Students
in the program’s inaugural year pose around their model for the
university’s athletics facility.
(Kingsville)—As the semester wrapped up in lecturer Jim Glusing’s Introduction to Architectural Design class, his students presented their visions of a new athletics facility building for Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
To complete the assignment, students and instructor spent the last two days and nights before the project was due within the walls of a newly completed design studio, specifically developed for architectural engineering. As the program marked its first year of existence at the university, the hope is that these design projects are the just the first of many, many more to come from the studio.
The 13 students in Glusing’s class make up part of the 25 total students accepted for the inaugural year of Texas A&M-Kingsville’s architectural engineering program. That number is significantly higher than what was originally anticipated, according to Hector Estrada, chair of the Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering.
“For the first year, we planned for a class of 15 students. The demand for the program and the quality of applicants led us to increase that number to 25 students. That was well beyond our expectations,” said Estrada.
Texas A&M-Kingsville and the University of Texas at Austin are the only two Texas universities that offer bachelor’s-level architectural engineering degree programs. When A&M-Kingsville began theirs, excitement and anticipation followed. That didn’t, however, eliminate the challenges that so many engineering programs face their first year. Some of those common challenges, said Estrada, have included competing with the private sector in recruiting potential faculty and getting first-year students adjusted to college-level classes. Having the design studio up and running was another task that continued well past the program start date.
Estrada has worked to get architectural engineering at Texas A&M-Kingsville known nationally by getting involved with related national organizations. Noteworthy among them is the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Estrada has become a part of that group’s academic council, which provides direction, leadership and career guidance in B.S. and M.S. architectural engineering curriculum, among other duties.
According to Estrada, the response to architectural engineering at Texas A&M-Kingsville was and continues to be very positive. As the program gears up for year two, its student numbers will start ramping up annually. Estrada said the second year will see 20 more students, with a five-year goal of 100 total students. Among those scheduled to start in the fall are three Presidential Series Scholars and a valedictorian.
Based on his experience with the architectural design class, Glusing believes the first-year architectural engineering students will serve as guides for the next class to come.
“It ended up being a very collaborative environment. The students found
the skills they were best at and shared them with the ones that needed help
in those areas,” said Glusing. “The first-year students were the
guinea pigs for this new program. I think they did exceptionally well.” 