The programme structure and equivalent SCQF points allocation are
summarised below:
|
Year
|
No. of Courses
|
Points / Course
|
Points / Year
|
SCQF Level
|
SCQF Points
|
|
1
|
7/8
|
10-40
|
120
|
8
|
120
|
|
2
|
11
|
10-20
|
120
|
8
|
120
|
|
3
|
8
|
10-20
|
120
|
9
|
120
|
|
4
|
11
|
10-20
|
120
|
10
|
120
|
|
5
|
7
|
10-40
|
120
|
11
|
120
|
Full precise details of the programme structure vary from year
to year; current details are available online at:
http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/
Three threads run through the programme: design,
sustainability and health and safety.
Design
Design skills are developed continually during our degree
programmes. We gradually build students??? confidence and ability
until they can confidently tackle complex and open-ended
engineering designs subject to the diverse constraints and drivers
present on a real project. Design permeates throughout our
programmes. Some courses are explicitly design-focused, whereas
other courses concentrate upon developing analysis and theory. In
all cases, however, design provides the context for the analysis
that is being presented and for tutorial problems.
We nurture our students??? design abilities in the early years of
our programmes with projects including a road design and the
design of a hydropower reservoir and dam. The technical basis of
these projects is simplistic; the aim is instead to expose
students to the design process and to give them confidence in
interpreting a design brief, design team working, converging on a
design that is in some way ???optimal???, and assessing solutions
based on function, cost and environmental implications.
As well as open-ended design problems, the early years of our
degree programme provide many of the fundamental design methods
that form an engineer???s ???toolkit???. The sizing of structural
elements of different materials, for example, is investigated
through well defined design problems.
We expose students to code-based design, but have taken advantage
of the transition from British Standards to Eurocodes to move away
from teaching formulaic code methods. Our emphasis is on
understanding behaviour, and developing the confidence to pick up
and apply any code (be it British Standard, American Concrete
Institute, or any other code).
In parallel to ???rigorous??? design methods, we foster an intuitive
???feel??? for engineering through back-of-the-envelope type
calculations, load paths, historical context (case studies such as
Ronan Point and the development of materials), and by asking ???do
you think this looks the right size????.
Other skills required in the designer???s toolkit that are gradually
developed are an ability to apply appropriate computer tools (from
spreadsheet solution to specialised software), and the use of
concept development through sketches and scribbles, in contrast to
the carefully-formatted notes and drawings that dominate computer
generated material (such as lecture notes).
From third year onwards, students tackle a variety of team-based
design projects of increasing complexity and scope. These provide
practice and confidence in formulating designs, finding solutions
to contradictory demands, and assessing the solutions in terms of
the function and sustainability of the design (environment, cost,
safety by design, etc.). This practice in turn builds appreciation
of the importance of establishing the design concept, the
iterative nature of design and review, and develops ???engineering
judgement???.
The design projects include building structure design,
geotechnical design of a submerged tube tunnel, and
multidisciplinary design, working with students in other
engineering disciplines on a hydropower scheme, passive house or
potable water supply. The culmination is a 2-week bridge design
that covers the full breadth of the design process in an intensive
design office environment.
Examples of the students??? experience during these projects are
uncertainty and contradiction, management of the design process,
???buildability???, client-designer-checker roles (through role play,
as an independent checker), conversations with stakeholders,
design for operational safety and maintenance (CDM), and
communication through drawings, calculations and reports.
Academics with design-office experience lead the projects, with
strong support from practising engineers, who provide lectures,
help set briefs and discuss students??? designs with them in the
design office setting.
Sustainability
Sustainable development, comprising economic, social and
environmental sustainability, is a key feature permeating our
degree programmes.
At all stages of our degrees, the requirement for engineering
projects to be economically efficient, to embrace the needs and
meet the concerns of stakeholders and to function in harmony with
the natural environment is emphasized.
The underlying knowledge and understanding of sustainable
development as a concept is given primary coverage from students???
first semester in Year 1 in the course ???Engineering 1???. This is a
multidisciplinary course taken by all engineering students in
first year and covers a wide range of sustainable development
themes including for example resource and energy scarcity, global
climate change and various political and social structures of
relevance. The role of civil engineering on the four UK key
priorities for sustainable development identified as sustainable
consumption and production, natural resource protection and
environmental enhancement, building sustainable communities and
climate change and energy, is covered in the following semester???s
???Civil Engineering 1??? course.
Key primary coverage of the knowledge and understanding and
intellectual aspects of sustainable development is specifically
addressed during the Sustainability module of ???Infrastructure
Management and Sustainability 3???. An important part of this is the
Sustainability Conference in which students have the opportunity
to explore sustainable development in the widest sense in a
context of their choice, and then to develop transferable skills
in communicating it to an audience of peers and invited guests.
Other courses focus on specific sustainability issues, for example
???Water Resources 2??? in Year 2 covers the use and conservation of
scarce water resources. A further example of this, albeit in an
optional course, is teaching on ???Water Supply and Sanitation in
International Development 4???, which adds an international
dimension together with aspects of global wealth distribution and
social and environmental justice as they affect engineering works.
Additionally, the optional course ???Contaminated Land and
Groundwater Remediation 5??? focuses on the understanding and use of
sustainable remediation technologies, integrating sustainable
principles, practices, and metrics into remediation projects.
All design teaching, notably the dam design in ???Civil Engineering
1???, the Group Design Projects in the fourth year of the MEng
programmes and the Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Design
Projects in fourth and fifth years include sustainability aspects,
with the group designs being particularly focused in this area
(recent projects have included water treatment and supply,
hydropower and a design for a passive house) as well as being
explicitly interdisciplinary. As well as further opportunities to
develop knowledge and intellectual understanding of sustainable
development, design project also develop students??? practical
skills for example in reporting to stakeholders at various stages.
On top of all this, most other courses make a contribution to the
teaching of sustainable development. For example, a number of
courses over the various years of the degrees deal with sizing of
structural members, and the choice of and quantity of material
used in this feeds into both economic and environmental
sustainability. Most subjects relate basic theory to design at
some level, and where they do, the need for designs to be
sustainable is discussed. Finally, student thesis projects, whilst
they vary widely in subject matter, will almost all include some
aspect of sustainable development on which the students are
expected to reflect and comment.
Health and Safety Risk Management
Our degree programmes are structured to produce graduates with a
keen awareness of the Health and Safety Risks inherent in the
construction industry and with the necessary skills and attitudes
to promote Health and Safety amongst all those involved with
constructing, operating, disposing of or living in proximity to
the projects they design. It is our intention to operate the
degree programmes and our research in a safe manner for all
concerned ??? staff, students and visitors ??? and thus health, safety
and risk must be considerations in the use of the physical
facilities and infrastructure of the School as well in the
theoretical aspects within the degree courses.
We thus try to engender a culture of Health and Safety that
permeates all that we do and this is done principally through an
understanding of the nature of hazard, harm and risk.
Students are initially exposed to Risk Management of Health and
Safety in student exercises such as laboratory classes and the
Surveying Field Course in the first two years of the programme.
Risk Assessments are completed for these exercises with a focus on
identifying hazards and understanding how they may lead to harm.
The process of risk assessment naturally covers issues such as
severity versus probability of risk but students are encouraged to
consider risk situations critically and evaluate each situation on
its own merits rather than treat hazards and risks generically.
Students working on experimental projects, which sometimes involve
hazardous activities using chemicals or lasers for example, carry
out further more detailed analysis and where necessary training.
All student risk assessments are countersigned by staff.
Risk management, as a concept and within industrial practice ???
including also commercial, financial, technical and environmental
risk ??? is taught explicitly at 3rd year level. Students are
immersed in the practical management and understanding of
construction risks via 3rd year site visits and through material
delivered by visiting construction safety managers.
The concept of Safety in Design is instilled at an early stage in
the programme with students encouraged to understand the
responsibilities of designers and clients in the civil engineering
process. This is demonstrated through the use of factors of safety
in design as discussed from 1st year onwards, and reliability
concepts in for example water resources feature widely, with
students being expected to understand the risks associated with
various service levels dependent on rainfall or other phenomena
that cannot be controlled. In 4th and 5th year design projects
hazards are expected to be identified and mitigated through the
concept of ALARP. Other more advanced courses, such as Fire
Engineering related courses in years 4 and 5 deal with more
specific risks.
Application of all these principles of Risk Management is expected
in all project and design work, and the 4th year design projects
in particular are expected to be designed with a view to the
safety of constructors, operators and users. The concepts and
philosophies provided by the Construction (Design and Management
Regulations) are thus inherent in all considerations of project
delivery, from design through construction to use.
Exit routes exist from the programme as follows:
|
Qualification
|
Points Required
|
|
Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education
|
120
|
|
Undergraduate Diploma of Higher Education
|
240
|
|
BSc Ordinary
|
320
|
|
MEng Honours
|
600
|
|
