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Articles

Integrating the liberal arts into the body of knowledge for civil engineering systems engineers

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Pages 234-243 | Received 10 Sep 2020, Accepted 18 Sep 2020, Published online: 17 Dec 2020
 

ABSTRACT

The paper outlines the case for a body of knowledge for civil engineering systems engineers to include, alongside its primary focus on engineering and technology, supplementary strands from the liberal arts. A case is made for future thought leaders in civil engineering systems to be exposed to a body of knowledge that goes well beyond current UK engineering undergraduate content, providing the formation for a lifetime career in the design, planning, development and administration of infrastructure and cities systems. This would equip systems engineers with empathy and understanding of the social, economic, governance, cultural, philosophical, historic, and business context behind complex civil engineering systems and enhance skills in analysis, synthesis, collaboration, leadership, and communication skills. A set of exemplar modules is provided to complement the engineering and technology content of post-graduate systems courses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Gordon G. T. Masterton is Chair of Future Infrastructure at the University of Edinburgh, chairs the Strategic Advisory Board for the Centre for Future Infrastructure, and serves on the Coordination Node of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC). After a career in industry, he rejoined academia to focus on establishing a transdisciplinary research centre for infrastructure research. He has been President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Chairman of the Construction Industry Council. He was awarded an OBE for services to civil engineering. He has lived and worked in the north of England, London, Scotland and Malaysia.

Paul Jeffrey is Professor of Water Management at Cranfield University, is Director of the Cranfield Water Science Institute, and serves on the Coordination Node of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC). With degrees in Science & Society, Energy and Environment, and Technology Policy, Paul's research has made contributions to the critical evaluation of contemporary resource management theories, the development of progressive governance arrangements for networked utilities, and new analytical approaches to scheduling asset maintenance and rehabilitation. He has contributed to over 100 journal publications in fields as diverse as water resources management, science and society, technology assessment, social justice, and complex systems.

Notes

1 It is interesting that in that same list, the University of Edinburgh core two-year lecture programme for its three-year engineering degree is described as ‘Systematic Engineering’ – an early example of enlightened systems thinking?

2 We deliberately avoid the systematic use of some of the alternative epithets applied to the ‘rounded’ scientist or engineer, perhaps the most egregious of which is ‘Renaissance Engineer’ - the primary examples of which (e.g. da Vinci) often finished little of what they started and were (hugely talented) eclectics rather than integrators.

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