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CEGR 492

Course Orientation

Field review: the conversation in which a scope, a constraint or a decision is actually settled.

CEGR 492 · Fall 2026

Course Orientation — Capstone I — Proposal Development

Turn a real civil engineering need into a defensible, standards-based project proposal.

Required first step

August 31–November 22, 2026

Fall 2026 begins Monday, August 31, 2026. Modules for Week 1 open on Monday, August 31, 2026 at 12:00 AM.
Illustrated 12-week CEGR 492 roadmap showing weekly checkpoints and four milestone flags from research through design, verification and final presentation
Figure 1 — CEGR 492 12-week roadmap: weekly checkpoints with milestone reviews at Weeks 4, 8, 11 and 12.

12-Week visual roadmap

Starts in 29 days

Week 1

Aug 31 – Sep 6

Orientation, project discovery, and team formation

Week 2

Sep 7 – Sep 13

Problem identification and needs analysis

Week 3

Sep 14 – Sep 20

Literature review and standards register

Week 4

Sep 21 – Sep 27

Objectives, scope, and Chapter 1 assembly

Week 5

Sep 28 – Oct 4

Chapter 2 — literature review drafting

Week 6

Oct 5 – Oct 11

Midterm review and design criteria

Week 7

Oct 12 – Oct 18

Methodology framework

Week 8

Oct 19 – Oct 25

Discipline design methods

Week 9

Oct 26 – Nov 1

Project management, budget, and schedule

Week 10

Nov 2 – Nov 8

Chapter 3 assembly and quality control

Week 11

Nov 9 – Nov 15

Full proposal integration

Week 12

Nov 16 – Nov 22

Proposal defense and final submission

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Why this course exists

CEGR 492 teaches you to identify a genuine civil engineering problem, justify it with evidence and literature, and design a complete methodology for solving it. You leave the course with an advisor-approved proposal that becomes the scope of work for Capstone II.

  • Frame a complex, open-ended civil engineering problem and defend why it matters.
  • Synthesize technical literature, codes, and standards into a research gap.
  • Design a methodology that is traceable from every objective to a specific method and data source.
  • Communicate the work in a formal proposal document and an oral defense.

What success looks like

  • Every objective is measurable and matched to a method.
  • Every claim is cited; every number has a source.
  • Codes and standards are named with edition and clause.
  • The advisor and administrator scores both meet the rubric target.
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