University of Colorado at Boulder - Second Visit

On September 29th and 30th I visited visited Boulder (after a lovely weekend in the mountains) for my second visit. Thanks to the efforts of Joann Silverstein (Dept. Head) and Moncef Krarti I met many if not all of the faculty critical to the design aspects of AE program and quite a few others as well. As at Wyoming everyone was welcoming and helpful - exactly what I would have hoped for. One person even returned from a case of food poisoning.

Four faculty had completed my survey (http://tinyurl.com/5vr2gt) in advance and everyone else promised to complete it soon after the visit.

What did I learn?

About the UC Boulder AE Program

• The AE Program is contained within a department that also includes Civil, Environmental engineering, Construction Engineering and Management (CEM)
• All the faculty I interviewed were proud of the program, though many had specific issues that they'd like to improve.
• The AE undergraduates are slightly more than 1/2 of the department's 500+ undergraduates
• Of the department's 41 full-time faculty four are "senior instructors" (non-tenure-track)
  
  
  
  • The role of "Senior Instructors" is strong in the AE program - particularly in design and practical knowledge.
  • The faculty who identify themselves primarily as "ArchE" (AE) appear to be about four or five
  • The structures and CEM courses are identical for all department students with unified enrollment
  • Senior faculty assist younger faculty in an explicit mentoring program
   
• Research and graduate studies are a major emphasis for the faculty
  
  
  
  • There is a strong graduate program at both the masters and PhD level in all the areas.
    
    
    
    • Structures students receive a Civil degree.
    • Mechanical graduate students are identified as pursuing "Building Science" studies
     
• AE Undergraduates have a choice of five "tracks" - more than most programs
  
  
  
  • Structure
  • Mechanical
  • Lighting
  • Construction Engineering and Management
  • AE General
   
• Careers students undertake on receiving the BS are approximately:
  
  
  
  • Construction related 50%
    
    
    
    • I heard many theories about why this is so popular including the ability of the instructors, and the appeal of the outdoors life
     
  • Structural design 25%
    
    
    
    • (with many being high-end residential
     
  • Mechanical design 15%
    
    
    
    • Several faculty felt this was too low and were seeking ways to increase this choice.
     
  • Lighting design 10%
   
• A BS/MS program exists for strong students
  
  
  
  • It is fairly small, at least for AE's (<10/year I believe)
   
• Faculty views of the mutability of the curriculum are varied
  
  
  
  • Some faculty described continuing experiment - with particular changes cited
  • Others described it as essentially unchanging over the last 15 years
   
• The program has an extraordinary teaching tool available, the ITLL building. It is heavily instrumented and designed for visual presentation of its building systems
  
  
  
  • It is heavily used in the courses of the first two years
  • No faculty mentioned it as being a resource in the upper years.
   
• Faculty do use the campus facilities staff in their courses more generally
  
  
  
  • I heard several mentions of tours and cooperation with the facilities staff
  
  
  
  
• The capstone design courses are different for Civil and AE students
  
  
  
  • The AE capstone design begins with an architectural studio in the fall semester, followed in the spring semester by a building systems capstone in which the design from the fall is the basis.
  • The department is currently expecting to reduce the architectural design credits for the senior fall course from six to three.
   
• BIM does not appear to be heavily used or emphasized at the moment

• Lighting design has been a traditional strength of the department
  
  
  
  • A new generation of faculty is taking over with a strong interest in sustainable practices, including more efficient lighting and daylighting design 
   
• The department is graced by the presence of Geotech engineer Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders
  
  
  
  • I had the opportunity to hear him speak with the seniors. If I were a graduating senior I'd have wanted to sign up.
   
• The Boulder campus is extraordinarily beautiful, right at the edge of the Front Range of the Rockies.
  

• The Engineering Center is a handsome complex of buildings.
  
  
  
  • In a classic design paradox, the buildings require complex circulation paths and make expansion difficult.
    

About the Sabbatical Project

• Many of the faculty were interested in what I have learned
  
  
  
  • They're eager to see the results of the study and believe they may be important
  • They recognize lack of knowledge of other schools, even those close by
   
• Again there was a lack of clear agreement on a definition of AE Design
  
  
  
  • Many ingredients were mentioned repeatedly
  • In the interviews there wasn't much discussion of teaching or assessment methods (which may be the responsibility of the interviewer) 
   

• It's clear, as expected, that the personal visits and interviews will increase survey response rate
  
  
  
  • I emphasized to many "non-AE" faculty that their views mattered as well.