Reviving Art and Practice in Structural Engineering Education

Abstract

Structural engineering is both an art and applied science. Traditionally, students of structural engineering were exposed to the art along with the science of the profession by teachers who themselves were practitioners of that art. Over the past thirty years, the art of structural engineering has been almost completely replaced by science, which many times is performed for its own sake. This growing emphasis on “studying” rather than “creating” is leading to a crisis in the structural engineering profession. This paper makes a case for reform by reviving art and practice in structural engineering education, and calls for separation of structural engineering education from general civil engineering undergraduate programs.