GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
CEE 8813 Materials Science of Concrete
Lecture and Notes
The purpose of this portion of the course is to gain an in-depth understanding in an area of interest to you
related to concrete technology and to further develop your critical analysis skills and your technical
communication skills. Often, the best way to fully understand a topic is to teach others about that topic.
This assignment is not simply a class presentation, but a graduate-level lecture, including presentation
and preparation of in-depth course notes. This means that you must present an analysis of the current
state-of-the-art in a fairly narrow area, by:
 briefly reviewing fundamental concepts relevant to the lecture topic
 reviewing, analyzing, and relating key seminal and recent papers in that area,
 highlighting differences of opinion that exist in the literature,
 assessing the merit of the these opinions and the research underlying them (including presenting
results from simple lab experiments),
 drawing conclusions from the available literature (when possible),
 and identifying areas where further research is warranted.
The assignment is as follows:
1. Find a topic, related to the course objectives and content, of particular interest to you. Some ideas for
lecture topics are listed below, but you are not at all restricted to these:
Internal curing
New sensors for concrete structures
Low energy cements
Polymer concrete
Nanostructure of cement-based materials
Role of concrete in sustainable development
Autogneous/self-healing of cement-based materials
Fiber reinforced cement-based materials
High volume fly ash concrete
Structural lightweight concrete
Advances in superplasticizers
Delayed ettringite formation (DEF)
Shrinkage reducing admixtures
Degradation of concrete in cold climates
Self-consolidating/compacting concrete
Role of deicing chemicals in deterioration
Fracture mechanics of concrete
Degradation of concrete by microbial activity
Micro/nano tomography of cement-based materials
Mass concrete
Service life prediction
Controlled low-strength materials
Non-destructive evaluation/testing of cement-based
Pervious concrete
materials (radar, infrared thermography, acoustic
emission, sonic tomography, electrical resistivity, etc.)
2. Perform a thorough literature review, using resources such as the GaTech library catalog for books
and conference proceedings, books on reserve, Engineering and Physical Sciences databases (such as
Current Contents and ISI Web of Knowledge) for technical journal articles, and the internet
(www.scholar.google.com).
3. Read the literature you have collected; begin developing an outline and several key points to develop
in the lecture. It may be helpful to prepare summaries of those articles most relevant to the paper you
are developing. It may also be helpful to perform some simple lab experiments to validate hypotheses
or to answer questions stemming from your preliminary review.
4. A detailed lecture proposal is due Feb 18 in class. The proposal should include a detailed outline, a
preliminary list of references (at least 15 for those enrolled in 4803 and at least 25 for those enrolled in
8813), and at least 2 sample slides or overheads (printed in color, if using). For more information about
the format for citations, see http://library.uww.edu/GUIDES/APACITE.htm or other reference on APA
style.
5. Based upon a critical synthesis of the literature, develop a lecture, including lecture notes, slides or
overheads, and a list of references. If enrolled as an undergraduate in CEE 4803, the lectures should be
25-30 minutes in length with at least 15 cited references. If enrolled as a graduate student in CEE 8813,
your lecture should be 40-45 minutes pages in length, with at least 25 cited references. All ideas, data,
and figures used in the lecture and notes should be properly referenced in the actual lecture and in the
notes. While there is no strict format for the lecture notes, they should be readable and should
complement the lecture (i.e., should be in the same order and provide explanation to any visual material in
the lecture).
6. On the day of your scheduled lecture, bring handouts for all students and 3 copies of the lecture
notes.
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
CEE 8813A Materials Science of Concrete
Peer Review
For this assignment, each student will perform a peer review of two sets of lecture notes submitted by
their classmates. Each peer review is worth 2.5% of your final grade.
The assignment is as follows:
1. During the semester, you will receive two different sets of lecture notes prepared by two of your
classmates. The instructor will distribute the notes for review.
2. Read each set of notes carefully, certainly more than once. Feel free to make notes on the manuscript,
as the original manuscript will be returned to the lecturer with your review.
3. Critique the notes as a fellow academic. Your critique should be constructive, detailed, and technical.
Consider the following questions in your review:
What are the lecture’s strengths and weaknesses, considering organization, style, content, and critical
analysis?
Is the lecture well organized?
Would you recommend any changes to the organization of the lecture?
Would you recommend any changes in the scope of the lecture?
Has the lecturer provided an adequate review of relevant fundamental topics?
Is the review of the fundamental topics too lengthy?
Does the lecture present a thorough review of the current research in a particular area?
Has the lecturer overlooked any important references or research?
Does the lecture dwell too much on an insignificant or less important topic?
Has the lecturer sufficiently analyzed the current research, identifying significant results and approaches
and also identifying where further research or new approaches are needed?
Does the lecture impart new understanding?
How are difficult topics handled in the lecture?
Are the conclusions (if any) drawn in a logical, unambiguous fashion?
4. At the top of the 1-2 page review, put your name and the full title and author of the notes you are
reviewing. Please note that these reviews will not be performed anonymously.
5. Two copies of each of your reviews are due April 23.