CVEN30009: Structural Theory and Design

3x "Home Lab" Group Assignments (5% each)
Week 11 Lab Sheet (5%)
Design (Group) Assignment (10%)
3 hour exam (70%)

This subject is a lot of work and pretty tough, but it is really well taught and well organised. The prerequisites of this subject are Eng Materials and Eng Mechanics, and it draws from both of these subjects and uses them as a basis to build upon for structural engineering. This is the first subject in a series of three ST&D subjects which continue into the Master of Engineering Civil and Structural streams, so, despite being a third year subject, it remains somewhat introductory in terms of its complexity. Therefore, nothing in the subject is too difficult conceptually, but there is a lot (and I mean a lot) of stuff to remember.

Lectures
Elisa gives most of the lectures and is fantastic. If you're going into this subject you probably already know that from doing Eng Materials.

She basically finds a way to take all the overly confusing statics stuff taught in Engineering Mechanics (e.g. deflection, indeterminate systems etc.) and presents it in a far more barebones, straightforward, and useful manner. She's really good at explaining the content and illustrating concepts with diagrams.

Elisa is also really quick and diligent in answering questions and addressing concerns both on the discussion board and via email. I always appreciate lecturers/coordinators who actually give a shit, because that is a quality that has been distinctly lacking in some of the other subjects I've done (hello SMD and Imaging).

I guess the only thing I could be critical of is the design of the lecture slides. Sometimes there were just way too many things on a single slide and it could all get a bit jumbled. I've put an example of this below in the spoiler tag where the stuff shown on this single slide really would be more effective as four separate ones. That said, the design of all examples and figures in the slides were very good.

Yes

Elisa Lumantarna

Yes, and fully worked solutions are provided dating back to 2010 (*fist-pump*).

4/5

Nada

1x two-hour lecture, 1x one-hour lecture, 1x one-hour tutorial per week, 1 single lab class in week 11.

Semester 2, 2014.

H1