2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Students as Consultants - The Clarkson Construction Engineering Management Consulting Group

Presented at Construction Engineering Division: Innovative Pedagogy annd Student Engagement

In 2015, the Clarkson Construction Engineering Management (CEM) program launched the Clarkson CEM Consulting Group (C3G). The Clarkson CEM Program has a long standing commitment to hands-on and co-curricular education to which this in-house capability provides pre-professional consulting in planning, engineering, and construction areas. This business enterprise uses students in an experiential learning mode in order to deliver products that the targeted market segments would not be otherwise able to conduct using professional consulting services. Likewise, these efforts help to build community economic opportunities by jumpstarting projects that would otherwise not be able to be done absent some key preliminary work. The goal has been to generate further professional work and efforts that can aid in the development of a more robust local economy. This paper will discuss the outcomes of this enterprise and its impact on student learning for those that have participated.

Authors

Lt. Col. Erik Backus http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4348-8216 Clarkson University [biography]

Erik C. Backus, PhD, PE, is a Professor of Practice at Clarkson University and the Howard E. Lechler Director of the Construction Engineering Management (CEM) program,
teaching and supporting undergraduate, graduate, and other students and trainees. He has a bevy of
expertise, experience, and knowledge in instructing project based engineering courses working closely with industry and community partners. Erik has
spearheaded the Clarkson Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Capstone design experience since
2015, using project teams as direct consultants with internal and external clients across the State and
region. He has presented on one such project at the ASEE St. Lawrence Section conference on one such
CEE capstone effort in the past. He also teaches courses in a variety of areas connected to both building
and infrastructure construction. Previous to his time at Clarkson, he was an Assistant Professor of
Military Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and an Instructor/Writer for the US Army
Engineer School USAES) at the Maneuver Support Center (MANSCEN), Fort Leonard Wood, MO. He
was responsible for rewiring significant portions of the USAES Engineer Captain's Career Course
curriculum related to construction contracting and is a past winner of the MANSCEN Technical Training
Excellence award. Among his current efforts is being a leader in Project Unlock which seeks to transform advisory boards into partnership boards as a way to transform engineering education programs.
Mr. William Olsen Clarkson University

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