SMU Gets $10.1M Gift to Improve Engineering Outlook

[MrMustang1965]

SMU will announce today that it's receiving $10.1 million to improve how engineering is taught in schools and colleges across Texas and the U.S. The gift – the largest in the history of SMU's engineering school – comes from the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation through the nonprofit Communities Foundation of Texas.

Typically, engineering classes are offered only in college. SMU already has designed engineering courses for high school students and helped train teachers. With the new grant, SMU wants to push into middle and even elementary schools.

"Engineering is what translates the abstract math and science principles into reality," said Brent Christopher, president of the Communities Foundation. When more students understand that, he said, more will pursue engineering degrees.

Much of the work will be done through the university's Institute for Engineering Education, whose mission and staff will be expanded by the hiring of several faculty members with money from the gift.

SMU will create an endowment with $5.1 million of the gift and use the interest to help boost the institute's faculty ranks from the current three to 10. The remaining $5 million will go toward an $18 million building on the site of Caruth Hall, home of SMU's engineering school since 1948. The new structure will bear the same name but will have more than twice the space.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... e9ac0.html

[SMU Football Blog]

And Pye wanted to get rid of the engineering school. Genius.

[smu diamond m]

LINK HERE TO SMU SITE

This is huge for the engineering school. There will soon enough be a new Caruth Hall at the site of the current one. It will also be a LEED certified building (shooting for Gold certification), just like the Embry Building. The current Caruth will pale in comparison to the new GIGANTIC Caruth Hall.

[OR-See-Nee]

This is a great gift that will bolster SMU's national recognition.

[Peruna2001]

It's making me happy that I have an engineering degree. Caruth was really lacking in everything. There's only so many times that you can put new carpet and paint to make it look better.

[mrydel]

Does this mean we can finally get rid of those coal burning engines?

[jtstang]

I learned how to drive a train in the current Caruth Hall...it will be missed.

[NavyCrimson]

"And Pye wanted to get rid of the engineering school. Genius."

You are joking???

If so - My God was he useless for our school!!!

[H-E-B Mustang]

[quote="NavyCrimson"]"And Pye wanted to get rid of the engineering school. Genius."

"You are joking???"

He's not joking. Pye definitely was no friend of the engineering school. He decreased the emphasis on engineering at SMU, including the dropping civil engineering as a degree. Pye apparently wanted to have SMU known primarily as a liberal arts school.

[NavyCrimson]

thx heb -

he really was an intellectual idiot

[Hoop Fan]

"And Pye wanted to get rid of the engineering school. Genius."

"You are joking???"

He's not joking. Pye definitely was no friend of the engineering school. He decreased the emphasis on engineering at SMU, including the dropping civil engineering as a degree. Pye apparently wanted to have SMU known primarily as a liberal arts school.

yes, and he wanted to de-emphasize the Business school as i remember. business and engineering were too crass for mr. pye. would have been a huge mistake. good thing those programs were not in a weakened state and could withstand the assault/neglect, unlike the athletic program. When i was in school, i had a sense for pyes mission and idealism, but looking back it was really a hole smu dug for itself.

[perunapower]

"And Pye wanted to get rid of the engineering school. Genius."

"You are joking???"

He's not joking. Pye definitely was no friend of the engineering school. He decreased the emphasis on engineering at SMU, including the dropping civil engineering as a degree. Pye apparently wanted to have SMU known primarily as a liberal arts school.

This will do nothing but raise the prestige of the university as a whole, strengthen the ties to local engineering firms and businesses, and elevate our engineering program to a high that it has never seen. It almost makes me giddy with excitement.

P.S. The Civil Engineering department is still trying to regain accreditation for the bachelor's degree.

What kind of moron tries to rid SMU of such an increasingly influential group? Oh yeah, the same one that put ridiculous athletic restrictions in place.

[couch 'em]

Anyone else agree that the school is going way overboard with all the gold-topped towers on buildings? Not every building needs one, and NO building should have TWO! (new bschool bldg)

On an unrelated note, what material is the dome of Dallas Hall made of? Copper? Wouldn't it have been gold in color originally?

[MrMustang1965]

On an unrelated note, what material is the dome of Dallas Hall made of? Copper? Wouldn't it have been gold in color originally?

from the July, 2006 edition of American School & University:

The four-month restoration project on the Dallas Hall Copper Dome at Southern Methodist University in Dallas required detailing of the dome's diamond-shaped copper tiles.

During an initial check of the roof, the architect found it to be in "extremely good condition." However, it had little or no underlying felt below the tiles. Concrete was spalling on the dome's deck, and some embedded wooden nailers had begun to rot.

Flaws in the original design allowed water to infiltrate around the venting system and skylight.

[smu diamond m]

Our Civil Engineering program has only recently become ABET accredited... An essential step in producing Professional Engineers.

ABET's Website