Date of Award
Spring 2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Civil Engineering
First Advisor
Federle, Mark
Second Advisor
Crovetti, James
Third Advisor
Foley, Chris
Abstract
The new engineering building at Marquette University, the Discovery Learning Complex, has been designed to change the way engineering education is delivered by using the building itself as a teaching tool for the next generation of engineers. The structural system for the building has been instrumented to allow students access to structural system data, wind speed data, and foundation pressures enabling this data from the building to be integrated into the teaching environment. The building also will display aspects of the building management system for public viewing. An array of weather stations will be installed on the roof, allowing the students to study wind turbulence, correlate wind speed to structural system response, and other educational pursuits related to alternative power generation opportunities in urban environments.
The concept of instrumenting a building for the purpose of education, rather than for safety or pure research, is relatively uncommon. With the use of Marquette University's new engineering building as a basis for knowledge and an educational tool, future design and construction teams challenged with a similar instrumentation project will gain insight and benefit from the data collected in this case study.