AE 481W / 482 Course Reflection

Overall, the thesis program is well organized and comprehensive. It achieves what it sets out to do: provide a quanitfiable basis with which to compare AE graduates and to showcase the abilities imbibed by the students through the AE program. However, it has small burrs in the process which may be sanded away, and pleny of unfulfilled potential. A few small changes to the program can help pull more of the student's potential out into the light and create a truely valuable graduation process for this program. 

As I have noticed on previous senior thesis reflections, the correct selection of the building presents a tough problem for most of the students. While some direction direction is provided on how to select the best building for the thesis process, more import can be placed upon the correct selection of a building. The chosen building can severely limit a student as the time for thesis proposals draws near. Each building is unique, and if a student had chosen a building that is too small, too large, or too run-of-the-mill, they will automatically disqualify themselves from awards or perhaps even the possibility of a thesis that is both interesting and feasible. By making it clear to the fourth years exactly how crucial the initial building selection is to what and how much you can complete during your thesis, the quality and variety of the next year's theses should improve markedly. Encouraging them to have a general idea about what they want to research for their thesis and pinpointing buildings that would benefit from these applications would be of great assistance in accomplishing this.

In addition, students could derive more benefit from the program if it were set up to encourage learning new skill sets. This is accomplished during the first half of the year with extensive technical writing assignments. There is real value to the constant stream of technical writing assignments, as students often get very little exposure to this particular skill set before going into the work force. Perhaps more technical writing assignments can be included with design projects in other undergraduate courses to better prepare students for industry work. Communication skills are arguably the number one most marketable asset that a student can possess. Often, written communication is the major medium of information distrubution between all facets of our industry. Therefore, pthe first half of thesis, with its emphasis upon the new technical writing skill set, admirably encourages active learning.

However, the second half of the year had markedly less importance placed upon learning new skill sets. The emphasis shifts to a practical applicaiton of engineering and design skills. The current thesis design process is a admirable display of currently learned skills and design practices. While this is an excellent measure of the amount of knowledge retained by the average undergraduate leaving this curriculum, there could be many more opportuninties to expand within this course. Students could be encouraged to demonstrate that they can take their knowledge and apply it to new methods, learning new types of design scenarios, researching the cutting edge of technology. After all, most corporations want to stay "at the cutting edge, but not the bleeding edge" of technology. This time during the thesis may be the last time a student gets to play with different brand-new technologies. The work force will wait until the technology has been thoroghly tested and accepted before many of the design firms will use the new application. Students can use their thesis to sharpen their learning and critical thinking skills, as well as learning new subsets of information that will put them several steps ahead of the current industry practices. This tightening, this specialized honing of the students' skills and mental capacities can catapult them, and subsequently the AE program, to new heights in proficiency, and ultimately, industry respect.

CPEP & Discussion Board Reflection

The course discussion boards provide a wonderful oportunity for networking and an outlet for simple questions typically asked related to the breadth topics. However, more complex questions pertaining to the depth topic are often unable to be answered without substantial information about the system design and building information. Therefore, email is generally not a good medium for many questions relative to tough depth topics. These depth questions are the ones that often require the most assistance, as they can not be directly researched and need the benefit of industruy experience to guarantee the correct answer. Perhaps industry professionals in the area can make themselves available for students to contact about actual consulatations. If perhaps one or two area industry members would be available for an evening so that students can consult one-on-one, this would probably be more beneficial to the students in the long run.

Of course, the discussion board is an excellent way to involve numerous industry members and maintain a connection with Penn State Architectural Engineering. However, questions posted to the board should not be required, as they come from students in a colossal rush and are posted at a time when the students are unclear about the questions that they need to ask. It should still be maintained as a good resource. Perhaps make it clear to the students that the questions posted to the board that give the most benefit are poll type questions that will give a good general feel for industry practices and prejudices on certain design problems and questions.

ABET Outcome Survey