Teaching

Courses taught as an instructor while working as a structural design engineer, and later as a graduate instructor.

I have taught courses at three universities, all with a similar structure and content:

• Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre & Maestra (PUCMM)
• Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD)
• Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)

Undergraduate Level

Bridge Design — ICV-425-T (PUCMM)

Elective capstone course on concrete bridge design: criteria for bridge-type selection and waterway sizing, AASHTO LRFD live loads, and the design of prestressed superstructure and substructure elements, culminating in a semester-long bridge design project.

1. Introduction: bridge types and waterway/drainage criteria
2. AASHTO LRFD design philosophy and limit states
3. Vehicular live load (HL-93) and its transverse distribution
4. Influence lines applied to indeterminate bridge structures
5. Flexural design of prestressed concrete girders
6. Deck slab design (traditional, AASHTO tables, and empirical methods)
7. Railings and deck overhangs
8. Slab bridge design (equivalent strip widths)
9. Bridge substructures: piers, abutments, foundations, and bearings

Concrete Design I — IC4-315 (UNIBE)

A general understanding of reinforced concrete design, covering the analysis and design of beams, columns, one-way slabs, and footings, with emphasis on the ACI Building Code.

1. Introduction to reinforced concrete (RC), materials, and properties
2. Flexural analysis of beams
3. Flexural design of beams
4. Flexural design of one-way slabs
5. Shear and diagonal tension
6. Deflection and control of cracking
7. Development length of steel reinforcing bars
8. Members in compression and bending
9. Design of isolated footings

Concrete Design II — ICV-421-T (PUCMM)

Advanced reinforced concrete behavior under service and seismic loads: serviceability and ductility, torsion, biaxial flexure-compression in columns, shear walls, and the seismic detailing provisions of ACI 318-19.

1. Serviceability: crack width and deflection control
2. Ductility of sections subject to flexure (moment–curvature)
3. Analysis and design of elements subject to torsion
4. Biaxial flexure-compression and slender columns
5. Analysis and design of shear walls
6. ACI 318-19 seismic design provisions (special moment frames, structural walls, diaphragms)
7. Reinforced masonry wall design
8. Yield-line analysis of slabs
9. Direct design method for two-way slabs

Formwork Design — IC4-730 (UNIBE)

General criteria for the design of concrete formwork, including wall, slab, beam, and column formwork; shoring and scaffolding selection; and distribution of shoring/re-shoring for multi-level and elevated formwork. Custom and pre-engineered form systems, ACI 347 finishing requirements, and jobsite safety are also discussed.

1. Introduction: formwork lifecycle and common failure modes
2. Formwork design: materials, loads and pressures, and design of wall/slab/beam/column formwork
3. Formwork drawings, including BIM-based detailing
4. Formwork for bridges and buildings; stripping and re-shoring
5. Proprietary and pre-engineered systems (Doka, PERI, RMD Kwikform, EFCO)
6. ACI 347.3R finishing requirements for exposed concrete
7. Formwork safety

Mechanics of Deformable Solids I — IG1-212 (UNIBE)

Introduces force, stress, deformation, internal forces, beam flexure, and deflection. Stresses and deformations are determined for elements under axial, transverse, and pure bending loads.

1. Statics review
2. Introduction to solid mechanics: concept of stress
3. Stress and strain under axial load
4. Transformation of stress and strain
5. Pure bending
6. Flexural analysis and design of beams
7. Shear stress in beams
8. Deflection of beams

Mechanics of Deformable Solids II — IG1-310 (UNIBE)

Covers deflections, torsion, failure theories, columns, and energy methods, with elements subjected to more complex axial, eccentric, and torsional loads.

1. Deflection of beams (moment-area method)
2. Torsion of circular shafts
3. Failure theories in mechanics of materials
4. Columns
5. Energy methods

Structural Analysis I — ICV-322-T (PUCMM) / IC4-313 (UNIBE)

Internal forces in isostatic structures (beams, frames, trusses, and arches); influence lines to determine unfavorable load conditions; deformations via virtual work; and the force method for indeterminate structures.

1. Loads on structures and design codes
2. Statics review: beams and trusses
3. Internal forces in isostatic beams, frames, and arches
4. Influence lines in isostatic structures
5. Deformations by energy methods (virtual work)
6. Force method for indeterminate structures
7. Moment distribution method

Structural Analysis II — ICV-323-T (PUCMM) / IC4-314 (UNIBE)

Analysis methods for indeterminate structures to predict behavior under gravity, wind, and seismic loads, including classical, approximate, and matrix methods.

1. Quantifying gravity, wind, and seismic loads
2. Slope-deflection method
3. Moment distribution for frames with lateral displacement
4. Analysis of beams and frames with non-prismatic elements
5. Influence lines for indeterminate structures (Müller-Breslau principle)
6. Approximate methods for rectangular frames (portal and cantilever methods)
7. Matrix stiffness method (2D and 3D)
8. Structural analysis software practice

Structural Dynamics — ICV-325-T (PUCMM)

Analysis methods for the response of linear and nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom systems under dynamic loads, and the effects of seismic ground motion on current design regulations.

1. Basics of dynamics: degrees of freedom, stiffness, damping, excitation
2. Single-degree-of-freedom systems: free and forced vibration
3. Numerical evaluation of the dynamic response (Newmark-beta method)
4. Earthquakes, seismograms, and accelerograms
5. Response spectra (displacement, velocity, and acceleration)
6. Inelastic single-degree-of-freedom systems and hysteretic response
7. Design earthquake ground motions and code-based spectra

Graduate Level

Numerical Methods — CIV-8810 (UASD)

Developing computational algorithms and using student-written programs for the analysis and calculations required across graduate coursework, using SMath Studio, MathCAD, and Python 3.

1. Scientific computing
2. Systems of linear equations
3. Linear least squares
4. Nonlinear equations
5. Interpolation
6. Numerical integration
7. Random numbers and simulations