PI Program
Thank you to all the donors who are helping to make the PI Program a reality!
The AE department is doing well these days. We have a very strong demand from qualified students to enter the B.A.E. program each year. We have an equally strong demand for our graduates, as evidenced by the highly successful AE Career Fair each November. However, we face some significant challenges in our quest to continue enhancing the quality and reputation of our department.
With over 400 B.A.E. students, 100 graduate students, and only 16 AE faculty members, the student-to-faculty ratio in AE is already extremely high. Moreover, in recent years Penn State has increased its emphasis on faculty-driven research to the extent that tenured and tenure-track faculty are expected to be actively involved in externally funded research activities concurrently with their teaching responsibilities. This research has important benefits to our students, faculty, institution, and profession, but it is quite labor intensive. As a result, AE faculty are now teaching significantly more than their peers in other engineering departments, working diligently to conduct relevant, externally funded research, and struggling to pay appropriate attention to the swelling numbers of AE students. Together, these responsibilities impose a difficult set of workplace demands on current AE faculty members.
In an effort to sustain this level of productivity in the AE department it is imperative that we work diligently to continue enhancing the first-tier quality and reputation that are now the hallmarks of the PSU AE department. We must take action now to enable ongoing improvement of the B.A.E. program. The resulting positive impacts on the department and the AE profession are extremely promising.
How are we to achieve this goal?
Inspired by the numerical value of π, the department is looking to raise $3.14 million to establish the Practitioner Instructor Program Endowment for the Penn State architectural engineering department. A portion of the annual interest from the endowment’s principal will be used to bring qualified mid- to senior-level professionals to campus to teach selected courses in architectural engineering at University Park. The remainder of the interest will be reinvested in the endowment to counter inflation. As an endowed program, the PI Program will be a permanent enhancement to the already renowned Penn State architectural engineering program. It is anticipated that the PI Program will support up to ten courses taught by AE practitioner instructors each academic year. Interest from the endowment will provide support for other aspects of the PI Program, including field trips, guest lecturers, instructor travel expenses, state-of-the-art instructional equipment, course materials, and other course-related enhancements. Courses taught within the PI Program will be first-class offerings.
For the students
AE students will reap significant benefits from PI Program instructors. These new faculty will bring to campus the newest methods and techniques used in the field. They will discuss the latest issues confronting architectural engineers and bring to the classroom real-world examples of some of the most challenging problems architectural engineers have faced and are facing. The PI Program will make students an even more valuable commodity when they graduate. These students will not only have the strong core knowledge and skills given to them from the current curriculum, but they will also be equipped with the wisdom and experience of top-caliber PI Program instructors.
Making PI a reality
Any contribution you make will bring the unique Penn State architectural engineering PI Program closer to fruition. Individuals and/or companies may wish to consider the following levels of investment:
$15,000—PI Associate of Architectural Engineering
Acknowledgement in the AE department’s newsletter (2,900 circulation)
Name of investor/company added to the acknowledgement plaque in the department’s main office
Name of investor/company on the PI Program web page
Quarter-page recognition in the PI Program booklet, which is distributed to all fourth and fifth-year AE students each year
$30,000—PI Partner of Architectural Engineering
All associate-level benefits
Personalized “thank you” plaque for your office
Name of investor/company and logo on PI Program web page
Half-page recognition in the PI program booklet, which is distributed to all fourth and fifth-year AE students
$60,000—PI Principal of Architectural Engineering
All partner-level benefits
Name of investor/company, logo, and hyperlink to your company’s homepage on the PI Program web page
Full-page recognition in the PI Program booklet, which is distributed to all fourth and fifth-year AE students
Participation in a special “Meet the Top Architectural Engineering Seniors” social in September for the next three years
$300,000—Named PI
Program Instructor
All principal-level benefits
Creation of a permanent, named PI Program instructor position, as well as the first right each year to nominate a candidate to be appointed to that position during that upcoming academic year