On December 4-5 I spent two worthwhile days at Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS and T), my seventh sabbatical visit. Thanks to the efforts of Stuart Baur I met seven faculty currently teaching the design aspects of the AE program and others as well. As on my previous trips everyone was welcoming and helpful, making my visit both productive and enjoyable.
What did I learn?
About the MS&T program
- It's young – established in 2001, accredited 2005
- It was created because a study showed that previously many Missouri residents were leaving the state to get an ArchE education and as a way to increase university enrollment without a major resource commitment.
- It's growing – started at about 30 students and now about 90 entering as freshmen and 150 in the last two years (compared to about 225 in CivE)
- The enrollment seems to be stabilizing, although if it grows there could be implications for faculty needs and class sizes.
- It's undergraduate and teaching focused
- They pride themselves on small (<30) class sizes
- They're in a strong department (Civil, Architectural and Environmental) which has:
- Very loyal, supportive alumni – the amounts of money raised directly from alumni by the department amazed me
- A handsome new (2001) building with excellent teaching and research spaces
- A strong, long-established, diverse civil engineering curriculum
- Civil structural students actually take fewer structures courses than ArchE students
- An unusual university structure – there are no deans
- A faculty appointment system that explicitly recognizes their program affiliation. Out of 23 tenure track faculty
- Two in-department tenure track are 100% ArchE
- One is about 70% ArchE
- Others are partially ArchE if they teach courses ArchE's take
- Tenure and promotion criteria address teaching and research approximately equally with service valued as well.
- There is also support from faculty in other departments as well as adjunct faculty.
- Because of a Missouri-Kansas agreement there are no Architecture programs in the public system
- This means that MS&T had to hire two architects to teach the architectural portion of the ArchE program
- Tenure and promotion criteria are the same as for other departmental faculty, a source of some uncertainty.
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The curriculum is still evolving
- It started at 138 credits, but has been reduced to 128 credits by university mandate
- At that level most students take about 4-1/2 years to graduate
- Students are offered four concentration options although there is no official declaration process: Structures, Building Systems; Construction Engineering and Project Management, and Construction Materials
- These concentrations are achieved by the students choosing their two “technical electives” in one of the three areas
- They may also use their two “free electives” if they wish to specialize even more
- Architectural and/or Architectural Engineering design experiences occur in three classes (203, 204, 205), the one-semester capstone class (298) as well as discipline-specific design experiences in other courses.
- Senior (capstone) design is organized in teams of approximately a dozen students working on a “real” project. Each student has an individual design task (IDT) and individual presentation in addition to the group presentation given by the team leader whose IDT is the project management.
- All of these classes are taught in what I would call a “modified studio” method
- HVAC, acoustics and electrical courses are taught by faculty from other departments
- There is some concern about how to continue these courses since the current faculty may become unavailable in the near future, with no tenure-track replacements likely from the departments. The department is advertising for an MEP faculty and is considering distance education options (an initial effort that way was not a success, but it may be revisited).
AE Content Issues
- Sustainability
- This is perceived as an significant area, with more organization desirable
- It's included in several courses already
- One faculty is pursuing LEED certification
- The Solar Decathlon competition has been important both because of strong student involvement and because it has led to several courses (electives) being developed
- BIM
- The general attitude is “wait-and-see” with a number of faculty thinking it is a fad or a mere skills course that would better be taught at a trade school such as Rolla Technical Institute (RTI).
- Bachelors + 30
- As with BIM, the general attitude is “wait-and-see” with the many changes of definition and apparent goals being noted.
- Student Ethics
- Ethics arose at least once as an area needing attention – particularly the problems of copying work
Students
- The program has no special selection criteria or enrollment cap
- MS&T is fairly selective as an institution, with the 2nd highest ACT scores in the state.
- Students are very involved with student organizations and service
- There are multiple strong student organizations including: AEI; Engineers Without Borders; Solar Decathlon.
- Students have a service requirement – which (at least in part) involves fund-raising telephone solicitations to alumni
- The institution has a strong supporting role – there is a campus center, with plans for a new building to support such activities
- Graduates of the ArchE (and department) pursue careers approximately as follows:
- Construction – 30%
- Structures 30%
- Graduate studies 10%
- Other – balance
- Work Experience
- Students generally have some work experience in the field while they at MS&T
- About 95% have a summer work experience, at least once
- About 20% have a CoOp work term at some point
- The faculty find this experience valuable
Observations
- Attitudes about AE Design
- Most faculty believe that “AE Design” is a valid concept and that it involved working with more than a single system. Beyond that there was considerable diversity of definitions.
- Need for faculty in MEP disciplines
- As noted above, while they have been fortunate in finding faculty from other departments, most of these faculty are likely to become unavailable in the near future. There is considerable concern, as at other institutions, about how to get these faculty. The problems that they see are:
- Where to find such faculty because they are in short supply
- How to make them “tenurable” given the institution's requirements and the general research atmosphere.
- They are explicitly considering distance learning options despite an unfavorable initial experience.
- Some faculty question the effect of this approach on the students, at least in core concentration areas.
About my Sabbatical Project
- Importance of Department Structure
- For the first time I explicitly posed a question as part of my discussion whether it might be the case that independent “AE departments are likely to have stronger scholarly focus and success compared to those programs” that are combined with others in the departmental structure.
- The response that I received was that it might be the case, but that it wasn't feasible for a variety of reasons including external funding resources.
