2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Case Study of Integrating Standards, Codes, and Specifications into Engineering Curricula: Various Pathways to Professional Readiness

For professional engineers, understanding and applying standards, codes, and specifications is essential for career success and closely aligns with ABET student outcomes, which support the program’s educational objectives to prepare graduates for professional engineering practice. However, a significant gap exists in how engineering faculty systematically integrate the teaching of these concepts into the curriculum. This pilot study at the University of South Alabama aims to address this gap by utilizing Bloom’s learning framework to design learning modules that can be incorporated into existing civil engineering courses. These modules span various levels, including an introductory freshman course, sophomore-level mechanics of materials, junior-level civil engineering materials, and senior/graduate-level advanced transportation materials. Activities such as blueprint reading, beam design projects, guest lectures, special homework, and field trips are tailored to the course level. The study also evaluates students’ perspectives and demonstrates the effectiveness of these modules in enhancing their understanding, engagement, and retention. The results of this pilot study are expected to be of interest to other institutions and faculty seeking to systematically integrate standards, specifications, and codes into their courses to better prepare students for professional practice.

Authors

Dr. Shenghua Wu University of South Alabama [biography]

Dr. Shenghua Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Coastal, and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Alabama. His research areas include civil engineering materials characterization, pavement performance evaluation and modeling, design, and maintenance, multidisciplinary approach to address complex engineering issues, as well as STEM education. He holds multiple leadership roles, including the Director for Interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Engineering (ICSE), Executive Director for Gulf Coast Environmental Equity Center (GCEEC), Director for the Solid Waste Sustainability Hub, Director for the Gulf Coast Center for Addressing Microplastics Pollution (GC-CAMP), and Director for the Sustainable Asphalt Materials Laboratory, as well as the founding faculty advisor for the Society of Sustainable Engineering. He teaches a mixture of undergraduate and graduate engineering courses. Dr. Wu is a committee member for Transportation Research Board (TRB) AJE35 and AKM 90, a member of American Society of Civil Engineer (ASCE), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering (APSE), as well as an editorial member for Journal of Testing and Evaluation and International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology. He serves panel member for several NCHRP and ACRP projects. He is also a registered professional engineer in Alabama and LEED AP.
Dr. Min-Wook Kang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4384-7899 University of South Alabama [biography]

Dr. Kang is a professor of Civil, Coastal, and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Alabama
Dr. John Cleary University of South Alabama

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

For those interested in:

engineering
Faculty
undergraduate