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Letters form the Chairman
Dear and Friends of the ASCE Global Center: I would like to remind you about our teaching modules. As you know, Professor Ian Smith of EPFL in Switzerland led our important efforts to create teaching modules. All modules were rigorously reviewed by our Review Board (chaired by Professor Renate Fruchter of Stanford University) in order to guarantee that they represent ASCE quality both in terms of substance and state-of- the-art innovation. The first fifteen teaching modules are available as a free download at our web site (www.asceglobalcenter.org). Additional teaching materials, including examples, are under development and should become available during the next several months. Our modules were developed according to the ASCE "body of knowledge" that is necessary for students who have engineering careers ahead of them. Neither the body of knowledge nor the set of teaching modules are complete and you are invited to send proposals for contributions to Ian.Smith@epfl.ch. The principal requirements for such proposals are that materials need to be independent of hardware and software characteristics and they cannot mention commercial products whatsoever. The goal is to create kernel scientific information sets that can be enriched by instructors according to local conditions. I would like to share with you good news about submission of our workshop proposal to the National Science Foundation. We are planning this workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, in the second part of September this year. Its focus will be on sustainability and innovation in the context of computing. Professor Chimay Anumba has led our efforts to develop the proposal and to identify the potential workshop participants. We will begin working on the final workshop organization after we receive our NSF grant. Therefore, please do not be surprised if you are contacted by Professor Anumba or by me about the workshop and about your possible participation. Yours truly, Tomasz Arciszewski As 2009 comes to a close, I would like to take this time to share with you the good news about this past year’s activities at our Center. We have been quite busy in 2009 and I am happy to report positive developments in all areas of our activities. In the area of education, Professor Ian Smith of EPFL in Switzerland led our important efforts to create teaching modules. All modules were rigorously reviewed by our Review Board (chaired by Professor Renate Fruchter of Stanford University) in order to guarantee that they represent ASCE quality both in terms of substance and state-of- the-art innovation. The first fifteen teaching modules are available as a free download at our web site (www.asceglobalcenter.org). Our worldwide members have been downloading them at a rate of approximately two to three per week. This is proof that our mission of computing knowledge dissemination continues and has a global impact. Our modules were developed according to the ASCE "body of knowledge" that is necessary for students who have engineering careers ahead of them. Neither the body of knowledge nor the set of teaching modules are complete and you are invited to send proposals for contributions to Ian.Smith@epfl.ch. The principal requirements for such proposals are that materials need to be independent of hardware and software characteristics and they cannot mention commercial products whatsoever. The goal is to create kernel scientific information sets that can be enriched by instructors according to local conditions. In the area of research, more than a year ago, the ASCE SCOPE Board approved our large-scale international research project on “Civil Engineering Ontology”. For the last year, the ASCE Research Foundation has worked on contacting several private foundations to request funding for our project. In one or two cases, there has been interest in our project, but unfortunately no grants have been awarded so far. This is understandable in the present financial situation where private foundations have lost substantial investments in the stock market and elsewhere. Thus, we have decided to request funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well. Professor Raymond Issa of the University of Florida leads our efforts and has already established an initial communication with an appropriate NSF Program Director. I am cautiously optimistic about this opportunity and will keep you informed. If you are interested in participating in our ontology project, please contact Professor Raymond Issa of the University of Florida at raymond-issa@ufl.edu. In addition, the ASCE Global Center is focusing research on model-based civil engineering reasoning. If you are interested in this area, please contact Professor Ian Smith at the email address mentioned earlier. As is common in fields of education and research, funding is often the determining variable. Our effectiveness is directly proportionate to the funds available to carry out our activities. Although recent attempts to secure funds from charitable organizations have not been successful, the Civil Engineering Research Foundation is still working with several private foundations and we are very hopeful. If you have a mechanism in your country that encourages and funds international activity, please contact us. We would be very happy to study any possibility that will help us reach our goals. In the last year, we have had two meetings during various international conferences. The first of such conferences was in June in Austin, Texas, USA during the International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering and the second one was in July in Berlin, Germany during a workshop organized by the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE). Each successful meeting was attended by approximately fifty present and potential members and involved general presentations about the Center, discussions and brainstorming of future activities. For 2010, we have already planned two initial meetings. The first one will be in early July in Nottingham, UK, during the workshop on computing in engineering organized by the EG-ICE. The second meeting will most likely be in Abuja, Nigeria during the NSF workshop on “Computing and Information Technology Support for Innovation and Sustainability.” Our Center is organizing this workshop and we are in the process of submitting a proposal to the NSF. On December 17, I met with Dr. DeMarie Beck, who is the NSF Program Director in charge of that organization’s projects in Nigeria. It was a very positive meeting and I am optimistic about our chances of receiving NSF support. The entire project is lead by Professor Chimay Anumba (anumba@engr.psu.edu) of Pennsylvania State University. I will, of course, provide more details as they become available. In November, Professor Hani Melhem of Kansas State University resigned from his position as Vice-Chair of our Executive Committee due to his increased responsibilities at Kansas State. I would like to thank him for his years of involvement and for his many contributions to the Center. Finally, I would like to thank all our volunteers, particularly the officers, for your hard work. All that you do benefits all of us and helps to build a global community of computing educators, scholars, and professionals. The main idea behind the Center is that progress in civil engineering computing cannot be made by one group- or one country- alone. Synergies between many groups in many contexts and from diverse cultures are essential to moving forward. Our mission is also to help colleagues in countries without sufficient resources to initiate research and teaching in the area of civil engineering computing. Let us continue to work together for the benefit of our individual countries and to advance global cooperation and building a global community of civil engineers. On a personal note, I am happy to report that I have just published a book entitled “Successful Education- How to Educate Creative Engineers” (www.SuccessfulEducation.us). I am excited about this publication and I am ready for the challenges and opportunities that await in 2010. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Warm regards, Tomasz Arciszewski Chairman, Executive Committee
Dear Members and Friends of our Center:
Yours truly, Tomasz Arciszewski
Dear the ASCE Global Center Members: I would like to share with you good news!!! Professor Esther Obonyo, the University of Florida and the member of our Center, has prepared a proposal for the National Science Foundation in the USA to organize a workshop for our Center in Nairobi, Kenya, early in January, 2009. The subject will be "Information Communication Technology Trends in the Construction Industry: Benefits, Drivers, Barriers and Limitations." The workshop has three major classes of objectives:
Research Objectives:
Educational Objectives:
Industrial Objectives:
The project will be led by an international team, including:
The USA delegation will include 12 professors specializing in the computing in civil and construction engineering. We expect also delegations from Kenya, Tanzania, and Switzerland. I hope that all our African members will participate in the workshop and that their universities will send delegations to the workshop.
We should know the final decision about funding of our workshop in May this year. At that time we will provide more details.
On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank Professor Obonyo for the preparation of the NSF workshop proposal. It was a long, complicated, and difficult process requiring involvement of many of our members, whose help is also acknowledged. However, I strongly believe that it was a worthwhile effort and that our first workshop in Africa will not only promote computing in civil and construction engineering but it will also help to build international research teams for future projects to be sponsored by the National Science Foundation in the USA and by the other sponsors.
Dear Members and Friends of our ASCE Global Center: Just before the end of the year 2007, I would like to share with you some good news about the activities of our Center and its recent results. The last year was quite busy and we have gradually advanced work in all areas of our activities, including education and research. In the area of education, Professor Ian Smith of EPFL in Switzerland led our efforts. The first four teaching modules have been not only developed (mostly by Professor Smith), but also reviewed by our Review Board (Chaired by Professor Renate Fruchter, of Stanford University) and uploaded to our web site (www.asceglobalcenter.org). They are regularly downloaded by our members from all continents. Additional nine modules have already been prepared and are being reviewed now. I hope that they will be ready for uploading in January, 2008. In this way, we will have 14 teaching module available, and that should be sufficient to develop a course on computing in civil engineering. In the area of research, Dr. Joseph Ugwu, JU C & R S Ltd. in Hong Kong, has developed a proposal for the ASCE for a large-scale international research project on "Civil Engineering Ontology." In the project several teams will participate, including teams from the University of Hong Kong, Loughborough University (England), University of Central Florida (USA), George Mason University (USA), University of Maribor (Slovenia), and University of Illinois (USA). In September, we had a meeting with several senior ASCE officers and now the ASCE SCOPE Board is reviewing our proposal. If approved, the ASCE will request funding for our project from several private foundations. In the last year, we had two meetings during the international conferences in Maribor, Slovenia (June, 2007) and in Pittsburgh, USA (July, 2007). Each meeting was attended by approximately 50 present and potential members. Both meetings involved general presentations about the Center by Professor Ian Smith and me, discussions, brainstorming of future activities, etc. In the year 2008, we are planning two meetings. The first one will be in July in Plymouth, (England), during the International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering, which is being organized by the European Group on Intelligent Computing in Engineering (EG-ICE). The workshop Chair is Professor Yaqub Rafiq of Plymouth University. The second meeting will take place in October in Beijing, China, during the International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering. You are all invited!!! Professor Esther Obonye of the University of Florida (USA) is working on a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, which is planned for January, 2009. The funding requested from the National Science Foundation and from the ASCE. In January next year, we have a meeting with an NSF Program Director in the International Division who is responsible for projects in Kenya. We are planning to work together on the details of our proposal. I hope that our members from Africa will attend the workshop. It will be our first activity in Africa and I am very excited about it. I hope that you all will be able to participate in our meetings!! Also, everybody is invited to contribute a teaching module on computing in civil engineering to our body of knowledge. I would like to thank all our volunteers, particularly the officers, the Chair of our Review Board, the authors and reviewers of teaching modules, for your hard work, which brings results benefiting all of us and building a global community of computing educators, scholars, and professionals. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! Warm regards Tomasz Arciszewski Chairman, Executive Committee ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 28, 2006 I would like to share with you information about ongoing activities in our Center. Most importantly, our first four teaching modules are ready and are undergoing a review by our Review Board, chaired by Dr. Renate Fruchter of Stanford University (Former Chair of the Executive Committee, the ASCE Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology). The review and the final improvements of the modules should be completed in January, 2007, and the modules will become available to members of our Center. The next batch of 6-8 modules should be ready for review early next year. We all should be grateful to Dr. Ian Smith of EPFL in Switzerland, who leads our efforts to develop teaching modules and who personally prepared a majority of them. However, we are still looking for volunteers willing to develop teaching modules in the following areas: 1. Theoretical Foundations Area 1.1. Formal Logic 2. Building Knowledge Representations Area 2.3. Object-oriented representations 3. Acquiring Data and Knowledge Area 3.2. Data Mining 4. Information Storage Area 4.3. Semantic Networks 5. Information Processing Area 5.3. Case adaptation 6. Knowledge Utilization Area 6.3. Agents 7. Engineer-Computer Interaction 7.1. Computer Graphics If you are interested in doing this important work, please contact Dr. Ian Smith at ian.smith@epfl.ch. Recently, we have completed our proposal for the ASCE Certificate in Computing and it is being considered by the ASCE. The proposal has been prepared mainly by Dr. Rafal Kicinger of George Mason University and I would like to thank him for this significant contribution. Early in January, Dr. Kim Roddis of the George Washington University (Present Chair of the Executive Committee, the ASCE Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology) and I will be meeting with Mr. John Casazza, ASCE, Director of Continuing Education, to discuss to optimal positioning of our certificate within the ASCE organization. We will have two general meeting next year. The first one will be in Maribor, Slovenia, during the 14th European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering Workshop on “Bringing ITC to Work,” 26-29 June, 2007. The second one will be in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, during the “2007 International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering,” 25-28 July, 2007. I hope that you will be able to attend both. Our home page is undergoing updates and improvements. If your have any suggestions, or you would like to add additional information about you or your activities, please contact me at tarcisze@gmu.edu. Also, we need input from several members, whose information on our page is missing. I would like to wish you a Happy New Year. I must admit that I am quite excited about this coming year. We will see our teaching modules actually used for teaching, we will have two general meetings (Maribor, Slovenia, and Pittsburgh, USA), and our ASCE Certificate in Computing should be approved. There is still a lot of work to be done and I hope that you will volunteer to help us, particularly with the development of teaching modules. With best regards Tomasz Arciszewski Chair, Executive Committee
Dear Global Center Member: Re: Recent progress I would like to share with you good news about our recent activities and progress in all areas achieved during the last several months. My message has been divided into five major parts for easy reading, including 1. Education/Teaching Modules, 2. Education/Webinars, 3. ASCE Certificate in Computing, 4. Research, 5. Logistics. 1. Education/teaching Modules Professor Ian Smith (EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland) is leading our efforts to develop teaching modules. A group of the Center’s members is working on various modules, including Professor Smith. The first set of 6-8 modules should be available in October, 2006. 2. Education/Webinars We are planning a series of Webinars (interactive lectures on Internet worldwide available) on computing. The first one has already been prepared on Data Base Design by Professor Ian Smith (EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland) and will be offered on November 7, 2006, 12 noon – 1 pm US Eastern Time. The cost is $249 for the ASCE members and $299 for non-members for a location. More details are available at http://www.asce.org/conted/distancelearning/onlinewebseminars.cfm 3. ASCE Certificate in Computing Dr. Rafal Kicinger (Research Professor at George Mason University, USA) and Professor Raymond Issa (University of Florida, USA) have already developed an extensive proposal for the ASCE Certificate in Computing, which undergoes now final modifications. It should be formally submitted to the ASCE in August this year and approved before the end of the year. There is a good possibility that the certificate exams will be worldwide offered for the first time in the fall of 2007. 4. Research Professor Avi Wiesel (University of Arizona, USA) has recently (during our Montreal meeting) become a new Center’s officer in charge of research. He is now working on the development of a strategy for winning grants for international projects dealing with computing in civil engineering, which should be ready before the end of August, 2006. Next, he will lead our efforts to implement his strategy. All questions, proposals, and suggestions regarding international research projects in our area of interest should be directed to him (avi.wiezel@asu.edu). 5. Logistics
Dear ASCE GCEC Members: March 24, 2006 I have just received information from Professor Ian Smith, Center’s Vice-Chair and Chair of our Education Working Group, that significant progress has been achieved in the area of education, including:
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the proposed taxonomy, please contact Professor Smith (ian.smith@epfl.ch) or me. If you want to contribute to the development of teaching modules, please contact Professor Smith. We are looking for volunteers interested in the development of teaching modules listed in Appendix 3 and shown in bold in the table provided in Appendix 1. Initial guidelines for the preparation of teaching modules are provided in Appendix 4 and Professor Smith may eventually provide more information. I would like to remind you that during the Joint International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Montreal, Canada, June 14-16, 2006, our Center has organized two interesting sessions related to globalization, research, and education. More details are provided in News. I hope that you will be able to attend them. Also, our Center will have an important working meeting during this Conference and you are most welcome to attend our meeting. Your participation is critical for success of our mission. The detailed agenda for our meeting will be distributed later. If you have any issues to be addressed, please let me know. I would like to report excellent progress of our work on the ASCE Certificate in Computing, more information will be provided soon. Based on our initial results, it should be possible to offer our first certificate exam in the Fall 2007.
Yours truly, Tomasz Arciszewski APPENDIX 1. INITIAL TAXONOMY OF TEACHING MODULES
TEACHING MODULES UNDER DEVELOPMENT 1. Theoretical Foundations Area 1.2.1. Complexity
1 - When size matters 2. Building Knowledge Representations Area 2.1. Data Structures 3. Acquiring Data and Knowledge Area 3.1.1. Introduction
to Machine Learning 4. Information Storage Area 4.1. Data Base Design 5.2.1. Optimisation,
Search and Exploration 1 - Good is best 6. Knowledge Utilization Area 6.1. Knowledge Systems for Decision Support TEACHING MODULES TO BE DEVELOPED Volunteers sought:
1.4. Terminology schemas
2.3. Object-oriented representations
3.2. Data Mining
4.2. Ontologies 5. Information Processing Area 5.1. Computational Mechanics
6.3. Agents 7. Engineer-Computer Interaction 7.1. Computer Graphics TEACHING MODULE PREPARATION GUIDELINES Teaching modules may vary in length from one to four hours All transparencies are to be prepared using MS PowerPoint. Approximately 40 transparencies are necessary for each hour. The use of non-textual information is strongly recommended. Each module should contain:
Preparation Process:
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