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Structurally Sound: Aesthetics and Excellence in Civil Engineering with Professor Stephen Ressler
Our world is filled with structures that have stood the test of time. Ever wonder how they were designed and what has allowed them to remain intact? Talk about the civil engineering genius that made these works possible with Dr. Stephen Ressler, Professor Emeritus and a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on Tuesday, October 13, at 1:00 PM ET.
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If you had to pick one historical example of an engineering work that embraced the breadth of ancient civil engineering knowledge, what would that be? -
Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Vitruvius | The Great Courses
by The Great Courses via YouTube 10/13/2015 6:20:51 PM -
Dr. Ressler, I have taken over 70 TGC courses and I must say that you are The Best instructor of the lot. Since I am educated as a physicist, spent my entire career in the High Tech industry (semiconductors), and am a history buff I am biased; but I think the unique combination of science, engineering and history in your courses is par excellence. Your models and demonstrations not only make for an excellent teaching method, but your explanations of the underlying principles is outstanding. It is also great how you include in the course guidebook actual problems to solve and a detailed description of the structures and engineering techniques used in each. Your approach to including all this reference information on top of the lucid explanations in your lectures, allows the student to delve into the subject at whatever level they wish. Outstanding by all measures; your courses are the Platinum standard for all TGC Science/Engineering/Mathematics courses to aspire to. Thank you for putting so much effort into your courses!!! Also, thank you for your service to our nation.
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Dr. Ressler, ever since I took an art course years ago, I've wondered about the fluting on ancient Roman and Greek columns. I know that they were intended to give the appearance of strength, but, structurally, do they?
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Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: Locking Scarf Joint Keel | The Great Courses
by The Great Courses via YouTube 10/13/2015 6:25:20 PM -
What is the most exciting innovation in civil engineering in the past 10 years that you consider to have the greatest potential to re-shape the world as we know it?
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I'm a civil engineer who watches your courses with my 13yo son. He did not enjoy STEM in middle school but you have turned him back on to the subject. Thank you. -
Thank you so much for joining us today. A special thank you goes out to Professor Ressler for taking the time and providing us with such insightful answers to your questions. We would love your feedback on the chat today and hope you will join us for future chats with our Great Courses instructors. -
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I’ve thoroughly enjoyed engaging with all of you during this session. I hope we can do it again soon. In the meantime, if you ever want to contact me personally with a question or feedback, you can use the contact page on my website ( stephenjressler.com or my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/stephenjressler). I do my best to respond to al messages within 24 hours. And don’t forget to watch for “Everyday Engineering!” -
By the way (speaking of engineering outreach to kids), I serve as project director for the Engineering Encounters Bridge Design Contest (https://bridgecontest.org/)—a nationwide internet-based competition that provides middle-school and high-school students with a realistic, hands-on introduction to engineering. Participation is entirely free. Contestants use our award-winning Bridge Designer software package to design a bridge—then they upload their designs to our website for judging and instant feedback. It’s a very cool educational experience! I hope you’ll encourage students and schools in your area to participate. Everything you need to know is on our website at bridgecontest.org
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Thank you to all who participated in the chat! We've
received an abundance of questions for Professor Ressler, and he
has graciously agreed to answer the questions that we could not include in the initial chat. These additional questions and answers will appear in the chat transcript. Check back here to see additional questions answered. -
Your lecture on Mortise and Tenon Joints is posted below. But doesn't all the stress focus on the tenons, further weakened by the dowels. Why don't these structures just snap at the seams?
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Next Tuesday, I will be doing a presentation on the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, any pointers?
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In the ancient world, the builders had limited materials, could they have built bigger structures?
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One of the really great themes in your structures course is the contrast of British empiricism and French mathematical analysis. What is the current balance in current engineering practice and does it tip one way or the other? -
Dr. Ressler, why is it that there are so few college courses in History of Engineering (opposed to History of Science)? What can we do to encourage colleges and universities to offer a course on this subject?
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Given the current water resources problems on the west coast, do you think there are practical civil engineering solutions to getting water where it is required and is simply moving water around going to be enough? The Romans seemed to have solutions but they did not have the magnitude issues we have here.
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I would love to see you do a course on forensic civil engineering. I am always amazed looking at the twisted wreckage of a failure in a structure that anyone can come in and figure out the cause.
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I'm sure you've read "Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King and perhaps seen the PBS "Nova" program on the same subject.
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Do civil engineers and Architects sometimes have ... "serious discussions" about a proposed design? B-}
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I believe one of your lectures was about Trajan's Market, considered the first shopping mall (~100 AD). It impressed me since it seemed quite close to a modern day mall, e.g. multi-level with shops, apartments and offices. Do you think a Roman would feel at home in a modern day mall, e.g. The Galleria here in Houston?
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I enjoyed your course on structures particularly because of the emphasis on concepts and qualitative relationships. It reminded me a lot of the teaching style led by Prof. Harry Meiners at Rensselaer Polytechnic in the late 1960s. Conversely, the curriculum in engineering mechanics at the time was heavily influenced by tensors and matrix math. That was typically thorough and informative but much more difficult to grasp. Have you been able to successfully collaborate to bring your teaching methods to campuses other than at USMA?
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Where is a good source for learning what we know of the tools and techniques the ancients used in their constructions?
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Question: how did the Romans actually build the Pantheon dome? With centering? Love your courses and use them in my teaching - as does my daughter with her high school Latin classes
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Hi Prof.:
We thoroughly enjoyed the two courses. We just returned from Italy, where we visited, and in some cases revisited, a number of the structures you discussed. We even got to the bridge at Pont St. Martin. Is there any book simple enough for a non-engineer to continue studies from? -
I live near Hoover Dam and have been amazed at the engineering and construction ingenuity that went into that project, and that it was finished two years ahead of schedule. I would love to see that and other engineering feats (such as the moving of the Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt) featured in a future lecture series.
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Sir, thanks for your lifetime of service and this chat today. I described you to my son who is a Civil Engineer Senior at UDEL as a genius who nonetheless can explain a myriad of complicated things in the simplest of terms. I bow to you!
Q: During a volunteer mission trip to Nicaragua this past winter, I heard talk of the Chinese, for one, having a financial investment interest in building a second transoceanic accessway as a competitor to, or a sister to the Panama Canal. With so much inland water in Nicaragua it seems very feasible.
Q1: Any news on the likelihood of such a project?
Q2: Although Central America is wider in Nicaragua, the extensive inland waterways lessen that problem. I suppose it was probably one of many likely alternative locations in Panama Canal site selection, perhaps it was engineeringly least feasible or was it politically or economically scratched? -
Each age has its' own advances in structural engineering. What would you say is the most innovative example of the current age? -
With the present environment will we see improvements in the infrastructure or will it take some major breakdown to initiate action?
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Regarding the Roman architectural designs, did Buckminster Fuller incorporate and even improve upon Roman engineering postulates in his geodesic designs? It seems that there's a common,recurring theme in hemispherical advantages around load balancing, structural integrity, and simplicity that seems to be intuitively sound and wondering if these earlier Roman engineering principals have not changed significantly in the modern era?
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Empirical Structural Design Methods vs Scientifically Based Structural Design Methods for URM Structures, what are some of your comments ?
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Having worked as a Civil Engineer for nearly 30 years, it seems like Civil Engineering is in kind of a rut. Considering that 99% of public works engineering is the everyday stuff of roads and utilities, there seems to be little applied advancement (trenchless pipe technologies seem to be the exception). California, for example, is still using the Hveem method for asphalt (developed in the 1930s when Model A Fords were on the roads), and the only published reason why they are finally switching slowly to Superpave, is that they cannot find anyone to manufacture, maintain, and calibrate the Hveem equipment. There’s a lot of pilot studies on various methods and materials, but they seem to not go much past that stage, a few lectures are given, and there is no compendium comparing the benefits and limitations of new technologies. So new tech seems to just die, and there is less incentive to innovate.
Considering the deteriorating state of public works in this country, and the increasing costs, is there any movement to correct this, and move things forward? -
How many hours have you spent on your models? Where do you store them?! They really make your lectures interesting and understandable for the average non-engineering student.
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In your course you talk about how the ancients who preceded Newton and the understanding of classical physics depended on trial and error, passed down learning, and the "art" of engineering. Yet many of their structures (e.g. Roman bridges, Egyptian and Mayan Pyramids, Japanese Pagodas, etc) have lasted for centuries> Now that engineering is more science based do you think that the "art" and/or craftsmanship of classical engineering is being lost?
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I learned in other courses and a visit to Egypt that Egyptian architecture did not change much in the almost 2000 years of its prominence. Have any reasons for this stability but little development been brought forward?
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Has it ever been determined what ingredients made the Roman concrete used in many structures that are 2,000 years old last so long?
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Can you give us a brief overview of how modern concrete came to be developed?
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Can you give a bit of info on how modern math and computers have affected your field during your time teaching it? I can certainly guess there have been major changes - what do you think are the most significant?
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Hello, Today we build great structures using more engineering and lighter materials. However, many of these structure require more ongoing maintenance than structures of the past. Do you think that the savings in materials justifies the ongoing cost (frequently unbudgeted) and risk for the long term survival of these structures, particularly bridges?
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How do you think the pyramids were built? I saw an interesting theory using flotation bags and a clever canal system within the pyramid structure
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Without wandering into "Ancient Aliens" nonsense, is it possible that some ancient societies employed technologies that we've only recently rediscovered? (The Victorian worldview of history as smooth progress is challenged by the idea of falling back and forgetting in Dark Ages.)
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recently visited Grants tomb and not sure difference squince and pendentive, why one not other and merits of each
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How did the Romans build the multi-level aqueducts? Were they actually able to build scaffolding up THAT high?
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Please discuss how the Gothic master builders got such incredible production from their workers
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Are there any plans to offer an additional course on civil or structural engineering in the future?
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With the salt-sea environment of Tenerife, what is being done to preserve the Calatrava thin shell structure of the Concert Hall?
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In lesson (22 ? - development of the catapults) you mention that the "composite bow was developed in the second millium BC.
Really that early?
Who developed that technology ? That's too early for the greeks.
Stepp nomads ? Assyrians ? Persians ? -
1. Is the Raftsundet bridge thickest at the supports because the supports cause a rather sharp convex-up bend at that point? Why thinnest at the mid-spans, where there would be convex-down flexure stress?
2. I presume a beam is weakest at the midpoint between supports? How is that explained? -
We were in Athens recently. How was the Parthenon built?
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Are construction resources and materials in sufficient supply?
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Professor, what are the most durable (long lasting) occupied structures in the ancient world and how were they built? What are the longest occupied communities?
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"State Transportation Department officials told the San Francisco Chronicle that tiny cracks found in two rods – which are about 26 feet long and up to 4 inches in diameter – might also be present in many other rods, placing them at risk for sudden fracture. The cracks appear to be related to corrosion – caused by water leaking into the spaces around the rods.
How concerned should I be driving over this bridge? -
We’ve received a number of great submissions. Thanks for your patience as Professor Ressler answers your questions as quickly as possible.
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We apologize, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
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Just a friendly reminder, this chat is text only. We do not have a video or audio format enabled.
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We request that our participants please use appropriate language in this forum.
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Professor Ressler has a new course coming out with us before the holidays. It’s on the marvels of everyday engineering, from your home to power generation, transportation, communication and beyond.
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We’ve received an abundance of greetings from all over. Welcome everyone! Thanks for sharing your location and saying hello.
