Asee peer logo

Cross College Faculty Collaboration for the development of a new major in Design and Construction Integration

Download Paper |

Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Engaging Faculty Across Disciplines, Colleges, and Institutions

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28089

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28089

Download Count

472

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Luciana Debs Purdue University Programs Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-9713-0957

visit author page

Luciana Debs, is an Assistant Professor of Construction Management in the School Construction Management Technology at Purdue University. She received her PhD from Purdue University Main Campus. Her previous degrees include a MS from the Technical Research Institute of Sao Paulo (IPT-SP), and BArch from the University of São Paulo (USP), in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Prior to her current position she worked in design coordination in construction and real estate development companies in Brazil. Her research interests include team work and collaboration in construction, effective communication in spatial problem solving, and design - field team interaction.

visit author page

biography

Mark Shaurette Purdue Polytechnic Institute

visit author page

Mark Shaurette has a MS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in Technology from Purdue University. He is currently an associate professor at Purdue University, was a 2012 Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, and has work experience that includes 30+ years of senior construction management practice as well as work as a research engineer for the National Association of Home Builders Research Foundation. He is active in research, education, and community outreach in the areas of building retrofit for energy conservation, sustainable construction practices, management of the demolition process, material reuse and recycling, as well as instructional design in technology education.

visit author page

biography

Wendy Hynes Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

visit author page

Wendy Hynes is an Assistant Professor of Interior Design at Purdue University. Her primary research focus is environment and behavior with a particular interest in the design of makerspaces, STEM classrooms and other collaborative learning spaces.

visit author page

biography

Hyun Joo Kwon Purdue University

visit author page

Hyun Joo Kwon, PhD, is an assistant professor of Interior Design at Purdue University, USA. Her research interests include interior design pedagogy and sustainable environment for aging population. Kwon earned a doctorate degree in Housing from Virginia Tech. Address: 552 W. Wood Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. Email: hyunjookwon@purdue.edu

visit author page

biography

Bill Hutzel Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

visit author page

Bill Hutzel is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Purdue University, where he teaches and conducts research into high performance buildings. He was the lead Faculty Advisor for Purdue's second place entry in the 2011 Solar Decathlon.

visit author page

biography

David Barbarash Purdue University

visit author page

David Barbarash teaches in the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department at Purdue University. His courses focus on computer graphics and technologies, construction documentation, and both foundation and upper level urban design studios.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Cross College Faculty Collaboration for the development of a new major in Design and Construction Integration

In recent years, there have been efforts to bring together architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) disciplines within the academic environment through undergraduate interdisciplinary courses or experiences (Herrmann, Gregory, Miller, & Powney, 2016; Holley & Dagg, 2006; Leathem, McGlohn, Gregory, Herrmann & Carson, 2015). This effort reflects the desire of industry for increased collaboration. This need is also mentioned by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE), which is the accrediting body for construction management programs in the United States. In sight of this need for increase collaboration among AEC professionals, a large Midwestern research university is developing a new undergraduate major in Design and Construction Integration (DCI), within a college of technology. The major has the goal of providing professionals with competencies to manage this collaborative process. Although the major will be hosted within a construction technology program, a portion of the curriculum (24 credits, from a total of 120 credits) for the DCI program will focus on design education and appreciation in order to expose DCI students to design within the built-environment. To accomplish this, we have reached out to other units across campus to help in the endeavor. The planned DCI curriculum has sought contributions from a group of faculty coming from four different departments (Construction Technology, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, and Mechanical Engineering Technology), which are located within three different colleges (Liberal Arts, Agriculture, and Technology) of the same institution. These faculty have collaborated to define existing courses within their departments that could be taken by DCI students to provide the expected learning outcomes related to built environment design. Through this collaboration, students would be able to choose a design concentration they prefer: Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing (MEP), or a combined experience from multiple design disciplines. This paper presents a case study of our experience in developing the design portion of the DCI curriculum, and the accommodations necessary to meet the needs and concerns of the different disciplines involved. Past research indicates that even though faculty acknowledge the need for a more collaborative environment, challenges in managing the needs and expectations across a diverse academic body need to be addressed (Hatipkarasulu, Canizaro, & Murphy Jr, 2012; Leathem, McGlohn, Gregory, Herrmann & Carson, 2015). Our methodology for this study includes collecting individual reflections and faculty interviews regarding their expectations about this collaborative process and experiences during the early planning process. Analysis of the transcribed and written documents will focus on reporting perceived opportunities for faculty members individually and as a part of their program. Challenges that needed to be discussed by the group in order to establish this collaboration will also be presented. Even though this case study is very specific to our experience, the challenges and opportunities may be similar to other programs and could inform future initiatives that require faculty collaboration across several colleges.

References Hatipkarasulu, Y., Canizaro, V. B., & Murphy Jr, J. D. (2012). Multi-disciplinary Integration for design and construction freshman: Structual organization and challenges. In American Society for Engineering Education (p. 25.954.1-25.954.15). Herrmann, M. M., Gregory, A. D., Miller, B., & Powney, S. (2016). A Retrospective of Five Years of a Collaborative Student Design Competition. In 52nd ASC Annual International Conference Proceedings (pp. 1–8). Holley, P. W., & Dagg, C. (2006). Development of expanded multidisciplinary collaborative experiences across construction and design curricula. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 2(2), 91-111. Leathem, T., McGlohn, E. M., Gregory, A., Herrmann, H., & Carson, L. (2015). A Case Study in Pedagogy for a Cross-Disciplinary Architecture/Construction Program. 51st ASC Annual International Conference Proceedings. College Station, TX.

Debs, L., & Shaurette, M., & Hynes, W., & Kwon, H. J., & Hutzel, B., & Barbarash, D. (2017, June), Cross College Faculty Collaboration for the development of a new major in Design and Construction Integration Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28089

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2017 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015