Research Methods in Architectural Engineering

Catalog description

Research skills, critical thinking, academic writing, presentations, use of electronic media, and experimental design applied to AE resarch topics. A E 543 Research Methods in Architectural Engineering (3) This is a course intended primarily for graduate students in Architectural Engineering. Other students interested in Architectural Engineering research may also take the course. The main objective of the course is to build research skills for students pursuing an M.S. or Ph.D. degree in Architectural Engineering. The research skills to be targeted are critical thinking, academic writing, presentation, oral communication, and use of electronic media, based on materials from architectural engineering projects and literature. These skills will be developed through a series of lectures and exercises to include architectural engineering research topics, such as novel building physical characteristics and occupant performance/environmental perceptions.Lectures in academic writing will cover proposal, report, paper, and thesis writing requirements for Architectural Engineering students. Students will write several assigned essays and term project to gain experience in different academic writing forms as well as architectural engineering research topics. Students are encouraged to use their actual research for the semester project. Based on the project content, each student will then be required to develop an in-class presentation. This part of the course will cover presentation preparation and the critical thinking that is embedded into oral communication skills. The electronic media portion of the course will cover topics such as electronic databases relevant to architectural engineering research topics, search engines, publishing, use of web materials, ethics, and legal considerations. All of the assignments are designed to develop critical thinking through instructor and peer feedback.In addition to the three major targeted areas of research skills development, this course will begin and end with a focus on architectural engineering research topics. The introductory part of the course covers the topics and methods for the four focus areas within the Architectural Engineering program, while the closing portion emphasizes interdisciplinary research efforts and encourages students to thinking in that direction. For example, while experimental design is directly applicable to each individual focus area, the specific instrumentation is area (focus) dependent. Nevertheless, knowledge of different specific data collection methodologies from multiple Architectural Engineering options can enhance the understanding of integrated architectural engineering research topics. Overall, the communication established in all of the course assignments can be used to help develop new architectural engineering research ideas and polish existing ones, which will be helpful to students who are taking the course during their first or second semester in residence.