On February 4th I visited Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), my tenth sabbatical trip. Thanks to the efforts of Jamshid Mohammadi (Department Head) and Ralph Muehleisen I met four 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. Thanks to IIT's emphasis on Architecture I also was able to lunch in the Rem Koolhaas student union straddling the elevated line and visit several Mies buildings including the renowned Crown Hall.
What did I learn?
- It's fairly new -1995 start
- It was started on the advice of the department's industry advisory board
- It's been growing - from a small start to about 100 AE students now
- It's feeling some growing pains, particularly in the faculty area
- It's ambitious - wanting to cover more aspects of AE than many programs
- See the curriculum section for details
- The campus academic environment is research-oriented
- This has caused some problems for department faculty because of the need for heavy teaching loads to meet the curriculum requirements.
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The curriculum currently addresses AE with multiple tracks
- Structural
- Building systems
- Construction management
- Electrical
- Fire Protection
- In practice students currently follow a 'general' track because of the faculty limitations on offering courses.
- Acoustics and Noise Control is also a significant offering though it's not currently a separate track
- The Capstone design course (one semester) is offered in a unique manner.
- The university has an interdisciplinary design requirement called IPRO
- IPRO is currently offered in two independent courses, the second of which serves as the AE capstone design course (the first occurs anytime during a student's IIT career). [correction 2/6/2009]
- Each section of the IPRO course for AE's typically consists of about 5-8 architects (from the 1000+ in IIT's architecture program), 5-8 AE's and an about equal number from other IIT majors (section size 16).
- This team must complete a building design using the talents of all the members
- The first IPRO course sometimes serves as a precursor to this capstone experience, but not necessarily because it is administered by a separate office.
- One faculty member, Mark Snyder, is conducting some educational experiments in the freshman Introduction to The Profession (ITP) course, looking at different emphases and using assessment techniques from other institutions.
- Like many other AE programs the department does not offer a course designated or internally identified as Architectural Engineering Design.
- The capstone design course serves that purpose as is often the case in elsewhere
- There is an "architecture" course taught by an professor with both architecture and engineering credentials
- As in other institutions, cooperation with other departments is often difficult
- Service courses by and for architecture have decreased in recent years
- There is still, however, a desire to develop joint research and courses
- There are similar issues with other engineering departments
- The department offers a "professional masters" degree
- It is currently almost a complete overlap with the last two years of the AE program
AE Content Issues
- Sustainability
- Several courses (Mechanical Systems and electrical) have a significant sustainability emphasis in their content
- BIM
- Revit is currently used for representation purposes
- There is interest in it for engineering purposes, but uncertainty about its current capabilities and resource demands
- Bachelors + 30 Movement
- The university overall is quite positive about this direction for the profession
- Several professors expressed concern about material that cannot now be in the curriculum that they believe important. That was their reason for liking the extra time this approach would provide.
- Identity
- I heard from several individuals that Architectural Engineering is not well known in the Chicago area.
- The department head has had to present to several state boards to allow graduates to take the PE Exam
- One person explicitly and by extension several others would like to see more attention paid nationally to addressing this issue
- Building Systems
- As noted above, there is a desire to spend significant course time on some building systems not standard in other curricula: Acoustics, Fire Protection, Plumbing
Students
- The AE program has a net inflow of students in the first several years thanks to transfers
- The majority of graduates go to work for construction firms
Observations
- The IIT program is ambitious in its desire for comprehensiveness.
- Currently that ambition is checked by the lack of sufficient faculty, a check that the department hopes will be remedied.
- Its Chicago environment, with its numerous large design firms, should offer considerable opportunities in future.
