PHASE 5 - Project Continuation

Continental Crossings identified project continuation as one of the main objectives for founding the team. It is our hope that The University of Iowa will one day introduce an international component into the Project Management Senior Design course, creating an avenue for future international projects. International capstone senior design projects expose students to a wide range of real-life engineering challenges from concept to implementation. Other Universities including Colorado School of Mines, Michigan Technology Institute, and The University of Illinois have already begun to offer students the choice between the typical senior design project and an alternative for a developing community. Exposure to the entire design process matches recommendations for general engineering education, as suggested in the ASCE Body of Knowledge for the 21st Centuryand ABET. It also allows students the opportunity to provide humanitarian aid while gaining an invaluable international experience. Students at The University of Iowa College of Engineering who are interested in pursuing this alternative should be given the option to do so through enrollment in the two semester course sequence of Design for the Developing World 053:141, followed by Project Management 053:084. Our team documented the entire process with the hope that another team could have the same opportunity while reflecting upon our teams’ successes and failures.

Future projects will be implemented through a continued partnership with Bridges with Prosperity (B2P). The University of Iowa’s 2006-2007 Continental Crossings team was the first (of many) student design teams to participate in B2P’s University Program. Following the completion of Continental Crossings’ bridge, Avery joined the B2P’s Board of Directors to assist future B2P partnered University teams with similar bridge projects. Future teams will also have the opportunity work with Auyda en Accion, one of Continental Crossings major partners in Peru. Auyda en Accion has an expressed interest in continuing their partnership with both The University of Iowa and Bridges to Prosperity. It is Continental Crossings’ hope that future generations of Iowa engineers will find inspiration in our project and will pursue countless more bridge projects.

Continental Crossings team with the teachers and comunity leaders of Yavina.

ASCE Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21 st Century