Integrated Learning and Research:The Accelerated Construction Self-Sensing Project

To minimize travel delay impact,the US Department of Transportation(USDOT) has been pushing for Accelerated Construction(AC) techniques for public transportation construction.Contrast to traditional construction techniques,AC technology involves extensive applications of pre-fabricated components.This change in construction philosophy offers a great opportunity to introduce the concept of integrating full monitoring of structural construction/aging processes with AC technology via embedded sensors.The resulting structure can be quickly built and is able to self-sense health conditions throughout its service life.In order to introduce the concept and encourage synergistic learning,a joint course between Construction Management course in Engineering Technology(ET) department and Nondestructive Testing course in Civil Engineering(CE) department, has been developed with the course content designed to engage students to research on the Smart Monitoring of Accelerated Construction(SMAC ) in a two-stage(ET-CE-ET) project.This innovative approach generates synergies amongst students and encourages them to self-learn new techniques.