By: MS5-05:
Developments in wood engineering education

Peggi L. Clouston¹, Mikhail Gershfeld², Michelle Kam-Biron³

¹University of Massachusetts, Amerst (USA), ²California State Polytechnic University (USA), ³American Wood Council (USA)

A growing recognition of the sustainability of wood, together with innovations in product technology, construction methods, design, processing, 3D CAD modeling and even building code developments has led to a world-wide renaissance in wood construction, especially for multi-family/ mid-rise building types. These modern engineered wood structures require specialized expertise, not only in structural analysis but also in architectural design, product fabrication and building construction.

Several wood engineering education initiatives are underway to help facilitate the design, specification and use of wood in the US. For example, the Wood Products Council (WPC), a cooperative venture of the major wood associations in North America in partnership with research organizations and government agencies, launched what is known as the WoodWorks initiative. This initiative supports the use of wood in non-residential building applications and provides one-stop access to the widest possible range of information on the use of wood in non-residential structures to design professionals. In July of 2008, WoodWorks announced an educational partnership with California State Polytechnic University Pomona and provided a seed investment grant to develop online educational content for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs nationwide under Wood Education Institute (WEI) program. 

Another major U.S. wood entity is the American Wood Council (AWC) who have long been advocating the use of wood by developing building codes and standards.  Through their efforts with the International Code Council (ICC) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), building with wood is facilitated via ICC’s International Building Code, ASCE’s Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, and AWC’s National Design Specification® (NDS®) for Wood Construction and Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS).  Most recently AWC has expanded its education initiatives on codes and standards to provide continuing education to code officials and design professionals.

This mini-symposium is intended to be a forum for researchers, educators, design professionals and students of wood engineering to create a discussion around solutions for the continued development of a professional knowledge base of wood behavior and design. The submitted contributions should refer to recent wood engineering education initiatives. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: new pedagogy models, case studies, progressive teaching techniques, design competitions and offerings of innovative courses or programs.

Submit an abstract to this mini-symposium here.