Management education in Australian engineering undergraduate courses

Deals with the requirement mandated by the Institution of Engineers, Australia for the course content of engineering undergraduate courses in Australia. Historical developments on engineering in Australia; Details on the engineering management education in Australia; Implications of the policy and procedures on the nature of engineering management education.

Empirical investigation of critical success factors for implementing business intelligence systems in multiple engineering asset management organisations

Engineering asset management organisations (EAMOs) are increasingly motivated to implement business intelligence (BI) systems in response to dispersed information environments and compliance requirements. However, the implementation of a business intelligence (BI) system is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources. Yet, so far, there are few defined critical success factors (CSFs) to which management can refer. Drawing on the CSFs framework derived from a previous Delphi study, a multiple-case design was used to examine how these CSFs could be implemented by five EAMOs. The case studies substantiate the construct and applicability of the CSFs framework. These CSFs are: committed management support and sponsorship, a clear vision and well-established business case, business-centric championship and balanced team composition, a business-driven and iterative develop ment approach, user-oriented change management, a business-driven, scalable and flexible technical framework, and sustainable data quality and integrity. More significantly, the study further reveals that those organisations which address the CSFs from a business orientation approach will be more likely to achieve better results.

An introduction to compressive sensing and its potential applications in structural engineering

The Shannon/Nyquist sampling theorem specifies that to avoid losing information when capturing a signal, one must sample at least two times faster than the signal bandwidth. In order to capture and represent compressible signals at a rate significantly below the Nyquist rate, a new method, called compressive sensing (CS), is therefore proposed. CS theory asserts that one can recover certain signals from far fewer samples or measurements than traditional methods use. It employs non-adaptive linear projections that preserve the structure of the sparse signal; the signal is then reconstructed from these projections using an optimization process. It is believed that CS has far reaching implications, while most publications concentrate on signal processing fields (especially for images). In this paper, we provide a concise introduction of CS and then discuss some of its potential applications in structural engineering. The recorded vibration time history of a steel beam and the wave propagation result on a steel rebar are studied in detail. CS is adopted to reconstruct the time histories by using only parts of the signals. The results under different conditions are compared, which confirm that CS will be a promising tool for structural engineering.

A longitudinal evaluation of a project-based learning initiative in an engineering undergraduate programme

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known student-centred methodology for engineering design education. The methodology claims to offer a number of educational benefits. This paper evaluates the student perceptions of the initial and second offering of a first-year design unit at Griffith University in Australia. It builds on an earlier evaluation conducted after the initial offering of the unit. It considers the implementation of the recommended changes. Evaluations of the two offerings reveal that students (in both the initial and second offering) generally enjoyed the experience, but that the second offering was found to be a significantly more enjoyable learning experience. Students in the second offering also reported a significantly better understanding of what they needed to do for the design projects and where to find the requisite information. The oral presentation aspect of the initial and second offerings received the lowest satisfaction rating. The inclusion (and delivery) of the computer-aided drawing component of the unit is seen as a positive aspect by some students, but many others comment on it negatively. The best aspects of the PBL unit and those aspects needing further improvement were similar to the findings of other investigations documented in the literature.

Action research : the use of enterprise resource planning system in construction engineering and project management

Although information communication technology (ICT) is long regard as very useful tool in today’s construction engineering and project management environment, organizations must not only operate based upon its original setting, but also requires on-going observation, additional features and fine is a very common phenomenon that organizations purchase the licensed “off their own business need. Due to the incapability of such software and inefficient customization, the possible result is making that ICT tool not user-friendly and sometimes the whole system becomes obsolete.

The purpose of this paper is to review and report those action organization to enhance the performance of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system launched in December 2002. Such actions include: improving data inputting method; removing the tran the organization’s “Delegation and Limits of Authority”; publishing the “League Table” amongst users; integrating the 3D Mode into the system and upgrading hardware.

Whilst the ultimate goals of such system are well beyond the time limit of this research study, an obvious interim result, achieved by this case studied organization, was winning a landmark project worth US$500 million after the ERP system was functioned prope and effectively. Their experience and success becomes an exemplar which can be borrowed by those companies, from managerial perspectives and as a roadmap, planning to adopt information technology (IT) strategy and use ICT tool in the construction engineering and project management framework. Singapore, where public housing provisions have been a major concern of their citizens as the building stock gets older.

Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Aligning students and staff perspectives in an engineering design curriculum

This paper focuses on the alignment of students and staff perspectives in an engineering design curriculum. Deakin University recognised the importance of student learning with engagement in design-centred education. Staff across the university are committed to ensure that students are engaged at a fairly deep learning level. Engaging students is an important aspect of learning and teaching process because it enhances the student to be self directed active learners. To measure the student engagement and staff experiences in learning and teaching process, Deakin engineering has used design based learning as one of its engineering learning principle. This study examines students perceptions of DBL in their curriculum through a paper based survey given to a cohort of senior year undergraduate engineering students. The research also illustrates the staff perceptions of DBL in engineering curriculum by conducting face-to-face interviews with them. From the analysed results, this research shows that the students and staff have an adequate experience of learning and teaching engineering through design based learning approach in an engineering design curriculum.

Identify kinetic features of fibers growing, branching, and bundling in microstructure engineering of crystalline fiber network

Fibers growing, branching, and bundling are essential for the development of crystalline fiber networks of molecular gels. In this work, for two typical crystalline fiber networks, i.e. the network of spherulitic domains and the interconnected fibers network, related kinetic information is obtained using dynamic rheological measurements and analysis in terms of the Avrami theory. In combination with microstructure characterizations, we establish the correlation of the Avrami derived kinetic parameter not only with the nucleation nature and growth dimensionality of fibers and branches, but also with the fiber bundles induced by fiber-fiber interactions. Our study highlights the advantage of simple dynamic rheological measurements over other spectroscopic methods used in previous studies for providing more kinetic information on fiber-fiber interactions, enabling the Avrami analyses to extract distinct kinetic features not only for fibers growing and branching, but also for bundling in the creation of strong interconnected fibers networks. This work may be helpful for the implementation of precise kinetic control of crystalline fiber network formations for achieving desirable microstructures and rheological properties for advanced applications of gel materials. This journal is © the Partner Organisations 2014.

Modelling of guided wave propagation with spectral element: application in structural engineering

Among many structural health monitoring (SHM) methods, guided wave (GW) based method has been found as an effective and efficient way to detect incipient damages. In comparison with other widely used SHM methods, it can propagate in a relatively long range and be sensitive to small damages. Proper use of this technique requires good knowledge of the effects of damage on the wave characteristics. This needs accurate and computationally efficient modeling of guide wave propagation in structures. A number of different numerical computational techniques have been developed for the analysis of wave propagation in a structure. Among them, Spectral Element Method (SEM) has been proposed as an efficient simulation technique. This paper will focus on the application of GW method and SEM in structural health monitoring. The GW experiments on several typical structures will be introduced first. Then, the modeling techniques by using SEM are discussed. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

A framework for understanding collaborative creativity in requirements engineering: Empirical validation

Requirements engineering (RE) often needs creativity in a form where interactions among stakeholders are particularly important: collaborative creativity. However, few studies have explicitly concentrated on understanding collaborative creativity in RE, resulting in a lack of well-founded advice for practitioners on how to support this aspect of RE. Through an online survey, this paper seeks empirical validation for a framework of factors characterising collaborative creative processes in RE. Within the limits of the validity of the study, the results show support for the utility of the framework: collaborative creativity seems to be a linear function of the mean score to all factors in the framework. Factors can be grouped, and the specific impact of each group on collaboration, value and novelty can be assessed.

Collaborative creativity in requirements engineering: analysis and practical advice

Requirements engineering (RE) often entails interdisciplinary groups of people working together to find novel and valuable solutions to a complex design problem. In such situations RE requires creativity in a form where interactions among stakeholders are particularly important: collaborative creativity. However, few studies have explicitly concentrated on understanding collaborative creativity in RE, resulting in limited advice for practitioners on how to support this aspect of RE. This paper provides a framework of factors characterising collaborative creative processes in RE. These factors enable a systematic investigation of the collaboratively creative nature of RE. They can potentially guide practitioners when facilitating RE efforts, and also provide researchers with ideas on where to focus when developing methods and tools for RE. © 2013 IEEE.