Preparing Engineers for Evaluation of Constructed Systems

Current engineering education places a significant focus on design of new, idealized structures. However, many graduating engineers are entering the workforce and are faced with evaluation of existing complex systems. To address this learning gap, a new graduate course was recently added at Tennessee Technological University titled, "Structural Identification of Constructed Systems". Structural identification is the process of creating, then updating a physics-based structural model based on its measured static and/or dynamic measured response which is then used for evaluation of the structure's performance as well as making critical decisions. The new course taught students the fundamentals of Structural Identification through hands-on experience, which included several laboratory experiments and projects. This paper presents the primary characteristics of the course along with sample student projects.

Preparing Engineers for Evaluation of Constructed Systems Conference Paper