12-750 / 19-617 Infrastructure Management
Spring 2004
updated 1/15/2004

Infrastructure in the United States (and generally in the developed world) needs to be significantly improved to meet the needs of future generations. There are physical, technological, and political barriers to be overcome in order to solve this problem. Many studies have described the problems, but relatively few have found solutions.

This course is intended to introduce the current issues related to infrastructure (with emphasis on the United States), and to discuss how to manage them. The two infrastructure networks that we will focus on are (1) transportation and built infrastructure, and (2) energy. While each network serves a very different purpose, the issues of designing and managing them are very similar. In addition, we will spend a significant amount of course time discussing the interdependencies between these critical infrastructures.

The "traditional" infrastructure management course in engineering is focused on built infrastructures (e.g. highways, bridges, etc.) and the need for managing them across their life cycles - from design to decommissioning. It discusses budgeting, deterioration, and the technology behind building long-lasting concrete or pavements. While such process-level issues are important, we will look at infrastructure from a higher level. As such, we will spend relatively little time talking about budgeting (a pre-requisite of this course is microeconomics or benefit-cost analysis), and some time on deterioration, but most of our time on "the big picture" and infrastructure policy. Our goal is an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to solving these problems.

By the end of the course, students should be prepared to actively participate in discussions about these infrastructures at the graduate level. In addition they should be prepared to act in analysis and management roles related to infrastructure.

Special Note: This is the second time in several years that this course has been offered at CMU in Engineering. In addition, it is the first time I have taught such a course. The syllabus and reading list below is by no means final, and is intended to act as a general guide on the topics we will cover and the approximate ordering of these topics. Suggested readings are provided, but if you know of or have access to others, please feel free to share them to give out to the class and use in future iterations of the course. Finally, I envision this course as a dynamic graduate seminar course where there will be some assignments and checks that you are keeping up with the readings, and a term project. Please let me know if you have comments on content or the sequence of lectures.

• Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy
• Porter Hall 118-L, 268-6218, hsm@cmu.edu
• Office hours: immediately after class on Tuesdays - or send email for another appointment. There will also be several guest lecturers.

Required Textbook: None

I will be distributing readings that are central to the lectures. For other sources, I will simply provide URLs or pointers (if they provide only supplemental or secondary support to our course topics).

Lecture notes, problem sets and syllabus are on the Internet at http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~hsm/im2004/. Where possible, all material handed out in class will be posted to the web site. Lecture notes will be available as Power Point presentations. Students should still come to lecture, since the slide files only show overviews of the material being presented. Feel free to download and bring copies of these presentations to class to follow along. If you elect to do this, please help conserve paper by printing in Powerpoint's 'Handouts' form (2, 3, or 6 slides per page) and with duplex (double-sided) printing. If you are unsure how to do duplex printing, please consult the printing help feature of your operating system.

This course is cross-listed between the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy. Undergraduates should recognize that this class will be taught as a graduate course, and that if they are uncomfortable with this fact, they should consult me.

This is a 12-unit graduate course. That means that the total effort is expected to be 12 hours per week, including class attendance of 3 hours. The 'outside of class' workload will be primarily readings, but will not generally be more than 20 pages per week. All readings will be in English, and international students should be aware of this. The following chart shows the expected distribution of points for grading.

Category	Percent
Homework	40%
Take-Home Midterm	15%
Take-Home Final	20%
Course Project	25%

Class participation is not an official component of your grade; however, it will benefit you when I set final grades (e.g. improving a high B to a low A).

While working in groups is encouraged, merely copying another group member's work is not. Obviously you need to read papers on your own and write the summaries. If you are working in a group but do not understand the analysis being done, you should NOT turn in someone else's work. Instances of cheating will be handled via the Policy on Cheating in the Student Handbook. If in doubt, ask for clarification. Note that "forgetting" to cite someone else's work is considered plagiarism.

This preliminary course schedule is provided to you in the hopes that it will help you prepare for the first few weeks of class. I will make changes to this schedule as the semester goes on based on the pace of class (since this is the first offering, it is difficult to gauge how long the topics will require). The web site home page will always have the most up-to-date version, and changes will be announced in class. If significant changes are made, I will print out new syllabi for you.

The first set of lectures (module 1) introduce the concept of infrastructure management and the current issues in the U.S. Module 2 discusses measuring infrastructure performance, including data and models needed, as well as sensing or data collection technologies as well as current management systems. Module 3 talks about using models for infrastructure management, deterioration, failure, and critical infrastructure interdependencies.

The topics, assignments, and suggested readings are given below. I suggest that you try to read the papers listed in the 'readings' column before the listed lecture. I realize that there will be times when you are unable to keep up. If the workload is becoming too high, please let me know.

All students will be expected to complete a semester project on a topic of their in infrastructure management (not necessarily on one of our 3 main topic areas). You may work individually or in groups of 2 on this project. For those of you that have trouble selecting a topic, we will brainstorm some ideas in class in several weeks, and further details will be given. In the meantime, you might begin to consider potential topics and groups. My expectations on the project work will change based on the number of group members. Groups will present summaries of their work during the last few class sessions, and will submit written reports by May 3, 2004.

The two required components of the project - the presentation and final report - should be written and presented in a professional manner. The report and any accompanying text or visuals should be clear, easy to read, and neat. However, you do not need to go overboard in formatting the document to look like the work of consultants.

You will also be expected to present your project findings in class on one of the dates listed above. You are not required to dress differently for your presentation. Please plan to spend about 15 minutes on your presentation, and expect about 5 minutes of questions. Generally, you should be presenting interesting parts of your project to educate the class about your relevant techniques and/or findings within the 20 minute timeframe. Once the number of groups is determined, more information about presentation length and content will be discussed.

You might consider waiting to submit your final report until after you have presented, so that you have time to address any potential advice or feedback given by the class. This is important since in years past, there have been relatively major errors found during the question and answer period of the presentations that have led to greatly improved papers.