Integrating Instruction In Geograhic Information Systems ... · Integrating Instruction in Geographic Information Systems with a Civil Engineering Technology Curriculum William H

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Expositi on Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

Session 1449

Integrating Instruction in Geographic Information Systems with a Civil Engineering Technology Curriculum

William H. Sprinsky Pennsylvania College of Technology

Abstract At the Pennsylvania College of Technology, we feel that the tools of project design and management, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), should be taught along with the more usual subjects in a Civil Engineering Technology curriculum. Such a tool is an application of some very basic concepts to design and construction. Students learn the use and construction of coordinated Digital Terrain Models (DTM), from which mapping is derived and manipulation of an existing GIS for project planning and construction management using the Intergraph MGE system. Our portfolio includes associate’s degrees in both Civil Engineering Technology (CT) and Surveying Technology (SUT) and a bachelor’s program in Civil Engineering Technology with emphasis in Surveying (BCT), all ABET (TAC) accredited. The use of GIS is taught to students in all degrees. A more advanced course in Land Use/Information is part of the BCT program. The advanced course is the subject of this presentation. In this course, students construct and query a GIS. They learn, from a Civil Engineering standpoint, how to manipulate coordinate and attribute data, and set up and populate attribute data tables. Students then choose to use Fortran90, C++ or Pascal, all higher order languages required by ABET (TAC), to compute answers specific to a planned project, customizing the reports from GIS enhancements. Covered as well in this course are State Plane Coordinates algorithms and the procedures available to merge coordinate data from different projections and datums. Introduction At Pennsylvania College of Technology, we believe in current, applications-intensive technical education. Our portfolio of technical programs includes a two-year Civil Engineering Technology (CT) Program, with an emphasis in surveying, a two-year Surveying Technology (SUT) degree and a four-year Civil Engineering Technology degree (BCT). All our Civil Engineering Technology and Surveying Technology degree programs follow the standards of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and are accredited by the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC). A National Science Foundation (NSF (ILI)) grant

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Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

allowed us to change the thrust of the programs to reflect the revolution in civil engineering and survey technology caused by advances in electronics, satellite positioning, and computer power. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are becoming the norm in engineering, designing and building activities. In our programs, all of which emphasize surveying, we think GIS is an excellent example of the use of some very basic tools. We teach the GIS “tool” during the second semester, in CET122, Topographic Drawing and Cartography. A second course, which goes into setup, creation and use of GIS for projects (CET414, Geographic/Land use Information Systems), is taught in baccalaureate program (BCT) in the fourth year. We chose Intergraph MGE enhancements as illustrations of concepts because of their flexibility in acceptance of data in a number of differing formats and because of the variety of output reports available from the enhancements. In CET122, a second semester course for all our programs, we use a part of a municipal database from Knoxville, TN that supports a project to widen a downtown street. There is a unique solution for this project. Students are then assigned a second project, in the course of which they are told that one of their clients would like to open a convenience market to take advantage of the increased traffic flow that will result from the road widening. The market is to have an area of about 1.25 acres in downtown Knoxville. A number of different criteria govern the choice of site. Unlike their first project, students realize that there is no unique answer to this set of conditions. They must use judgment to identify possible solutions, to rate the solutions against the criteria and to justify a first and second choice to the client. In their senior year, BCT students in CET414 construct a GIS for a new project in the same geographic area, using MGE software and a conceptual drawing. In this course, students construct and query a GIS. They learn, from a Civil Engineering standpoint, how to manipulate both coordinate and attribute data, and how to set up and populate attribute data tables. Students then choose to use either Fortran90, C++ or Pascal, all higher order languages required by ABET (TAC), to compute answers specific to the planned project, customizing and manipulating the reports from GIS enhancements. State Plane Coordinate algorithms are covered in this course, as are procedures available to merge coordinate data from different projections and datums. Design of Instruction The problem we as course designers face is how to give each student not only the theory but also actual experience with the projects and equipment that are now the "bread and butter" of civil engineering practice. We believe solutions to academic projects should be performed on modern equipment with techniques used in today's practice. In addition, the common student experience of "fragmentation" into coursework specific to surveying, highway design and land use needs to be overcome. We wanted to demonstrate to students the improved synthesis/integration of multiple source data through application of GIS technology. Above all, we want students to

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understand how to use information and data bases to find solutions for engineering and surveying problems. In designing instruction in GIS for civil engineering technology students, the nature of the target audience must be considered. In discussions with a colleague, Dr K. L. White of the Australian Defense Force Academy, who is a geographer who understands the use of GIS from a geographer's perspective, we reached the following consensus: Geographers involved in using GIS, by education and experience, are very different from Civil Engineers. Geographers have an understanding of conformal, equal area and "other" projections. They have an acquaintance with the underlying mapping projections and the "distortions" involved in the transformations from latitude/longitude to grid X and Y. Civil Engineers, through education and experience with surveying, are very familiar with conformal projections and with the underlying mathematics involved in the transformations from latitude/longitude to grid X and Y, and have a good understanding of such distortions as point and line scale as well as meridian convergence. The Civil Engineers get this understanding because most of their work in the United States involves State Plane Coordinates (SPC) for various datums or the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) for various datums. Geographers are acquainted with merging coordinates from various projections and datums. Civil Engineers are very familiar with this process because many of their projects involve data from a number of disparate sources created at a number of different times. A key difference between engineers and geographers is the types of typical problems they are attempting to solve. Geographers tend to look at spatial relations and are therefore more interested in what is "in" a polygon as opposed to engineers, who are very interested the descriptions of the vectors which define the polygon: that is to say "where" the polygon is located, as well as what is "in" the polygon. Part of this comes from the surveying bent of many engineers (private communication between the author and Dr White, 1996). This viewpoint on GIS affects the design of all our coursework. We are interested in presenting specific instruction that will be useful when students enter the work force and start to practice civil engineering. We think the instruction should also take advantage of the education they have in surveying and explain why it emphasizes surveying and coordinate systems. It should be integrated in instruction early on in that process and again as students become better prepared academically. Examples and GIS applications should be keyed to instruction and explain why material is taught. This in part explains why we chose Intergraph and the MGE system. Unlike professional practice, in our program "workflow" is not as important as using parts of the MGE enhancement to illustrate concepts taught.

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Civil technology students already have had instruction covering coordinate systems, conformal projections and data merging. In an effort to take advantage of these experiences, we use GIS instruction to facilitate the integration of examples using this coursework in much the same way the industry uses GIS in the workplace. The merger of information from different sources, such as surveying, GPS and photogrammetric activities, often in different formats, is the norm in civil engineering practice. The projects we give students emulate the workplace as far as is possible in an environment that is not production driven. After formal instruction, applications from Intergraph's MGE enhancement are used to illustrate the often arcane concepts presented in instruction. Implementation In previous publications, teaching the fundamentals of data manipulation has already been discussed, see (Sprinsky 1997[1]), (Sprinsky, 1997[2]) and (Sprinsky, 1999). Their purpose was to acquaint students with manipulation of data in Intergraph's MGE for projects they all recognize. They also had to work with a wide range of data formats and packages, manipulating both input and output data to accomplish their task. More importantly, they saw what apparently were poorly-defined projects without discrete answers. Then, working within limits set by the assignments, they overcame the vagueness to define their recommended choices. As seniors, our BCT students study GIS applications with considerably more background. They understand geotechnical applications, structures, computer programming and materials in some depth. They have also studied engineering economics and have an idea of what is required in project planning. In fact, most are about to start their capstone course. The senior course, CET414, is divided into three instructional blocks. The first is a coordinate review for the State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS) for North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83) and a review of the manipulation of a GIS already set up. Also students perform transformation of coordinates from an arbitrary origin or North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27) to NAD83. This is done by observing some stations in the coordinate set in both the old (arbitrary or NAD27) system and the NAD83 system. The second block of instruction concerns entering graphic-based data into the GIS. Specifically, this block examines how digitizers perform transformations and the quality assurance of such transformed data. The digitizers are read directly, not by a CAD installed digitizer procedure. The coordinates for digitized points, in "counts" units, are transformed to NAD83 using a six parameter affine algorithm already studied in CET344, Aerial Photogrammetry. The third block of instruction creates a GIS for a particular project. This includes the set-up and population of categories, features and tables with graphics to which they refer. These are created in support the construction of a building and parking area. Reports from the GIS are customized

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using Fortran, C++ or Pascal to answer specific project related questions during the design phase of the work. Content of the instructional blocks of CET414 Instruction begins with coordinate systems. Students use a Federal government publication, (Stem, 1990). They program the two most common State Plane Coordinate System projections, the Lambert Conformal Conic and Transverse Mercator systems applied to NAD83 or NAD27, with units in Survey Feet. Students understand what point and line scales are and how to apply (T-t) as well as meridian convergence corrections. They also understand how to transform coordinates using packages such as NADCON and the Bentley SelectCAD enhancements to perform rigid body and "least squares" (four parameter affine) procedures. Using some special purpose programs to do six parameter affine transformations, they also understand the nature of the process of changing from either an arbitrary or NAD27 system to NAD83 (Sprinsky, 2000.). In the second block of study, students have the background through the review of GIS manipulation, along with some additional programming in Fortran90, C++ or Pascal, to tailor MGE enhancement reports to aid in site selection. Students are informed that their client wants to construct a two story office structure on a specified plat in Knoxville. They are furnished with an architect's sketch (actually a scale plot of the plat with the building placed) and start the process of GIS construction. They start a project called CET414L5 and select the coordinate system and units. To demonstrate how a digitizer works, they read the raw "counts" coordinates for the property corners, also known in NAD83 (Tennessee zone 4100) and those of the building. They transform the digitizer coordinates into NAD83 Northing and Easting based on the plat corner coordinates and predict the NAD83 of the building corners. Since this graphic is made on paper, the graphic is subject to unequal "with the grain" and "across grain" expansion, so the six parameter affine is used for the transformation. Again, students understand this choice from previous instruction and homework. They assure the quality of these transformed coordinates by comparing furnished coordinates of the plat corners with their transformed values. Since the original drawing is on A sized paper, a deviation of no more than three feet in Northing and easting is allowed. If the deviation is greater, the students repeat the digitization. The footprint of the building, a rectangle, is also checked by measuring the diagonals using an MGE enhancement. A difference of no more than one foot is allowed between the diagonals. A difference greater than one foot requires that the students redigitize and retransform the coordinates. Another teaching point is the exchange of data from one enhancement to another. Students already understand that ASCII text data can be universally read by programs as text. For graphics, they have already seen the use of .DXF format files to transport data between programs in previous coursework. Students then form a .DXF file from the coordinates and read that file into a specified MGE CAD .dgn file. Simultaneously with this lab work, classroom instruction in attribute file construction is also applied to the project. Because of the classroom setting, the

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instructor acts as senior project engineer and specifies the nature of the attribute data and the database file structure. Once the graphics and database tables are constructed, students query the GIS and test the accuracy of the GIS computed area for each office suite as compared to an area by coordinates or Double Meridian Distance solution, using coordinates which are in the attribute data base tables. They also predict construction materials requirements for dry wall and sizing, by program, from MGE reports that are used as "data" for the program. Students understand that the conceptual building they are working on is a demonstration of GIS capability in a civil engineering environment. They also understand that while tasks such as sheet rock estimation are more easily done with a hand calculator, more complex computations required for a project may not be so easily done. While the MGE enhancement reports are complete, they are not tailored to any specific application, so understanding how to do the tailor reports for a specific projects is a valuable skill in the workplace. Due to limited class time, a more complete set of plans is not used, as the instructor wants the students to experience the creation of the GIS from the very beginning. More completeness and complexity would obfuscate the teaching points of attribute tables and graphics created to do a simple, specified task. Examples from Instruction of CET414 These examples are included to illustrate what each student is asked to do in the course. Aside from exam scores, they help the instructor measure the depth of student understanding of instruction. Each of the following is an individual student tasking. Students are encouraged to work together but anything they submit must be their own work. The first homework assignment in the course is an example of the areas studied and the depth of the instruction. After students write a program converting latitude/longitude on NAD83 to the Pennsylvania SPCS, north zone (Zone 3701) and demonstrate that they can convert this northing/easting coordinate back to latitude/longitude, they are tasked with demonstrating that they understand the "distortions" involved with using the SPCS coordinates. The assignment is to compute the meridian convergence and line scale for some zone 3701 coordinates and convert grid azimuth to "true" azimuth and grid distance to datum distance. Figure 1 is the assignment sheet and Figure 2 is a part of a student Excel solution. Students are free to program a solution, use Excel to find a solution or perform the task using their calculators. As an application of coordinate systems and transformations, students use a digitizer to transform coordinates on a drawing to SPCS (Zone 4100) northing/easting and place the conceptual building into the GIS. The output from a six parameter affine program that converts digitizer "counts" to SPCS coordinates is read into a design file; Figures 3 and 4 are bitmaps of the .dgn files the student creates to support the project. Students perform quality assurance on this exercise by comparing the transformed digitizer coordinates to those stated on the assignment sheet, and by assuring agreement to within 3 feet. They then use the MGE Coordinate System

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Operations enhancement to measure diagonals on the building and to check agreement to within a foot. Additional design files are associated with the building footprint to form a location graphic for the client. The last example illustrates customization of a standard MGE report. This occurs late in the third block of instruction, after a project GIS has been completed by students. Using primarily the MGE Basic Nucleus enhancement report writing utility, students query the GIS for the area and perimeter of each of four suites in the building. Reading the report as data, they program a prediction of the number of gallons of paint needed to finish the walls of each office suite. Figure 5 is that report, to be read as data. Figure 6 is the program one of the students wrote. The emphasis is on the results and answer, rather than the elegance of the Fortran coding. Figure 7 is the output from that program. Lessons Learned After presenting CET414 a number of times, below are observations made of the reasons for student behavior and the conclusions the author drew from them. Analytical evidence is not yet available to validate these observations. Changes in delivery of material were made and are being evaluated. 1. Tailor the GIS course to the target audience. We realized early in the design process that a generic GIS course would not illustrate concepts well to Civil Engineering Technology students. The versatility of GIS technology for civil engineering enterprises should be demonstrated with civil engineering problems. Using a generic approach is analogous to teaching Anatomy and Physiology generically to medical students and paleontology students. The subject is the same but teaching emphasis must be very different for each field. 2. Applications that are relevant make coordinate geometry concepts both understandable and memorable. Click and Drag instruction is not enough to assure understanding. Nothing teaches as well as individually performed computations and checking of enhancement operations. Use student observed data where possible to illustrate concepts. 3. Working in groups often allows a synergy of conceptual understanding from group members to the group. Even though projects are submitted as individual efforts for grading, students learn how to do them by asking one another questions in the group before they seek help from their instructor. 4. Make the GIS application fit the educational goals. Applications are built for production, not for education. Instructional points should be illustrated by enhancements which allow entry of data at educationally important points and give results that are understandable to students. Work flow is less important in the teaching environment.

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5. Be ready to provide check values and individual assistance when students get "stuck." Design the exercises so they have multiple concurrent parts. For students who have difficulty with the arcane procedures, do the work with them on one part. Once you have their attention, have them do the same work on other parts in this phase of the exercise. Summary The design effort for our GIS courses was a real "eye opener" to the author. The lessons learned in this exercise were surprising. We started out with the presumption that a generic GIS approach would give students what they needed. After all, we don't teach mathematics for civil engineering. Rather it is taught generically and we apply that tool in our coursework. Colleagues who thought nothing of learning to use a piece of equipment as complex as our Global Position System devices and programs by studying the technical manuals, doing examples and then applying what they learned to a problem were frustrated in applying GIS in the same manner. We attributed this to the flexibility of the technology. The flexibility requires a "new" vocabulary (new to the civil engineers) and a change in outlook for problem solving. Plans are now to apply GIS to our Photogrammetry course and to some of Hydraulics/Hydrology/Storm Water/Sewer course offerings. Graduates are often surprised by the GIS applications they encounter. This is particularly true for those who are employed in State Departments of Transportation, many of whom employ the same MGE procedures. References Sprinsky, W. H.,1997 [1],”Surveying Education in the ‘90s - Something Old and Something New.” 1997 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings. Alternatively, see “http://www.pct.edu/courses/wsprinsk/delos”. Sprinsky, W. H., 1997 [2], Geographic Information Systems - Educating the Civil Engineering User, Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on GIS in Higher Education, Chantilly VA, November 1997, http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/conf/gishe97/program_files/papers/sprinsky/sprinsky.html, last accessed April 1, 1998. Alternatively, see “http://www.pct.edu/courses/wsprinsk/gis”. Sprinsky, W. H.,1999 ,”Teaching Geographic Information Systems in Civil Engineering/Surveying Technology Curricula” 1999, The Geographical Bulletin. Nov 1999, Vol. 41 No. 2. Alternatively, see “http://www.pct.edu/courses/wsprinsk/design”. Sprinsky, W. H. "Transformation of Data, Surveying Students Learn the Tools", ASEE Journal of Engineering Technology, Spring 2000,Vol 17 No 1,.pgs 40-45. Alternatively, see "http://www.pct.edu/courses/wsprinsk/coordinate_transformation". Stem, J. E.. State Plane Coordinate System of 1983 NOAA Manual NOS NGS 5 Rockville:U.S. Department of Commerce, 1990.

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Biography: Dr Sprinsky is an Associate Professor at Penn College. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from The Ohio State University in Geodetic Science. He has a B.S. in Physics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (Polytechnic Institute of New York). He has over twenty years of experience in civil engineering and mapping with the Army Corps of Engineers. His major research interests are in surveying and geodesy.

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