This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)
This engineering education research award to Drexel University in collaboration with Purdue University, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, and Northeastern University will employ researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of using a fully instrumented real functioning bridge called the "Learning Bridge" to provide a comprehensive laboratory experience for civil engineering students. The project will add sensing, monitoring, and data transmission capability to the bridge for use by academic institutions and develop internet portals to the learning modules which will use this data. This research would both create a unique and much needed infrastructure resource for civil engineering laboratory development and also advance understanding of how civil engineers learn about multi-domain systems. Most of the sub-disciplines of civil engineering will be integrated by exposing students to a complex infrastructure system linking social and technical concepts from the beginning of the undergraduate program. This work will contribute to better preparation of engineers to fill engineering jobs.
