This last blog entry addressing specific schools is necessarily different. It seems appropriate to attempt to provide the same information about Drexel that I've provided about all the other schools. Of course I cannot take the same approach exactly because it's my own school and I did not interview faculty in the same manner. Nonetheless here's my best effort.
What do I Know?
About the Drexel University Architectural Engineering program
- Architectural Engineering (AE) is a program located within the department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering.
- Drexel University is a moderate-sized (12,000 total students), private, urban university that is research-intensive.
- The program is now about 20 years old, having been started by two Civil Engineering faculty when there was an enrollment trough in Civil Engineering in the mid-1980's.
- Enrollment grew rapidly and has remained approximately steady for ten years with 60-80 freshman declaring Architectural Engineering majors and 35-50 graduating each year.
- The drift from AE is typically during the first two years when students discover that AE or even engineering "isn't for them" as happens in all engineering, and also there is a move to Civil Engineering by some students.
- A significant percentage of AE students are "dual AE/CivE" majors because this is achievable with only about 15 credits additional work.
- This percentage has declined over time from about 80% initially (the possibility was created as a fail-safe during the start-up period) to around 40% now.
- The 60-80 entering students is typically slightly more than half of all department entering students.
- Students have two "tracks" or "concentrations" available to them
- Structural engineering - about 70% of AE's
- Mechanical (HVAC) - the other 30% of AE's
- Efforts to increase interest in the HVAC track over the years have been only moderately successful
- Drexel is a Co-Op, "quarter" school
- This means that what most schools do in four years we do in five.
- Our 192 quarter-credit requirement for graduation translates into about 123 semester-credits
- Most students, and many faculty would agree that the three 6-month work experiences on CoOp are highly valuable both for their careers and for focus and understanding in the classroom.
- The graduate program in AE is small and operated through Civil Engineering MS and PhD - typically 3-6 students at any given time would be identified as AE's.
- We'd like to grow that program and are actively attempting to do so.
- Graduating Students take jobs (many determined while on Co-Op) approximately as follows:
- Structural Consultant 35%
- HVAC Consultant 15%
- Construction 40%
- Other, including graduate school 10%
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The guiding principle for creating the curriculum was to balance two goals:
- Give students an understanding and ability to work with the interaction of all the major building systems:
- Architecture; Structures; HVAC; Electrical & Lighting; Plumbing
- Provide students with the professional tools in a specific discipline (structures or HVAC) so they can will be hired and succeed in their chosen field.
- To further the second goal students take the following differentiating courses, primarily in the last two years:
- All the courses that the Civil structural engineers take in structural engineering
- An equivalent number of HVAC-specific courses for the HVAC track
- Note that we do not offer construction-specific courses despite the number pursing that career.
- A number of students use professional electives to take construction courses, and some minor in that area.
- To further the first goal we offer a series of design courses
- An extended (full-term equivalent) design experience in small groups in the freshman year, which may be in Architectural Engineering
- Two architecture design studios taught by the Architecture department in the second and third years
- A two-course sequence entitled "Architectural Engineering Design" taught in the 4th (Junior) year
- This is a "modified architectural studio" course using multiple computer tools and presentation techniques
- A three-term sequence (college standard) capstone design sequence that has the following characteristics
- The first term is spent defining the problem, site, client requirements etc. in detail
- The second term develops a conceptual design with explicit system-interaction goals
- The third term refines and develops some portion of the design in detail.
- This course is in small (4-6) self-selected student groups addressing problems they identify, working with their choice (subject to availability) of faculty advisors.
AE Content Issues
- BIM has increased in apparent importance over the last year
- Not all faculty understand or would agree with its importance
- We expect to implement Revit as a standard in the Sophomore year and build on that as the class moves through
- Sustainability is a departmental concern
- There are not specific courses in the AE curriculum, although there are technical electives available
- Almost all groups in the capstone design course incorporate "green" principles as part of their building criteria
- The Bachelor's + 30 movement is being discussed at a low level, but is not yet a major concern
- Some faculty, myself included after my visits this year, believe this is a very important issue
Students
- Like most engineering students, Drexel students are hard-working, particularly after their first Co-Op experience.
- Other than university-level admission to the College of Engineering their are no specific admission criteria or enrollment caps
- The students appreciate being in a large city, both because of the job opportunities, and also the ability it gives us in classes to make site visits and take advantage of the urban environment.
