WoodWorks Blog

WoodWorks Partners with Universities to Develop Wood Design Curricula

On the WoodWorks LinkedIn page, someone asked which universities are best for learning about wood structural engineering. Interestingly, when WoodWorks first started, our research indicated that engineers receive very little education directly related to wood design in their university curricula. We’ve tried to make up for that fact with Wood Solutions Fairs, technical workshops, lunch and learn seminars, monthly webinars, and one-on-one support—but we’ve also partnered with universities across the U.S. to incorporate wood engineering into their curricula.

Led by California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), 15 universities are working together to develop a set of virtual educational courses covering the use of wood in non-residential building design. The courses, which include 30 learning modules for use as part of basic and advanced wood design courses, are being developed under the umbrella of a newly established Wood Education Institute. They’ll be available for use by schools nationwide and will be offered to practicing professionals as online, hybrid or conventional courses. We expect the first 15 modules to be released this summer.

The bottom line—there are a lot of reasons to use wood as a structural and finish material in non-residential buildings. Aside from its beauty, it’s the only major building material that’s renewable and sustainable over the long term. It offers greater design flexibility than other materials, costs less and still meets code requirements. It’s a great performer in earthquakes and, because wood stores carbon, it helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. One of the benefits of this project is that design professionals will soon have greater access to the knowledge they need to make informed choices.

 
Submitted by Bryan Schuyler, Regional Director, WoodWorks