High School Project Interview - Detailed answers

Thanks to the web we quite frequently get requests for “interviews” from high school students who’ve been given a class project.  Usually these requests are broad, with indications that the student done little independent research other than find the names of many someones to write.  To those my polite response is usually to send them a couple of URLs with general information about the field and our department, with an invitation to follow up with more specific questions.  Rarely does anyone pursue it further.  Today one student did follow up.   I thought my response might be of more general interest, so here it is.

Jim Mitchell

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Connor:

Thank you for your specific response. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Yes you may use my webpage to answer some of the broader questions.

Why did I go into teaching architectural engineering?

I've always liked teaching. It has always seemed to me to be an effort to pass on the knowledge of one generation to the next, one that I honored greatly. More specifically, when I was in practice as an architect I realized that many of the problems in the buildings that we created arose from the lack of thorough coordination between the engineers and architects who designed the buildings. When an opportunity arose to address this issue, first part-time and full-time, I leapt at it. I've never regretted it.

What classes should a high school student take?

The same classes that you've undoubtedly heard your teachers espousing for a long time:

Mathematics - as much as you can get, at least through precalculus.

Sciences - physics is most important to our area, but chemistry and even biology are important as well.

Communication - particularly written communication. All engineers need to write in order to make proposals and report on what they've done. Many do it atrociously and their careers suffer in consequence.

Second-language - ours is an increasingly international world. A second-language will serve you well.

Technology for learning

My classes change continually to use what I think of as the latest technology.  I haven't yet found a use for Twitter, but I'm always experimenting. Students in my classes have to document their projects using the World Wide Web (Internet) for example and have done so for close to 15 years. We use computer programs extensively including energy simulation and structural analysis.

The Future of Architectural Engineering

I believe architectural engineering will be greatly influenced over the next 15 years by technological developments in many areas. Most important is BIM (building information modeling), but we will see increasing use of robotics, new materials, and the use of information technology more broadly.  Increased internationalization will have big effects as well, some of them quite difficult.

Hands-on in classes

In our curriculum we have multiple laboratory classes starting in the first year and extending into the senior year. Students have experience with breaking things (testing) in materials labs, shaking things (soil samples) in soils labs, and making things (many things) in a number of design classes.  There are also active student groups in “concrete canoe” and “steel bridge” competitions.

Student work

Because Drexel is a cooperative education school almost all of our students will have had three 6-month jobs in their industry before they graduate.  Even in these bad economic times virtually all of our students go right into jobs, many of which are nailed down months before they graduate.

I hope this helps.

Jim Mitchell