State of Programming and Data Science Preparation in Civil Engineering Undergraduate Curricula

Addressing societal issues in civil and environmental engineering increasingly requires skills in data science and programming. To date, there is not much known about the extent students are learning these skills in current civil and environmental engineering curricula. We conducted a survey of accredited civil and environmental engineering departments in the US regarding their current curricula with respect to programming and data science. Our response rate was 41% (power of 0.89 at 0.05 significance level). The results show limited incorporation of the modern data science languages (Java, Python, and R) into civil and environmental curricula, and significant use of MATLAB and spreadsheets. Although department chairs see the value of incorporating modern data science languages and facilitating student experience in the broader data science skills (e.g., understanding privacy issues, etc.) into their curricula, barriers such as faculty knowledge and lack of space in the curricula remain significant hurdles.