Faculty mentoring and failure case studies in civil engineering education

Abstract

This paper describes a four-year faculty mentored undergraduate research experience in integrating failure case studies in civil and environmental engineering education. A freshman undergraduate student has been teamed with a University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA) assistant professor to undertake research in this area. As the student proceeds through the civil engineering curriculum, she will work with the faculty mentor to identify failure case studies that illustrate the teaching points of the courses. The research experience will encompass 33 hours per quarter for the three academic quarters during the year, as well as 20 hours per week during the summer.