Budapest, October 1996.
PHARE APP/1/032 SANDWICH
REPORT No. 1.
STEEL STRUCTURE MODUL
Activities in Working Period 1
by the Department of Steel Structures,
Technical University of Budapest
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
PART I. EDUCATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
2. Background
Civil Engineering Education at TU Budapest
Activities at the Department of Steel Structures
Cooperation with Industry
Object of Steel Structure Sandwich Education
3. Education System
Personal Background
Requirements of the Education System
Semester Organization
Curriculum Development
Course Development
Faculty Accreditation
PART II. STEEL STRUCTURE MODUL IN PRACTICE
4. Information System
General
Contacts with the Industrial Partner
Information for Students
Application Procedure
Selection of Students
5. Steel Structure Modul in 1996/97
Selection of Subjects
Timetable Preparation
Planning the Students' Work
Planning the Tutors' Work
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Education System - 1st version: March 1996.
Appendix 2: Education System - 2nd version: April 1996.
Appendix 3: Education System - 3rd version: June 1996.
Appendix 4: Education System - 4th version: July 1996.
Appendix 5: Education System - 5th version: August 1996.
Appendix 6: Steel Structure Courses
Appendix 7: Student Information Material
Appendix 8: Preliminary Application Sheets
Appendix 9: Meeting for Pre-registered Students
Appendix 10: Letter of Application Background
Appendix 11: Application Forms
Appendix 12: Letter of Acceptance
Appendix 13: Timetable - common and obligatory subjects.
1. Introduction
In this Report development of the Steel Structure Modul is presented in the framework of PHARE APP/1/032 SANDWICH project: Working Period 1, May 1 - August 31, 1996.
In PART I. of this report the education system of the steel structure modul is presented. Chapter 2 shows the general background of the modul development by describing briefly the civil engineering educational system and the industrial contacts of the Department of Steel Structures. The purpose of the new type of steel structural education is also stated. The new sandwich educational system - presented in Chapter 3 - is developed on this basis. The main features of the steel structure sandwich modul - semester organization, sandwich curriculum and course developments - are detailed. The developed educational system is applied for accreditation to the Civil Engineering Faculty Council of TU Budapest.
In PART II. of the report the practical application of the steel structure modul is detailed. Chapter 4 shows the information system what is used for the announcement of the new type of civil engineering education for students, faculty members and industrial partners. The students' application procedure and the selection is enclosed for the 1996/97 study year. Finally the aspects of the practical starting of the sandwich education in the present study year are discussed in Chapter 5.
The report prepared in bi-lingual form: in English and in Hungarian. The main points of the activities are written in English, and the practically developed material - according to the pertinent activities - are enclosed in Hungarian in each Chapter.
PART I. EDUCATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
2. Background
Civil Engineering Education at TU Budapest
The Faculty of Civil Engineering is the oldest Faculty at the Technical University of Budapest. The Staff consist of nearly 300 teachers and researchers in 17 Departments. The number of civil engineering students is approximately 1300. The engineering programs are offered in Hungarian (Dipl. Eng., Ph.D.) and in English (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.). The civil engineering education is based on a credit-type system.
Activities at the Department of Steel Structures
The activities to the Department of Steel Structures can be divided to three fields, which are in close interaction with each-other:
1. EDUCATION
2. RESEARCH
3. EXPERTISE
The main focus is on the education: the Department of Steel Structures provides a general steel structural design education for all the civil engineering students and offers special courses for students related to the structural engineering fields (to be detailed later on).
The research and expertise activities are spreading to a wide range; the fields are detailed as follows:
- Mechanical properties of steel and aluminum material.
- Interaction between material properties and structural behaviour.
- Development of material testing methods.
- Design and construction problems of metal structures:
- steel bridges,
- multistorey and industrial steel structures,
- special steel structures (transmission and water towers, silos, bins),
- hydraulic steel structures (gates),
- steel-concrete composite structures,
- aluminum structures.
- Experimental and theoretical study of connections in steel structures (beam-to-column connections, column bases).
- Refurbishment of steel structures.
- Development of design methodology for strength and stability of steel structures.
- Development of computer aided design methods (CAD) for steel structures.
- Laboratory and site testing of metal structures.
- Refinement of design models for steel structures.
- Development of measurement methods and experimental data processing.
- Development of design standards for metal structures (Hungarian Codes, EUROCODES).
Cooperation with Industry
The above detailed activities of the Department of Steel Structures are related to international and industrial cooperation. The Department have wide range of links with Hungarian industrial partners in the fields of research and expertise. The extension of this partnership to the education field is a challenging and promising task for all members of the cooperation: university staff, industrial experts, and civil engineering students.
Object of Steel Structure Sandwich Education
The object of the alternating (Sandwich) education on the field of steel structures can be summarized as follows:
to educate high level civil engineers with an extremely strong theoretical and practical background on the field of steel structures,
to offer young experts for the industry with practical experiences not only on the technical but also on the management and communication fields,
to combine the European steel design recommendations (Eurocode 3 and ESDEP) in the education with the practical needs of the Hungarian steel fabricators,
to involve industrial experts in the education of high technology based steel fabrication,
to extend the steel structural subject according to the progress and development in the European and Hungarian steel industry.
3. Education System
Personal background
The education system of the Steel Structure Modul is developed by:
Dr. László Dunai, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Steel Structures,
Dr. Miklós Iványi, Prof., Head of Dept. of Steel Structures,
Dr. János Lógó, Assoc. Prof. Vice Dean of Faculty of Civil Eng.
Requirements of the education system
The education system of the steel structure modul is developed under the requirements as follows:
the students must receive Dipl. Eng. degree from TU Budapest - 300 credits must be obtained (university and faculty requirements),
the system must fit to the Hungarian language credit-type-education of the TU Budapest (university global requirements) and Faculty of Civil Engineering (faculty local requirements),
all the COMMON subjects of the Civil Engineering and Sandwich Programs must be included (sandwich education requirements),
two university and two industrial semesters should be involved in the program (sandwich education requirements),
two sufficient tutors - one from the university and one from the industry - should be provided for each students (sandwich education requirements),
sufficient fields of study are required during the industrial semester (department requirement),
the financial supporting system of the students (scholarship, dormitory) must be solved without confrontation of the existing rules (university and faculty requirements).
The above requirement background of the new education system is very complex. That is why the development of is possible by a longer iterative method. In this report the first phase of the education system development of the steel structure modul is presented. The main features are summarized in English and the steps of the development with the detailed results are enclosed by the Hungarian material.
Semester Organization
The sandwich education starts after the 6th semester (first 6 semesters are the same as for the Dipl. Eng. education).
Semesters no. 7 and 9 are "university semesters"; the students are at the university, having COMMON faculty/sandwich courses, and selective technical courses (according to the requirements of the steel structure modul, tutors, and students).
Semesters no. 8 and 10 are "industrial semesters"; the students are at the company, having individual task on the field given by the tutors, and having some COMMON sandwich courses and steel technical courses from the university.
Curriculum Development
The students in the last 4 semesters (2 university and 2 industrial) must obtain minimum 120 credits.
The final exam subject groups must be selected as follows:
1st subject group: Steel Structures, min. 15 credits.
2nd and 3rd subject groups: to be selected in agreement with the student and the two tutors, min. 10 - 10 credits.
Sandwich common subjects:
Management group: 3 subjects, 3 x 5 credits.
Communication group: 2 subjects, 2 x 4 credits.
Foreign language group: 2 subjects, 2 x 4 hours/sem., 0 credit
On the basis of the requirements and above details the curriculum of the Steel Structure Modul is developed step-by-step. The following versions are modified according to the development of the background sandwich system and the continuously checked limitations. The different versions are enclosed in five Appendices, as follows:
Appendix 1 1st version: March 1996.
Appendix 2 2nd version: April 1996.
Appendix 3 3rd version: June 1996.
Appendix 4 4th version: July 1996.
Appendix 5 5th version: August 1996.
Course Development
The Steel Structure Modul offers and/or require several special steel structure related subjects for the students in the sandwich curriculum. The subjects can be classified as follows, according to the obligatory or selective nature of them:
1, obligatory: prescribed by the Departments,
2, obligatory: prescribed by the tutors,
3, selective: selected by the student.
The list of the subjects:
ÉÕ-4-011 Steel CAD
ÉÕ-4-012 Steel Bridges
ÉÕ-4-013 Stability of Steel Structures
ÉÕ-4-014 Welding
ÉÕ-4-015 Steel Buildings
ÉÕ-4-016 Steel-Concrete Composite Structures
ÉÕ-4-017 Hydraulic Steel Structures
ÉÕ-4-018 Design Practice
ÉÕ-5-001 Practical Design of Steel Structures
ÉÕ-5-002 Thin-Walled Steel Structures
ÉÕ-5-003 Design Philosophy of Steel structures
ÉÕ-5-004 Reconstruction of Steel Structures
ÉÕ-5-005 Fabrication of Steel Structures
ÉÕ-5-006 Experimental Analysis of Steel Structures
ÉÕ-5-007 History of Steel structures
The brief description of the above courses are enclosed in Hungarian in Appendix 6: Steel Structure Courses.
Notes:
the common steel courses, the common and technical courses of the Civil Engineering Faculty, and the common sandwich courses are not detailed,
the details of the education system will be available on the computer network of the Sandwich Education Center.
Faculty Accreditation
The sandwich education system proposal - in general and specially for Steel Structure Modul - is presented for faculty accreditation, as follows:
Faculty Council:
March 1996 by M. Iványi,
general agreement with the idea.
June 1996 by L. Dunai,
general discussion about basis of the system,
comments: student global supporting system should be solved, min. and max. credit point requirements must be satisfied.
Faculty Education Committee:
Sept. 1996 by L. Dunai
general discussion about the details,
comment: the common subjects of the civil engineering education should not be eliminated.
Sept. 1996 by J. Lógó and L. Dunai
accepted, to be presented at the Faculty Council by J. Lógó Vice-Dean of the Faculty in October 1996.
Expected date of final accreditation of the education system at the Faculty of Civil Engineering: October 1996.
PART II. STEEL STRUCTURE MODUL IN PRACTICE
4. Information System
General
On the basis of the education system under development and the interest of the Dunaferr Rt. industrial partner it is decided to start the steel structure sandwich modul practically in the 1996/97 study year. Accordingly the development of the education background and the practical organization are in progress parallel.
The practical organization of the course is done in the steps as follows:
contacts with the Dunaferr to prepare the financial and technical backgrounds of the industrial semester,
informing the students about the Steel Structure Modul: background and Dunaferr offer,
developing and organizing the application for the sandwich education,
selection of students for the education starting in September 1996.
Contacts with the Industrial Partner
During the preparation of the Steel Structure Modul the Department is in close contact with the Dunaferr. Beside the often phone/fax and letter communications the main preparatory meetings and workshops are detailed as follows:
Meeting: January 31, 1996, Dunaújváros
Participant from the Dept.: L. Dunai
Participants from the Dunaferr: L. Hufnágl, L. Keresztes, F. Nagy, Z. Pötör,
Subject: development the general background of steel modul.
Meeting: February 23, 1996, Dunaújváros
Participant from the Dept.: L. Dunai
Participants from the Dunaferr: O. Grega, Mádliné, L. Keresztes, F. Subject: development the general background of sandwich education (all modules).
Workshop: April 3, 1996, Dunaújváros
Participant from the Dept.: M. Iványi
Subject: agreement in the TU Budapest - Dunaferr Rt. sandwich education essential points.
Meeting: May 14, 1996, Budapest
Participant from the Dept.: M. Iványi
Participant from the Dunaferr: L. Hufnágl
Subject: preparation of student information material.
Meeting: July 3, 1996, Budapest
Participant from the Dept.: L. Dunai, M. Iványi
Participant from the Dunaferr: L. Hufnágl
Subject: common student information.
Information for Students
The Steel Structure Modul is announced for 3rd grade civil engineering students in the 2nd semester of 1995/96 study year. The information system for the students is built-up as follows:
1st STEP:
general information during lectures - by M. Iványi, May 1996,
general information material on the Board of the Dept. and for all the practical advisors of the Dept. - by L. Dunai, May 1996,
personal consultations at the Dept. - by L. Dunai and M. Iványi, May and June 1996,
detailed information during evening meetings in the dormitory of the civil engineering students - by M. Iványi, May 6, 1996 and by L. Dunai, May 21, 1996.
Appendix 7: Student Information Material
2nd STEP:
preliminary application organization - by L. Dunai,
registered preliminary 12 students as shown in App. 8.
Appendix 8: Preliminary Application Sheets
3rd STEP:
meeting organization by the participation of the pre-registered students, Dunaferr, management and communication modules - by L. Dunai and M. Iványi, July 3, 1996.
Appendix 9: Meeting for Pre-registered Students
Application Procedure
The application for the Steel Structure Modul in the 1996/97 study year is prepared by a detailed letter for all the pre-registered students. In the letter the following documentation are enclosed:
general education background (updated version),
summary about the student information meeting,
summary about the global, university level aspects of the sandwich education,
proposed fields of the Dunaferr,
timetable for the 7th semester (draft),
course description for the management subjects,
application form,
scheduling of the application and starting the semester.
The full letter of application background material is enclosed in App. 10 of this report.
Appendix 10: Letter of Application Background
The students - having the previous background of the modul - decided on the application by filling, signing, and sending back the application forms. The filled and signed application forms are enclosed in App. 11.
Appendix 11: Application Forms
Selection of Students
The selection of the students is done on the basis of the application declaration and the previous course results from steel (Steel Structures I and II) and other structural subjects (Mechanics, Structural Analysis, Reinforced Concrete Structures). The selection is done by the Head of the Department of Steel Structures in agreement with the Dunaferr.
In 1996/97 study year all the four applicants are accepted for the sandwich course: József Kiss, János Lennert, Dávid Polgár, and András Vámosi.
The letters of acceptance for the pertinent students are enclosed in App. 12 of this report.
Appendix 12: Letter of Acceptance
5. Steel Structure Modul in 1996/97
Selection of Subjects
In the education system it is described that the technical subjects should be selected partly obligatory partly optionally from the 1st final exam subject-group (Steel Structures). In the 7th university semester the obligatory subjects - prescribed by the Department of Steel Structures - are as follows:
ÉÕ-4-014 Welding
ÉÕ-4-016 Steel-Concrete Composite Structures
The obligatory subject prescribed by the university tutors for three students:
ÉÕ-4-011 Steel CAD
The tutors and the students agreed to select the 2nd and 3rd final exam subject-groups as follows:
Kiss, J.: 2: Structural Analysis
3: Reinforced Concrete Structures
Lennert, J.: 2: Structural Analysis
3: Building Materials
Polgár D.: 2: Design of Structures
3: Building Management
Vámosi, A.: 2: Structural Analysis
3: Design of Structures
Timetable Preparation
The timetable of the students in the 7th semester is very busy due to the large number of civil engineering and sandwich common subjects. Accordingly, only some technical subjects can be inserted into the program in the first university semester. In the timetable the required min. 38 credits can be completed by significant efforts of the students. The timetable for the common and obligatory subjects of the students can be seen in:
Appendix 13: Timetable - common and obligatory subjects.
Note, that the individual timetables of the students contain the selective subjects of final exam subject-groups 2 and 3, too.
Planning the Students' Work
The development of the new education system requires close contact between the modul coordinators, tutors, and students especially in the first period. The fast responses from the students are essential to correct the incompatibilities in the system and avoid mistakes. That is why the modul coordinators (L. Dunai and/or M. Iványi) have a meeting with the students and the university tutors weekly in the first part of the semester: Monday 9 p.m. at the Department of Steel Structures. The comments and questions of the students concerning to the global sandwich organization are transferred to the Sandwich Office of the Technical University Budapest.
In the organization of the students' work it is planned to use the computer network facilities of the sandwich education center in the future.
Planning the Tutors' Work
In the first practical semester of Steel Structure Modul it is decided by the coordinators that the university tutors will be selected in parallel with the selection of the industrial tutors. The decision of the field of study is also part of the tutors' selection procedure.
The modul coordinators are acting as university tutors of the students recently. Beside them Mr. László Horváth, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Steel Structures is asked to be a university tutor, too. Mr. Horváth is an expert in the computer aided constructional design of steel structures; he is working with the BoCAD-3D system, what is also used in the Dunaferr design company. He has close contact with the designers at Dunaferr. It is planned to teach the students at the university and also during the industrial semester to use this system. The form of this education is under development.
The tutors' selection and work planning is to be completed by the middle of the 7th semester. The preparatory work is under progress with the cooperation of Dunaferr experts.
Appendix 1: Education System - 1st version: March 1996.
Appendix 2: Education System - 2nd version: April 1996.
Appendix 3: Education System - 3rd version: June 1996.
Appendix 4: Education System - 4th version: July 1996.
Appendix 5: Education System - 5th version: August 1996.
Appendix 6: Steel Structure Courses
Appendix 7: Student Information Material
Appendix 8: Preliminary Application Sheets
Appendix 9: Meeting for Pre-registered Students
Appendix 10: Letter of Application Background
Appendix 11: Application Forms
Appendix 12: Letter of Acceptance
Appendix 13: Timetable - common and obligatory subjects.