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The School of Technology and Design at New York City College of Technology proposes to create a new Center for Performative Design and Engineering Technology that will pioneer performative design education. The project takes as its inspiration the broad focus on laboratory-based learning that brings technological education to a higher level of integration and broader faculty engagement across an entire division. The Center will become the focus of interdisciplinary project-based learning for faculty and students from its nine constituent departments where they will conduct research projects using state-of-the-art technologies in cross-cutting applications that mirror industry practice. The project will produce a laboratory design to support interdisciplinary research by configuring equipment and instrumentation for optimal collaborative use. A faculty team will create a web-based tutorial system for asynchronous learning to accompany interdisciplinary applications of cutting-edge technology. They will also design a new interdisciplinary capstone course and four cross-disciplinary projects for baccalaureate-level students. This project will provide a model for other institutions with similar programs to emulate. By bringing project-based interdisciplinary team collaborations to the fore, the project will contribute to an on-going paradigm shift in the way engineering design is taught. The project will also broaden participation since New York City College of Technology serves a high percentage of underrepresented minority students and is one of the nation’s top producers of underrepresented minority associate degree graduates in STEM fields.

The School of Technology and Design at New York City College of Technology proposes to create a new Center for Performative Design and Engineering Technology that will pioneer performative design education. The project takes as its inspiration the broad focus on laboratory-based learning that brings technological education to a higher level of integration and broader faculty engagement across an entire division. The Center will become the focus of interdisciplinary project-based learning for faculty and students from its nine constituent departments where they will conduct research projects using state-of-the-art technologies in cross-cutting applications that mirror industry practice. The project will produce a laboratory design to support interdisciplinary research by configuring equipment and instrumentation for optimal collaborative use. A faculty team will create a web-based tutorial system for asynchronous learning to accompany interdisciplinary applications of cutting-edge technology. They will also design a new interdisciplinary capstone course and four cross-disciplinary projects for baccalaureate-level students. This project will provide a model for other institutions with similar programs to emulate. By bringing project-based interdisciplinary team collaborations to the fore, the project will contribute to an on-going paradigm shift in the way engineering design is taught. The project will also broaden participation since New York City College of Technology serves a high percentage of underrepresented minority students and is one of the nation’s top producers of underrepresented minority associate degree graduates in STEM fields.

Fuse Lab: Collaborative Education for Tomorrow’s Technology in Architecture, Engineering & Construction is a collaborative curriculum project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technology Education grant program. Select the Project Site link to the right to enter the Fuse Lab Project Website.

Fuse Lab: Collaborative Education for Tomorrow’s Technology in Architecture, Engineering & Construction is a collaborative curriculum project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technology Education grant program. Select the Project Site link to the right to enter the Fuse Lab Project Website.

The Closing the Loop Project explores how recent technological advances in the AEC industry have increased the potential of façade performance. In this project we are implementing an interdisciplinary student initiative, where various courses collaborate on portions of the design process of façade panels, and through this process, fully close the design/analysis/fabrication/validation loop. Data sets arising from digital models can now be shared synchronously between various disciplines as well as iteratively throughout the design process. These data exchanges are facilitated by the integration of natural programming languages into traditional modeling environments and a profusion of open source software development. The increased efficiency and corresponding cost- effectiveness of a collaborative, performance-based design process has led to a heightened call for this practice by clients and building industry legislators alike. The pedagogical challenge of a collaborative approach is not only to teach the technical skills of computational design, like scripting and parametrics, but also instill a sensibility of how to begin an adaptive, intelligent digital model that will be efficient for downstream interoperability, moving from parametric modelers to BIM families, to energy analyses, and on to direct fabrication. A new Center for Performative Design & Engineering, at NYCCT, created with National Science Foundation funding, brings together different disciplines involved in BIM (Building Information Modeling), Building Performance, and Fabrication, to teach new research methodologies and concepts through design, assembly, and testing. This project illustrates actionable responses to environmental inputs that feed into the fabrication of innovative developable and deployable surfaces.

The Closing the Loop Project explores how recent technological advances in the AEC industry have increased the potential of façade performance. In this project we are implementing an interdisciplinary student initiative, where various courses collaborate on portions of the design process of façade panels, and through this process, fully close the design/analysis/fabrication/validation loop. Data sets arising from digital models can now be shared synchronously between various disciplines as well as iteratively throughout the design process. These data exchanges are facilitated by the integration of natural programming languages into traditional modeling environments and a profusion of open source software development. The increased efficiency and corresponding cost- effectiveness of a collaborative, performance-based design process has led to a heightened call for this practice by clients and building industry legislators alike. The pedagogical challenge of a collaborative approach is not only to teach the technical skills of computational design, like scripting and parametrics, but also instill a sensibility of how to begin an adaptive, intelligent digital model that will be efficient for downstream interoperability, moving from parametric modelers to BIM families, to energy analyses, and on to direct fabrication. A new Center for Performative Design & Engineering, at NYCCT, created with National Science Foundation funding, brings together different disciplines involved in BIM (Building Information Modeling), Building Performance, and Fabrication, to teach new research methodologies and concepts through design, assembly, and testing. This project illustrates actionable responses to environmental inputs that feed into the fabrication of innovative developable and deployable surfaces.