Public Infrastructure Asset Management

Catalog description

This course is designed to provide a thorough examination of the engineering field of Public Infrastructure Asset Management (PIAM). The course will enable the student to design a PIAM system. The course will touch upon all types of public infrastructure (buildings, roads, bridges, airports, stadiums, water, wastewater and stormwater) with a particular focus on road and water infrastructure for the semester project. Students will build upon their engineering economics and project engineering skills and use simple PIAM software. Students will also be exposed to the growing number of PIAM software systems being used today. Practice leaders from the industry will be invited as guest speakers several times during the semester. Sustainability considerations will be incorporated into the PIAM decisions made with a focus on the “triple bottom line” or the Societal, Environmental and Economic aspects of management decisions. The format of the course will be a modified team-based learning experience providing practice in processing of technical lecture material, personal performance evaluation (quizzes) and team-based performance evaluations (TBLs or PSets). A term project designing a PIAM system will be performed in groups and a final written report and oral presentation on the real-world project will provide a major part of this design course grade.