Learning Outcomes
To design civil systems engineers need to satisfy a number of technical conditions, but also need to optimize the use of economic and environmental resources over the system's lifetime. During this module students will learn methods for designing civil systems under consideration of their life-cycle resource usage and environmental impact. To this end, students will get familiar with selected mathematical-analytical methods for engineering cost, risk, and multi-criteria comparison. Further, students will acquire in-depth knowledge about advanced risk management methods to understand possible system failures that may occur during the life of a product as well as how to capture systems deterioration during the lifetime. Students will also learn how to apply these methods in interdisciplinary engineering efforts by exploring the applicability of the methods for supporting collective decision making towards minimizing lifecycle costs and more importantly the environmental impact. Moreover, they will learn to think on various scales and consider various aspects related to systems integration within the environment and the existing built assets. An important aspect in learning to apply the methods will be on the consideration of gender and minority issues to ensure equitable and inclusive outcomes (acces and usage of infrastructure, health and safety during use and maintenance, impact on communities, and representation / participation during planning and decision making).
To ground the theoretical part of the module, students will gain practical hands-on experiences modelling complex civil systems with the discussed techniques and methods using a rich practical case study project.