2013 Session: 684

• Assessment of Introductory Transportation Engineering Course and General Transportation Engineering Curriculum
  Abstract: Transportation engineering is a critical sub-discipline of the civil engineering profession as indicated by its inclusion in FE exam material, its overlap in most other specialty areas of civilengineering, and as recognized by the Transportation Research Board, Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. With increasing transportation workforce needs, low numbers of students entering the ‘pipeline’, and limited hours within undergraduate civil engineering programs, it is important to ensure civil engineering students receive adequate preparation and exposure to career opportunities in the transportation engineering field. As such, investigations into the status of transportationengineering within civil engineering programs and specifically the introductory transportation engineering course are essential for understanding the implications to the profession. This paper first presents a review of relevant literature and findings from a new survey of ABET accredited civil engineering programs (n=84 responses). The survey indicates that 87 percent of responding programs teach an introductory course, and nearly 80 percent require it in their undergraduate programs. There is significant variation in the structure of the introductory course (number of credit hours, lab requirements, etc.), and common responses regarding improvements that could be made include adding labs, requiring a second course, and broadening course content. In addition, nearly 15 percent of faculty teaching the introductory course did not have a transportation focus area. This finding should be investigated further, given that this course may be a civil engineering student’s only exposure to the potential in the profession.
  Authors: Turochy, Rod E.; Fricker, Jon D.; Hawkins, H. Gene; Hurwitz, David S.; Ivey, Stephanie; Knodler, Michael A.; Young, Rhonda Kae
  Authors: Turochy, Rod E.; Fricker, Jon D.; Hawkins, H. Gene; Hurwitz, David S.; Ivey, Stephanie; Knodler, Michael A.; Young, Rhonda Kae
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-1385
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Exposing Minority Students to Transportation and STEM-Related Careers Through Summer Education Programs
  Abstract: The aging of the American workforce will lead to shortages in skilled workers throughout the country in the near future. Minorities are already underrepresented in the transportation industry, and without immediate intervention the conditions will not improve. To address the anticipated shortfall in skilled minority labor, the Federal Highway Administration, in coordination with the South Carolina Department of Transportation and the South Carolina State University, developed the Summer Transportation Institute (STI). In the Texas Gulf Coast region, the Center for Transportation Training and Research at Texas Southern University has introduced the transportation industry to minority high school students while emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills in tomorrow’s workplace through summer education programs for nearly ten years. This study examines the core curriculum of those programs and discusses their potential applicability’s in other regions of Texas.
  Authors: Godazi, Khosro; Goodwin, Gwendolyn; Qiao, Fengxiang; Miller, Miller
  Authors: Godazi, Khosro; Goodwin, Gwendolyn; Qiao, Fengxiang; Miller, Miller
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-1584
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Transatlantic Dual Master's Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems: First Two Years of Implementation
  Abstract: In August 2010, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Czech Technical University (CTU) and University of Zilina (UNIZA) jointly launched the Transatlantic Dual Masters Degree Program in Transportation Science and Logistics Systems. Under this program, a graduate student will spend one a year study at UTEP and another year at CTU or UNIZA. Upon the completion of the two-year program, the study will earn two master degrees. This project requires two years of preparation that lead to a successful proposal submitted to the funding agencies in U.S. and the European Union, followed by one year of administrative preparation before the actual student exchanges began in August 2011. The first cohort of eight students has successfully completed the program in June 2012. This article reports the sequence of events that led to proposal submission and award, major issues surfaced and challenges overcome during administrative preparation phase. This paper also documents the experiences of the professors and students who have participated in this program, and shares the key factors that have led to the successful implementation in the initial years.
  Authors: Cheu, Ruey Long; Carlos, Ferregut; Bína, Ladislav; Novakova, Helena; Horak, Tomas; Novak, Andrej; Hudak, Anton; Aguirre-Covarrubias, Sandra
  Authors: Cheu, Ruey Long; Carlos, Ferregut; Bína, Ladislav; Novakova, Helena; Horak, Tomas; Novak, Andrej; Hudak, Anton; Aguirre-Covarrubias, Sandra
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-0133
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Professional Development Summer Institute: Curriculum Development Using Technology Application and Student Experiences in STEM
  Abstract: Not every student in the United States receives the math and science education which will enable them to achieve the skill needed to interact and progress within 21st century transportation professions. This is especially true for positions in transportation and logistics, an ever-growing field that attracts academics and professionals with significant expertise in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Reflective of this, the Mid-America Transportation Center and the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools, both located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have partnered together, since 2006, to create the Professional Development Summer Institute, which helps teachers revitalize their expectations of math and science education. An interdisciplinary team of faculty with expertise in transportation research and education collaborate with teachers to design innovative lesson plans, using multimedia tools and state-of-the-art transportation research. As a result, teachers return to their full-time classrooms, ready to strengthen students’ achievement and to fuel their interests in transportation career pathways. To date 79 teachers and over 3,500 students have been positively impacted by the program in the development of 77 engaging STEM lesson plans. One of the most significant long term outcomes was the establishment of a new culture of collaboration among educators, engineers, and industry professionals. In addition, the results from the summer institute have and will continue to contribute to the growing body of STEM literature on effective teacher professional development practices and effective instructional practices for students.
  Authors: Rilett, Laurence Russell; Kunz, Gina; Nugent, Gwen; Lefler, Valerie D.
  Authors: Rilett, Laurence Russell; Kunz, Gina; Nugent, Gwen; Lefler, Valerie D.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-5063
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Exploratory Model of Student Performance in a Geographic Information System Laboratory for Transportation Engineering Undergraduates
  Abstract:

  The focus of this paper is to identify and validate an exploratory model that links students’ performance in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) laboratory based learning system to major predictors based on students’ perceptions and beliefs. The instructional process in the laboratory was similar to a short-term training course, therefore, first, academic self-efficacy and its determinants, perceived motivation and perceived task complexity, were examined as significant predictors of students’ performance outcomes. Second, the interest was to determine if the major change in the instructional process during the last two semesters of the laboratory, the link of the laboratory topic to the semester long highway design project, produced significant difference in students’ self-efficacy. The results indicate that both perceived motivation and perceived complexity are significant predictors for students’ academic self-efficacy. Higher self-efficacy produced the desired outcomes as a result of better alignment of the complexity of the laboratory activity with the level of expectations of students possibly based on their experiences in other similar courses. Higher self-efficacy typically results in higher chances that students will successfully engage in similar future activities. This outcome is of high interest as the GIS laboratory was set as a distributed learning activity implemented as stand-alone laboratories in several courses throughout the civil engineering curricula. The model confirmed that the instructional design interventions over the semester increased students’ motivation. Structural equation modeling approach was adopted in this study. The data used for the analyses were obtained from a longitudinal study of student performance in a GIS laboratory over four semesters.

  Authors: Bham, Ghulam Hussain; Cernusca, Dan
  Authors: Bham, Ghulam Hussain; Cernusca, Dan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-2008
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Transatlantic Dual Master's Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems: First Two Years of Implementation
  Authors: Cheu, Ruey
  Authors: Cheu, Ruey
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-0133
• Exploratory Model of Student Performance in a Geographic Information System Laboratory for Transportation Engineering Undergraduates
  Authors: Bham, Ghulam
  Authors: Bham, Ghulam
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-2008
• Assessment of Introductory Transportation Engineering Course and General Transportation Engineering Curriculum
  Authors: Turochy, Rod
  Authors: Turochy, Rod
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-1385
• Exposing Minority Students to Transportation and STEM-Related Careers Through Summer Education Programs
  Authors: Godazi, Khosro
  Authors: Godazi, Khosro
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-1584
• Professional Development Summer Institute: Curriculum Development Using Technology Application and Student Experiences in STEM
  Authors: Kunz, Gina
  Authors: Kunz, Gina
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Education and Training
  Session: 684
  Paper Number: 13-5063