Summary: |
"After decades of research and development in ""advanced"" IT, the picture of IT usage in construction remains the same - industry in general is not taking proper advantage of commercially available IT-technologies, as for example knowledge systems.We and others [Raphael 99] think this is caused by the fact that technical universities do not include teaching in advanced computing for civil and building engineers, despite the outspoken need for it.At Department of Planning at the Technical University of Denmark, we have acknowledged this need, and we offer an intensive class in knowledge engineering. Experiences from that course have been presented in [Andersen98]. It is clear to us that this class is valuable, because it enables a fraction of the new generation of professional engineers to cope with 1) knowledge and problem solving and 2) more advanced use of IT. However, it is equally clear that we need to do more - that is: offer teaching in a broader field than just narrow scoped expert systems. We [Andersen98] have pointed out that the relatively narrow scope of the intensive class present a risk of giving the student a too narrow minded attitude to knowledge systems.We are in the process of renewing and possibly expanding our teaching in knowledge systems. To be able to move in the right direction a survey is about to be performed: we are in the process of tracking ""old"" students, now working in industry, in order to learn how our teaching have impacted their professional life and workplace. We seek empirical support for our idea that handling of ""knowledge"", ""problem solving"" and ""concepts"" are key skills for engineers rather than abilities in specific computer applications.The paper will present the results of our survey and considerations, and will include an outline of an improved teaching programme for knowledge systems in civil and building engineering.[Raphael99]Raphael B, Shea K, Smith I, A task and software independent CAE course, in proceedings AICIVIL-COMP99, civil-comp press 99.[Andersen98]Andersen T, Hartvig S, Teaching Knowledge Engineering: Experinces in: Artificial Intelligence in Structural Enginneering, Springer 99" |