Computer: A teaching aid for structural engineering seniors at the University of Riyadh

Abstract

To cope with modern structural analysis and design using computers seen in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the civil engineering seniors of University of Riyadh have started to select computer oriented-structural final year projects. Nonetheless, seniors have remained reluctant to select such projects, simply because a typical civil engineering student takes as a sophomore a FORTRAN course and can easily complete the B.Sc. in C.E. graduation requirements without going near the computer again. The author, while working in Saudi Arabia, has adopted the computer as a teaching aid for seniors in advanced elective structural course using the Finite Element Method. The selected textbook, and assignments are geared to computer applications on structures. The purpose of the elective course is to reinforce and exploit the material covered in the FORTRAN course, in order to enable the students to accomplish computer oriented-structural final year projects. The paper evaluates the course's achievement and the impact of the course on the performance of seniors in their computer oriented-structural final year projects supervised by the author. The author believes that the time has come for the computer to be adopted as a teaching aid in a series of electives and final year projects in the field of structural engineering at our universities. The paper concludes with the result that such a step is necessary and quite feasible.