Schedule of Classes

Ethical and professional issues in the construction industry including an overview of applicable codes of ethical behavior and principles of professional conduct; introduction to ethical decision making; understanding of professional development opportunities; legal versus ethical responsibilities; written and oral communication practices and case studies.

Symbols, conventions, details of construction drawings, and blueprint reading. Emphasis on interpretation and communication of requirements of contract drawings.

Full-time cooperative education assignment for construction students who alternate periods of full-time school with periods of full-time academic or career-related work in industry. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

Introduction to commonly used computer based drafting and visualization programs with applications in construction; CAD standards; introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM) and project collaboration techniques.

Survey of basic principles, methods, and equipment for building component systems related to human health and comfort. Introduces heating/cooling systems, electrical systems, plumbing, and lighting systems.

Introduction to soil mechanics and foundation construction. Soil index properties, classification, stress analysis, soil compaction, settlement, seepage, dewatering, excavations, and foundation construction.

Feasibility estimates, design estimates, quantity takeoff, direct and overhead costing, and cost control. Material, equipment, and labor estimates of construction projects, bidding strategy, and basic concepts in management and business. Includes laboratory.

Introduction to OSHA Construction Safety Standards. Design of a safety program, risk analysis of a company`s home office and field safety performance characteristics, potential problems, contingency planning, and safety audit analysis.

Survey of large scale integrated building component systems related to human health and comfort. Topics include lighting, electrical design and layout, vertical transportation, alarm and security systems, fire protection, total space conditioning, water treatment and sewage treatment, industrial piping design.

Introduction to AGC and AIA construction contract documents. Types of contracts; contents including specifications, general conditions, bidding requirements. Introduction to construction law, bonding, insurance, and DBE requirements. Preparation of contract documents.

Economic considerations and tools of management: cost reporting; scheduling. Emphasis on network methods of scheduling: resource allocation and least-cost expediting. Introduction to computerized scheduling with emphasis on Primavera and MS Project.

Union and non-union activities in construction industry: history, analysis, organizing, bargaining, contract language, jurisdictional disputes, training, and restrictions on operating non-union.

Green design, construction, and operations from a project management standpoint. Introduction to the design and construction of high performance green buildings. Building-Community Interaction. Economical and ecological benefits of green buildings. Preparation for the LEED GA Exam.

Design and detailing of wood and masonry structures. Application to industry problems in bracing, formwork, and temporary excavation supports.

Topics of special interest which may vary each time course is offered. Topics are stated in the current Schedule of Classes.

Application of construction principles to actual industry projects. Detailed estimate of the project, bidding strategies, site layout/development plan for construction staging, preparation of sample contracts using AIA and AGC formats, construction scheduling, project closeout plan, jobsite safety plan, and strategies to achieve LEED rating points.

Project scheduling methods with emphasis on network scheduling techniques, work breakdown structure (WBS), resource and cost loading, scheduling under uncertainties, project time compression, resource leveling, scheduling for linear projects (LOB), time-cost trade-offs, project status, reporting and updating, schedules as tools for claims documentation. Case studies. Computer based.

Issues in the administration and implementation of a construction contract. Coordinating and controlling the construction project under legal and ethical considerations.

Decision making using simulation and simulation languages to model construction operations. Simulation of construction process using what-if analysis. Role of simulation and decision making in the planning and scheduling phases in the construction industry. Topics include introduction to discrete event simulation, generation of random numbers, queuing, simulation languages for construction.