Civil Engineering and Management MSc

This is the major project element for all MSc plans in the Department of Civil Engineering. It will normally take the form of an in-depth investigation, whether it involves experimentation or an extensive review of work already completed by others. Typically, but not exclusively, it will include the following:

• Project definition and aim
• Literature review
• Practical experimentation / investigation
• Presentation of results
• Critical analysis of findings

The detailed technical content of the module will depend on the specific area under examination. Assessment is based on submission of a report (typically 10,000 to 20,000 words) which covers the above elements.

The project area is flexible and will be supervised by an academic member of staff.

Previous research projects have included:

• Weather impact on construction schedules
• Predicted future climate change trends
• The use and abuse of GPS in current UK survey practices
• The utilization of laser scanning system for examination and monitoring of tunnel deformation and structural integrity
• Life cycle assessment of the M25 highway widening scheme

This module introduces important aspects affecting the professional practice of Civil Engineering including sustainability, environmental impact, quality management, continuous improvement and management principles. It will also develop knowledge and skills that will be used in the summer project, including writing a literature review and how to critically review your own and others’ writing.

The module will introduce basic corporate finance concepts, including the time value of money, financial markets, shares and bonds, financial risk and return, raising money, and the elements of investment.

The aim of this module is to examine the fundamental principles of marketing management. Specifically, introduce the concept of marketing as an approach to business, discuss the nature of marketing strategy, investigate the challenges of managing the marketing mix, and illustrate how understanding and application of the principles of marketing can assist in the strategic management of the firm.

Topics include:

• What is Marketing? The Marketing Environment.
• Consumer Behaviour
• Research and Insight
• Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
• Products and Innovation
• Pricing
• Channels and Partnerships
• Communication and Promotion
• Strategy and Planning
• Relationships and Responsibility

To introduce the context, terminology and essential techniques of accounting.

This will include the following:

• Considering the uses of accounting both internally to the business and externally
• Financial statement analysis
• The raising of finance
• Cost accumulation
• Information for decision making
• Managerial accounting for planning, control and performance measurement.

This module is designed to deliver an understanding of sustainability principles and how, in particular, transport infrastructure engineering as well as the wider construction industry can contribute to sustainable development.

The module will include the following themes:

• Sustainability: an introduction to sustainability, sustainable development; sustainable construction; and how transport infrastructure engineering can contribute to sustainable construction.
• Environmental impacts of infrastructure construction: a review of the positive and negative environmental impacts of construction including resources and waste and energy and climate change.
• Social impacts of infrastructure construction: a review of the positive and negative social impacts of construction including; corporate social responsibility, responsible sourcing, poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.
• Assessment: indicators, assessment systems, environmental life-cycle assessment, life-cycle cost analysis.

Delivery

Assessment method

This module will introduce the components of railway track structures, conventional and otherwise. It will include analysis of forces on a railway track and consequent deflections, stresses, alignment design principles, and an overview of the railway as a total system including operational issues, signalling and control.

Assessment method

This module is assessed by individual and group coursework (40%) and an exam (60%).

Delivery

Assessment method

The module will look into the design of specialised structural systems such as composite beams and floors, portal frames, tubular trusses, and pre-stressed concrete beams and slabs. It will also look into connection behaviour, the design of steel moment connections and sway stability of buildings. A major group design exercise will illustrate the approach to the design of complete structures.

For efficiency and clarity, the module will have complementary themes running in parallel at times, as shown below:

The module will involve two pieces of individual courseworks in wind loading and buffeting.

Method and Frequency of Class:

 Method of Assessment:

This module will reinforce and advance some of the principles of soil mechanics previously learnt, and describe the principles of Critical State Soil Mechanics (CSSM), a model used to predict the behaviour of soils.

It includes revision of previous concepts, shear box and triaxial tests data analysis, critical state line, elasticity and plasticity, development of an elasto-plastic soil model, and constitutive model application in numerical simulations.

Students will learn about and conduct their own triaxial tests on soil samples within the laboratory such that they can obtain constitutive model parameters for the soil. Students will learn to use a finite element method (FEM) software package that is popular for geotechnical analyses as well as the principles of physical modelling using a geotechnical centrifuge. The coursework element will require students to use constitutive model parameters obtained from triaxial testing within FEM analyses.

The FEM analyses will include

1. the replication of the triaxial tests and verification of results against analytical predictions (using CSSM), and
2. simulation of a boundary value problem (e.g. vertical loading of a foundation), for which they will compare numerical predictions against a centrifuge test data set provided to them.

Delivery

Assessment method

This module provides an introduction to coastal engineering. This includes:

• Waves, tides, and wave-generated and tidal currents
• Beaches and sediments
• Tidal energy

Delivery

Assessment method

This module considers some of the most commonly-used system reliability assessment techniques applied to support system management.

It covers the construction of reliability models that use basic component failure information to describe specific system failure modes, the qualitative and quantitative analyses of these models, and the critical evaluation of systems using the analytical results. The models will be discussed in the context of their application to engineering systems and infrastructure assets.

The module aims to provide students with:

• An understanding of the basic statistical, probabilistic and mathematical concepts required to predict the reliability of components and systems.
• A detailed knowledge of the most commonly used system reliability assessment techniques.
• The ability to critically evaluate systems and assets using mathematical models.

Assessment method

This module will be assessed by an in-class test (20%) and an exam (80%).

The module will introduce concepts of linear and nonlinear finite element theory for structural engineering.

Content will involve finite element formulation, i.e. bar, beam, plane stress, plane strain and plate/ shell elements as well as their implementation within the direct stiffness method. Aspects of material and geometrical nonlinearities will be examined and the particular cases of concentrated and distributed plasticity beam element formulations for skeletal structures will introduced.

Load, displacement, and general control nonlinear static analysis schemes will also be examined and implemented for the solution of finite element problems. Concepts will be practiced through two individual pieces of coursework on linear and non-linear finite element theory respectively. Coursework will involve both a theory implementation and an analysis aspect using software.

Method and Frequency of Class:

Method of Assessment:

This module introduces fundamental principles of environmental fluid mechanics focusing on buoyancy driven flows, fluid instabilities and the effects of the earth’s rotation on large scale oceanographic and atmospheric features. 

The module assesses the risk of injury posed to the general public and workforce through the operation of engineering systems and infrastructure. This is considered in the context of civil and transportation systems and an indication is given of acceptable risk. You will spend three hours a week in lectures to study this module.

On this module you will cover the following content:

• Fundamentals of traffic flow theory
• Some elements of traffic data collection
• Traffic signal control
• Transport modelling to determine traffic flow distribution

Sustainable companies are those that are managed in socially, economically, and ecologically responsible ways. Today's managers are expected to understand the impact of management decisions and practices on the environment and society.

This module considers how sustainability principles are applied in organisations, and how to manage for sustainability. Through use of multiple learning approaches, the module enables you to practically interact with real businesses to address some sustainability challenges faced by the organisation.

The module introduces the you to frameworks and theories use to critically assess sustainability, and to integrate sustainability into the business strategy.

The module enables you to develop an understanding of the practical dilemmas facing businesses as they seek to respond to multiple, and often, conflicting stakeholders expectations. You will be expected to critically reflect upon your practical experiences and capture these using a learning journal.

The module covers:

• Strategic sourcing concepts
• Supplier management
• Supplier segmentation
• Category management
• Negotiation
• Retail buying
• Services sourcing
• Compliance
• Sustainability
• Procurement organisation

The module covers:

• Strategic analysis
• Industry analysis
• Positioning
• Creating and sustaining competitive advantage
• Diversification
• Strategic decision making
• Strategy practice and implementation
• Strategy and organisation
• Strategic leadership

We hope that the module will enable you to make sense of some of the different perspectives that exist and understand their strengths and limitations when applied in the modern business environment. We will try to address various questions in this environment:

• Can all risks be identified?
• Can all risks be managed?
• Should all risks be managed?
• If not, how do we decide which should be ignored and which managed?
• How can risk, in particular financial risk, be measured?
• What techniques of risk management are available and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• How can the risk management process be structured and planned?

The module will include:

• The meaning, nature and evolution of the field of strategy
• External and internal environmental analysis
• Strategies for competitive advantage
• Strategy and organisation
• The meaning, nature and evolution of the field of leadership
• Leadership and strategic change
• Leadership and sustainable strategic management
• Leadership in public sector strategy

The intricacies of managing the human resources within the business context are developed in this module. It examines processes, practices, and procedures associated with HRM management and administration that an employer/manager needs to be familiar with, and analyses the current best practice in the HR function.