laboratory tests as a complement to teaching in ...

LABORATORY TESTS AS A COMPLEMENT TO TEACHING IN DEGREE, MASTER AND DOCTORAL PROGRAMS IN THE FIELD OF MARITIME ENGINEERING Rafael J. Bergillos, Pilar Díaz-Carrasco, María Clavero, Antonio Moñino, Miguel Ortega-Sánchez Andalusian Institute for Earth System Research, University of Granada (SPAIN)

Abstract The teaching of the Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree and the Master Program in Environmental Hydraulics, in the field of maritime engineering, has a high practical component; it has increased since the implementation of the Bologna Process. In this context, our goal was to bring to the classrooms the methodologies followed by consulting companies to design maritime works. For that, we set up laboratory and field workshops. During the practices, the students: (1) learn how to use the instruments and perform measurements of surface elevation, pressure, velocity, etc., and (2) analyse the recorded data by means of their theoretical background and the software typically used to design maritime works. In this way, they improve their skills to deal with and solve engineering problems. This methodology is also applied in the framework of Degree Final Projects, Master Thesis and doctoral thesis, resulting in an improvement of the quality of the academic works and their associated scientific publications. The results observed during the early years have been highly satisfactory. Students have shown a strong interest in learning the operation of both the measurement instrumentation and the data processing software. They study with concern the problems, analyse in detail the results and show motivation for their application in the decision-making process in the field of maritime engineering. Thus, they acquire the required skills in an effective manner. This methodology also facilitates the transition between the university and the labour market. Keywords: Bologna Process, laboratory workshops, measurement instruments, software.

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INTRODUCTION

The practice of professional engineering has a wide range of practical applications [1,2]. This requires teaching techniques and models that allow students not only to have a broad basis of theoretical knowledge, but also to achieve the necessary skills to apply the engineering principles and develop their future careers [3,4]. However, these facts collide with the excessive load of theoretical contents that actually prevail in many schools, which in turn impede student's learning process up to some extent, yet reducing their motivation [5,6]. In addition, teamwork is not adequately encouraged in many cases [7,8]. Classical approaches to practical teaching, such as the resolution of numerical exercises, are not enough to provide with a complete focusing and understanding of the problem by the students [9]. These practical exercises are in many cases far from the programming routines and numerical models required to solve real engineering problems [10,11]. Furthermore, the physics of the practical exercises could be better understood by students through laboratory tests and field surveys. At present time, lifelong learning for engineers is considered as fundamental [12,13]. However, companies have to face investments in practical training for their workers even just after their incorporation [14,15]. Learning process is, therefore, extended in terms of time, effort and money. In the framework of the European Higher Education Area, the Bologna Process pursue the improvements of some of the aforementioned shortcomings [16,17], among others. Its implementation forced to redesign curricula, subjects contents and teaching practices in both bachelor and master programs [18,19]. In this context, our goals were: (1) to implement in the learning pathway of students the methods applied by consulting and construction companies to design maritime works, as learning procedure to deal with engineering problems; (2) to improve the teamwork skills; and (3) to provide a multi taskbased learning process.

Proceedings of INTED2017 Conference 6th-8th March 2017, Valencia, Spain

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ISBN: 978-84-617-8491-2

Up to this point, the methodology have been conducted and implemented in both the Bachelor's Degree Program in Civil Engineering and the Master Program in Environmental Hydraulics at the University of Granada. The purpose of these teaching methods, which are feasibly extensible to other branches of the engineering education, is to bridge the gap between the academic background and the labour market. This work is structured as follows. Sections 2 and 3 describe the implementation of the practices and the results observed over the first years, respectively. Finally, Section 4 details the conclusion drawn based on early results.

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METHODOLOGY

Considering the academic education framework, it is necessary to set ready the scenario for laboratory tests and field surveys intended as practical lessons. These lessons are a straight way to implement in the class dynamics the learning traineeship applied by companies in the field of maritime and coastal engineering. Indeed, the practices are organized through work teams and are based on a distribution of objectives, tasks and responsibilities between the team members, in order to cope with the final goal of the proposal. This structure enhances the teamwork concept, the individual responsibility and the horizontal transfer of knowledge. The laboratory practical lessons have the objective to provide with a controlled scenario in which technical solutions to engineering problems are tested. The laboratory practices are conducted in a wave flume (Fig. 1) and a wave basin (Figs. 2 and 3). During the practices, the students: (1) get familiar with use the lab instruments (e.g. pressure gauges, laser Doppler velocimetry or digital cameras) and carry out measurements of different physical quantities (e.g. surface elevation, pressure or velocity), (2) get familiar with the methodology to build up an experimental set up in which the main features in project solutions are represented, (3) implement their theoretical skills as an approach to analyze the recorded data, with the help of some software used by professional engineers for this purpose, such as Matlab, Python or IH2VOF (Fig. 4), and (4) understand properly the physics of the theoretical concept and problems that are explained in class.

Figure 1. Laboratory test in the wave flume.

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Figure 2. Laboratory test in the wave basin.

Figure 3. Laboratory practical lesson in the wave basin.

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Figure 4. Design of a maritime work with the IH2VOF model.

These laboratory practices are complemented by field lessons, which provide with a context to identify the fundamental variables governing physical phenomena and to learn how to measure them. The field surveys consist of topographical, sediment size and atmospheric measurements on the beach (Figs. 5 and 6) along with hydrodynamic and bathymetric measurements on a boat (Fig. 7). For this purpose, a wide variety of instruments are used: topographic stations, differential GPS, weather stations, acoustic doppler current profilers and multibeam echo sounders. Recorded data are used to apply and calibrate advanced numerical models, such as Delft3D (Fig. 8) or XBeach (Fig. 9).

Figure 5. Topographic surveys on Carchuna Beach (left panel) and Playa Granada (right panel).

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Figure 6. Installation of a weather station during a practical lesson on Carchuna Beach.

Figure 7. Hydrodynamic measurements during a practical lesson on the boat.

Figure 8. Results of wave propagation with the Delft3D model.

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Figure 9. Results of beach profile evolution with the XBeach model.

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RESULTS

The results of these lessons, as observed during the first years of implementation, have revealed that students have a strong interest both in the instrumentation usage and in the data post processing procedures. The practices allow students to link theoretical concepts with practical solutions to real engineering and/or environmental problems. Once that conceptual link is settled, other further theoretical concepts are achieved in a more efficient way, providing students with a deep vision on how to approach real problems and what type of sustainable solutions may be planned. This methodology is also applied in the framework of Degree Final Projects, Master Thesis and Doctoral Thesis, resulting in an improvement of the quality of the academic works and their associated scientific publications. As a recent example, it was successfully applied in the framework of a Summer School intended for MSc and PhD students in June 2016 (Estuarine and Nearshore Systems: From Fundamentals to Cutting-Edge Knowledge).

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CONCLUSIONS

This work has dealt with the implementation of laboratory and field workshops to improve the student learning in the field of maritime and coastal engineering. These lessons have allowed students to enhance their comprehensive view and understanding of the problem as well as their teamwork skills. Although this work is focused on maritime and coastal engineering specific themes, these practices can be easily extended and applied to other fields of engineering. These workshops have been implemented over last decade in both Bachelor Degree and Master programs with a high degree of success. They have proven to be capable to cope with many of the main challenges that are presently facing engineering education, such as: (1) the complexity of real engineering problems with strong social and environmental implications, where multidisciplinary approaches are mandatory and where third party interests are involved; and (2) the use of the latest state-of-the-art numerical and analytical models. These practices come up with solutions to largely observed issues concerning academic education. As discussed in this work, during last decades there have been significant technical breakthroughs regarding the possible tools that can be used in engineering education. Most of the attention was generally paid to the constructive procedures with the safest criteria keeping the costs low. However, present and upcoming challenges for engineers are progressively turning towards the sustainable management of environments, and to work with natural solutions in order to minimize impacts. Engineering solutions to real problems are turning into complex decision-making processes, where different disciplines should interact to provide sustainable management practices. Consequently, updates on education to provide engineers with the appropriate tools to manage such situations are strongly demanded.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by the project BIA2015-65598-P (MINECO/FEDER) and the research group TEP-209 (Junta de Andalucía). The first author was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Research Contract BES-2013-062617) and the second author was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Research Contract FPU14/03570). The Summer School on Estuarine and Nearshore Systems: From Fundamentals to Cutting-Edge Knowledge was supported by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR). We thank the Port Authorities of Almería and Motril for providing the boat and the Motril Port facilities.

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