Proposal

Narrative

The Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatics Engineering (CEGE) proposes to enhance its capability to provide engineering students with a suitable engineering design laboratory space using technology instead of repurposing shared conventional classroom spaces in the Wimberly Library. In Fall 2017, the provost office granted CEGE a space in IS building to house the Engineering Design Laboratory, which was reallocated to Human Resources in 2015, requiring CEGE students to conduct their capstone design activities in the Library Seflin Room. Although the Seflin Room met the needs of the teaching space at the time in 2015, our program has outgrown the space (with standing room only in the classroom), and the computer facilities are located on the first floor of the building as a shared space with the library training needs. Students do not have 24 hour access to their work in this arrangement, which they did have prior to 2015. The new space conveniently places the transportation laboratory, the AutoCAD drafting laboratory, and the design studio in one place adjacent to each other with 24 hour access. The renovation of the space requires two phases. The first was funded last year (2017) to provide the minimum teaching requirements, IT, and classroom furniture. The second phase will complete the renovation started this summer with collaboration design spaces where students from 3 majors can work together on projects, share desktops, create/edit virtual designs, record their presentations and play them back for feedback, work on computer model simulations in a small team environment, and provide a secure group study space. Students will be able to interact without limitation by sharing voice, video, data, and even manipulating shared documents, simulations, drafting files, and presentations. In a previous tech fee grant, a 3-D printer was acquired for making models of student designs. The 3-D printer currently is housed in a closet in the chair's suite, which will be relocated to the IS103 space so that students can have more access to the unit for overnight printing of larger scale models. The capstone design sequence is comprised of CGN4803C-CEGE Design 1 and CGN4804C-CEGE Design 2. These courses are taught each semester and are required for Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Geomatics Engineering majors, which is about 35-45 students and 3 faculty in each class per semester in 3 programs. This proposal addresses the major issues identified by the students in the Department Chair’s Forum as follows: 1) group study space. This proposal completes the creation of a dedicated collaboration studio environment to address this need. 2) 24-hour dedicated access to collaboration space and recording equipment. This proposal permits independent recording and presentation practice using built-in recording equipment that can be accessed without interruption. 3) Student-centered priority for space use. This proposal uses technology to create a dedicated student-centered collaboration studio that prioritizes students’ needs. 4) 3D printing capacity. This proposal brings all of the technology needs of the students into one working space.

Facilities

Minor Project P7501 (project manager Robin Romero) is currently overseeing the renovations to the floor, lighting, access, paint, etc. This project is in process already.

Hardware Requirements

Funds are requested for audio/recording equipment, A/V interface equipment, air media wireless presentation gateways, electrical, plumbing, and furniture as specified in coordination with Glen Campbell, Evan Beardsley-Dodd, Robin Romero, and Jody Bagdonas' team. Note: furniture includes a height adjustable ADA-compliant table as we will have one student who is confined to a wheel chair.

Software Requirements

No software requirements.

Personnel Costs

No personnel costs are required

Other Costs

Labor and installation costs are included. Plumbing for the 3-D printer washing station is included.

Timeline

As soon as funding becomes available, we anticipate completion of the installation during late spring/early summer 2018, so that the room will be ready for the Fall 2018 semester.

Sustainability

The request is for permanent equipment used for instructional purposes. This equipment will need minimal maintenance over the life of the equipment. Lab fees are already in place for 3-D printing consumables.

Resource Matching

The construction costs for the renovation of the video studio space to an engineering design laboratory is being provided from other funding sources. Minor Project P7501 (project manager Robin Romero) is overseeing the renovations to the floor, lighting, access, paint, etc. This proposal is only for the teaching equipment needed to make the space functional for students.

Implementing Organization

Minor Project P7501 (project manager Robin Romero) is overseeing the renovations to the floor, lighting, access, paint, etc. He is coordinating with the CEGE Department (Dr. Yong and Dr. Meeroff) to implement the teaching technology aspects into the design.