About the Department
Founded in 1910, the Penn State Department of Architectural Engineering has established a long tradition of excellence and educational innovation. We are the oldest continuously accredited architectural engineering program in the United States. The department received its first accreditation in 1936 by the newly formed Engineers’ Council for Professional Development—the forerunner to ABET.
Widely acknowledged as one of the top architectural engineering programs in the world, the primary mission of the department is to advance the built environment through the development of world-class architectural engineers and research. The vision of the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State is to lead the world in innovative education and research to achieve high-performing built environments. Our program emphasizes the scientific and engineering aspects of planning, designing, and constructing buildings, providing our architectural engineering graduates with outstanding education and research opportunities.
Our architectural engineering program is designed to produce graduates who will be:
- Engaged in a professional career in the building industry
- Qualified and competent to sit for the professional engineering exam
- Capable of meeting the challenges of the engineering work environment and assuming leadership responsibilities
- Capable of solving design and project related problems based on sound engineering principles as demanded by their work
- Effective in conducting multi-disciplinary/inter-disciplinary interactions as required by their work
- Engaged in service activities in the public and professional realms
