Cal Poly’s Architectural Engineering Program Wins National Award
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly’s Architectural Engineering (ARCE) Department has earned the 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers Walter LeFevre Award, recognizing the program’s efforts to promote the highest professional standards in licensures, ethics and professionalism.
The national award was established in 2007 and is given annually to a civil, architectural or construction engineering program accredited by ABET (formerly known as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). This is the first year Cal Poly’s ARCE Department has won the award — it was recognized with an honorable mention in 2016 and 2017.
“I knew Walt LeFevre, and I am proud to win the award that bears his name,” said ARCE Department Head Allen C. Estes. “The ARCE program mirrors those values that Walt represented and is the ideal program to receive this award. The hands-on, Learn by Doing nature of the curriculum and the number of licensed professionals on the faculty contributed greatly to this success.”
The department, which won in the large program category, was singled out for its high percentage of ARCE faculty members with both Professional Engineer (P.E.) and Structural Engineer (S.E.) licenses, the practitioner path to tenure and promotion for faculty, and the two-decade track record of an 85 percent pass rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam (required to receive a P.E. license).
Other factors that have contributed to the ARCE’s success include the real-world, hands-on emphasis of the curriculum; the interdisciplinary collaboration with the Architecture and Construction Management departments; the support of the structural design industry; the international experiences available to students; and the accomplishments of the Structural Engineer Association of California/Architectural Engineering Institute student chapter.
Estes will accept the award on behalf of the department at the Civil Engineering Department Heads conference May 29 in Philadelphia.
Students from the Architecture and Architectural Engineering departments work on an interdisciplinary senior project that required them to conceptually design and then build complex shell structures.
About Cal Poly’s Architectural Engineering Program
For more than 70 years, the Cal Poly Architectural Engineering (ARCE) program has embodied the university’s Learn by Doing credo. Focusing heavily on structural engineering with an emphasis in seismic design, the ARCE curriculum is a unique blend of theory and practice. The program is highly interdisciplinary, integrating architecture studios and construction management courses, thus providing students with a thorough understanding of the broader design/construction process. The acclaimed four-year Bachelor of Science degree is ABET accredited, and graduates typically become licensed as structural engineers. With its in-classroom innovation, connection to industry, and high-job-placement rate, graduates of the ARCE program are among the most sought after in the country and have gone on to shape our built environment. To learn more, visit arce.calpoly.edu.
Contact: Ray Ladd
805-756-7432; rladd@calpoly.edu
April 25, 2018