hensive discussion on the course content may be found in Meyer
and Jacobs 2000 and Amekudzi and Meyer 2004. Since the
course was first introduced, the instructors have continuously re-
fined its content and improved its rigor, primarily as a reflection
of advances in the field of sustainable engineering and also as part
of the general process of improving and fine tuning courses over
time. This initiative is one example of several around the world
to incorporate sustainability effectively into higher education see,
for example, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in
Higher Education; Posch and Scholz 2006.
This paper discusses course developments to cultivate student
research and information skills. These activities were the result of
a voluntary collaboration between the course instructors and the
civil engineering librarian and have resulted in improvements that
are relevant to the ASCE 2025 vision. The intent of this paper
is to share the results of this collaborative effort with other in-
structors who may be interested in adding value to their systems-
sustainability courses through formally cultivating information
and research skills in their students. In the sections below, we
discuss the Civil Engineering Systems course project and the re-
search and information skills workshops. We then present data
to assess the benefits and lessons learned from these workshops,
as well as their overall significance to educating the civil engineer
of the future. A vision for the civil engineer of the future is de-
scribed by the ASCE body of knowledge BOK2 for the 21st
century ASCE 2008 and the ASCE vision for civil engineering
in 2025 ASCE 2007.
Civil Engineering Systems Course
Key Features
The Civil Engineering Systems course is part of a broader sus-
tainability initiative at the Georgia Institute of Technology Meyer
and Jacobs 2000. The course was developed and first offered in
1999 as the introductory course to sustainable development con-
cepts in the CEE curriculum. This course introduces students to a
sustainable engineering approach for planning, design, implemen-
tation, operation, and renewal of civil engineering systems. The
concept of sustainability is introduced as the operating paradigm
for making decisions over the life cycle of civil engineered facili-
ties. Sustainability is concerned with continued progress and de-
velopment of human communities while ensuring preservation of
the natural and human environment to enable such development
to continue indefinitely. ASCE adopted the following definition of
sustainable development in 1996: “sustainable development is the
challenge of meeting human needs for resources, industrial prod-
1
Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355 corresponding
author. E-mail: adjo.amekudzi@ce.gatech.edu
2
Civil and Environmental Engineering Librarian, Georgia Tech Li-
brary and Information Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
GA 30332-0900. E-mail: lisha.li@library.gatech.edu
3
Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355. E-mail: mike.meyer@
ce.gatech.edu
Note. This manuscript was submitted on May 15, 2008; approved on
June 29, 2009; published online on December 15, 2009. Discussion pe-
riod open until June 1, 2010; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Professional Is-
sues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 136, No. 1, January 1,
2010. ©ASCE, ISSN 1052-3928/2010/1-24–29/$25.00.
24 / JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE © ASCE / JANUARY 2010
Downloaded 04 Mar 2010 to 130.207.50.192. Redistribution subject to ASCE license or copyright; see http://pubs.asce.org/copyright