11.5.3 Systems Engineering Education for Civil Engineering Students

Civil infrastructure projects have become increasingly complex over the last decades. For that reason, systematic approaches such as systems engineering have been found very useful for making large and complex projects better manageable. This implies that civil engineers of the future must gain knowledge, insight and experience in systems engineering during their study. This paper discusses the use of system engineering concepts and methods in design project courses for civil engineering students. The use of system engineering-related methods such as project decomposition, requirements management and interface management are discussed. Although only basic system engineering methods are used, it seems that students get a sound basis for the system engineering concepts that will be useful in their future lives as managers in civil engineering projects.