Learning from London: Emerging Technologies Study Abroad Program
Students were able to tour the 2012 Olympic Park under construction.
The profession of architectural engineering is in the midst of a technical revolution. New computational methods, design tools, building systems, and construction technologies have evolved rapidly in the last decade to create a new landscape of possibilities. The United States has contributed greatly to the creativity and analytical thinking that has propelled much of this global technology. However, London, England has attracted a great deal of famous engineers and technical architects.
This past Summer 2011, over 30 students traveled to London to take part in the ARE 377K Emerging Technologies course. This program, directed by UT CAEE Senior Lecturer Gregory Brooks, is an intense immersion into state-of-the-art architectural engineering issues.
Old and new: Tower Bridge and London City Hall.
London is headquarters to many prestigious engineering firms including Arup, Buro Happold, WSP, Expedition Engineering and severak others. Architects Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, KPF, Zaha Hadid, Amanda Levete (formerly Future Systems), David Chipperfield, and other icons of contemporary design are all London-based as well. The city is also home to world-class construction and fabrication teams who build these complex and innovative structures.
For four weeks, students participating in the program lived in central London and studied at the University College London. Each day they attended lectures in engineering and architecture offices and/or toured the city’s new buildings, sometimes led by engineering and design team members. Students were even able to view the high-security grounds of London’s 2012 Olympic Park in a private bus arranged by the Olympic Development Authority.
Breaking off into small groups at the offices of Arup-London.
“Traveling with architectural engineering students and architecture students to London is similar to taking film students to Hollywood,” says Brooks. “Everywhere we went, offices of superstars in our field turned up: in glass office buildings downtown, and in modest brick buildings in quiet neighborhoods.”
In the classroom, seminar discussions were held. Additionally, each student wrote a 10-20 page research paper focusing on a specific building or design technology of their choice. All students were paired with an engineer or architect as a mentor, which complemented their library and electronic research.
Example of technical research paper produced by students while in London.
The 32 students on the trip included both UT engineering students and architecture students, which promoted cross-discipline discussion. As the students witnessed during their time London, this also emulates the principle of integrated design that many professional teams utilize. Ove Arup, founder of the internationally famous consulting firm Arup, is considered to have invented this idea of cross-disciplinary collaboration (‘Total Design’) in the 1960’s. It has long been accepted among London firms as common procedure, and has recently inspired U.S. firms to work in a similar manner. With the advance in building information modeling (BIM), the process of integrated design is gaining a great deal of attention.
In addition to being multi-disciplinary, the students also ranged in age from 2nd-year to graduate students. The age-mix is also intentional: the younger students benefitted by being inspired early in their education and supported the class with general research, while the older students engaged in technical conversations with professionals and performed advanced research.
The ‘Emerging Technologies’ ARE 377K course is sponsored by the Cockrell School of Engineering and offered through the UT Study Abroad Office. The course, which is a Maymester (summer semester, starting in May,) was first launched in 2007 and is available to students every two years. Thanks to the continuing generosity of professional firms in London, this course will be offered again in 2013.
Please visit the UT London 2011 website to see additional photos, the student research topics, and much more. Write to Gregory Brooks with any questions about this program.