Bringing Practice to the Classroom

Abstract

A major effort has been developed at the University of Florida to provide exposure to civil engineering practice as a supplement to the academic experience. This effort has included a sponsored lecture series in civil engineering design and in geotechnical engineering that has drawn speakers from the practice. A named professorship has been established as the Crom Professorship of Structural Engineering to further these efforts. Other methods of “bringing practice to the classroom,” have included an airport planning and design course taught by a team of practitioners from several areas of practice. The problems and advantages gained from this effort are discussed. The lessons learned from the University of Florida experience is that no one scheme for “bringing practice to the classroom” is fool‐proof nor necessarily suitable for any given program with its particular limitations.