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LECTURE 02: CIVIL ENGINEERING, SOCIETY, AND OTHER PROFESSION
U.S. National Academy of Engineering
A non-governmental, non-profit organization, after an
elaborate nomination-and-review process published the
twenty greatest engineering achievements of the 20th
century in 2000.
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The twenty greatest engineering achievements of the 20th
century in 2000 listed by the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering
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Electrification
Automobile
Airplane
Water Supply and Distribution
Electronics
Radio and Television
Agricultural Technologies
Computers
Telephone
Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
Highways
Spacecraft
Internet
Imaging
Household Appliances
Health Technologies
Petroleum and Petrochemical
Mechanization
Laser and Fiber Optics
Nuclear Technologies
High-performance Materials
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Physics
Mathematics
Social and Political Forces
The advances in understanding of the following, is what
today's civil engineering is linked to.
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A degree earned by an engineer with a major in civil
engineering.
Four (4) or five (5) years
Length of years a student usually pursues their studies.
Ideally, a degree should include units covering topics in these three major categories
Bachelor of Science
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Foundational
2.
Technical
3.
Professional
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Mathematics,
natural sciences,
humanities, and
social sciences.
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Materials science,
mechanics,
experiments,
problem recognition and solving,
design,
sustainability,
contemporary issues/ historical perspectives,
risk and uncertainties,
project management,
breadth in civil engineering areas, and
technical specialization.
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Communication
Public policy
Business and public
Administration
Globalization
Leadership
Teamwork
Attitudes
Lifelong learning
Professional and ethical responsibility
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Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology (ABET)
A professional body that provides an accreditation for a
degree program.
A Bachelor's degree in civil engineering
In most countries, the first step toward professional
registration or licensure.
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Range of requirements a civil engineer must satisfy, after
completing an accredited degree program, before
becoming registered or licensed.
Work experience
Exam requirements
The National Council of Examiners for
Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)
In the United States, administers the civil engineering
professional engineer (Civil PE) exam.
The prospective engineer
After passing the Engineer in Training (EIT) exam, is what
tested with a Breadth Exam or Depth Exams
Breadth Exam (Morning Session)
This exam contains questions from all six areas of civil
engineering: Construction, Geotechnical, Structural,
Transportation, Water Resources, and Environmental.
Depth Exams (Afternoon Session)
These exams focus more closely on a single area of
practice in civil engineering. Examinees must choose one
of the following areas. Construction, Geotechnical,
Structural, Transportation, Water Resources, and
Environmental.
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Once licensed, the civil engineer is designated the title of:
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Professional Engineer (in the
United States, Canada, and South
Africa)
Chartered Engineer (in most British
Commonwealth countries)
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Chartered Professional Engineer (in
Australia and New Zealand)
Professional Engineer (in many
Asian countries)
Civil Engineering Associations
American Society of Civil Engineers
Canadian Society for Civil
Engineering
Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honor
Society
Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute
Engineers Australia
Institution of Civil Engineers (UK)
Institute of Structural Engineers
(UK)
Institute of Transportation
Engineers Royal Academy of
Engineering (UK)
Transportation Research Board
The Institution of Civil Engineering
Surveyors
Professional bodies that are designed to allow engineers to
practice across international borders.
“Only a licensed engineer may prepare,
sign and seal, and submit engineering
plans and drawings to a public authority
for approval, or seal engineering work
for public and private clients.”
In the United States and Canada, most licensing
organizations use something like of the quote.
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Professional associations of civil engineers, such of the
given, maintain a code of ethics by which members are
expected to abide or risk expulsion.
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The American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE)
The British Institution of Civil
Engineers (ICE)
The British Institute of Structural
Engineers (ISE)
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The Philippine Institute of Civil
Engineers (PICE)
Professional Regulation Commission
(PRC)
The licensure examinations for Civil Engineers, were
administered by this professional body, in the Philippines.
May and November
The licensure exams usually take place twice every year,
usually during these given months.
Mathematics, Surveying and
Transportation Engineering (equates to a
35% for the final rating of the exam)
The first subject, which is usually taken during the first day
of the examination, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, for a total
of 5 hours, to answer seventy-five (75) questions.
Hydraulics and Geotechnical Engineering
(equates to a 30% for the final rating of
the exam)
The second subject, after the first, which the examiners
will take one hour break for lunch and to prepare for, that
will start at 2:00 PM until 6:00 PM, a four (4) hour exam
for 50 problems.
Structural Engineering and Construction
(equates to a 35% for the final rating of
the exam)
The third and last subject, that will be taken on the second
day of the examination, with the same time schedule and
number of problems of the first subject.
An average of 70% rating and above
The examiners should get, in order to pass the
examination.
Examiners should not get a score lower
than 50%, even if their average rating is
higher than 70%
Another exam condition that is followed. So, that if the
first subject has 75 items, the examiners should correctly
answer 37.5 questions which will then be round up to 38
questions.
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The title of Registered Civil Engineer
(RCE)
The examiner will be given, once passed the conditions,
after they took their oath and receive their Professional
License ID released by the PRC.
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Architectural Engineering
Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers
(COPRI)
Construction (CI)
Engineering Mechanics (EMI)
Environmental and Water
Resources (EWRI)
Geo (G-I)
Structural Engineering (SEI)
Transportation & Development
(T&DI)
Institutes incorporated by the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE), as civil engineering specialization have
changed over time due to society's needs and the
complexities of projects and technologies.
Focuses on the interaction
between projects and their
surroundings.
Utilizes principles from various
engineering fields for diverse
projects.
Collaborates with surveyors and
specialized civil engineers.
Designs plans for grading,
drainage, pavement, water supply,
sewer systems, electricity,
communications, and land
divisions.
Includes site visits, community
consensus-building, and the
creation of construction plans and
specifications for projects of all
scales and types.
Civil Engineering Areas of Concentration General Civil
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Coastal
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Construction
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Helps manage coastal areas
Defends against flooding and erosion
Designs ports and works to reclaim land.
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Plans and executes the designs from transportation;
site development, hydraulic, environmental,
structural and geotechnical engineers.
Writes and/ or reviews contracts.
Evaluates logistical operations.
Controls prices of necessary materials, operations,
and equipment.
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Environmental
CIVIL ENGINEERING CAREERS
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Geotechnical
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Land Surveying
Environmental engineering involves treating
chemical, biological, and thermal waste, purifying
water and air, and cleaning up contaminated sites.
Focuses on pollution reduction, green engineering,
and industrial ecology.
Provides information about the environmental
effects of proposed actions, creating reports like
environmental impact reports (EIRs) to assist
decision-making by society and policymakers.
Geotechnical engineering studies rocks, soil, and
their interactions.
It involves tests to understand subsurface properties.
Engineers design foundations and earth structures.
Knowledge is drawn from geology, material science,
mechanics, and hydraulics.
Geo-environmental engineering deals with
environmental aspects.
Natural material complexity sets geotechnical apart
from civil engineering.
Involves determining land boundaries based on legal
descriptions, and it plays a role in laying out routes
for transportation systems and infrastructure like
railways, highways, and pipelines.
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Municipal or Urban
Engineering
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Structural
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Transportation
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Water Resources
Surveyors use tools like levels, theodolites, EDM,
total stations, GPS, and laser scanning to measure
angles, distances, and slopes accurately.
Traditional optical instruments have been largely
replaced by modern computerized technologies in
surveying.
Encompasses designing, building, and up-keeping
municipal infrastructure like streets, sidewalks, water
supply systems, sewers, lighting, waste management,
and parks.
Covers parts of local electrical and
telecommunications networks.
Coordinate various infrastructure elements under the
same municipal authority for efficient service
provision and management.
Analyzes and designs structures like buildings,
bridges, and tunnels.
It deals with loads such as self-weight, live loads,
wind, and seismic forces, considering factors like
strength, aesthetics, safety, and sustainability.
Engineers may specialize in areas like wind or
earthquake engineering for enhanced expertise.
Aims to facilitate safe and efficient movement of
people and goods within communities.
Involves planning using methods like queuing theory
and intelligent transportation systems.
Covers the design, construction, and upkeep of
transportation systems, such as roads, highways,
railways, airports, and ports.
Explores paving materials and includes
transportation design, planning, traffic engineering,
and elements of municipal.
An interdisciplinary field that involves hydrology
environment science, meteorology, geology, and
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The Five Characteristics of a Profession and their Attributes
John Philip Bachner
1.
Systematic Body of
Theory
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Authority
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Community Sanction
4.
Ethical codes
A geotechnical engineer and an author, who listed the five
characteristics of a profession and their attributes.
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Skills flow from an internally consistent system.
Spirit of rationality; expansion of theory.
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Extensive education in systematic theory highlights
the layperson's comparative ignorance.
Functional specificity.
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State-sponsored boards.
License or registration.
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Ethical
➢ Professional
Client-professional
➢ Impulse to perform maximally.
Colleague to colleague
Cooperative
➢ Egalitarian
➢ Supportive
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A culture
resource management to efficiently manage water as
natural resource.
It aims to predict and control the quality and quantity
of water in sources like aquifers, lakes, rivers, and
streams.
It forecasts water movement within systems like
pipelines, drainage facilities, and canals, spanning
different scales by analyzing and modeling.
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Social values
Services valuable to the community
Various modes of appropriate behavior
➢ Sounding like a professional
➢ Saying “no” gracefully
➢ Making presentations and conducting meetings
Symbols
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Henry Petroski
An American engineer and historian, suggests that
engineering history is both history and engineering.
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Planning
Four main phases all civil engineering projects must go through:
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Argot, jargon
Insignia, emblems
History and folklore
Design
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Construction
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Maintenance
Begins with a feasibility study, encompassing
financial and legal aspects.
Environmental impact assessments and public
hearings are essential for major projects, requiring at
least a preliminary design to be developed and
presented.
Preliminary Design - sometimes be a part of the
planning phase. Outlines the project concept, scope,
structure, materials, construction method, and
estimated cost and timeline.
Intermediate Design (optional)
Final Design - encompasses detailed designs of all
project structures and associated facilities, such as
electrical and mechanical components.
Includes the physical erection of all the structures and in
the meantime the observation of all applicable safety and
environmental regulations during construction phase.
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When the construction phase ends and the owner
takes over the project, the maintenance/ operation
phase begins.
The owner of the project usually takes over all
responsibilities, but the contractor is usually bound
by a warranty agreement.
During the warranty period, interaction between the
owner and the contractor could be very frequent and
intense.
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ATTRIBUTES OF A CIVIL ENGINEER
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Beyond the warranty period, the physical structures
require constant maintenance.
A well-known example is the constant painting of the
cables of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
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Analytical and
Organized
The application of the vast amount of knowledge in civil
engineering to solving real-life problems requires an
analytical approach and an organized mind. Civil engineers
are generally very organized in their daily lives as well.
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Bold in Conception
and Careful in Details
Seeking solutions to real-life problems requires a bold
conceptual design. Every new project is different and
requires the exploration of different solution outlines. In
carrying out the details of the design, the civil engineer
must be careful in every step to ensure safety and
accuracy.
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Creative but
Conservative
Finding new and economical solutions to civil engineering
problems requires creative mind that thinks beyond the
accepted and regular practices, but the reliability and
safety of the created product requires a conservative
assessment in every aspect, because for every civil
engineering product, failure is not an option.
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Dependable and
Trustworthy
Civil engineers depend on each other in teamwork.
Everyone is entrusted to produce reliable and accurate
work. Civil engineering projects are all time-sensitive. Ontime delivery is highly valued and even financially
rewarded as may be written in a contract.
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Ethical and Honest
The impact of a civil engineering project is usually wide
ranged and concerns the public interest because it entails
the creation of a new built environment, large or small. A
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civil engineer must be ethical in practice and honest in
character in order to earn the public trust.
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Forthright but
Personable
Civil engineers need to communicate with others
effectively. Very rarely does a civil engineer work alone.
The teamwork necessitated by the nature of the
engineering work requires a civil engineer to possess
excellent interpersonal skills to be able to fit in and work
well with others.
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Passionate about
Work
The author never met a civil engineer who is not
passionate and proud of what they do. Because civil
engineer products are everywhere and visible, it is possible
to see a civil engineer pointing to a building, a bridge, a
river, or other structures and proudly announcing his/ her
contribution.
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Applied Mechanics
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RELATED DISCIPLINES
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Architectural
Engineering
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Mechanics is a fundamental area in physics that
studies force and its effects. Engineering mechanics
applies these principles practically.
Civil engineering structures face forces like gravity,
wind, earthquakes, and temperature changes.
Applied mechanics includes statics, dynamics, fluid
mechanics, and mechanics of materials. These
concepts find direct use in fields like structural
engineering, geotechnical engineering, water
resources engineering, environmental engineering
and construction.
Architectural engineering specializes in the aesthetics
and structural design of buildings.
The structural design aspect of architectural
engineering overlaps with structural engineering.
The aesthetical design aspect of architectural
engineering applies the knowledge developed in
architecture studies.
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Agricultural
Engineering
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Aerospace
Engineering
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Architectural engineers also study and apply
knowledge in electrical and mechanical systems to
building designs.
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Agricultural engineering includes irrigation and
mechanization. Irrigation is linked to hydraulic
engineering, while mechanization falls under
mechanical engineering. With DNA engineering,
molecular biology methods are used to modify crops,
expanding agricultural engineering into the broader
field of bioengineering.
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Aerospace Engineering entails aeronautical
engineering and astronautical engineering, which
develops vehicles that fly through the Earth's
atmosphere and beyond, respectively.
The structural analysis and design of the flying
vehicles, airplanes, and spacecraft, is most similar to
that of civil structural engineering.
The difference is in the nature of forces acting on the
structures.
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Biomedical
Engineering
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Naval Architecture
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Specializes in the applications of engineering to the
medical field, including medical imaging, surgical
devices, and implant devices.
The structural analysis and design of medical devices
and implants overlaps with civil structural
engineering in the basic tools used and differs in the
nature of forces acting on the devices.
Naval architecture specialized in the design of ships.
The analysis and design of ship structures is similar to
that of civil structures and uses similar computational
tools.
The difference is in the nature of forces acting on the
structures.