Modern Engineering Marvels: Innovations, Impacts, and Implications
- Course Number: G1040
- Credits: 2 hours
- Instructor: Ellen Huang, PE
- Price: $20
Course Outline
This course surveys 12 modern engineering marvels—from bridges, tunnels, and dams to storm-surge barriers, supertall towers, and particle-physics infrastructure—to show how ambitious ideas become reliable, long-lived systems. Using consistent case-study lenses, learners examine why each project was needed, how stakeholders planned and funded it, what design innovations made it feasible, and how construction teams managed risk in challenging environments (deep water, soft soils, wind, earthquakes, complex geology, and tight urban constraints). The course emphasizes systems thinking: safety, monitoring, operations and maintenance, resilience, and life-cycle performance.
At the end of this course, there will be a multiple-choice, open-book quiz designed to enhance your understanding of the course material.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, the student will:
- Be able to identify the primary purpose and performance drivers (capacity, safety, resilience) behind major engineering megaprojects;
- Be able to explain how planning, stakeholders, procurement, and funding influence design and delivery outcomes;
- Be able to describe key innovations and construction methods used in tunnels, bridges, dams, coastal barriers, and supertall buildings; and
- Be able to evaluate operational requirements—monitoring, maintenance, safety systems, and risk management—across different infrastructure types.