EA3720: CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN AND SURVEYING AND HYDROLOGY FIELD TRIP (2016-2017)

Students carry out a group design exercise over a nine week period throughout the term. Students must keep a logbook record of everything they do in the design exercise, and the log book will be submitted at three-weekly intervals. Students will also attend a one week field trip, normally at the start of the Easter.

Assessment and Re-design of a Temporary Multi-storey Office Building
A major office building is to be re-furbished, and during this period one of its clients is to be re-housed in a temporary office structure nearby. This temporary building, in structural steelwork and timber, has many non-standard features and has already been built, at which stage the design of the building is called into question. The student's first task is to carry out the re-appraisal of the design, and to identify any design weaknesses.

Corrective action should then be determined, always subject to the constraints of a building which is already built and the very short time scale for the execution of such action. Brief method statements, with assessment of any associated risks, should be prepared as part of a final 6 page report for the client, together with any drawings required.

Surveying and Hydrology Field Trip
The field trip is residential. Prior to the start of the field elements of the course, students are given introductory lectures to familiarise themselves with the instruments used on the course. The one week field trip covers surveying exercises: levelling, traversing and setting out curves, and a hydrology exercise. During the exercises, students carry out a detailed survey of a specified land area and waterway including discharge measurements. This provides experience in the use of a wide range of surveying and hydrological instruments. Each exercise will include associated field data processing, drawing and report writing and will take up to one day. Students should note there will be a financial cost for this field trip.

18 three-hour practicals for the design activity and 4 eight-hour days and a three-hour practical briefing session for the field trip which will take place during the Easter vacation (usually in the first week).

There will be a charge to students to cover the specific transport, food and accommodation costs.
This will be in the region of £200-250.

Available only to students in programme year 3 of BEng Civil Engineering and MEng Civil Engineering or any of their variants.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

View EA3720 Timetable

More Information about Week Numbers

1st Attempt: Formal report of the design exercise (20%), log book marks (after the third and sixth weeks, both 15%) and the summation of the marks on the surveying and hydrology exercises (50%). Resit: None

The course is entirely continuously assessed, and has multiple formative assessments. Logbooks are submitted after weeks three and six, and again at week 9 together with a final report, of the design activity. Log books will be returned with marks and annotated feedback. The field trip will require reports (and drawings) to be submitted daily, and formative feedback will be returned daily.

Students will receive feedback on their progress on request throughout the design project in the progress meeting sessions with their supervisors. a)At the beginning of the design, students will be given briefings/instructions about the design project by the project supervisor. Feedback in this process will be received by both the supervisor and students through discussions. b)Students will receive further feedback on their progress in their log books after the third and sixth weeks. c)Students requesting feedback on their final report should make an appointment during the scheduled feedback session which will be announced within 4 weeks of the release of the report results. d) On the field trip students will receive their marks after each day?s exercise and will have the opportunity to ask the tutor for each exercise for feedback.

None.