www.cmu.edu/news: Carnegie Mellon University and ANSYS broke ground Tuesday for a building that will become the hub of the College of Engineering's undergraduate program.
ANSYS, an engineering simulation software company, is partnering with CMU to build the 30,000 square foot facility on CMU's campus near Hamerschlag Hall.
6 comments:
It is really exciting to see the new wave of construction sweeping across the university. I have some vague early memories of Gates and NSH being built, so it is exciting to see campus expand again and adapt to meet a new generation of engineers, artists, and leaders. I am excited to come back in 10 years and see how much the campus I know and love has changed, and how many new possibilities can be afforded to future generations of students because of these changes.
Its really cool that the engineers will now have a lab to work in and create their designs rather than only being able to work on them theoretically. I think this similar to the idea of room 33 for us design and production freshman. We are given a space and told to create. Its really great that there will be a space for the engineers to explore their creativity. I find it interesting that in the article they refer to the studio as an ecosystem. Ecosystems are self sustainable environments where different animals, plant, and other living organism connect. They often times rely on one another to live and function. The organisms need to collaborate. This shows the expectations that students need each other to make their ideas a reality. We can’t do it alone, and even if we could, it would never be as good as the version done with a group. We need to help each other out with our designs and executions for our projects and so that we can be the best makers.
Wow, such CAD. Many 3D printing. Very Finite Element Analysis. Having some the background scoop on this project, I am not excited about it. They are closing down the rest of the departmental shops on campus and conglomerating them into this “maker space”. I am aware that they approached drama about moving our shop over there too, and were shot down immediately, it wouldn’t have worked at all. If my feelings about interdisciplinary programs that focus on collaboration and innovation are not known: I THINK THEY ARE AN UNEFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES. When you see brilliant successful people that double majored and are fluent in many fields, it is absolutely NOT because they were in the interdepartmental programs that produce nothing of use. You cannot try and take a shortcut to rigor and depth. Rather than having the tools to bridge the gaps between industries, they have the tools to work in neither, but believe they do.
Yeah.. I'm with Chris on this. "Emerging advanced manufacturing techniques." Please tell me that's not code for another lab chock full of 3d printers, laser cutters, and other CNC tooling filled with students that are not particularly well equipped to use them. Not that those tools aren't awesome and all, but I feel I've been getting beat over the head with the CMU interdisciplinary maker revolution the entirety of my time here. But seriously, I've been pretty underwhelmed with the IDEATE initiatives thus far. In Architectural lighting we did actually have a collaborative project with a upper level IDEATE class and it was a resounding failure. All the students had a very superficial understanding of what they were doing and possessed none of the skills necessary to deliver a polished product on time, something that was critical to the assignment. Sometimes the interdisciplinary initiatives just seem like a bunch of strung together buzz words that impress at a very high level, but are missing a lot of substance behind them.
Two questions I have to ask: 1. When is thing going to be completely built? And 2. How can I as a student of Drama, take advantage of this awesome development! I feel like some people in this school assume that Drama and Engineering (Drama and anything really), is completely different, which yes they vary, very much so, but every time I hear a new advancement for science or engineering, the first thing I think is, how could we use that for drama? One of the things I want to do in my time here is to figure out a way to use technology, engineering, and chemistry (yes chemistry) in theatre, specifically for costumes. Just like the growing interest of using Virtual Reality for different forms of entertainment, I believe that if we fully bridge the gap, we could revolutionize theatre, while maintain our current sense of theatre.
The main problem with interdisciplinary programs like this and ideate is that it’s all elective based, there is not that pressure to really produce like there is when you’re working on a class for your major. Maybe it’s just drama but I don’t think so. Everyone has a hierarchy of importance when it comes to your classes and having taken several such interdisciplinary classes I know it is true for myself and others that when the going got tough and we had to choose which class to prioritize these were always the first classes to get cut. I have also found it relatively difficult to actually get approved to use any of these resources, usually necessitating a class, I understand the need for this but it’s a barrier to entry that annoys me when I’m trying to get work done. Here’s hoping CMU can figure out how to use these spaces to support student projects in the future.
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