1. Civil Engineering
Skills
Computer programming
CIV1900
Dr Sam Clarke
Introduction

2. Have you programmed before?
A. Yes (C++, Java) 25% 25% 25% 25%
B. Yes (Html, CSS)
C. Yes (Fortran,
Matlab)
D. No
A. B. C. D.

3. How this fits in...
 There are 5 weeks of material that combine a
short lecture (~ 30 mins), with a 2 hour
computer class and a short quiz
 Today’s intro lecture & variables
 There will be two sessions (Wks10 & 11) that
explain how to accomplish particular
programming tasks
 The final session is more about computer
graphics and introduces the programming
assessment.

4. Assessment
1. Final quiz is worth 10% (wk12)
Portfolio elements
(printed graphics & code) 10%
2. 4 online tests (weeks 8-11)
Unlimited attempts, 70% to pass.
Each worth 1.25%
You will not be allowed to proceed to the next
Quiz without successful completion

5. What is Computer
Programming?

6. Contents for Lecture 1
 Why engineers need to program
 Computer modelling and its importance
for engineering problems
 How to write an algorithm to solve an
engineering task

7. Contents for Lecture 1
 Why engineers need to program
 Computer modelling and its importance
for engineering problems
 How to write an algorithm to solve an
engineering task

8. What is an Algorithm?
A. A step-by-step 25% 25% 25% 25%
procedure for
calculations
B. A random
computer process
C. The music of algae
D. The principle of
how a computer
works
A. B. C. D.

9. What is an Algorithm?
 How a computer executes a process
 Order
 Instructions
 Rules

10. On famous physicist Richard
Feynman’s blackboard at the
time of his death was the
following statement:
“What I cannot create
I do not understand.”

11. Hence, an ability to program
or, at the very least, an ability
to understand how programs
work, is today a vital
engineering skill that greatly
enhances employability.

12. Simple Physics
We will have a look at this later…

13. Beam Stress

14. Finite Element Analysis
You will learn about this in 3rd year

15. Fluid Dynamics
You will learn about this in 3rd year

16. Groundwater flow

17. Uses
 Many of the examples we have just
seen involve computer models of
engineering structures.
 Modelling is a very important
application of programming.
 Programming can be used to streamline
a series of repeated tasks.
(such as routine design)

18. Uses
Geotechnics

19. Uses Force
Resistance
Angle 1
Angle 2

20. Uses
Can you imagine how
long this would take by hand!!

21. Uses

22. Uses
Angle 1: 0-90° in 0.1° increments (900)
Angle 2: 0-90° in 0.1° increments (900)
810000 combinations...

23. Uses
Each pixel represents a calculation
Automated using computer
programming

24. Limitations
 We can only formulate a model for a process
if we have some understanding of the
relevant physics.
 This will be a simplification of reality because
we are unable to include all possible factors –
we try to include those that our engineering
judgement deem to be the most relevant.
 This is closure – we choose to close out some
aspects of reality to focus on others.

25. Verification & Validation
 Verification is our checking to see that our
model contains the relevant physics and that
we solve the equations that we formulate for
the processes in an appropriate way.
 Validation is our checking that the outputs
from our model match our expectations of the
behaviour of the real system.

26. Example
In order to determine the specification for a new
bridge you need to estimate the probable 200
year discharge on a river.
The traditional method to do this involves
finding the largest event in a year and fitting a
statistical distribution to these annual maxima.
The raw data that your firm have been given are
daily discharge maxima.

27. Data

28. By hand, the procedure that we would follow
to construct the annual maxima is
something like:
(1) Scroll down through the data finding the
first and last values in a particular year;
(2) Sort these data in descending order of
discharge and isolate the top value (the
annual maximum);
(3) Write this value into a column in a new
file with the year in an adjacent column;
(4) Move on to the next year and repeat.

29. Programming
All programming involves is the writing of
an algorithm such as that just given into
a language that the computer can
process and understand.
The particular language we will be using is
that for the Matlab software.
Other computer languages tend to work in
similar basic ways.

30. Repeating Stuff
Known as loops
For…. loops
While… loops
For… loops repeat a set of statements a set
number of times.
While… loops keep repeating WHILE some
condition holds.
We will cover this more in Week 11

31. For our example from the discharge
dataset, imagine we have 32 years of data,
with either 365 or 366 days in a year.

32. Illustrating algorithms with flow diagrams
Process
Decision
Data

33. Set Maximum to 0
Leap
year
data Loop through
NumDays
Is current No Current
year a leap N value
year? o
Yes NumDays = 365 Is this >
Maximum
?
NumDays = 366
Yes

34. Set Maximum to
this new value
All of the statements
that we have written
On completion of
are themselves the inner loop write
embedded in a For loop out Maximum for
where the counter runs this year
from 1 to 32, meaning
that the annual
maximum for each year
is written out.

35. Over the next few weeks you will:
• Be taught how to use Matlab and
gain an experience in writing
Matlab code.
• Be given an engineering problem
which you will have to solve using
Matlab
Thus, by week 12 you should be able
to code up an algorithm yourself.

37. Next Week…
Guest lecture on Civil
Engineering design
Peer Assessment period