On April 13th I spent the day at the Univerisity of Miami, my 16th and last sabbatical visit. Thanks to the efforts of Rodrigo Mora I met five faculty currently teaching design aspects of the AE program. As on my previous trips everyone was welcoming and helpful, making my visit both productive and enjoyable.
What did I learn?
About the University of Miami program
- The Architectural Engineering program at Miami is located, as in many other institutions, with the Department of Civil, Architectural and Envionmental Engineering.
- The program, more than many, seems to be in transition.
- A new department head is bringing new emphases to the department, primarily on civil engineering and research
- He didn't have time to meet with me so this is a deduction from my conversations with other faculty
- Two new faculty members are bringing energy to the to the AE Program
- Over the last 10 or so years the college of engineering has reduced in size, quite possibly because of the growth of markedly less expensive public institutions nearby
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The program does not have "tracks"
- The emphasis has been on structural engineering
- HVAC is incresing in importance with the advent you young faculty in that area
- The department is proud of its working relationship with the department of architecture
- Studio design courses are taught as service courses by that department
- Capstone design is a two-semester sequence shared by all department students
- In a typical class of 30 students there are six teams of 5 students
- The teams are intentionally multidisciplinary
- Each team is provided a site and an assigned building
- The product of the first semester is site and code research, stie design, an enviornmental impact statement and conceptual design
- The second semester focuses on detailed development of each building system and integration of those systems
- Students make an oral report and prepare a written report each semester
- Students are evaluated as a team and also on individual work, which they are responsible for tracking.
- The department is extraordinarily fortunate in the long-term involvement of an adjunct architect-engineer who is responsible for the capstone course as well as several others.
AE Content Issues
- Several faculty emphasized that the goal of the AE program is to present an integrated view of building systems
- This view is imparted primarily in the capstone design course
- BIM is viewed by several faculty as extremely important to the future of the profession and are working to introduce it
- They are fortunate to have an IT knowledgeable faculty with a PhD in this area
- Not all faculty agree on the importance of BIM
- Sustainability is similarly regarded as important, with professors discussing in many classes
- Opportunities for emphasizing "resiliency" and also solar work using the work of the well-known Florida Solar Energy Center could be rewarding.
- Bachelor's + 30 is regarded as important in the future
- The department is promoting a 4+1 Masters program - the BS degree + 30 credits for a masters.
Students
- Total Enrollment in the department has been about 120 total for the past few years, with Architectural Engineers typically greater than 50% of the total
- Recently the percentage of AE's has fallen below that of Civils
- Graduates typically take positions in approximately the following percentages
- Structural Engineers 25-40%
- HVAC Engineers 5-15%
- Contractors 30-50%
- Other (including graduate school) <=30%
- Approximately 40% of students take advantage of he opportunity to get a dual Civil Engineering degree with approximately a semester's extra work
- A few students take advantage of an opportunity to get an M.Arch with two additional years of work.
- Students were characterized to me as being full-time, right-after-high-school.
- They are hard working
- They like practical problems
Observations
- As noted initially, the department is in the midst of change. How the AE program will develop as a result of that change is uncertain. Young, enthusiastic faculty members are bringing new ideas to a long-established older group. Whether all will welcome the new ideas is not yet clear.
