Curriculum merges art, engineering
February 19, 2009 by MERCEDES PARHAM
Filed under News
As the University plans to bulk up its engineering program in the next few years with the addition of new majors, some University professors are taking the program a step further by fusing engineering with humanities courses.
Art education and engineering have combined this semester at the University, integrating the Lamar Dodd School of Art and the University’s engineering school.
The thought was prompted by University professors Nadia Kellam and Tracie Costantino, who met during the Lilly Teaching Fellows Program, a grant-based program that allows selected University professors to expand on their research and teaching. Kellam, an assistant engineering professor, and Costantino, an assistant art professor, developed plans for a pilot course combining art instruction and engineering principles for the 2008-2009 year.
“We realized we had a common interest in interdisciplinary course designs,” Costantino said.
The two worked shortly after the program’s end, gaining national support from the National Science Foundation. With the help of Bonnie Cramond, former director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, $150,000 funded the fusion of art and engineering disciplines.
The national aid only added to the staff’s expectations for the winter course.
Engineering, though typically found in technical applications, can thrive in a liberal arts environment because students can receive a balanced courseload of the two fields, Kellam said.
“Typically, you get bogged down with the engineering courses and humanities courses aren’t seen as essential,” Kellam said.
“The students are very excited,” Kellam said. “They’re very engaged and spending so much time.”
The expectations are met with challenge as the program strives for a larger end goal, Kellam said. The objective of the program includes understanding multiple perspectives, observing phenomena and modeling these concepts.
“We want people who can contribute to this larger society – not just building bridges or engineering tasks,” Kellam said.
The multifaceted aspects of the program designs course guidelines that allow creative problem-solving techniques. The hallmark of the program is an intermediate curriculum that starts in the undergraduate students’ freshman year. Students continue to take courses such as synthesis and design – which fuse peer instruction from visual art and engineering perspectives.
The challenge is to create visual metaphors and critique them from an environmental design structure, Costantino and Kellam said.
“It’s helping [students] think in context by helping them think of real-world application designs,” Costantino said.
The courses will be made available to all art and engineering majors in the fall semester. Typical coursework begins with either Synthesis and Design Studio I or Interdisciplinary Art I. Reconceptualized classes are the center of the design. Kellam and Costantino hope for an engaging learning experience through the mingling of these disciplines.
“The big issue is with global warming and overpopulation. We need people to bridge these gaps to move toward solutions,” Kellam said.
