Asee peer logo

Preparing Students For The Environment Of The Practice Of Consulting Engineer

Download Paper |

Conference

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Austin, Texas

Publication Date

June 14, 2009

Start Date

June 14, 2009

End Date

June 17, 2009

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Professional Practice and AEC Education

Tagged Division

Architectural

Page Count

8

Page Numbers

14.979.1 - 14.979.8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--5430

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/5430

Download Count

365

Paper Authors

biography

James Mwangi California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

visit author page

Associate Professor
Architectural Engineering

visit author page

biography

Craig Baltimore California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

visit author page

Associate Professor
Architectural Engineering

visit author page

biography

Brent Nuttall California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

visit author page

Associate Professor
Architectural Engineering

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Preparing Students for the Environment of the Practice of Consulting Engineer

Abstract

In the United States of America, the body of knowledge required for an individual to be allowed to take the engineering licensing examination, which on passing allows the individual to be in responsible charge of engineering projects, is usually defined by laws and regulations of each state. In California, the shortest path taken by most individuals is one where the individual graduates from an ABET accredited undergraduate program; passes the Engineer in Training (EIT) examination and works under the supervision of a licensed engineer for two years (one year if the individual has a Masters degree in relevant field).

In order to better prepare the student to enter the practice of engineering, and thus give the student an immediate level of comfort with the real world environment, practical design needs to be directly incorporated into the teaching of design.

This paper presents teaching methods used to teach undergraduate architectural engineering design courses, where the discipline of concentration is structural engineering. The format used exposes the students to instructors that are current consulting engineers and to courses that are modeled in line with the structural engineering profession. The theory, of construction materials (concrete, steel, masonry and timber) is covered for each material at element level in a lecture format. Design using the materials at a system level (building) is then taught in a laboratory format. In this later format, the students prepare complete construction documents (structural calculations, structural plans and structural specifications) for real projects using architectural plans. This “learn by doing” format has proven-over time-to prepare the students to the same environment that the students face after graduation.

It is generally an accepted fact in the structural profession in California that, graduates from Architectural Engineering program (ARCE) at California Polytechnic State University (CAL POLY) “hit the ground running from day one”. This is attributed to the familiarity, of the design office environment, obtained during their undergraduate education. The familiarity is acquired through the design laboratories taught by design professionals.

Introduction

A browse of any university catalog3,4,5 under the departments of structural engineering, architectural engineering or civil engineering programs show that almost every program share the same main mission of preparing graduates as a minimum to: (a) pursue post-graduate education, (b) communicate effectively, (c) become licensed professional engineers and (d) pursue life-long learning.

Mwangi, J., & Baltimore, C., & Nuttall, B. (2009, June), Preparing Students For The Environment Of The Practice Of Consulting Engineer Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5430

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: © 2009 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