CIEN E3128: Design Projects

Course Overview

Designed specifically for graduating seniors, this course gives you the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills developed throughout your studies to a series of practical projects. Based predominantly in the Department’s Carleton Laboratory, you will generate design projects that are relevant to societal needs while adhering to the four pillars of Civil Engineering: structural, geotechnical, environmental, and construction.

You’ll build scaled physical models of your final designs, and generate architectural/structural renderings by using software packages such as SAP2000, Revit and AutoCAD. The completed designs will be showcased in our end-of-semester “Senior Design Exposition” that attracts many visitors and local industry representatives.

By combining both theoretical and practical perspectives in the formation of realistic designs, the course helps you acquire a more complete understanding of the overall engineering design process. It will also enhance your teamwork and negotiation skills in preparation to work within a professional setting.

To study this course, you must first complete CIEN E3125 Structural Design.

Course Instructor

Tom Panayotidi

Lecturer in the Discipline of Structural Engineering and Mechanics

Tom T. Panayotidi is a registered professional engineer in the states of New York and New Jersey, with over 30 years of practical experience in the design of structures and foundations for static and dynamic (machinery/seismic) conditions. As a Principal Engineer for Burns and Roe, Inc. and for Power Engineers, Inc., he has been involved in the design of several USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and DOE (U.S. Department of Energy) projects and numerous power generating stations across the United States, Central America and Asia. As a Principal Structural Engineer for General Electric-Hitachi (GEH), he has been actively involved in the structural design of the new generation nuclear power plant BWRX-300 SMR (Small Modular Reactor), using advanced computational techniques that incorporate the post-elastic behavior of building materials under cyclic-seismic loads and large temperature gradients. 

Panayotidi received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering (1981), MS (1983) and Doctor of Engineering Science (1986) degrees in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University. He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. Before joining Columbia University in 2013, he has taught several mechanics based design courses as an adjunct professor at local universities, including Structural Dynamics, Design of Foundations, Advanced Steel Design, Advanced Concrete Design, Design of Prestressed Concrete, Theory of Plates and Shells, and others.