Teaching
I try to use the classroom as a collaborative environment for students to develop technical excellence and learn team leadership skills. My approach emphasizes engaging with each student, individually and in groups, and asking them to organize and apply information and understandings to the challenges that they encounter. While every course is different, in each the students develop the attitude to always take pride in their work, never let their team members down, and to set their sights on the highest levels of excellence and integrity in their personal performance.
Light Construction
This is an introductory course to development, design, construction and building science for light construction projects. Students work in groups to develop a project proposal, determine regulatory requirements, estimate materials and costs, and build structural models of their proposal. The course also covers steel frame, SIP, Straw bale, rammed earth, etc. construction techniques.
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Sustainable Energy Systems For Buildings And Equipment
This course focuses on the changes in buildings due to increased energy awareness. Building scale renewable systems (PV, wind, solar thermal) are analyzed on a technical, environmental and economic basis. The second half of the course focuses on changes in the building shell and equipment to improve building energy performance. Students develop a proposal for converting an existing building to a net zero energy structure.
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Building Information Modeling For Construction Managers
This course covers the use of BIM as a tool for virtual design and construction for construction management. Topics include use of authoring and collaboration tools for 5D estimating, 4D phasing, construction visualization, and clash detection. Projects and presentations introduce the students to integrated project delivery using BIM.
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Engineering Materials For Sustainable Construction
This course will introduce the principal structural materials used for building construction and their engineering properties and environmental impacts. The production and performance of these materials will be explored through class discussion and laboratory experiments. The application of each of the materials during sustainable construction processes will be emphasized.
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Applied Structures
This course challenges the students to perform the structural design, create the plans and models, produce the material estimates, complete the construction, and coordinate the testing of a bridge for a national competition, and for final use on campus. Student project teams carry the responsibility of managing the process, applying the principles of structural behavior and project management developed in earlier coursework.
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