STC

In response to a rapidly changing technological society, CAEE will strive to train global leaders in engineering who are prepared to enter an international workforce of engineers trained to think __critically__ using engineering analysis, think __adaptively__ using systems analysis, and think __holistically__ using ecological analysis. CAEE graduates will be prepared to invent new technologies for the built environment and to creatively design existing technologies in an innovative way that considers engineering solutions in the light of real world situations. The CAEE curriculum will support Drexel’s mission of experiential learning by engaging the student in real world experiences that include, among others, working in industry, technological production, hands-on learning, and theoretical and practical research. CAEE graduates will understand relationships between engineering design and application. Members of the Department will, through their research and service activities, seek to contribute to solutions to the great societal challenge of providing adequate urban infrastructure to a changing and interconnected world.
 * Mission Statement **

**Vision**

The Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering commits to:

1. Develop and implement an integrated curriculum in which key engineering concepts are presented in introductory courses and then revisited in subsequent courses to allow students to extend both theoretical understanding and ability to apply the concepts learned to engineering design applications. [i]

2. Develop and implement a curriculum that equips students for new challenges and emerging issues, by providing training in innovative engineering design tools and challenging students to be problem solvers and critical thinkers so that they are equipped to develop the next generation of tools. Students will learn these skills through structured, problem-based efforts with faculty advisors in the faculty advisor’s domain of expertise. These experiences will be built into the curriculum and will enable faculty to convey not only explicit knowledge but also implicit skills of knowledge discovery and problem structuring. [ii]

3. Provide mentoring to our students in their professional development, including involving students in our research and professional activities, fostering learning communities among our students, and facilitating opportunities for our students to engage the broader professional community. [iii]

4. Identify and design solutions to grand societal challenges. This commitment will encompass both research and service activities. Our activities will be focused on urban infrastructure systems and their connection to human systems. When appropriate, we will pursue this research agenda in collaboration with interdisciplinary teams and with community partners employing operating urban infrastructure systems as laboratories. [iv]

5. Learn from the educational literature and use forms of instruction that are supported most strongly by empirical results. [v]

[i] This effort could start with the redesign of 201 and 210 so that they introduce specific concepts that will be revisited later or have been covered in ENGR courses. A junior level design class in which students address an instructor selected design problem could set the stage for more open-ended, student-selected design problems in senior design. Evidently the AEs already do something along these lines. There is a need to sprinkle concepts from CIVE 240 and ENGR 361 throughout the curriculum. A more explicit requirement to conduct financial analyses could be included in senior design. [ii] Critical thinking should be part of senior seminar and design (and probably already are). We might think about how we make sure critical thinking is engaged in those classes and others. [iii] I think it’s really easy to say we have this one covered but I would like to think about how/if we could do even more. [iv] I’m not sure if there’s an action item here. We’ve been highly incentivized to do this all along. [v] We could come up with specific ways to encourage this, such as a journal club on educational methods, or when we establish objectives for ABET we could also indicate why the methods used are appropriate for achieving those objectives.